Former lab technician Annette Helmich is thrilled to have a new, in-demand skill and a full-time job to go with it – welding machinery.
While Ms. Helmich started learning her new craft by spending four weeks
at a local community college, she says she polished her welding skills on the factory floor of her new employer, AGCO Corp.

Retail stores are increasingly barraging their customers with questions. It’s marketing for them. Is it good for you? In a down economy, merchants not only want to impress customers with attentive service, they are also using sophisticated software to cross-sell and up-sell items to boost their bottom lines. At Albrecht’s Sentry Foods, a family-owned grocery store in Delafield, Wis., cashier Jackie Ryerson says hardy customers are sometimes surprised when she asks, “Would you like help out to your car?”