Latest news with #JobMarket
CNN
6 hours ago
- Business
- CNN
Trump's pick for BLS commissioner suggests suspending the monthly jobs report
Job market Trump appointments Donald TrumpFacebookTweetLink Follow EJ Antoni, nominated by President Donald Trump Monday to become the next commissioner for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, suggested that the agency should suspend its monthly jobs report until it is 'corrected.' Antoni, in an interview with Fox Business News published Tuesday, said the BLS should instead publish quarterly data after it had been revised until BLS can ensure its monthly jobs data is more accurate. 'Until it is corrected, the BLS should suspend issuing the monthly job reports but keep publishing the more accurate, though less timely, quarterly data,' he told Fox Business. 'Major decision-makers from Wall Street to D.C. rely on these numbers, and a lack of confidence in the data has far-reaching consequences.' The July report, issued Friday, included revisions for May and June that were historically large, but they were not unprecedented. May's jobs total was revised lower to 19,000, down from an initial estimate of 139,000 – a total revision of 120,000 jobs. For the June jobs total, the BLS on Friday said the US economy added just 14,000 jobs, down from a preliminary estimate of 147,000 – a revision of 133,000 jobs. The BLS tracks each month's revisions dating back to 1979, but the BLS introduced a new probability-based sample design for revisions in 2003. Between 1979 and 2003, the average monthly revision was 61,000 jobs. Since 2003, the average monthly revision is only a slightly more accurate 51,000 jobs. This is a developing story and will be updated.
Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
AI Is Changing Work Forever: These Skills Will Keep You Ahead (No Tuition Required)
Artificial intelligence won't replace your job. But someone who knows how to use it will. Open LinkedIn and you'll see it instantly. AI skills are showing up in job descriptions that never mentioned them a few months ago. Knowing how to get the most out of ChatGPT is now a baseline, not a bonus. The shift has been fast and unforgiving. For mid-career professionals, it can feel like the ground is moving under your feet. The tools change. The expectations placed on you change. And the expertise you've spent years building suddenly feels at risk. Here's the reality: staying relevant doesn't mean quitting your job, going back to school, or putting your career on hold. The pivot is possible. It starts with small, deliberate moves. Why the Skills Gap Is Growing The World Economic Forum predicts that by 2030, nearly 60% of the global workforce will need to retrain, upskill, or move into new roles. AI, automation, and digital tools are reshaping job descriptions across industries. Even knowledge work, made up of professionals who create value through expertise, critical thinking, and interpersonal skills, is getting a complete rewrite. In the last year alone, daily AI use at work has doubled. By 2030, up to 30% of U.S. jobs could be automated. And it's not only technical roles at risk. Emotional intelligence, creativity, and adaptability are now expected to pair with tech literacy. This hybrid skill set—human judgment plus digital fluency—is becoming the new standard. The question is no longer if you will upskill, but how. Reframe Upskilling as Micro, Not Monumental We tend to picture 'upskilling,' as a big leap: a boot camp, a degree, a career detour. In reality, the most meaningful growth comes from small, consistent steps you can fit into the week you already have. That might mean finally learning how ChatGPT works instead of skimming scary headlines about it. It could be exploring the AI features built into tools you already use, like Canva, Airtable, Loom, or Miro. Or it might be practicing sharper, more strategic questions so AI delivers deeper, more accurate answers. More than half of U.S. workers fear their skills will become obsolete, and small steps today can ease that anxiety. You don't have to figure it out alone. Platforms like LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, Reforge, and Maven offer bite-sized lessons you can finish over your lunch break and still see a real impact. How to Audit Your Skills Gap Think in threes: where you are now, where you want to go, and what the market is asking for. Spot the tools you're expected to use but haven't mastered yet. Review job postings for the roles you want and note the skills that appear over and over. Notice when you rely on colleagues for tech tasks you could handle yourself. This isn't a report card. It's a roadmap. And it shows you exactly where to focus next. If you need a starting point, here are examples of industry-specific training worth exploring: This is not a complete list, but whatever you choose, add certifications to your LinkedIn and place them prominently in your resume's skills sections. Applicant tracking systems scan for those keywords, and without them, you could be filtered out, often by AI itself. Earning and showcasing these skills will put you ahead of the pack, especially since only a small share of professionals familiar with AI truly understand how it works. Career-Boosting Projects That Double as Learning The fastest way to learn is to put new skills into action. Automate a recurring task in Zapier. Build a Notion dashboard your team didn't know they needed. Use GenAI to jumpstart that client pitch you've been avoiding. Each project builds fluency and leaves you with tangible results you can use across your career. Share them with your team or post a short reflection on LinkedIn. The growth is the point. The visibility is a bonus. The Career-Long Learner Advantage Upskilling isn't a one-time effort. It's an ongoing practice. In a world where the tools will keep changing, adaptability is not optional. It's your advantage. Your next big career move might not be a new job. It might be a new skill. And that may take you further than any title ever could.
Zawya
2 days ago
- Business
- Zawya
UK employers report weaker hiring and pay growth in July
LONDON: Hiring intentions by British businesses fell to their weakest since the COVID-19 pandemic and recruiters said starting pay was rising at the slowest pace in over four years, according to surveys on Monday which add to signs of a weakening jobs market. With the Bank of England watching the jobs market closely, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said only 57% of private sector employers planned to recruit staff over the next three months, the lowest since the start of 2021 though only slightly down from 58% in the last quarterly survey. The professional body for the human resources sector said higher employer social security charges introduced by finance minister Rachel Reeves and an increased minimum wage were hurting jobs, particularly in hospitality and social care. Planned changes to employment law which are likely to make it harder to sack employees in their first two years in a job were also making businesses more reticent to hire younger, less experienced staff, CIPD economist James Cockett said. Other business surveys have shown similar concerns, as well as broader headwinds from weak domestic demand and residual uncertainty for some exporters over U.S. trade tariffs. Official data due on Tuesday is likely to show the jobless rate in the three months to June held at 4.7%, close to a four-year high, according to a Reuters poll of economists who will also be watching to see if pay growth slows as the BoE expects. Four of nine BoE policymakers opposed its quarter-point interest rate cut to 4% last week and they are likely to need further convincing that domestic inflation pressures are easing. CIPD members expected to raise pay by a median 3% over the coming year, unchanged from the previous five quarters. Separately on Monday, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation said growth in starting salaries in July was the weakest since March 2021 while pay for temporary staff grew by the least in five months. "Economic uncertainty, the complexities of AI adoption and global headwinds are all weighing on business planning," said Jon Holt, group chief executive at accountancy firm KPMG which sponsors the REC survey.
CNN
02-08-2025
- Business
- CNN
Did the Fed just royally screw up?
Federal agencies Job market EconomyFacebookTweetLink Follow It took only a few days for the Federal Reserve's latest decision on interest rates to age like milk. The central bank on Wednesday said it was holding borrowing costs steady yet again, extending a wait-and-see pattern that began in January. That same day, Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters that a 'solid' labor market means central bankers still have the luxury of waiting to see how President Donald Trump's tariffs affect prices before resuming rate cuts that could help boost jobs but could also reignite inflation. Just two days later, it turned out that the job market is on shakier ground than Powell had suggested. It may take a bit more time to know if that's really the case. But the Fed may walk away with egg on its face. The Fed did not respond to a request for comment. On Friday, the Labor Department reported that employers added just 73,000 jobs in July, well below the threshold of monthly job growth necessary to keep up with population growth. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2% from 4.1%. And the monthly report was even worse than it seems: The Labor Department also massively revised downward the job gains for the prior two months. It's now clear that job growth has been anemic, based on the newly revised data: The average pace of monthly job growth from May through July was the weakest than any other three-month period since 2009, outside of the pandemic recession in 2020. 'Powell is going to regret holding rates steady this week,' Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group, said in commentary issued Friday. But not everyone at the Fed shared Powell's view on the labor market. The Fed's latest decision generated pushback from within like it hasn't seen in decades. Fed Governor Christopher Waller and Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman cast dissenting votes, marking the first time that more than one Fed governor has done so since 1993. In statements issued Friday, both officials pointed to signs of weakness in labor market as a major reason why they dissented, while downplaying the potential effects of Trump's tariffs on prices. The Fed is tasked by Congress to address both high inflation and a weakening labor market. 'The labor market has become less dynamic and shows increasing signs of fragility,' Bowman wrote, adding that just few industries have propelled job growth this year, which remained the case in July, according to the latest data. Still, it may be too soon to conclude that the Fed has royally screwed up. 'It was a disappointing report to be sure, but when I look at the data, we try not to make too much out of any one individual report,' Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack told Bloomberg on Friday after the July jobs report was released. 'I feel confident with the decision we made earlier this week.' Last year, after the unemployment rate climbed quickly in a short period of time and there were similar calls that the central bank was too late to lower rates, the Fed stepped in with a bold, half-point rate cut to stave off any further weakening. By the end of last year, it turned out that the labor market wasn't falling off a cliff: In December, employers added a massive 323,000 jobs as the unemployment rate edged down from the prior month to 4.1%.
Yahoo
02-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
AI is already replacing thousands of jobs per month, report finds
Artificial intelligence is already replacing thousands of jobs each month as the U.S. job market struggles amid global trade uncertainty, a report has found. The outplacement firm Challenger, Gray, and Christmas said in a report filed this week that in July alone the increased adoption of generative AI technologies by private employers led to more than 10,000 lost jobs. The firm stated that AI is one of the top five reasons behind job losses this year, CBS News noted. On Friday, new labor figures revealed that employers only added 73,000 jobs in July, a much worse result than forecasters expected. Companies announced more than 806,000 job cuts in the private sector through July, the highest number for that period since 2020. The technology industry is seeing the fiercest cuts, with private companies announcing more than 89,000 job cuts, an increase of 36 percent compared to a year ago. Challenger, Gray, and Christmas found that more than 27,000 job cuts have been directly linked to artificial intelligence since 2023. "The industry is being reshaped by the advancement of artificial intelligence and ongoing uncertainty surrounding work visas, which have contributed to workforce reductions," the firm said. The impact of artificial intelligence is most severe among younger job seekers, with entry-level corporate roles usually available to recent college graduates declining by 15 percent over the past year, according to the career platform Handshake. The use of 'AI' in job descriptions has also increased by 400 percent during the last two years. There are other reasons for recent job losses, with more than 292,000 roles having been terminated following cuts connected to the Department of Government Efficiency, previously led by Elon Musk, a former close ally of President Donald Trump, Challenger, Gray, and Christmas found. Senior vice president Andrew Challenger said in a statement, 'We are seeing the federal budget cuts implemented by DOGE impact non-profits and health care in addition to the government.' Amid the rising costs associated with tariffs, layoffs are also increasing in the retail sector, according to the firm. Through July, retailers announced more than 80,000 cuts, an increase of close to 250 percent compared to the same period last year. "Retailers are being impacted by tariffs, inflation, and ongoing economic uncertainty, causing layoffs and store closures. Further declines in consumer spending could trigger additional losses," said the firm. White collar workers are among those at highest risk of having their jobs wiped out by AI, executives have warned. But Challenger said early last month, 'There are roles that can be significantly changed by AI right now, but I'm not talking to too many HR leaders who say AI is replacing jobs,' he added, according to NBC News. In June, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said AI would 'reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains.' But he didn't specify a timeframe. Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Ford CEO Jim Farley would replace 'literally half of all white-collar workers in the U.S.' But experts argue that AI is currently affecting the job market in roundabout ways, such as many companies coming under intense pressure to cut costs because of the uncertain economic climate pushed by Trump's tariff policy and concerns about increasing inflation. As such, some companies are spending money on AI software instead of hiring new staff. The CEO of The Josh Bersin Company workforce consultancy, Josh Bershin, told NBC News,'There's basically a blank check to go out and buy these AI tools.' 'Then they go out and say, as far as head count: No more hiring. Just, 'stop.' So that immediately freezes the job market,' he added.
