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As factory floors become more automated and data-driven, companies such as Yaskawa America Inc. need computer engineers but often find themselves outgunned by Silicon Valley tech firms.

“Sales at retail stores, online retailers and restaurants rose a seasonally adjusted 0.6% in September from the prior month, matching economists’ expectations for a rebound after sales fell 0.2% in August, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Stronger auto sales and rising gasoline prices boosted the headline figure last month, and spending excluding gas and autos rose a more modest 0.3%, though that was still the best gain in three months.”

Here is the lesson: What some economists now call “secular stagnation” might better be termed “ordinary performance.” Most of the time, in most economies, incomes increase slowly, and living standards rise bit by bit. The extraordinary experience of the Golden Age left us with the unfortunate legacy of unrealistic expectations about our governments’ ability to deliver jobs, pay raises and steady growth.

In the capital of the potato state, lawmakers have a power that few of their peers enjoy: They can review, and reject, new regulations coming out of executive-branch agencies. This has saved Idahoans from a slew of laughable and business-unfriendly restrictions.

They find the number of people earning at least $1,000 a year on personal businesses in the taxi, limousine and ground transportation industry has skyrocketed to 346,000  in 2014 (the latest available data) from 197,000 in 2009. The numbers seem to align with what the companies themselves have revealed: Uber, for example, was founded in 2009 and had 160,000 drivers by the end of 2014.

The labor market was showing few signs of acceleration and few signs of deterioration in August, according to the Labor Department’s monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, known as Jolts. . . The drop can be largely attributed to a decline in openings for professional and business services, which saw the number of available jobs fall by 223,000 to 989,000.

“The technology revolution has delivered Google searches, Facebook friends, iPhone apps, Twitter rants and shopping for almost anything on Amazon, all in the past decade and a half. What it hasn’t delivered are many jobs. Google’s Alphabet Inc. and Facebook Inc. had at the end of last year a total of 74,505 employees, about one-third fewer than Microsoft Corp. even though their combined stock-market value is twice as big. Photo-sharing service Instagram had 13 employees when it was acquired for $1 billion by Facebook in 2012.”

A new report from the McKinsey Global Institute released today adds to the body of evidence that the majority of independent workers actively sought out their arrangements and are happy with them, but a sizable minority is in the so-called gig economy reluctantly.

Wind-power producers are rushing to take advantage of a green energy tax credit extended by Congress—and, in a new twist, many are using it to renovate existing wind farms, not just build new ones. . . In rough numbers, a 100-megawatt project with modern turbines and strong winds might produce $10 million a year in tax credits, according to an analysis by Fitch, the credit rating firm. The current government credit is 2.3 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity produced, but it is adjusted for inflation and has jumped 53% since it began in 1992.

Retail sales declined last month for the first time since March and manufacturing production slipped, government data released Thursday showed. Meanwhile, prices businesses receive for their goods and services were unchanged last month, a sign of still-soft demand at home and abroad. Companies also remain cautious about building up too much inventory, new figures showed.

Congressional lawmakers have launched a formal investigation into whether solar-energy companies improperly received billions of dollars in tax incentives from the Obama administration.

A gauge of U.S. business prices was flat last month, a sign of continued mild inflationary pressures as Federal Reserve officials debate whether to raise short-term interest rates.

Environmentalists, urban planners and economists are pushing cities such as New York and San Francisco to build more housing to help combat rapidly rising rents and home prices that are crowding out the middle class. But trying to build upward in order to keep cities accessible to average families may be a losing battle, according to findings to be released Wednesday by BuildZoom, a website for contractors. . . “What you’ll get there is an exacerbation of the problems we already have in expensive cities. The distinction between homeowners and renters will become less and less a stage of life and more and more if your parents can help you. That’s not a future that seems very welcoming to me,” Mr. Romem said.

The median household income—the level at which half are above and half are below—rose 5.2% from a year earlier, after adjusting for inflation, or $2,800, to $56,500, the Census Bureau said Tuesday. . . The largest increases in incomes were for households in the bottom fifth of all earners, while incomes declined slightly for households in the top fifth. The ratio between incomes for households at the 90th percentile and 10th percentile declined last year.

The consumer-price index, which measures what Americans pay for everything from car repairs to potatoes, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.2% in May from the prior month, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was the third straight monthly rise in overall prices as the damping effects of low oil prices and a strong dollar faded.