Skilled Labor

U.S. builders and the subcontractors they depend on are struggling to hire fast enough to meet rising demand for new homes. Builders would be starting work on more homes -- and contributing more to the economy -- if they could fill more job openings. ...

The United States and other large economies cannot find enough skilled workers, engineers and other in-demand employees, according to an annual study on talent shortages. The study, by staffing services giant ManpowerGroup, found that 34 percent of employers around the world report trouble filling jobs ...

By Christopher S. Rugaber WASHINGTON -- Unemployment rates fell last month in most U.S. states, including in some hit hardest during the recession. ...

By Parija Kavilanz NEW YORK -- U.S. manufacturers, frustrated by a shortage of skilled American factory workers, are going abroad to find them. Business for factories has surged recently, creating a huge demand for machinists, tool and die makers, computer-controlled machine programmers and operators. ...

As the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests show, many in America's middle class are angry about the uneasy economic circumstances in which they find themselves. Most typical wage earners have endured decades of stagnant wages even as costs for food, health care, housing and college tuition have continued to ...

Laina Hall graduated college before she finished high school. As a child growing up in the outskirts of Salt Lake City, Hall knew she wanted to be a hairdresser. So she enrolled in community college to get herself trained, while studying the civil war and calculus during the day. ...

America has a self-image problem when it comes to the kinds of jobs we do. Travel to nearly any corner of the nation and you'll likely encounter people who believe Americans don't make anything anymore. That's not true, of course, but in daily life it's often difficult to prove that we still do. Aside from a ...

Skilled labor jobs can pay well, even very well. Yet, many young people feel the pressure to get a college degree and don't consider hands-on labor. Fortunately, a growing movement hopes to get younger workers enthused about building, fixing, and installing. ...

This week, 17 young American men and women will battle it out under 150,000 watchful eyes in a Thames waterfront conference center in London. It's the Olympics of skilled labor, and the U.S. team will competitively plumb, lay brick, make cabinets, wait tables, style hair, and repair cars against 55 other ...