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As 2014 winds down, you might want to save that calendar hanging next to the fridge.

Maybe even frame it.

After so many years of misery for the middle class, 2014 is now looking like the one that finally brought relief. The November jobs report, released Friday by the Labor Department, had blowout numbers showing a surge in job creation, an upturn in work hours and a meaningful boost in wages.

The job gains were spread across industries, with big improvements for blue-collar workers. Manufacturing jobs jumped by 28,000, and construction jobs rose by 20,000.

In all, employers added 321,000 workers. Wages rose by 0.4 percent, or 9 cents an hour to $24.66. That wage bump was twice as high as most economists had been predicting.

Planet Money

Where Wages Are Rising (And Falling), In 1 Graph

And the paycheck gains came during a month marked by a dramatic decline in gasoline prices. In other words, last month, workers were getting longer hours and higher pay just as their commuting expenses were declining. Happy holidays!

"The American economy is making real progress," President Obama said at a White House event announcing his choice of Ashton Carter as defense secretary.

Doug Handler, chief U.S. economist for IHS Global Insight, put it more bluntly in his written assessment: "This was a darn good month for the labor market."

GOP House Speaker John Boehner called the November employment report "welcome news" but noted that "millions still remain out of work, and middle-class families across the country, including my home state of Ohio, are struggling to get by on wages that haven't kept pace with rising cost."

Indeed, the Great Recession still casts a long shadow. The number of long-term unemployed, that is, people who have been looking for work for more than 27 weeks, was little changed in November, holding at about 2.8 million.

And while the overall jobless rate remained steady at 5.8 percent last month, the rate for African-Americans was 11.1 percent. Moreover, wages in retail work, where many minority workers are clustered, were just $14.49 an hour.

Dedrick Muhammad, senior director of the NAACP's economic department, spotlighted those figures and said in a statement that "our families need higher wages so that wealth can be built for future generations."

Labor Secretary Tom Perez, who spoke with NPR, said that despite ongoing problems with long-term unemployment and relatively slow wage growth, the November report shows the economy now is "moving in the right direction."

After the battering they have taken over the seven years since the recession began, many workers may remain wary. One of them is Gabriel Laracuente, 24, who lives in East Harlem and works several jobs.

"I still struggle to pay my bills" because wage increases have been scant, he said.

And Laracuente would need more evidence of recovery before he could relax. "I feel like a lot of us are going to get dropped the second that the economy goes down again," he said. "I don't feel that confident."

Perez said he hopes confidence will rise in 2015 as Americans see that employers "will continue to pick up the pace of growth."

Highlights from the November report:

The Labor Department revised job numbers for both September and October. Taken together, the two months saw about 44,000 more jobs created than previously reported.

2014 is on track to be the strongest year for job creation since 1999.

A year ago, the unemployment rate was 7 percent. The current 5.8 percent is the lowest level since mid-2008.

Americans are putting in longer work weeks, up to 34.6 hours, from 34.5 in October.

The labor-force participation rate held at 62.8 percent, essentially unchanged since April.

NPR intern Robert Szypko contributed to this report.

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This weekend, Will Falls decided to skip the local mall near Raleigh, N.C., and shop online instead.

"No standing in line, no finding a parking spot," he says. "Just get comfortable and go at it."

Millions of Americans did the same — Falls helped contribute to an 8.5 percent increase in online shopping Monday compared with 2013, according to data from IBM.

That growth stands in contrast to an 11 percent drop in sales reported by the National Retail Federation at brick-and-mortar stores over the Black Friday weekend compared with a year ago.

"I definitely believe there is cannibalization occurring from the perspective of online against the stores," says Bob Drbul, an analyst and managing director at Nomura Securities.

Of course, some of that cannibalization is going to the retailers' own online arms, he notes.

As for how consumers shopped online, most used desktop computers, which accounted for three-quarters of online sales — though the use of mobile devices rose sharply.

Another reason for the drop in in-store shopping this past weekend, Durbl says, is that retailers spread their Black Friday sales across the whole month of November.

Elle Phillips, a graphic designer from near Boise, Idaho, had family members visiting for Thanksgiving this past weekend. They took very different approaches to their holiday purchases, she says.

The Two-Way

Black Friday Sales Down At Stores, Surge Online

"They wanted to go Black Friday shopping," says Phillips, 37. "I prefer to avoid it at all costs."

Her brother-in-law headed for the hunting and camping retailer Cabela's at 4 a.m., Phillips says. He came back six hours later, with tales of a checkout line stretching to the back of the huge store.

"It literally took him two hours just to get through to the register with a couple of hoodie sweaters," Phillips says. "So that just sort of ... verified the reason why I don't go out on Black Friday."

Phillips, meanwhile, did her shopping online, including finding some new Doc Marten boots for her husband. She looked first for the best price on Amazon, "and then I actually went straight to the manufacturer's website ... and I found an equally good price there, all with free shipping."

That kind of price shopping and free shipping is forcing profit margins down for retailers, says analyst Drbul. But he expects a strong holiday season nevertheless.

A big reason is that falling gas prices are putting more money in consumers' pockets.

This year, Drbul says, "has the potential to be the best retail performance since 2011."

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Some 22,000 years ago, they were the largest group of humans on earth: the Khoisan, a tribe of hunter-gatherers in southern Africa.

Today, only about 100,000 Khoisan, who are also known as Bushmen, remain. Stephen C. Schuster, professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, has published new research about the tribe, many of whom now live in poverty, their cultural traditions endangered. We spoke to Schuster about his study and the lives of the Khoisan.

How did it happen that a group that was once in the majority is now so small?

First of all, the fact that seven billion people now live on earth makes it almost impossible for us to understand how few people lived in the past. About 10,000 years ago, there were not more than 1 million on the planet. And 100,000 years ago, only a few ten thousands. The whole genome sequences we analyzed show that there was a time when the non-Khosian peoples were not doing as well as the Khosians.

What happened to tip the balance?

Changes in the climate. Before 22,000 years ago, the southern part of Africa where the Khoisan lived was wetter, with more precipitation, compared to the dryer western and central parts of the continent where other groups lived. A dryer climate meant fewer wild game and less food, which translates into fewer children. So other populations dropped significantly while the Khosian's population stayed about the same. But after the last ice age ended, the climate changed, and for reasons we don't understand the other African populations expanded, and the exponential growth of humans across the earth began.

The Bushmen know which plants and herbs are good to eat — and which will heal their ailments. Stephan C. Schuster/Penn State University hide caption

itoggle caption Stephan C. Schuster/Penn State University

How do the Khoisan maintain their way of living today?

The answer is they don't. We are seeing the end of their culture and their hunter-gatherer lifestyle, which is being replaced by herding and agriculture.

In Botswana, there is a law that the hunter-gatherers cannot hunt anymore. There are land disputes and in many cases they are being pushed off the land they used to hunt or consider sacred. They are considered lowlifes in society and have very little political representation. In many ways this replicates what happened to the indigenous people of North America, who by the way were also hunter gatherers.

Can you describe the Bushmen culture and what is being lost?

The most important thing is the language. This is a "click language" in which clicks are like consonants. Linguists believe that the more clicks you have the older the language is, and this one has five, the most of any. There is also beautiful traditional music and singing that will be lost.

What about other skills and types of knowledge particular to the Khoisan?

They have incredible knowledge about animal behavior and about the environment. Where you and I would only see plants and scrub and thorn and dry wood, they see a lot of things you can eat. If you walk with a Bushman in the bush, he is constantly eating because he always finds something to nibble or chew on, and of course this is precious knowledge that we don't have. This is also their pharmacy, the herbs or the natural substances within the plants that will help them when they have ailments. Even the elders have absolutely pristine hearing and clear vision. And I think it is understandable if your life depends on your hunting skills.

Can you talk about how they hunt?

They use a very small bow and very short arrow, which they make, and on the tip of the arrow they place a poison that they produce from caterpillars. They are also amazing masters of trapping. They make the traps not with metal or rope but only with natural materials like branches and grass and leaves. All this knowledge will be lost if the younger generation does not get the chance to live this lifestyle. It might already be too late.

What lesson should we take from the population patterns you've traced?

The most important factor for changes in the population is the climate. The key thing we want people to know is that there were times when there were so few humans, we got close to being wiped out. This is also the pattern we see in endangered species today. We look at ourselves as invulnerable, but we should not take for granted that the climate won't change in the future in ways that will endanger us. We need to take climate seriously.

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For centuries, families throughout much of central Europe have relied on one simple main course for Christmas Eve dinner: the common carp.

But getting from river (or carp farm) to table is not so simple. As the tradition goes, the Christmas carp must first swim in the family bathtub for at least a day or two before being killed, cleaned and prepared.

More In This Series

This is part of a series of stories exploring the rich diversity of Christmastime edibles around the world, and the stories behind the food.

Explore All The Stories In This Series: The 12 Days Of Quirky Christmas Foods Around The Globe

I grew up in Maine and Massachusetts and, I will admit — back before my mom decided she couldn't bear dropping a live lobster into a boiling pot — there was more than one occasion in which my siblings and I took the lobsters out of the bag and attempted to race them across the kitchen floor before they became dinner.

But in Slovakia — and other nearby nations, including Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany and Croatia — the fish actually live in the bathtub for days. Kids name them. People can't bathe.

"In my childhood, I remember thinking 'poor carp,' " Bratislava resident Mima Halokova tells me. Others admit to actually letting the fish go free, unable to go through with their plans to transform it into dinner.

Carp are bottom feeders, so a few days swimming in clean water is believed to help flush out the "mud lines," so to speak. Some note that the tub time was a practical way to store fresh fish before refrigerators became common.

Bathtub carp is one of several traditions tied to Christmas Eve — a day that is the centerpiece of holiday celebrations for Slovaks and some others in central Europe. It is also the day, children are told, when baby Jesus brings a Christmas tree. (This requires some elaborate subterfuge from parents, who must hide and decorate the tree behind closed doors). Later in the day, the little ones get their gifts.

And as magically as the fully decorated Christmas tree appears, the pet carp's life not-so-magically ends. Traditionally, the father takes the live fish from the family tub and, in most cases, slices its head off with a knife. It can be more difficult than it sounds.

"These are strong fish that move quickly," says Matt Yoder, an American teaching at an international school in Bratislava. Yoder, whose wife is Slovak, explained that, many times, it is necessary to first stun the fish with a mallet or a baton.

These days, at least in Slovakia's capital city, more and more people are deciding to buy the fish ready-to-cook from a fishmonger, rather than worrying about the potentially messy job of killing it at home.

i i

This guy is about to become someone's Christmas dinner. But probably not before he swims around their bathtub for a couple days. Meghan Collins Sullivan for NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Meghan Collins Sullivan for NPR

This guy is about to become someone's Christmas dinner. But probably not before he swims around their bathtub for a couple days.

Meghan Collins Sullivan for NPR

Once the fish has been killed, it is cleaned, then soaked in milk (and sometimes salt) to dull the smell, lessen the "fishy" taste and sweeten the meat. It is sliced top-to-bottom, creating pieces in the shape of horseshoes, intended to bring good luck. Legend has it that the carp itself brings luck, too, one of the reasons it is said to have become the Christmas meal of choice. Fish has long been a symbol of Christ and Christianity.

The carp is usually served breaded and fried. Also on the menu is a cabbage soup that generally has at least four types of meat, including sausage. Traditionally, the only other dish is potato salad. Strictly observant Catholic Slovaks prepare a vegetarian version of the soup, and fast all day before the Christmas meal. (Drinks — including spirits — are fair game).

In Slovakia, the holiday is steeped in superstition and symbolism. The table is set with all of the foods for the feast before everyone sits down, as no one is permitted to get up during the meal. If someone leaves the table — even to go to the bathroom — it means there will be a death in the family before the next Christmas arrives. Families also set an extra place for either an unexpected visitor or a departed relative.

Once the meal ends, everyone checks under their plates to retrieve fish scales from the family carp. The scales signify luck for the year ahead, and people put them in their wallets and carry them until the following Christmas Eve.

Ask most people and they will tell you that the common carp is not a delicacy. It's fishy. It's full of little bones. Some say they only eat it on Christmas Eve because it's a tradition. A few have gone so far as to say it is "gross."

But carp crosses cultures — as does the bathtub ritual: Some European Jews have a similar tradition, as carp is often the gefilte fish eaten at Passover. And it seems that Jewish children, too, can get caught up befriending the carp in the bathtub.

Meghan Collins Sullivan is a journalist based in Bratislava, Slovakia. She is a former supervising editor at NPR and edits the 13.7 Cosmos and Culture blog.

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