No expense is harder to control than labor, typically accounting for 25% to 35% of costs in such mine construction and most of the overruns.

FORBES: The World's Billionaires

Today things are different, the Labor Department is saying when it changes its accounting practices to categorize people within a wider range of duration of unemployment.

FORBES: Accounting to Change in Unemployment Report

The deal will lift GMAC's ratings above parent GM's, which have been sinking deeper into junk territory in light of ongoing accounting issues and the possible hit from labor unrest at Delphi.

FORBES: Still In The Junkyard

Women have long been accumulating economic heft, accounting for 47% of the nation's overall labor force, up from about a third in 1960.

WSJ: Women Set New Goals for Careers and Lives

Even back office work like human resources and accounting, is now handled by part-time or contract labor.

FORBES: In The Future, Nobody Will Have A Job

Speaking on CNN Friday morning, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao said the president had appointed a separate task force to review the accounting standards issues.

CNN: Bush: 401(k) proposals are about 'fairness'

But still, some (private) firm wins the design contract, and then some other (private) firm or (private) firms contract out the labor (or most of it) to do things like, environmental studies, surveying, accounting, pouring concrete, laying bricks, stretching wire, managing the people who do environmental studies, surveying, accounting, pouring concrete, laying bricks and stretching wire.

FORBES: Who Built What?

After all, tuition and fees have increased 184% in 20 years after accounting for inflation, but wages for college grads have risen just 9%, according to Labor Department data.

WSJ: Upside: Is College the 'Best Investment'? Here's the Math

Slightly more than half of the work force is in agriculture, but services are the major source of economic growth, accounting for more than half of India's output, with only one-third of its labor force.

FORBES: India