Employee Participation

With union membership on the decline, labor leaders are getting more creative and some say more desperate to boost sagging numbers and rebuild their waning clout.

U.S. employers added 162,000 jobs in July, a modest increase and the fewest since March. Still, the unemployment rate fell to a 4-year low of 7.4 percent, a hopeful sign in an otherwise lackluster report.

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell 19,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 326,000, the fewest since January 2008. The decline shows the job market continues to strengthen.

Colorado government employees will see their first pay increases in four years when they get their latest paychecks Wednesday, a sign that the state is continuing its economic recovery after the recession.

You might have noticed lately that a lot of what we read online these days comes packaged in lists. There are well-documented reasons for this, one of which is that its apparently better at grabbing the average eye even if its one more number in a headline among thousands.

Workers at McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's restaurants across New York walked out Monday in a one-day strike to demand better pay and the right to unionize, calling for minimum wage to more than double from $7.25 to $15 an hour and the end to what activists called "abusive labor...