Latest news with #DOGE-adjacent
CNN
31-03-2025
- Business
- CNN
The job market is ‘frozen.' That's not a good sign for DOGE casualties
Summary Job applications posted on Indeed from federal workers at DOGE-affected agencies spiked in February and were 75% above 2022 levels. Business uncertainty about President Trump's economic policies is contributing to reduced hiring in white-collar sectors. Indeed economist Allison Shrivastava describes the labor market as "a little bit frozen" but currently stable. Labor Department data shows unemployment claims remain steady with 224,000 initial claims filed last week. The Trump administration's culling of government programs and agencies has resulted in an unprecedented wave of federal workers joining the ranks of job seekers — and new data shows a spike in job applications from agencies impacted by the Department of Government Efficiency. Those job hunts are coming at a time when rising uncertainty around President Donald Trump's economic agenda is clouding businesses' decision-making and further slowing hiring — especially for specialized and white-collar roles. They're entering a labor market that's 'a little bit frozen,' but stable for now, noted Allison Shrivastava, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab. That was underscored in new data released Thursday by the Labor Department: Initial claims for unemployment benefits aren't spiking — in fact, they're mostly unchanged from last week. There were an estimated 224,000 initial claims for jobless benefits for the week ended March 22, a decline of 1,000 from the prior week's upwardly revised tally. The closely watched Labor Department report also showed that more federal workers are filing for unemployment than in the past; however, they aren't escalating on a weekly basis. The number of federal workers who filed initial claims under the Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees program totaled 821 for the week ended March 15, that's down from 1,066 filings the week before, Thursday's report showed. The recent stretch of labor market data is showing 'two separate worlds,' RSM US economist Joe Brusuelas told CNN on Wednesday. 'One in which firms are managing their [workforces] incredibly carefully, because we still are under conditions where labor is tight; there's going to be constraints on labor supply, and that's what's contributing to the remarkable stability in overall claims,' he said. 'The other world is federal government employment, where, first, there's likely more people who are unemployed than the claims would suggest,' he added. 'Second, individuals are clearly beginning to hedge their bets around employment and are actively seeking work.' Data released earlier this week from employment search site Indeed highlights an increase in federal workers searching for new jobs: In February, DOGE-adjacent applications rose 50%, ending the month at 75% above their 2022 levels. It's common after presidential inaugurations for there to be an uptick in job applications filed by federal workers — but nothing ever to this scale, Shrivastava told CNN in an interview. 'This is definitely unprecedented,' she said. 'Not something we've seen before.' 'This is a very specialized group of people that are looking for jobs,' she said, noting jumps in unique keywords such as 'horticulture,' 'employee relations,' and 'policy analyst.' White-collar jobs have been harder to come by in recent years, and that's largely due to the pandemic. During that time, hiring soared in sectors such as technology, financial services and consulting as the global health crisis and low interest rates fueled remote work and altered consumer spending patterns. However, what was expected to be a 'new normal' eventually shifted back to more familiar, pre-pandemic activity. Technology firms were the poster children of over-investment: Workforce levels became bloated and, in some cases, layoffs soon followed. But, by and large, hiring has been petering out in most white-collar industries in part due to this recalibration, but also due to rising costs, uncertainty, and technology advancement, Shrivastava said. In the meantime, other areas of the US jobs market have picked up a lot of the slack. Health care, leisure and hospitality, and government (mainly state and local) have driven job gains in recent years — a reflection of dynamics such as an aging population; post-pandemic returns to in-person services; and the backfilling of roles in the public sector, which played second fiddle to a private sector that was seeing steeper pay gains. The pace of job growth has slowed during the past year. That's been expected: The blockbuster pandemic recovery couldn't continue forever; plus, the Federal Reserve's inflation-busting high interest rates were designed to curb demand. But in recent months, there has been a concerning trend: The churn that's needed for a healthy labor market has slowed significantly. Businesses aren't hiring as much, workers aren't eager to quit, and those without jobs are staying on the sidelines for longer. The latest Labor Department data showed that continuing claims — those filed by people who have received at least a week or unemployment benefits — dropped slightly from the prior week but remain elevated over the past year. Economists initially chalked this up to election-year uncertainty, ongoing adjustments to over-hiring, the cumulative effect of fast-rising prices and the sheer weight of interest rates being at a 23-year high. Once the election was decided, consumer and business sentiment shot higher, and hiring activity increased, according to an array of surveys and economic data. That 'Trump bump,' however, has given way to rising levels of economic uncertainty from businesses and consumers who are reporting jitteriness about the effect of sweeping policy actions such as broad-based tariffs, mass deportations and the slashing of federal jobs and funding. 'We've been a little bit frozen for a while; you've seen those headline (jobs) numbers, and frozen is a kind of stability,' said Shrivastava. 'But the longer that goes on, the more likely it is that we'll have impacts … like frostbite.'
CNN
27-03-2025
- Business
- CNN
The job market is ‘frozen.' That's not a good sign for DOGE casualties
The Trump administration's culling of government programs and agencies has resulted in an unprecedented wave of federal workers joining the ranks of job seekers — and new data shows a spike in job applications from agencies impacted by the Department of Government Efficiency. Those job hunts are coming at a time when rising uncertainty around President Donald Trump's economic agenda is clouding businesses' decision-making and further slowing hiring — especially for specialized and white-collar roles. They're entering a labor market that's 'a little bit frozen,' but stable for now, noted Allison Shrivastava, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab. That was underscored in new data released Thursday by the Labor Department: Initial claims for unemployment benefits aren't spiking — in fact, they're mostly unchanged from last week. There were an estimated 224,000 initial claims for jobless benefits for the week ended March 22, a decline of 1,000 from the prior week's upwardly revised tally. The closely watched Labor Department report also showed that more federal workers are filing for unemployment than in the past; however, they aren't escalating on a weekly basis. The number of federal workers who filed initial claims under the Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees program totaled 821 for the week ended March 15, that's down from 1,066 filings the week before, Thursday's report showed. Data released earlier this week from employment search site Indeed highlights an increase in federal workers searching for new jobs: In February, DOGE-adjacent applications rose 50%, ending the month at 75% above their 2022 levels. It's common after presidential inaugurations for there to be an uptick in job applications filed by federal workers — but nothing ever to this scale, Shrivastava told CNN in an interview. 'This is definitely unprecedented,' she said. 'Not something we've seen before.' 'This is a very specialized group of people that are looking for jobs,' she said, noting jumps in unique keywords such as 'horticulture,' 'employee relations,' and 'policy analyst.' White-collar jobs have been harder to come by in recent years, and that's largely due to the pandemic. During that time, hiring soared in sectors such as technology, financial services and consulting as the global health crisis and low interest rates fueled remote work and altered consumer spending patterns. However, what was expected to be a 'new normal' eventually shifted back to more familiar, pre-pandemic activity. Technology firms were the poster children of over-investment: Workforce levels became bloated and, in some cases, layoffs soon followed. But, by and large, hiring has been petering out in most white-collar industries in part due to this recalibration, but also due to rising costs, uncertainty, and technology advancement, Shrivastava said. In the meantime, other areas of the US jobs market have picked up a lot of the slack. Health care, leisure and hospitality, and government (mainly state and local) have driven job gains in recent years — a reflection of dynamics such as an aging population; post-pandemic returns to in-person services; and the backfilling of roles in the public sector, which played second fiddle to the private sector that was seeing steeper pay gains. The pace of job growth has slowed during the past year. That's been expected: The blockbuster pandemic recovery couldn't continue forever; plus, the Federal Reserve's inflation-busting high interest rates were designed to curb demand. But in recent months, there has been a concerning trend: The churn that's needed for a healthy labor market has slowed significantly. Businesses aren't hiring as much, workers aren't eager to quit, and those without jobs are staying on the sidelines for longer. Economists initially chalked this up to election-year uncertainty, ongoing adjustments to over-hiring, the cumulative effect of fast-rising prices and the sheer weight of interest rates being at a 23-year high. Once the election was decided, consumer and business sentiment shot higher, and hiring activity increased, according to an array of surveys and economic data. That 'Trump bump,' however, has given way to rising levels of economic uncertainty from businesses and consumers who are reporting jitteriness about the effect of sweeping policy actions such as broad-based tariffs, mass deportations and the slashing of federal jobs and funding. 'We've been a little bit frozen for a while; you've seen those headline (jobs) numbers, and frozen is a kind of stability,' said Shrivastava. 'But the longer that goes on, the more likely it is that we'll have impacts … like frostbite.' This story is developing and will be updated.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The job market is ‘frozen.' That's not a good sign for DOGE casualties
The Trump administration's culling of government programs and agencies has resulted in an unprecedented wave of federal workers joining the ranks of job seekers — and new data shows a spike in job applications from agencies impacted by the Department of Government Efficiency. Those job hunts are coming at a time when rising uncertainty around President Donald Trump's economic agenda is clouding businesses' decision-making and further slowing hiring — especially for specialized and white-collar roles. They're entering a labor market that's 'a little bit frozen,' but stable for now, noted Allison Shrivastava, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab. That was underscored in new data released Thursday by the Labor Department: Initial claims for unemployment benefits aren't spiking — in fact, they're mostly unchanged from last week. There were an estimated 224,000 initial claims for jobless benefits for the week ended March 22, a decline of 1,000 from the prior week's upwardly revised tally. The closely watched Labor Department report also showed that more federal workers are filing for unemployment than in the past; however, they aren't escalating on a weekly basis. The number of federal workers who filed initial claims under the Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees program totaled 821 for the week ended March 15, that's down from 1,066 filings the week before, Thursday's report showed. Data released earlier this week from employment search site Indeed highlights an increase in federal workers searching for new jobs: In February, DOGE-adjacent applications rose 50%, ending the month at 75% above their 2022 levels. It's common after presidential inaugurations for there to be an uptick in job applications filed by federal workers — but nothing ever to this scale, Shrivastava told CNN in an interview. 'This is definitely unprecedented,' she said. 'Not something we've seen before.' 'This is a very specialized group of people that are looking for jobs,' she said, noting jumps in unique keywords such as 'horticulture,' 'employee relations,' and 'policy analyst.' White-collar jobs have been harder to come by in recent years, and that's largely due to the pandemic. During that time, hiring soared in sectors such as technology, financial services and consulting as the global health crisis and low interest rates fueled remote work and altered consumer spending patterns. However, what was expected to be a 'new normal' eventually shifted back to more familiar, pre-pandemic activity. Technology firms were the poster children of over-investment: Workforce levels became bloated and, in some cases, layoffs soon followed. But, by and large, hiring has been petering out in most white-collar industries in part due to this recalibration, but also due to rising costs, uncertainty, and technology advancement, Shrivastava said. In the meantime, other areas of the US jobs market have picked up a lot of the slack. Health care, leisure and hospitality, and government (mainly state and local) have driven job gains in recent years — a reflection of dynamics such as an aging population; post-pandemic returns to in-person services; and the backfilling of roles in the public sector, which played second fiddle to the private sector that was seeing steeper pay gains. The pace of job growth has slowed during the past year. That's been expected: The blockbuster pandemic recovery couldn't continue forever; plus, the Federal Reserve's inflation-busting high interest rates were designed to curb demand. But in recent months, there has been a concerning trend: The churn that's needed for a healthy labor market has slowed significantly. Businesses aren't hiring as much, workers aren't eager to quit, and those without jobs are staying on the sidelines for longer. Economists initially chalked this up to election-year uncertainty, ongoing adjustments to over-hiring, the cumulative effect of fast-rising prices and the sheer weight of interest rates being at a 23-year high. Once the election was decided, consumer and business sentiment shot higher, and hiring activity increased, according to an array of surveys and economic data. That 'Trump bump,' however, has given way to rising levels of economic uncertainty from businesses and consumers who are reporting jitteriness about the effect of sweeping policy actions such as broad-based tariffs, mass deportations and the slashing of federal jobs and funding. 'We've been a little bit frozen for a while; you've seen those headline (jobs) numbers, and frozen is a kind of stability,' said Shrivastava. 'But the longer that goes on, the more likely it is that we'll have impacts … like frostbite.' This story is developing and will be updated.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Who Is the Anonymous Data Expert Telling Elon Which Cuts to Make?
Since Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) swept into Washington last month, an anonymous X account called DataRepublican has taken the government demolition crew's supporters by storm. The account, and its alleged findings of mismanaged government agency spending, has been shared by Musk often, as well as Utah Senator Mike Lee. The account is followed by Vice President J.D. Vance. The woman behind the account, who's described herself as a Deaf software engineer, has appeared anonymously on NewsNation, and on several right-wing programs this month, like Glenn Beck's Blaze Media show, wearing sunglasses and a hooded sweatshirt to obscure her identity, even as she's billed as a government spending expert. The account accused neoconservative pundit Bill Kristol of being a 'deep state agent,' asserting his nonprofit, the Defending Democracy Together, is an 'indirect beneficiary of USAID,' the U.S. Agency for International Development, a government agency that Musk moved to shutter. The argument here was, in effect, that USAID gave money to a nonprofit donor-advised fund that gave some money to another nonprofit that then gave some money to Kristol's organization — so he's then benefiting from USAID spending. Donations can't be traced this way, and this basic misunderstanding of how donor-advised funds work led several pundits to analyze DataRepublican's claims, with one dubbing it the new 'Twitter Files.' But DataRepublican's fans think her work is genius. Nicole Shanahan, who was Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s 2024 vice presidential nominee and financier, recently interviewed DataRepublican on her show, telling her: 'While you are not necessarily in this administration, what you have done is extraordinary.' Conservative host Steve Deace called her a 'genius software engineer,' adding 'we want to keep her personal identity secure so she is free from corporate media types who would love to do something to intimidate her.' So who is this government information data guru? The woman behind the account shared her full name Tuesday evening, after a man on Facebook posted that he knew her from the Deaf community, prompting DataRepublican to confirm her identity as Jennica Pounds. Pounds is indeed a Deaf, female software engineer from Utah, who until this week worked as a senior software engineer at an AI lending company called Upstart, a company that has tangled with regulations from the Consumer Federal Protection Bureau (CFPB) for years. Pounds wrote on Tuesday, 'I recently resigned from my job to pursue DOGE-adjacent efforts full-time.' But versions of Pounds' LinkedIn viewed by Rolling Stone as recently as late last week showed she listed herself as a current employee of Upstart. Some time this week, the LinkedIn was edited to show a February end to her Upstart tenure. Earlier this month, Musk famously tweeted 'CFPB RIP' as DOGE moved to gut the agency and the administration paused its work Replying to Musk's post, DataRepublican tagged Senator Elizabeth Warren (the CFPB was Warren's brainchild), writing: 'Hey @ewarren look at this.' Musk has quoted DataRepublican on X at least 24 times over the last three weeks, telling people to follow the account, and replying 'noted' to her claim on Jan. 21 that she found 'a quick billion' of federal spending for DOGE to cut. Her suggested cuts were funds going to groups like Global Refuge, a faith-based organization that provides safety and support services to immigrants, migrant refugees and asylum-seekers around the world. Two weeks later, Musk declared at 3:14 a.m. on a Sunday that DOGE was 'rapidly shutting down' supposedly 'illegal payments' to Global Refuge. A newly-launched corresponding website lets users search for charities and nonprofit officers. A false claim that Jeffrey Epstein was paid by USAID appears to have started with people using the website and mixing up the notorious sex offender with another Jeffrey Epstein. On Friday, DataRepublican announced she's adding an ActBlue donor search element to the website, which Musk then amplified, quoting her tweet and saying 'interesting.' At Upstart, Pounds was a Senior Distinguished Machine Learning Engineer since 2023, a high-level position at the publicly-traded San Mateo, California-based company, where she works remotely. A software engineer who has knowledge of the company told Rolling Stone that Pounds' position was one of the highest levels an engineer could reach there. Upstart received Series A funding and additional later funding from the far-right billionaire Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, and co-founder Paul Gu was a Thiel Fellow before launching Upstart in 2012. Thiel, of course, founded PayPal with Musk. Upstart has a complicated relationship with CFPB regulations. The company received a special designation from the CFPB in 2017, during Trump's first administration, allowing it special regulatory treatment by immunizing the lender from being charged with fair lending law violations with respect to its underwriting algorithm. Upstart was the first company to receive such a letter. The no-action status was renewed in November 2020, and the company then immediately closed its first public offering and began trading on Nasdaq. In February 2020, Sens. Warren and Cory Booker, and then-Sens. Kamala Harris and Robert Menendez, wrote to the company, expressing concern about the company's adherence to fair lending laws and asking for insight into how the company made credit determinations. But in 2022, the company asked for its no-action status to be terminated, the bureau wrote, rather than have the CFPB review 'significant changes to its artificial intelligence model,' as the CFPB required, 'effectively ending the company's special regulatory status, and allowing it to be able to make changes to its model without need for CFPB review and approval.' Pounds' job at Upstart involved working on that AI model, two sources say, although she started with Upstart a year later, in May 2023. Upstart's CEO and cofounder Dave Girouard participated in the U.S. Senate AI Insight Forum in November 2023, telling senators that his AI lending company is an example of AI working well without added legislation. 'In 2012, before even launching the company, we naively marched up to the San Francisco office of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and introduced ourselves,' he stated. 'This was not one of the new 'Offices of Innovation' — this was the local enforcement team. But what did we know? We were convinced that we were the good guys and were committed to innovating within the law.' Later that month, Upstart was subpoenaed by the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding disclosures related to use of its artificial intelligence models and loans, according to the company's quarterly report. Before co-founding Upstart, Girouard was President of Enterprise at Google. He posted on X in December about the CFPB looking to AI for a new lending model, joking, 'Hath hell frozen over?' 'It costs NYC 8-12X more than EUROPEAN cities to build a mile of subway! We need DOGE for every state and city gov.,' he posted in January. In a statement to Rolling Stone, Pounds wrote: 'My former employer has nothing to do with my activities. Leave them out of it.' Girouard and Gu did not immediately reply to comment. Before becoming DOGE's favorite anonymous expert, Pounds ran a Github that analyzed election data in Florida and North Carolina, two states she has lived in. Prior to her role at Upstart, Pounds worked at Snap Inc., eBay and Amazon. Pounds and her husband, who worked for a decade at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, also own a distillery in Salt Lake City. Pounds registered a Utah company called Redata, LLC in 2020. The couple purchased a McMansion with an indoor pool and movie theater in 2021. The DataRepublican site has a donations section, with options for one-time and recurring donations: 'I'm @DataRepublican, working hard to bring you the most transparent and insightful data on government spending and contracts. If you find value in what I do, would you consider supporting financially? It helps me continue this journey, ensuring that I can keep providing these insights independently. Every little bit supports the mission, and I truly appreciate your consideration.' DataRepublican posted this week that 'a generous benefactor has reached out and offered to cover AI expenses,' and she is undergoing a 'background check' as she seeks to work with DOGE. After Pounds posted about what she called her 'doxxing,' Trump's interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Ed Martin, replied to her: 'We are here for you, Jennica, just like you are here for America when we need you most. It is wrong and illegal to threaten anyone, and we will not tolerate a threat to a federal worker.' Martin, who recently described himself as 'President Trump's lawyer,' has pledged to use his office to 'protect DOGE' and 'hold accountable those who threaten workers.' The threats Martin referenced regarding Pounds were not immediately clear. 'I join your mother @data_republican in awe and appreciation of your excellent work,' Martin added. 'We got your back.' More from Rolling Stone Trump Eviscerates a Bedrock Public Health and Environmental Protection Law Trump Posts Grotesque Video Imagining Glitzy 'Trump Gaza' Musk's Attempt to Overhaul FAA Reveals Shocking Lack of Air Travel Knowledge Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
