Government data suggest that education is increasingly crucial in protecting workers from unemployment.
The difference in joblessness between the country’s least educated people and most educated people increased during the recession, according to statistics from the Labor Department. People without a high school diploma remain more than three times as likely to be unemployed than are college graduates. Get the full story »
China’s Sinochem Corp. has hired banks to advise it how to foil BHP Billiton’s $39 billion bid for Potash Corp., two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
The state-owned chemicals group had hired Deutsche Bank and Citigroup for the purpose, the sources said after BHP extended its offer for Potash, the world’s largest fertilizer group, by a month to November 18 to provide Canada’s competition regulator with more information. Get the full story »
Braidwood Station Unit 1 returned to service this morning at 5:43 a.m., when operators connected the plant’s turbine generator to the regional power grid. Get the full story »
India may sign a $3.5 billion deal to buy 10 of Boeing Co’s BA.N C-17 Globemaster III aircraft for its air force, the Economic Times reported on Wednesday. Get the full story »
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. could unveil its new tablet computer — as well as the operating system that will power it — as early as next week at a developers’ conference in San Francisco, said people familiar with RIM’s plans.
The tablet, which some inside RIM are calling the BlackPad, is scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of this year, these people said. It will feature a seven-inch touch screen and one or two built-in cameras, they said. Get the full story »
Microsoft Corp. is ramping up its dividend for the first time in two years as it prepared to borrow billions of dollars. Its board of directors agreed on a quarterly dividend of 16 cents per share, an increase of 3 cents or 23 percent over the prior quarter’s dividend. Get the full story »
U.S. home loan demand fell for a third straight week though fixed mortgage rates slid near all-time lows, with potential buyers still unnerved by the jobs market, Mortgage Bankers Association data showed on Wednesday. Get the full story »
Blockbuster Inc. is in the final stages of preparing a long-awaited bankruptcy filing, marking a milestone in consumers’ shift away from brick-and-mortar video stores to films delivered by mail and the Internet.
Blockbuster, struggling amid more than $900 million in debt, could file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the next few days, said people familiar with the matter. The filing could come as soon as Wednesday, they said, and is likely to come by Friday or sometime next week. Get the full story »
Automobile-parts recycler LKQ Corp. said it completed seven acquisitions in the third quarter through Sept. 20, improving its distribution, and that it was continuing to see opportunities for more deals.
The acquisitions expand LKQ’s wholesale aftermarket and recycled parts distribution in a number of markets including Philadelphia and Cincinnati and its production capacity for refinishing of aluminum wheels, the company said in a statement. Get the full story »
American Airlines parent AMR Corp. says a key third-quarter revenue figure will rise between 9.8 percent and 10.8 percent compared with a year ago.
From Crain’s Chicago Business | Tribune Co. will start delivering the Chicago Sun-Times to retail outlets in the city under an expanded distribution agreement.
President Barack Obama’s top economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, plans to leave the White House at the end of the year, a move that comes as the administration struggles to show an anxious public it’s making progress on the economy.
BHP Billiton’s $39 billion battle to take control of Canada’s Potash Corp. is expected to drag on into next year after it failed to win immediate backing from Canadian authorities.
The Anglo-Australian miner, which wants to use the world’s largest fertiliser-maker as its entry into the global food industry, also said it had no plan to change its $130-a-share offer and shrugged off talk of a China-backed rival bid emerging. Get the full story »
A Student Loan Corp. shareholder has sued to block the sale of the company by majority owner Citigroup Inc. because it benefits the Wall Street bank at the expense of minority investors, according to a lawsuit.
Citigroup, which owns 80 percent of the Stamford, Connecticut-based student lender, agreed last week to sell it to Discover Financial Services for $600 million. Get the full story »
About a half a million iPad owners use AT&T Inc.’s network to connect the Apple tablet computer to the Internet, according to the telephone company’s top executive Randall Stephenson.
Apple said it sold 3.27 million iPads in the second quarter alone. AT&T, the No. 2 U.S. mobile service, is the only U.S. operator providing cellular connectivity for the iPad.
Pacific Crest analyst Steve Clement said this could indicate that many iPad purchasers aren’t bothering to connect the device to the Internet using the AT&T network. Get the full story »
