Posted 11:05 a.m. Wed. 03.10.10 - Unemployment dropped ever so slightly in Missouri in January -- to 9.5 percent from 9.6 percent -- while Illinois saw joblessness rise to 11.3 percent, a 0.3 percent increase from December, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. By comparison, the jobless rate one year ago was 8.1 percent in both Missouri and Illinois.

Posted 10:15 a.m. Fri., 03.05.10 - The nation's employment numbers showed little improvement in long-term joblessness in February, while more workers fell into "involuntary part-time employment,"' the U.S. Labor Department said Friday. Nearly 41 percent of the nation's 14.9 million unemployed workers have been jobless for 27 weeks or more. While the unemployment rate remained  at 9.7 percent, the number of Americans working part-time who wanted full-time jobs rose to 8.8 million in February.

Published 10:10 a.m. Wed., 03.03.10 - The final numbers on 2009's unemployment pain confirm just how widespread it was, with annual average rates rising in all regions, divisions and states, according to the U.S. Labor Department. In Missouri, the annual rate jumped to 9.3 percent from 6.1 in 2008, a change of 3.2 percentage points.

Posted 12:30 p.m. Sun., 02.28.10 - As the third hard winter of the Great Recession turns to spring, how is the U.S. economy really doing? We put that question to St. Louis financial analyst Juli Niemann who described it this way: The hemorrhaging has stopped, but the patient still can't get out of bed. That's Niemann's assessment of the big economic picture, which can often be difficult to see through all the little snapshots floating past us on any given day.

Posted 9:40 p.m. Sun., 02.21.10 - Economist Jack Strauss of St. Louis University says he has no quick or easy solutions for creating jobs in the region, but he does have a recommendation: Focus on small and young businesses. Strauss is organizing a gathering of local economists Feb. 24 to tackle the topic "What's Next for Jobs and Our Economy," including economic forecasts for the local area, Missouri and the nation. The conference is free and open to the public.

Posted 10:50 a.m. Tues., 02.16.10 - From July 31-Aug. 3, roughly 40,000 homeowners representing 25,000 households attended an event organized in St. Louis by the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America in hopes of saving their homes. Six months later, local homeowners who attended the St. Louis event report varying degrees of success. For its part, NACA cannot say how many cases were resolved "same day" in St. Louis or how many cases have since been resolved -- or are still pending.

Posted 9:33 a.m. Thurs., 02.11.10 - Nearly a year after President Barack Obama announced a mortgage modification plan to help struggling homeowners, the program is under fire from housing advocates who say it lacks teeth and from a congressional oversight panel that questions its effectiveness. The Home Affordable Modification Program was expected to help as many as 3 million to 4 million homeowners, but by year's end, only 66,465 modifications had been made permanent.

Posted 12:15 a.m. Tues., 02.09.10 - An estimated 3 million homes will be caught in foreclosure this year,and Chris and Kelly Green of Lake St. Charles are fighting hard to keeptheir house from being one of them. And so it goes in this fifth yearof the U.S. mortgage crisis, a far-reaching economic disaster thatstarted with subprime mortgages among over-extended buyers in bothpoorer neighborhoods and boom markets and then took hold in communitiesacross the land. The Greens hope to be among the one-fourth of troubledhomeowners actually able save their homes.

Posted 9 p.m. Sun., 02.07.10 - This is the time of year when many people who received a gift card over the holidays redeem their present. But over the coming months, many recipients will lose their cards, throw them away with value still attached or be charged to redeem gifts that sat idle for too long. By one industry estimate, the lost card values in 2009 totaled near $5 billion. Local retailers report varying levels of redemption rates among customers. (Photo by buba69 )