recession

The economy added 312,000 jobs in December, a strong increase from the 176,000 jobs added in November (revised up from 155,000), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ December Employment Situation Summary

More and more investors are telling me that their portfolios have now fully recovered from the 2008 stock market crash. I respond in my typical tactless way by telling them their performance has been awful. That’s because stocks are now 64 percent above their pre-crash high.

Workers 50 and older face a hurdle that younger peers don’t: how to overcome negative stereotypes that paint them as much more expensive, out of touch with technology and less productive.

Older job seekers who were out of work at some point in the last five years found that tapping their network of contacts, reaching out to employers directly and starting their job search immediately rather than taking a break tended to be more successful in landing a job, according to a new report entitled “The Long Road Back: Struggling to Find Work After Unemployment,” by the AARP Public Policy Institute.

Part of the promise of the American Dream is that each generation will do better than the last. Has that happened with our adult children, the millennials? Well, “yes and no,” reports the U.S. Census Bureau. Our children are better educated as a generation, yet more are living in poverty and they have lower rates of employment.

Jean Chatzky has a few choice words for how most folks describe their relationship with money: Confusing. Frightening. Chaotic. Stressful. Precarious.

The home foreclosure crisis that swept through the nation during the Great Recession may not be over for thousands of troubled borrowers.

Americans stayed put in record low numbers from 2005 until 2010, according to a new Census Bureau study. Only 35.4 percent of people moved during the period, the lowest rate ever recorded by the Census Current Population Survey, and 4.1 percent lower than during the previous five-year period.

You've probably been hearing a lot about the "fiscal cliff" - the mammoth confluence of tax increases and spending cuts that will take effect after Jan. 1 unless President Obama and Republicans agree on a new deficit-reduction deal. It's complicated stuff, and you might be wondering what it's all about.

According to the Pew Research Center, more than one-fifth of adults ages 25 to 34 live with their parents or in other "multigenerational" arrangements, the highest level since the 1950s. You've probably heard enough stories about this trend by now to know it doesn't just reflect a renewed interest in family bonding; these "boomerang children" are mostly moving back in with mom and dad (or grandma and grandpa) because of unemployment and economic hardship. In fact, the recession reduced the rate at which Americans set up new households by at least half.