Leslie Patton

Nordstrom's flagship store in downtown Seattle, Aug. 14, 2019. Nordstrom and other retailers that cater to America' s upper middle class have experienced weakening results.

Is the US headed for a recession? Look at what richer Americans do on Black Friday

November 21, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.

Richer Americans are curtailing their spending ahead of Black Friday, a worrisome sign for an economy that has so far depended on the US consumer to stave off a recession....

KFC is pushing to bring a faux option that replicates a piece of fried chicken.

KFC bets Americans want faux fried chicken

September 13, 2021 at 3:05 p.m.

As president of KFC in the U.S., Kevin Hochman thinks a lot about the future of fried chicken in America. And right now plants — yes, plants — are taking...

Una mujer hace fila en un Chipotle Mexican Grill el 9 de junio de 2021 en Houston, Texas. Los precios del menú en Chipotle Mexican Grill aumentaron 4% para cubrir los costos de aumentar su salario mínimo a $15 la hora para los empleados. La industria de los restaurantes ha estado aumentando los salarios con la esperanza de atraer trabajadores durante una crisis laboral.

La inflación llega a los menús conforme los restaurantes en EEUU pasan los costos a los clientes

June 24, 2021 at 7:10 p.m.

Los restaurantes estadounidenses, que enfrentan costos laborales y de alimentos más altos, están aumentando los precios del menú a un ritmo mucho más rápido que las tasas históricas, insistiendo en...

Orders at Harris' Restaurant, a steakhouse in San Francisco, are lined up June 18, 2021. U.S. restaurants, faced with higher food and labor costs, have been raising menu prices at fast pace.

Inflation on the menu as US restaurants pass on soaring costs

June 24, 2021 at 1:21 p.m.

U.S. restaurants, faced with higher food and labor costs, are raising menu prices at a much faster pace than historical rates, insistent on preserving profits after an arduous year. From...

A hiring sign is posted April 2, 2021, outside a Home Depot store in Mount Prospect. America's employers unleashed a burst of hiring in March, adding 916,000 jobs in a sign that a sustained recovery from the pandemic recession is taking hold as vaccinations accelerate, stimulus checks flow through the economy and businesses increasingly reopen.

Here comes the boom: US jobs come roaring back, surprising employers and economists

April 7, 2021 at 1:06 p.m.

A resurgent job market is creating more opportunities at a faster clip than many economists and employers expected. What's more, too few people are applying for positions that are reopening,...

A students adjusts her facemask at St. Joseph Catholic School in La Puente, California on November 16, 2020.

Affluent families ditch public schools, widening US inequality

December 22, 2020 at 4:18 p.m.

One is thriving after switching from online public school to in-person private education. The other is struggling, stuck in her virtual classroom. The lives of these two girls, Ella Pierick...

James Cavicchia, right, with his son Joseph, 12, checks out Christmas gifts he bought at Toys et Cetera on Nov. 18, 2020, in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago.

Christmas 2020: Parents with ‘COVID guilt’ are piling toys under the tree

December 19, 2020 at 4:03 a.m.

Celebrating the holidays might be pretty ho-hum, but one area that's booming is toys. After a terrible year of remote school, canceled birthday parties and little vacationing, parents and grandparents...

Unemployment claims| <a href=https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf>Initial unemployment claims seasonally adjusted</a> (week ending May 23, 2020): 2,123,000</p> |

<p>More than 2.1 million people filed a new unemployment claim for the week ending May 23. It indicates that companies that retained their staff through March and April may have needed to close in mid-May, or may have faced a slowdown that affected their ability to keep people employed.</p>

Restaurants can’t find workers even amid historic unemployment

August 31, 2020 at 9:05 p.m.

Not even the greatest surge in joblessness in 80 years is easing the fast-food industry's years-old labor shortage. That's because the COVID-19 pandemic is making this year's economic crisis very...

Parents are looking for alternative to remote learning for their kids.

Desperate parents pay whatever they can to escape online schools

July 21, 2020 at 5:06 p.m.

Parents, fearing their kids won't see the inside of a classroom this fall, are ginning up an alternative familiar to the Home Depot crowd: Do-it-yourself. Amid the pandemic, enterprising families,...

COMFORT FOODS | Fifty-nine percent of operators expect new comfort food menu additions to stick around after the outbreak.

Food inflation arrives, adding to the woes of ailing restaurants

July 16, 2020 at 2:59 p.m.

Food inflation has arrived, according to newly released data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And that means slimmer profits for many already-ailing restaurants even as diners pay more for...

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