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Sears Holdings Corp. and Chicago’s financial exchanges have quit threatening to pull up stakes now that Illinois has enacted tax breaks for them. But it remains unclear whether state incentives to big companies are wise uses of economic-development resources.

Hiring picked up slightly in July and the unemployment rate dipped to 9.1 percent, an optimistic sign after the worst day on Wall Street in nearly three years.The Labor Department says employers added 117,000 jobs last month. That's an improvement from the past two months."

The nation's unemployment rate rose to 9.1 percent in May, as hiring slowed to the lowest level in eight months, according to the U.S.

The financial arm of General Electric is announcing plans to bring 1,000 jobs to Chicago.At a press conference with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Monday, officials from GE Capital said the expansion will nearly double the company's presence in the city.

Writing in the Washington Post on Wednesday, the CEO and founder of job networking site LinkedIn outlined a 3-step plan for riding out the economic crisis.

In his first prime time press conference, President Barack Obama pushed the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Plan as a jobs creation plan.‚