Construction workers install roofing on a high rise in Manhattan’s financial district on Tuesday, April 11, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo / Bebeto Matthews, File)

The unemployment rate dipped to 3.4%, matching a 54-year low, the Labor Department said Friday. The jobless rate fell in part, though, because 43,000 people left the labor force, the first drop since November, and were no longer counted as unemployed.

Nearly 350 job seekers filled CTA headquarters the morning of April 28, 2023, for the agency’s fifth job fair of the year. (WTTW News)

The CTA is still short more than 600 full-time bus and rail operators. As the transit agency tries to reverse service and staffing losses, it’s been putting a big focus on hiring.

A hiring sign is displayed at a grocery store in Arlington Heights, Ill., Friday, Jan. 13, 2023. (AP Photo / Nam Y. Huh, File)

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.

(WTTW News)
,

The job fair, scheduled for 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the CTA’s 567 W. Lake St. main office, will give job seekers a chance to attend information sessions on the bus positions and apply on site. 

Hiring signs are displayed at a grocery store in Arlington Heights, Ill., Friday, Jan. 13, 2023. (AP Photo / Nam Y. Huh, File)

Pay and benefits for America’s workers grew at a healthy but more gradual pace in the final three months of 2022, a third straight slowdown, which could help reassure the Federal Reserve that wage gains won’t fuel higher inflation.

The logo of Google is displayed on a carpet at the entrance hall of Google France in Paris, on Nov. 18, 2019. (AP Photo / Michel Euler, File)

It is the company’s biggest-ever round of layoffs and adds to tens of thousands of other job losses recently announced by Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook parent Meta and other tech companies as they tighten their belts amid a darkening outlook for the industry. Just this month, there have been at least 48,000 job cuts announced by major companies in the sector.

A hiring sign is displayed at a restaurant in Rolling Meadows, Ill., Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2022. On Wednesday, the Labor Department reports on job openings and labor turnover for November. (AP Photo / Nam Y. Huh, File)

Yet the figures show there are nearly 1.8 jobs for every unemployed person, down from a peak of 2 but historically very high. Before the pandemic, there were usually more unemployed people than jobs.

The proposed casino is set to be built on the Chicago Tribune printing plant and newsroom site near Chicago Avenue and Halsted Street. (WTTW News)
,

Bally’s Chicago casino is set to have 3,400 slots and 173 table games in addition to an exhibition hall, 500-room hotel, a 3,000-seat theater and 11 restaurants. The development will include a 2,100-square-foot park and walking path along the river and a three-level underground parking garage, according to the plans released by city officials.

The proposed casino is set to be built on the Chicago Tribune printing plant and newsroom site near Chicago Avenue and Halsted Street. (WTTW News)
,

The $1.74 billion proposal still needs the approval of the Illinois Gaming Board, which must license Bally’s to operate the Chicago casino set to be built along the Chicago River near Chicago Avenue and Halsted Street.

Jeep Compass and Patriot vehicles move down an assembly line during a tour of the Chrysler Belvidere Assembly plant in Belvidere, Illinois, in 2012. (Reuters)

The European carmaker said it will “idle” the assembly plant in Belvidere, Illinois on Feb. 23 and said the layoffs are expected to exceed six months. 

The Discover Customer Care Center in Chatham. (WTTW News)

The ambitious plan included a community center, a technology hub, partnerships to offer free tuition and provisions for contracting with Chatham’s small service businesses.

(WTTW News)

While the overall unemployment rate for Chicago is nearly 5.8% in August, the rate for Black residents is more than twice that, at 14.3%.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot breaks ground on a 58-unit apartment complex on Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022. (Chicago's Mayor Office)
,

The first of 10 developments planned as part of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Invest South/West initiative to start construction is a 58-unit apartment complex set to be built near 79th and Green streets in Auburn Gresham. 

(WTTW News)

A career development initiative has taken root on Chicago’s South Side for young people who want to improve the health of their community.

(WTTW News)
,

The Illinois Child Care for All Coalition is calling for publicly-funded universal child care, saying it is unavailable and unaffordable for many in the Prairie State. 

This May 8, 2019 photo shows a Caterpillar 279D Compact Track Loader, left, and 308E2 CR Mini Hydraulic Excavator, right, rear, at a demolition site in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo / Wilfredo Lee, File)

“We believe it’s in the best strategic interest of the company to make this move,” CEO Jim Umpleby said.