Category: 4-FrequentNewsStreams

It's an annual tradition in New York City: Each December, pedestrians fight for walking room on sidewalks populated by lush firs and frasers. Staffed by seasonal workers, these Christmas tree lots are often open 24 hours a day. We visited one of these tree stands on a sidewalk in West Harlem just after midnight to learn about the biz. But first, holiday season retail sales numbers out yesterday from the Census Bureau were unexpectedly flat.

From the BBC World Service: FIFA has said it will release $60 seats for next year's World Cup, following complaints from fans over high prices. After all, average ticket prices are about seven times what World Cup tickets cost when the event was hosted in Qatar. Thing is, there's a catch. Then, French soccer player Kylian Mbappé has been awarded $70 million in compensation for unpaid wages in a court case against his former club, Paris-Saint Germain.

A career in tech was once seen as a safe bet — the jobs were plentiful, the pay was ample. But this year the tech sector had another “meh” year for hiring according to the job site Indeed. Tech jobs have been declining now for several years, but this year, the losses at least seemed to stabilize, according to Indeed's latest Jobs & Hiring Trends Report. Still, job postings in the industry remain well below their pre-pandemic baseline.

Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with Indeed senior economist Cory Stahle for a look at how this year turned out for the tech job market.

Defense Secretary Hegseth rejected calls to release the full video of a boat strike the military carried out in September. That attack was the first of 25 acknowledged strikes that the administration says were operated by so-called "narcoterrorists." At the same time, the Senate is debating its largest annual bill to authorize the Defense Department. Nick Schifrin and Lisa Desjardins report. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

The U.S. unemployment rate climbed to 4.6% in November, according to the latest BLS jobs report. There’s also data showing more Americans are reentering the workforce and more part-time workers are looking for full-time roles. In this episode, we explain what it all means for the broader economy. Plus: Advertising revenue is projected to top $1 trillion in 2025, hiring in the once-strong health care sector may slow soon, and artificial intelligence drives some young people into trade school.

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The Lebanese army is on a tight deadline to comply with an American demand to dismantle the military infrastructure of Hezbollah. Special correspondent Simona Foltyn and videographer Adrian Hartrick were given exclusive access to Hezbollah’s seized military installations and the army's efforts to retake territory long held by the militants. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Chicago’s museums and cultural institutions are as much a part of the fabric of the city as Wrigley Field or the lakefront. And they’ve been around a long time. Some are more than a century old. So why are museum workers organizing now, seemingly en masse? And what could it mean for the visitor experience? In the Loop talks with Chicago Sun-Times arts and culture reporter Erica Thompson, Anders Lindall of AFSCME Council 31 and Adler Planetarium employee Lileas Maier. For a full archive of In the Loop interviews, head over to wbez.org/intheloop.

Roughly 1 in 4 Americans now identifies as a family caregiver. That share has risen dramatically over the past decade. With more people needing care and limited options for affordable long-term care services in the United States, caregivers are strained—often mentally and financially. On today’s show, Debra Whitman, chief public policy officer of AARP, joins Kimberly to unpack how this “invisible workforce” fits into the broader economy and how we can make caregiving more sustainable for families.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• "Caregiving in the US 2025" from AARP
• "The number of “sandwich generation” caregivers is growing" from Marketplace 
• "If Americans Were Paid For Their Caregiving, They Would Make More Than $1.1 Trillion" from the National Partnership for Women and Families
• "Returning to the Workforce After Being a Caregiver" from Harvard Business Review
• "Invisible crisis: America’s caregivers and the $600 billion unpaid cost of their labor" from ABC News
• "Caregiving in the US 2025: Caring Across States" from AARP

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The cost of health insurance is becoming increasingly unaffordable. With many Affordable Care Act marketplace subsidies set to expire, coverage is about to get even more pricier for more than 20 million people next year. These growing costs are fueling interest in a market for cash-only doctors. Today, we'll hear more. But first, all of those government layoffs and employee buyouts have hit the labor market. We’ll discuss.

How many jobs did the U.S. economy gain or lose last month? We'll find out later this morning. The numbers are about a week late, as the folks at the Bureau of Labor Statistics needed a minute to catch up after the government shutdown. Economists' expectations are low. Then, an investigation in New York looks into allegations of systemic fraud big banks are facing over foreclosure auctions. We'll help you understand the story.