Measured month to month, wages rose 0.3% from February to March, a tick up from a mild 0.2% gain from January to February. But even that figure signaled a slowdown from average wage increases in the final months of 2022.

The new rules take effect April 18 and are aimed at reducing U.S. dependence on China and other countries for battery supply chains for electric vehicles.

Friday’s report from the Commerce Department showed that consumer prices rose 0.3% from January to February, down from a 0.6% increase from December to January. 

The Chicago business community has been battered a bit over the past few years — from COVID-19 closures to fleeing corporate headquarters. For many business leaders, public safety weighs heavily in the conversation about Chicago’s business future.

The three proposals would invest $550 million in the Loop to build 1,059 apartments in what is now mostly empty office space, including 317 units set aside for low- and moderate-income Chicagoans as part of an effort to reduce segregation in Chicago in return for $188 million in city subsidies, officials said.

The Federal Reserve extended its year-long fight against high inflation Wednesday by raising its key interest rate by a quarter-point despite concerns that higher borrowing rates could worsen the turmoil that has gripped the banking system.

Talks of a four-day workweek are heating up nationwide. A lawmaker in California has reintroduced a U.S. House bill that would make a 32-hour workweek the national standard. A bill in Maryland proposes tax incentives for companies that try out a four-day workweek.

Applications for unemployment benefits are seen as a barometer for layoffs in the U.S.

Over the last three days, the U.S. seized the two financial institutions after a bank run on Silicon Valley Bank, based in Santa Clara, California. It was the largest bank failure since Washington Mutual went under in 2008. How did we get here? And will the steps the government unveiled over the weekend be enough?

America’s employers added a substantial 311,000 jobs in February, fewer than January’s huge gain but enough to keep pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates aggressively to fight inflation.

The Justice Department said the tie-up would especially hurt cost-conscious travelers who depend on Spirit to find cheaper options to JetBlue and other airlines.

Will County is home to the largest inland port in the United States, taking in an array of products that just about all of us depend upon. But serving as a major logistics hub has made its mark on the community: traffic jams, potholes, open land converted to warehouses.

The factory, which employs about 1,350 workers, officially was placed on “idle” Tuesday; that term means the company intends to shut down the plant. Belvidere’s future is likely to be an issue in national contract talks coming up with the United Auto Workers union, one that could bring a strike.

State labor officials are investigating an Illinois-based pharmaceutical company’s decision to abruptly close all of its operations, including its out-of-state locations in New Jersey, New York and Switzerland, and to lay off hundreds of workers with almost no warning.

Ratings agency S&P on Thursday moved Illinois’ bond rating up a notch, from BBB+ to A- on general obligation bonds. It’s the agency’s third upgrade since the summer of 2021.

The Bipartisan Policy Center, which forecasts the approximate “X-date” when the government will no longer be able to meet its financial obligations on time, said the U.S. will reach its statutory debt limit as soon as the summer or early fall of 2023.