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

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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Wednesday

Workers pack orders at an Amazon fulfillment center on January 20, 2015 in Tracy, California. OSHA cited Amazon after federal safety inspectors found ergonomic hazards at three Amazon warehouses. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption

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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Friday

Robin Catalano, a freelance writer based on the border of the Berkshires and the Hudson Valley, urges other freelancers to carefully review employment contracts and negotiate any noncompete clauses they may contain. Cassandra Sohn hide caption

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Cassandra Sohn

Many workers barely recall signing noncompetes, until they try to change jobs

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Thursday

The FTC proposed a new rule banning noncompete agreements. Federal Trade Commission chair Lina M. Khan calls them exploitative and widespread. Graeme Jennings/Getty Images hide caption

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Graeme Jennings/Getty Images

Tuesday

George Garvey, 52, worked for the New York City Sanitation Department for 10 years before he was fired after refusing to get a COVID vaccine. "I don't regret what I've done," he says. Jackie Molloy for NPR hide caption

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Jackie Molloy for NPR

Thousands of workers were fired over vaccine mandates. For some, the fight goes on

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Friday

Wednesday

Deepak Patel, 43, conducts a room inspection at the Country Inn and Suites, Baltimore North, a hotel he owns and manages with his family in Rosedale, Maryland. Rosem Morton for NPR hide caption

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Rosem Morton for NPR

Hotels say goodbye to daily room cleanings and hello to robots as workers stay scarce

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Friday

Freight rail cars sit in a rail yard in Wilmington, California, on November 22, 2022. This week, President Biden urged Congress to pass legislation to prevent a rail strike that could have brought trains to a halt nationwide. Mario Tama/Getty Images hide caption

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Mario Tama/Getty Images

Some rail workers say Biden "turned his back on us" in deal to avert rail strike

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Monday

Freight rail union rejects contract, increasing the possibility of a strike

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A Union Pacific freight train carries cargo along a rail line at sunset in Bosler, Wyoming, on August 13, 2022. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

Largest rail union rejects contract, stoking fears of a strike

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Thursday

Freight cars wait to be hauled out of the Norfolk Southern Conway Terminal in Conway, Pa., on Sept. 15. Gene J. Puskar/AP hide caption

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Gene J. Puskar/AP

As holidays near, a nationwide rail strike is still on the table. Here's the latest

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Friday

The country has seen a dramatic shift away from jobs requiring physical strength. Fewer than 1 in 10 jobs now require what's called heavy work, a sector once dominated by men. Jung Getty/Getty Images hide caption

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Jung Getty/Getty Images

Monday

The Treasury's website kept crashing as investors scrambled to buy government bonds. Andrea Hsu hide caption

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Andrea Hsu

The bond that broke the internet

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