The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid plummeted to a five-year low last week, a hopeful sign the job market may be improving. But much of the decline reflects seasonal volatility in the data.

A standoff between striking school bus drivers looking for job protections and a city administration that says they just can't have them has the potential to go on for some time, observers said, as parents struggle to get to work on time while scrambling to figure out alternatives for their...

UnitedHealth Group Inc.'s fourth-quarter net income slipped 1 percent, as a rise in costs from medical claims and other expenses countered revenue gains for the nation's largest health insurer.

The federal government wants to remind consumers of the mandate as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and theyre using a consumer-friendly website as a way to do it.