
Andrea Hsu
Andrea Hsu is NPR's labor and workplace correspondent.
Hsu first joined NPR in 2002 and spent nearly two decades as a producer for All Things Considered. Through interviews and in-depth series, she's covered topics ranging from America's opioid epidemic to emerging research at the intersection of music and the brain. She led the award-winning NPR team that happened to be in Sichuan Province, China, when a massive earthquake struck in 2008. In the coronavirus pandemic, she reported a series of stories on the pandemic's uneven toll on women, capturing the angst that women and especially mothers were experiencing across the country, alone. Hsu came to NPR via National Geographic, the BBC, and the long-shuttered Jumping Cow Coffee House.
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Labor organizing surged last year. A Gallup survey found 71% of Americans approve of unions. Yet only 10% of workers belong to a union, as employers continue to fight back.
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The administration is turning to semiconductors in the hopes of expanding affordable child care.
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Marty Walsh, who's led the Labor Department since March 2021, is leaving the Biden administration. Walsh has been named executive director of the NHL Players' Association.
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The pandemic had an unexpected side effect: peak meeting misery. With Shopify's radical announcement last month, the working world wants to know if a future without meetings is even possible.
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The freight railroad CSX announced it had made a deal to provide paid sick leave to roughly 5,000 rail workers. The White House and lawmakers are pushing other railroads to follow suit.
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The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says artificial intelligence-based hiring tools may be creating discriminatory barriers to jobs. The agency is asking for input as it considers guardrails.
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A new Gallup report finds employee engagement in the U.S. fell in 2022 to 32%. Young people in particular reported feeling less cared about at work and having fewer opportunities to learn and grow.
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The Labor Department has cited Amazon for failing to keep workers safe at three warehouses. Federal safety inspectors found workers at high risk of lower back injuries and musculoskeletal disorders.
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Employers say that noncompete agreements are needed to protect trade secrets and investments. The FTC says they deprive workers of their economic liberties and has proposed a rule to ban them.
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The Federal Trade Commission has proposed a new rule that bans the use of noncompete agreements, calling them an exploitative practice that suppresses wages and hampers innovation.