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The future of electric vehicles looms over negotiations in the U.S. autoworkers strike

WAYNE, Mich. (AP) — On the picket lines at a Ford factory west of Detroit, many striking workers don’t think the electric vehicle revolution is coming for their jobs — at least not in the near future. But just in case, they’re backing United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain’s quest to unionize EV battery factories at Ford and Jeep maker Stellantis, matching a breakthrough concession made by General Motors last week. So far, neither Ford nor Stellantis has agreed to the change, which would pull employees at all 10 U.S. battery factories proposed by Detroit automakers into ...

Nobel economics prize goes to Harvard’s Claudia Goldin for research on the workplace gender gap

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Claudia Goldin, a Harvard University professor, was awarded the Nobel economics prize on Monday for research that helps explain why women around the world are less likely than men to work and to earn less money when they do. Fittingly, the announcement marked a small step toward closing a gender gap among Nobel laureates in economics: Out of 93 economics winners, Goldin is just the third woman to be awarded the prize and the first woman to be the sole winner in any year. Her award follows Nobel honors this year in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace ...

A surge of hiring in September defies predictions, pointing to U.S. job market’s enduring resilience

WASHINGTON (AP) — An unforeseen burst of hiring last month has lifted hopes that the economy will prove durable once again, even as an array of threats lie ahead. Businesses across the U.S. economy ramped up their hiring in September, defying surging interest rates, financial market turmoil, the ongoing threat of a government shutdown and an uncertain outlook to add the most jobs in any month since January. The hiring binge confounded expectations for a slowdown and added one more layer of complexity to the Federal Reserve’s high-wire effort to defeat inflation without causing a ...

California law raises minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 per hour

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A new law in California will raise the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 per hour next year, an acknowledgment from the state’s Democratic leaders that most of the often overlooked workforce are the primary earners for their low-income households. When it takes effect on April 1, fast food workers in California will have the highest guaranteed base salary in the industry. The state’s minimum wage for all other workers — $15.50 per hour — is already among the highest in the United States. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the law Thursday ...

White House preparing for government shutdown as House Republicans lack a viable endgame for funding

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is preparing Friday to direct federal agencies to get ready for a shutdown after House Republicans left town for the weekend with no viable plan to keep the government funded and avert politically and economically costly disruption of federal services. A federal shutdown after Sept. 30 seems all but certain unless Speaker Kevin McCarthy can persuade his rebellious hard-right flank of Republicans to allow Congress to approve a temporary funding measure to prevent closures as talks continue. Instead, he’s launched a much more ambitious plan to try to ...