The unemployment rate fell to 7.2% in September, according to numbers released Tuesday by the federal Department of Labor.

The release was delayed due to the government shutdown that lasted through the first 16 days of October because of the inability of Congress and the White House to reach an agreement on the federal budget.

By engaging students and pushing them to succeed, games may offers a new way to teach students, according to an expert on performance and gaming.

In a presentation at least week’s “Educause” conference in California, Jane McGonigal – a game designer, author and researcher – predicted that “extreme learning environments” will offer students a chance to play and create while they learn.

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Jobless claims across the United States fell by 15,000 to a total of 358,000 in the week that ended Oct. 12, according to a report from the Department of Labor.

While lower, the number is not as low as what was forecast by economists, who anticipated the total number to drop to about 335,000, according to Bloomberg.

The number still includes a backlog from California, where a break down in the system last month has led to an increase in numbers from that state the past few weeks. Additionally, the figures include some of the government workers and government contractors who lost their jobs, at least temporarily, during the government shutdown that ended this week.

A tough job market – and the low start-up costs for Internet-based businesses – is leading more seniors to form small businesses, according to the Associated Press.

One example is Crash Boom Bam, a company started by 64-year-old Jim Glay. The vintage drum company started in Glay’s spare bedroom in 2009. While it hasn’t made Glay a fortune, the company has kept him “afloat,” he told the Associated Press.

One of the co-founders of the online education company Coursera claims that shorter classes – courses that run just three weeks, for example – are better for students than longer courses.

This runs against the grain of traditional thinking in higher education, where classes generally run 12 weeks and sometimes even longer.

Workers are planning to stay in the work force longer than they originally planned, with almost half saying they will work until they are at least 66 years old, according to a new poll.

The survey, conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found that 82% of Americans over the age of 50 think it is at least somewhat likely that they will continue with employment into their retirement years.

Stanford University offers the best MBA when it comes to return on investment, according to a new rankings listed released by Forbes magazine.

Stanford gets graduates the highest paychecks five years after graduation, with an annual median total compensation of $221,000, according to Forbes.

Without much fanfare, the Harvard Business School has started to develop a new online initiative, the first step into online learning for one of the nation’s most prestigious business schools.

The move puts Harvard into the area of MOOCs, or massive open online courses. The move may “shake up” the online education market, according to Bloomberg BusinessWeek. It’s also a bold move for Harvard Business School, which is one of the best-known brands in all of education.

A new survey finds that 69% of Americans would rather remain jobless than work for a company with a bad reputation.

However, more than half of currently employed employees would go to a company with a bad reputation – if they were offered a substantial increase in pay.

A new poll finds that many workers suffer from the “Sunday night blues” – that feeling of dread about returning to the workplace on Monday morning.

The Monster.com poll found that only 22% of workers did not experience feelings of anxiety and dread as their weekend ends and they prepare to return to work on Monday morning. Almost half of the people surveyed – 47% – characterized their Sunday nights as “really bad.”