Employer-Paid

Small-business hiring dropped 2.55 percent in September after a 1.15 percent increase in August, according to the CBIZ Small Business Employment Index, a barometer for hiring trends among companies with 300 or fewer employees.

For millennials, the unemployment rate in September hit 11.8 percent, according to Generation Opportunity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that mobilizes young Americans regarding economic issues.

Based on the September employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, women and men both gained 57,000 jobs in September, according to an analysis by the Institute for Women's Policy.

Stop if you've heard this one before: the NHL is losing games because of a lockout.

Among manufacturing and service-sector companies, about three in 10 expect to hire workers in October, according to the Leading Indicators of National Employment report from the Society for Human Resource Management.

In fact, as the economy remains slow, 87 percent of employers say todays financial climate has influenced their benefits decisions, and 73 percent of employers say they expect employees to pay more toward their benefits in the coming year, according to the 2012 Benefits Selling Employer Survey.