Market wrap: S&P 500 moves little as uncertainty over Middle East looms
The S&P 500 finished Wednesday flat. Nasdaq 100 advanced 0.2%, while the Russell 2000 declined 0.1%. The US job openings and labor turnover survey showed that more jobs openings were posted in August ...
White collar workers show why US jobs openings data is riddled with red flags
The US job openings and labor turnover survey showed an unexpectedly large jump in postings for August, up to over 8 million. Openings in government, construction, and trade, transportation, and util...
500 Starbucks stores have now unionized across the United States
On Monday, a group of baristas in Bellingham, Washington were the latest members to join the Starbucks Workers United ranks, as the store became the 500th location to unionize since 2021 . Back then, ...
OpenAI’s leadership is in upheaval, but overall turnover looks shockingly low
OpenAI, the startup that has become synonymous with artificial intelligence itself, has seen a string of high-profile exits recently. Mira Murati, previously OpenAI’s chief technology officer, announc...
The days of the defined benefit pension plan are mostly over
For weeks, more than 33,000 Boeing workers have been on the picket line, battling over wages, bonuses, and retirement options. But one item in particular has been a dealbreaker for each side: pensions...
Video game voice and motion workers are making a last stand against AI. Can they beat a rigged game?
LOS ANGELES — Last month, Amazon Games boss Christoph Hartmann was asked in an interview about SAG-AFTRA performers’ ongoing strike against video game studios. “For games,” Hartmann said, “we don’t re...
One chart that shows why the Federal Reserve went for a big cut
The Federal Reserve is worried about the labor market . The median monetary policymaker thinks the unemployment rate (currently 4.2%) will be at 4.4% at the end of this year and the next, a worse outc...
LA’s streaming gold rush is over. Film and TV workers have been left in the dust.
LOS ANGELES—Alex Zaragoza, a TV writer who has worked on shows like “Lopez vs Lopez” and “Primo,” has been out of work for a year and a half. She knows that’s part of the gig in the freelance world of...
Amazon’s return to office order provides excellent cover to cut headcount
On Monday, Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy announced that , beginning in January 2025, the company will mandate that employees return to the office for a full five days per week, “the way we were before the o...
Amazon is going back to the office full-time. The rest of tech is not.
In January, Amazon employees will have to go back to the office full time. In order to “better set up to invent, collaborate, and be connected enough to each other and our culture to deliver the absol...
More tech jobs these days are in non-tech companies
Looking for a tech job? It might be smart to look outside the tech sector. Non-tech industries like professional services and transportation, warehousing & wholesale each added more tech jobs last yea...
We can’t really say if the US economy has added any jobs recently
Here’s an unsettling factoid about the US jobs data from Omair Sharif, president and founder of Inflation Insights: The three-month average of payrolls has now fallen to 116k, with June at 118k and Ju...
US private sector job creation is sputtering
The August non-farm payrolls report showed the private sector added just 118,000 jobs in April, lower than the 140,000 estimate, with downward revisions taking July’s figure down to a paltry 74,000. O...
Why you shouldn’t freak out about the yield curve “uninverting”
The spread between the 2 and 10-year US Treasury yields briefly flipped back into positive territory on Wednesday for the second time since 2022 after some mildly concerning data on the US job market ...
The US job market is guilty until proven innocent
The US job market isn’t terrible. But it’s vulnerable. That’s the key message from the July Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey released on Wednesday morning – a report which reinforces the idea th...
Is 10-to-4 the new 9-to-5?
Some Americans are now tumbling out of bed and stumbling into work a little later than before, as 9-to-5 hours have been transformed by flexible working arrangements. Indeed, the number of hourly trip...
80% of OpenAI’s staff joined after ChatGPT launched
ChatGPT maker OpenAI’s transition from non-profit to for-profit has been a bumpy one, according to a New York Times report citing interviews with 20 current and former employees. Much of those growing...
America’s accountant shortage is starting at college
For decades, the accountant stereotype has conjured up depressing images of white-collar workers, slouched in office stalls, painstakingly crunching numbers on a spreadsheet till it’s quittin’ time. H...
Boomers are unretiring and really want a job
New data from LinkedIn shows that baby boomers’ job search intensity has grown 13% in July compared to the beginning of the year, the most among all generations. LinkedIn’s Job Seeker Intensity Index ...
Mapping the state(s) of labor in America
With September around the corner, Labor Day is nearly here, bringing with it the characteristic mix of emotions that the unofficial end of summer always brings. This year, many Americans seem set on s...