National Business

TORONTO — Office vacancies in Canada were at the highest level in decades this quarter as new supply continued to come onto the market while the fourth wave of COVID-19 slowed an expected return to work, according to the latest report from CBRE Group

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House and congressional Democrats have agreed to a “framework" to pay for their huge, emerging social and environment bill, top Democrats said Thursday, but they offered no details and the significance was unclear.

TORONTO — If you haven’t asked for a bump in compensation lately, you may be missing out on what recruiters and career coaches say is a golden opportunity due to atight labour market.

OTTAWA — Canadian retail sales dropped 0.6 per cent to $55.8 billion in July as sales at supermarkets and grocery stores fell with more people returning to restaurants and patios.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment aid rose last week for a second straight week to 351,000, a sign that the delta variant of the coronavirus may be disrupting the job market's recovery, at least temporarily.

VANCOUVER — Canada's Olympic and Paralympic athletes will be clad in Lululemon as they climb the podium in Beijing next year.

LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England kept its main interest rate at the record low of 0.1% while warning Thursday that inflation is set to rise further over coming months largely as a result of a sharp spike in energy prices.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Former U.S.

The U.S. moved a step closer Wednesday to offering booster doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to senior citizens and others at high risk from the virus as the Food and Drug Administration signed off on the targeted use of the extra shots.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled Wednesday that the Fed plans to announce as early as November that it will start withdrawing the extraordinary support it unleashed after the coronavirus paralyzed the economy 18 months a