Andrea Hsu Andrea Hsu is NPR's labor and workplace correspondent.
Andrea Hsu, photographed for NPR, 11 March 2020, in Washington DC.
Stories By

Andrea Hsu

Mike Morgan/NPR
Andrea Hsu, photographed for NPR, 11 March 2020, in Washington DC.
Mike Morgan/NPR

Andrea Hsu

Labor and Workplace Correspondent

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.

Story Archive

Monday

United Airlines pilots participate in a picket line at Washington Dulles International Airport on May 12, 2023. Ahead of a busy summer travel season, they're asking for higher wages and also quality of life improvements. Win McNamee/Getty Images hide caption

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Win McNamee/Getty Images

The latest workers calling for a better quality of life: airline pilots

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Thursday

Daily room cleaning used to be standard practice in hotels. But since the pandemic, it's become less so. Nastasic hide caption

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Nastasic

Want your hotel room cleaned every day? Hotel housekeepers hope you say yes

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Friday

Carrie Kissell spent nearly three months on a sailboat after Airbnb told her she could live and work anywhere. "When the workday was over, I'd close my laptop and you know, go snorkeling," she says. Carrie Kissell hide caption

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Carrie Kissell

Airbnb let its workers live and work anywhere. Spoiler: They're loving it

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Wednesday

As of March 2023, there were 316,000 job openings in tech, according to the nonprofit IT association CompTIA. Despite mass layoffs in Silicon Valley, tech jobs remain plentiful. aelitta hide caption

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aelitta

Have tech skills, will work. Why IT jobs remain hot despite mass layoffs

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Tuesday

Storytellers at a Los Angeles planetarium join the union representing Broadway actors

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Monday

Yes, there have been tech layoffs, but the number of job openings remains high

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Thursday

UNITED STATES - CIRCA 1950s: Couple in kitchen. Women in opposite-sex marriages may be contributing more to their families' income, but they're also still shouldering more of the workload at home, according to a new report. George Marks/Getty Images hide caption

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George Marks/Getty Images

Women are earning more money. But they're still picking up a heavier load at home

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Thursday

Employees who are laid off while already on leave face extra challenges

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Wednesday

Layoffs are hitting some people who are on parental or medical leave. It is legal for employers to lay off an employee who's on leave as long as there's a legitimate business reason. Paulo Sousa/Getty Images/EyeEm hide caption

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Paulo Sousa/Getty Images/EyeEm

Laid off on leave: Yes, it's legal and it's hitting some workers hard

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Friday

Senate looks at labor laws which unions say interfere with workers' right to organize

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Wednesday

Sen. Bernie Sanders (left) will question Howard Schultz, who recently stepped down as Starbucks CEO, on the company's resistance to its workers unionizing. David Dee Delgado/Getty Images; Joshua Lott/Getty Images hide caption

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David Dee Delgado/Getty Images; Joshua Lott/Getty Images

In clash with Bernie Sanders, Starbucks' Howard Schultz insists he's no union buster

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Senate panel to ask Starbucks' Howard Schultz how he handled moves to unionize

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Tuesday

Amazon Labor Union leader Chris Smalls speaks next to U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders during a rally outside an Amazon facility on Staten Island, New York City, on April 24, 2022. Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images

Labor's labors lost? A year after stunning victory at Amazon, unions are stalled

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Monday

It's another mass layoff announcement from the tech sector — this time from Amazon

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Saturday

Biden has big ideas for fixing child care. For now a small workaround will have to do

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Friday

President Biden's ambitious proposals to address the high cost and short supply of child care haven't garnered enough support in Congress, so now his administration has come up with a workaround. Getty Images/Maskot hide caption

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Getty Images/Maskot

Biden has big ideas for fixing child care. For now a small workaround will have to do

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Sunday

Is it better to have more meetings at work or none at all?

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Thursday

U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh speaks during the annual North America's Building Trade's Unions Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. on April 6, 2022. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption

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Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Wednesday

The amount of time people spend in meetings tripled in the pandemic, Microsoft found in one study. Now, companies are looking at ways to cut back. woojpn/Getty Images hide caption

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woojpn/Getty Images

Shopify deleted 322,000 hours of meetings. Should the rest of us be jealous?

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Monday

Since the pandemic began, is it better to have more meetings at work or none at all?

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Friday

Under the leadership of its new CEO Joe Hinrichs, CSX struck a deal with two rail unions offering paid sick leave to about 5,000 workers. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption

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Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Rail workers never stopped fighting for paid sick days. Now persistence is paying off

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Tuesday

Friday

America, we have a problem. People aren't feeling engaged with their work

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Wednesday

A new Gallup report finds employee engagement in need of a rebound, finding only 32% of U.S. workers to be engaged with their work. Malte Mueller/Getty Images/fStop hide caption

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Malte Mueller/Getty Images/fStop

America, we have a problem. People aren't feeling engaged with their work

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