Hooray for Hollywood! Movie biz lifts job growth

The labor market improved in February, and the jobs Oscar goes to... Hollywood?

The entire U.S. economy added 236,000 jobs in February, but the film industry deserves a special shout-out. This sector alone added 21,000 jobs, marking a 5% employment boost in motion picture and sound jobs in just one month.

This is highly unusual, and while the data can be choppy from month to month, it is not a statistical fluke, MORE

Ick! America's economic signals are wildly mixed

If you feel like economists are pushing and pulling you in different directions lately, it's because they are. I can't get them to agree on what's going on with American consumers right now.

Are we holding up solidly, in spite of the payroll tax hike? Or are we being squeezed by that and higher gas prices?

Here's the rundown on the conflicting signals:

YAY, WE'RE RECOVERING

Existing and new home sales picked up in MORE

'Sequestration': A way-too-big word for a simple thing

We've had enough of the Beltway's wacky terms. If you haven't noticed -- and how could you not? -- our lawmakers in D.C. have had a rather annoying obsession lately with using fancy-pants words to dramatize and complicate otherwise simple concepts.

Thankfully, the fiscal cliff headlines have come to an end. The next culprit, though, is "sequestration," and we're putting our foot down.

We're going to steer clear of the term in MORE

A history of the minimum wage since 1938

The grey line shows the minimum wage, unadjusted for inflation, whereas the blue line shows you what it would be worth in 2012.

When President Franklin D. Roosevelt first created the minimum wage in 1938, it was 25 cents. Adjusted for inflation, that would be worth $4.07 today.

The minimum wage had its lowest buying power in 1948, when it was worth about $3.81 in today's dollars. It had its highest buying MORE

Men spend twice as much as women on Valentine's Day

Whether you love it or hate it, Valentine's Day is a big business -- and no, not everything is fair in love and war.

Guys plan to spend an average of $108 on their sweethearts this Valentine's Day, twice what women plan to spend on their significant others. Ladies plan to spend only $53, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation.

Flowers and jewelry tend to push up the average costs MORE

Who makes minimum wage?

Who would benefit if the minimum wage rose from $7.25 to $9 an hour?

As of 2011, about 3.8 million hourly workers earned at or below the minimum wage, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Of these people, about 49% are women age 20 or older, 59% have a high school diploma or less, and about 24% are teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19.

Overall, these 3.8 million workers make up MORE

Obama is unlikely to meet his goal on exports

Three years ago in his 2010 State of the Union address, President Obama unveiled a lofty goal to double U.S. exports by the end of 2014.

At this point, it doesn't look like he will get there.

Last week we found out that exports had a record year in 2012, totaling $2.2 trillion. The administration called it "further proof that 'Made in the USA' products are in demand all over the world."

But MORE

Bring your baby to work day - every day

Meet Licia Ronzulli, an Italian member of the European Parliament, who on Twitter calls herself "ma prima di tutto mamma!" (first of all, mom!). Ronzulli has been bringing her daughter Victoria to work since she was 6 weeks old.

Here she is in October 2010, voting to support raising paid maternity leave in the European Union from 14 to 20 weeks. The proposal never became law, but the European Union still MORE

Andy Warhol on the unemployment rate

Move over Campbell's soup cans and Marilyn Monroe. Andy Warhol also drew the U.S. unemployment rate.

This Warhol rendition of the unemployment rate is on the auction block at Christie's, estimated to bring between $20,000 and $30,000. It documents the early 1980s recession, when the jobless rate rose from 6.3% in 1980 to as high as 10.8% in December 1982.

The piece is about 23 inches high by 31 inches wide and MORE

Overeducated and underemployed

Getting a college degree still helps your chances of getting a job, but not necessarily a good one.

Some Americans are becoming overeducated for the jobs that are available to them, as data shows more college educated workers are taking low-skill jobs that are clearly below their qualifications.

Take taxi drivers for example. About 15%, or more than than 1 in 7, had at least a bachelor's degree in 2010, according to MORE