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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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. -
A new Gallup report finds employee engagement in the U.S. fell in 2022. Younger workers in particular felt they had fewer opportunities to learn and grow. (Story first aired on ATC on Jan. 25, 2023.)
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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.
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Starbucks stores from coast to coast. An electric vehicle battery plant. The first Amazon warehouse in the U.S. All kinds of workplaces unionized in 2022, but winning elections is only the first step.
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As COVID has become less virulent, the debate over vaccine mandates has faded. But some workers who were fired for refusing the shots are still fighting to be reinstated.
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Union organizing soared in 2022, but companies pushed back to stop the momentum.
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Nearly three years into the pandemic, travel has returned but hotel staff have not. Unable to find workers, hotel owners and managers are having to adapt to what they believe is the new normal.
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With a strike looming, President Biden called on Congress to pass legislation imposing a contract deal that four rail unions had rejected, citing its lack of paid sick days.
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The largest freight rail union has voted to reject the contract agreement brokered by the Biden administration. The two sides return to the bargaining table, but the possibility of a strike remains.
