U.S. Economy

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. job openings surged in February to a 14-year high, yet employers filled fewer of those jobs than in the previous month.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. retail sales stumbled last month in a sign consumers remained frugal even as gas prices declined and hiring picked up.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans are closing out 2014 on an optimistic note, according to a new Associated Press-Times Square Alliance poll. Nearly half predict that 2015 will be a better year for them than 2014 was, while only 1 in 10 think it will be worse. There's room for improvement: Americans give the year gone by a resounding `meh.'

NEW YORK (AP) -- The $4 trillion experiment is almost over.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Out of a seemingly hollow recovery from the Great Recession, a more durable if still slow-growing U.S. economy has emerged.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. business economists have sharply cut their growth forecasts for the April-June quarter and 2014, though they remain optimistic that the economy will rebound from a dismal first quarter.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. employers accelerated their hiring last month, adding a robust 288,000 jobs and helping drive the unemployment rate to 6.1 percent, the lowest since September 2008.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. manufacturing grew in June for the 13th straight month. But the pace of the expansion slowed from May.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The International Monetary Fund foresees the U.S. economy growing a modest 2 percent this year, below its previous estimate of 2.7 percent.

The U.S. economy took a beating from an especially harsh winter during the January-March quarter, skidding into reverse for the first time in three years. But spring has arrived and along with it, signs that the chill was just a temporary setback in the long road to recovery.