The job market had a surprisingly great June
The US added 147,000 jobs in June, exceeding expectations, and unemployment unexpectedly cooled to 4.1%.Economists expected job growth of 111,000 and for unemployment to increase from 4.2%, which it had been for three consecutive months, to 4.3%.May's job growth was revised from 139,000 to 144,000, and April's job growth was revised from 147,000 to 158,000.…
AI could create a ‘Mad Max’ scenario where everyone’s skills are...
As AI reshapes the labor market, the real threat may not be unemployment — it could be something subtler and more corrosive: the collapse in what skills are worth.That's according to MIT economist David Autor, who made the comments in an interview released Wednesday on the "Possible" podcast, hosted by LinkedIn cofounder Reed Hoffman.Autor warned…
I landed a software engineering job at Slack without a degree....
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jeremiah Peoples, a 28-year-old staff developer advocate at Slack in Austin. It's been edited for length and clarity.I work in software engineering as a staff developer advocate without a college degree. After my first semester in Butler University's computer science program, I dropped out and joined…
4 ways Trump’s ‘big beautiful’ tax bill could impact your wallet
From taxes to student loan forgiveness, provisions in President Donald Trump's "big beautiful bill" are one step closer to affecting Americans' wallets.Earlier this week, the Senate narrowly passed its version of Trump's expansive domestic agenda that would extend the president's 2017 tax cuts and make key changes to the tax system, along with implementing significant…
Trump didn’t just cut a deal with Vietnam — he was...
President Donald Trump just gave Vietnam a trade break — and used it to squeeze China.On Wednesday, Trump announced a trade deal with Hanoi that would levy 20% on imports from Vietnam, down from the 46% rate Trump announced on "Liberation Day." In return, Vietnam has agreed to allow American goods to enter the country…
Tesla competitor BYD axes Mexico factory plans
The world's largest electric vehicle maker is halting plans to build a major factory in Mexico due to concerns about US trade policies.On Wednesday, BYD said that the company still plans to expand further into North or South America, but it does not have a timeline for the plan."Geopolitical issues have a big impact on…
Russia’s economy just flashed warning signs about manufacturing and employment
Russia's wartime economy may finally be losing steam, fresh data shows.In June, Russia's manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, or PMI, sank to 47.5 — its sharpest pace of contraction since March 2022, according to S&P Global.This was a reversal from the PMI of 50.2 in May, when Russia's manufacturing activity expanded."The Russian manufacturing sector signalled a…
Even China’s top leadership has had enough of companies’ aggressive price-cutting
It looks like China has finally recognized how a relentless price war is backfiring on its economy.At a high-level meeting chaired by Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Tuesday, China's top leadership pledged to curb "low-price and disorderly competition among enterprises" and create a "unified national market," according to Xinhua state news agency.China's acknowledgment of unhealthy…
Why 99.5% of big projects fail
Dan Gardner is the coauthor of "How Big Things Get Done," a book that explores why so many billion-dollar projects, from nuclear power plants to Olympic Games, go wrong and how some manage to succeed. Drawing on data from over 16,000 megaprojects, Gardner and his coauthor Bent Flyvbjerg reveal the startling truth: Only 0.5% of…
A woman who retired at 55 after a brain tumor lost...
Anita Clemons Swanagan was forced into early retirement at 55 after developing a brain tumor and having several strokes. The medical bills piled up for the expenses that her health insurance would not cover.At one point, she had over $100,000 in medical debt. She said she'd paid most of it off, but doing so drained…
