Employee Participation

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits plunged 26,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 359,000, a hopeful sign for the job market. It's the lowest level of weekly applications in nine weeks.

Union attorneys have asked a Madison, Wis. judge to let stand a ruling that Republican Gov. Scott Walker's collective bargaining changes are unconstitutional.

Employers will soon be offering workers their yearly opportunity to make changes to their health care benefits. All too often this open-enrollment period has required combing through pages and pages of confusing insurance terms.

A credit card services company will receive about $1.3 million in job training subsidies from New Mexico for expanding its operations to a call center in Rio Rancho.

A private group says U.S. consumer confidence jumped this month to the highest level since February, bolstered by a brighter hiring outlook.

American Airlines says it expects to avoid laying off any flight attendants after 2,205 of them signed up for severance payments.

Unemployment rates rose in more than half of U.S. states last month, the latest evidence that hiring remains tepid across the country.

Especially in todays competitive work environment, employees are looking for challenging positions, and when that need's not met, employees often become disengaged, says Sheryl Kovach, president and CEO of Kandor Group, a human resources consulting firm in Houston.