Editor
Caroline Mercer directs Business coverage, specializing in markets, companies, personal finance, labor, entrepreneurship, regulation, retail, real estate, and the forces changing how people work and spend. She has a sharp eye for earnings reports, policy changes, consumer data, and executive strategy, but her stories always come back to practical consequences for households, workers, founders, and investors. Her desk values plain-English financial explanation, skepticism toward hype, and useful context around economic uncertainty.
Business
Employers added 172,000 jobs in May and unemployment held at 4.3%, BLS said. The details show a labor market still hiring, but leaning harder on services, government and health care.
Business
The U.S. added 172,000 jobs in May, beating forecasts, but the report is less a simple boom signal than a new complication for interest rates, wages and white-collar hiring.