This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Justin Flint, 27, a software engineer at an oven manufacturing factory near Seattle, Washington. His employment and progression has been verified ...

We often romanticize the American industrial era—the “Arsenal of Democracy,” the sheer scale of production, and the promised opportunity. But for the millions of men and women who clocked in daily, ...

Through boom times and, more recently, slumping sales, Nike Inc. has stuck by a key claim about its overseas suppliers: They pay the average factory worker about twice the local minimum wage. It’s a ...

Layoffs are low across the economy — and in the trades, too. But hiring rates have slumped to the drab pace of 2009, when the ...