Encouraging Jobs Report for March

The economy gained 216,000 jobs in the month. That's better than the gain of 180,000 predicted by economists surveyed by CNNMoney, and also a significant improvement over the 194,000 jobs added in February.

"Almost two years after the recession officially ended, the labor market appears to finally be picking up," said Kathy Bostjancic, director of macroeconomic analysis for The Conference Board.

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Here’s some serious state marketing: Arkansas officials plan on attracting new wind-farm developers to the state by launching a tall-tower wind study.

WindPole Ventures and AWS Truepower LLC will build a wind resource monitoring network for the state. The data collected will provide developers with a better understanding of the wind resources available and encourage development.

The ARRA of 2009 will provide a large portion of the funding for the network. The Arkansas Energy Office, a division of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission also awarded $364,000 in recovery funds and will oversee the project.

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How to Share a Job

Laurie Cremona Wagner and Elaine Miller have been job-sharing, career partners for years. Throughout their career they have held several high-impact corporate positions and are currently Director of Marketing and Strategic Initiatives at EMC. The two women, both of whom have children, have been able to not only maintain, but further their careers while also having quality time to spend with their families. They have had such success with job sharing that, in 2008, they founded a Bay Area non-profit, Mission Job Share, to spread awareness and job-sharing resources.

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Voices of Health Reform: Ellie’s Story

“The President came to my rescue”

Ellie Phillips had a big problem that was really starting to wear on her—mentally and financially. Her problem was the cost of adequate health care. She had health insurance, so at least she was covered should something sudden and dire happen. But she was self-employed and had a pre-existing condition causing the cost of care to spiral upward.

“It was a constant source of pain and trouble for me, and I didn’t know what I was going to do. But the President came to my rescue,” she explains.

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