Employer-Paid

Twenty-five percent of employers say they have little or no understanding of specialty pharmacy benefits while 53 percent say they have just a moderate understanding, according to a recent survey by the nonprofit Midwest Business Group on Health.

Iowa employers are growing more pessimistic than they were three months ago, finds the fourth-quarter results of the Hamilton Hiring Survey.

Annual premiums for employer-sponsored family health coverage in 2011 increased to $15,073, a 9 percent jump from 2010, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Educational Trust 2011 Employer Health Benefits Survey.

A group of Massachusetts community colleges has received $20 million in federal funding as part of a nationwide effort to design job training programs that provide the new technical skills workers need.

Lockheed Martin Corp. is laying off 540 employees in plane-making operations in Texas, Georgia and California.

The average length of unemployment among American households in August of 2011 was 40.3 weeks the longest on record.