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Business schools around the globe are attempting to improve their campuses – and compete for the best students – with major renovations and new construction.

Despite the risk to schools – the number of applications for MBA programs is slightly down in recent years –there is a need to keep pace with competitors in what they offer students.

JPMorgan announced this week it will give $1 million to schools to improve higher education courses for United States military veterans.

In a press release, Maureen Casey, the director of military and veterans affairs for JP Morgan, said the money is meant to help veterans make the transition from serving their country in a military capacity to the working world.

J.C. Penney, one of the nation’s largest retail companies, is laying off 2,000 people and closing 33 stores. The news did not surprise most economists and those who keep an eye on the business world.

A group of leading economists, including seven Nobel laureates, have joined the effort to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

The Fair Minimum Wage Act – introduced by Rep. George Miller, D-California, and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa – would increase the minimum wage in a series of steps over three years. The current minimum wage is $7.25.

Unlike many professions, those who enter business will often enter the work world after earning an under graduate degree, only to return to school later for graduate school.

This creates a situation where graduate school students have great experience , having spent years in the workforce, learning how ideas learned in school are applied in the real world. However, going back to school can often be a difficult transition, according to an article from U.S. News & World Report.

The University of California, Los Angeles, has the most driven students in the country, based on a report from the company Views On You.

The company, based in London, gathers information from students to help match them with the companies that best match their skill sets.

The company bases a person’s personality on three factors – energy, which gauges how you work; interpersonal, which gauges how you interact with others; and intelligence, which gauges how you think.

The nation’s industrial output experienced the biggest increase in a year in November, led primarily by utility companies making big profits during the recent cold temperatures across the country.

According to the Federal Reserve, industrial production increased by 1.1% in November, which is the biggest increase since November 2012.

Compared to November 2012, production is up 3.2%.

Numbers from the private sector are again demonstrating the irrelevance of the October government shutdown to the nation’s private business sector.

The private sector added 215,000 jobs in November, far more than the 185,000 jobs anticipated by most economics, according to ADP, the payroll processing company. It’s the most jobs added in a one-month period in the last year.

Unemployment claims dropped last week, another sign that the economy and the overall job picture may be improving as the country heads into the holiday season.

According to the federal Department of Labor, jobless claims fell by 10,000 to 316,000. Most experts had projected about 330,000 jobless claims, according to an article from Reuters.

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.