Seeking a jolt for the economy, President Barack Obama will lay out new ideas for speeding up job growth and helping the struggling poor and middle class in a major speech in early September, a senior administration official told The Associated Press.

The number of workers covered by workers' compensation hit a new low when the figure fell by 4.4 percent in 2009, the largest decline in two decades, according to a report by the National Academy of Social Insurance.

Brokers will prove their value if they can advise clients on how self-funding consumer-directed health plans, combined with stop-loss coverage, can help manage rising costs, and also suggest reliable stop loss partners to provide protection.

Wisconsin's powerful statewide teachers union said 40 percent of its staff members were laid off Monday as a result of the law pushed by Gov. Scott Walker and passed by the Legislature curbing collective bargaining rights.