Despite recent comments to the contrary by President Joe Biden, while weekly paychecks have indeed gotten larger since Biden became president, they have not kept pace with the rapid rise in prices of consumer goods and services during that time. Read more»

Even as a new COVID-19 variant starts to spread in the United States, staff shortages have made it impossible for many hospitals to operate at full capacity and now they’re less prepared to manage an influx of patients this winter. Read more»

Public health nurses, microbiologists, epidemiologists, health officers and others who fend off infectious diseases like tuberculosis and HIV, inspect restaurants and work to keep communities healthy are abandoning the field - a problem temporary boosts in funding can’t fix. Read more»

Valley drivers love their cars, and more than anywhere else in the country, they put their money where their hearts are; in fact, it costs more to get around in Phoenix – a city that was designed for cars – than in any other U.S. metro, statistics show. Read more»

A federal pandemic relief program that provided extra financial aid to jobless workers ended Monday, hitting more than 45,000 unemployed Arizonans who had already seen the state pull away another source of federal aid in July. Read more»

More workers than ever before are in Arizona’s labor force and the number of people with jobs has almost reached pre-pandemic levels, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Read more»

Among the nation’s 50 million immigrants from more than 150 countries, most are more likely to be service, construction and transportation employees - the people who work in fields, cook and package takeout orders in restaurants, and are the foundation of farm to table. Read more»

In a prime-time town hall aired on CNN, President Joe Biden overstated some facts about the coronavirus vaccines, and misled on other jobs, car prices and government trust facts. Read more»

In 2019, a Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed the unemployment rate was lower for veterans than for nonveterans. But the financial outlook for vets has drastically changed since then, with unemployment jumping to 5.5% in January 2021, from 3.5% in January 2020. And, according to data and interviews, women and minority veterans often have a tougher time getting a job. Read more»

Activists around the country rallied in support of the Raise the Wage Act – a provision that would eventually raise the federally required minimum wage to $15 an hour – included in President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package. More than 1.6 million workers, mainly in the restaurant industry, are paid a minimum wage in the U.S. as low as $7.25 on the federal level and, more recently in Arizona, $12.15 an hour. Read more»

As COVID-19 pummels away in Arizona, unemployment in the state dipped slightly in December, with the restaurant and entertainment industries continuing to take the hardest hits. The unemployment rate dropped 0.5%, putting Arizona among 20 states to post December decreases. Read more»

Arizona’s unemployment rate plummeted last month to almost pre-pandemic levels, falling from 10.7% in July to 5.9% in August, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Read more»

The number of people on Arizona’s Medicaid rolls topped 2 million this summer, after a five-month surge in enrollment that coincided with COVID-19’s hit to the state’s health and its economy. Read more»

New jobless claims in Arizona over the past five weeks have wiped out two-thirds of the new jobs created in the state over 10 years, according to the latest numbers from the Arizona Department of Economic Security. Read more»

In 1976, a few years after OSHA was created, Congress attached a rider to the agency’s budget that exempted farms with 10 or fewer employees from enforcement. It shields farm owners from accountability when their workers die in preventable accidents. Read more»