Labor

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Trays of printed Social Security checks in Philadelphia wait to be mailed from the U.S. Treasury in 2005. (Associated Press) **FILE**

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Former General Electric Chairman Jack Welch tweeted his skepticism five minutes after the Labor Department recently announced the unemployment rate had fallen to 7.8 percent in September from 8.1 percent the previous month. (Associated Press)

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NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman speaks with reporters following talkswith the media following labor talks with the NHLPA in Toronto on Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012. Negotiations continue between the league and the players' union over collective bargaining as both sides try to avoid a potential lockout. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Chris Young)

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The Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Missouri, Rep. W. Todd Akin, who home-schooled his children, not surprisingly has the avid backing of the state’s home-schoolers. Mr. Akin is running to unseat Sen. Claire McCaskill, who has the endorsement of teachers unions. (The Associated Press)

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Deanna Aguilera (right), 30, of Salt Lake City receives assistance from employment counselor Frank Trivino while job searching at Workforce Services in Salt Lake City on Friday, Sept. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

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Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant outlines some current health care initiatives established by his administration in hopes that they will help with easing into the federal health care overhaul in the state at the the Mississippi Health Care Reform Summit at Mississippi College in Clinton, Miss., Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012. The day long summit also dealt with the current status of employer provided health care as well specific upcoming changes and their effect on businesses. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

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Secretary of the Interior Kenneth L. Salazar visited the Abound Solar Inc. plant in Longmont, Colo., in 2009. The company has filed for bankruptcy, but the Department of Labor says its laid-off employees aren’t eligible for federal trade assistance. (Associated Press)

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Washington Nationals fans learn Oct. 1 at Nationals Park that their players have become the National League East champions. With Game 3 of the playoffs in Washington on Wednesday, bosses throughout the area admit that employees who come to work will be distracted. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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**FILE** Thousands of public school teachers rally Sept. 10, 2012, outside the Chicago Public Schools district headquarters on the first day of strike action over teachers' contracts in Chicago. (Associated Press)

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Associated press photographs Micheal Davis, left, Eric Keller, center, and Douglas Norton, right, volunteers with the Protect Our Jobs Coalition, deliver boxes of petitions for a proposal to add collective bargaining rights for workers into the Michigan Constitution to the state Bureau of Elections Wednesday, June 13, 2012, in Lansing, Mich. The Protect Our Jobs initiative was launched in March. It pushes back against a possible right-to-work movement in Michigan, which seeks to ban labor contracts that mandate payments to unions. (AP Photo/Al Goldis)