For the last decade or so, two words have caused considerable heartburn for midwestern cities and towns. And while there has been a ferocious push recently to combat this gut-wrenching trend, the problem is still very relevant.

Equal Pay Day is today, March 14 — a date determined by how long into the new year American women must work to catch up to American men’s earnings the previous year. In 2022, women earned 82% of what men earned. The wage gap for Black and Hispanic women is even higher — these groups made 70% and 65%, respectively, of what white men made.

WASHINGTON (AP) — America's employers added a substantial 311,000 jobs in February, fewer than January's huge gain but enough to keep pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates aggressively to fight inflation.

The unemployment rate rose to 3.6%, from a 53-year low of 3.4%, as more Americans began searching for work but not all of them found jobs.