Nairalanceblog

After the federal government lost thousands of workers last year, the Office of Personnel Management released guidelines to help agencies safely use artificial intelligence that would speed up lengthy hiring procedures.“We owe job applicants and taxpayers a faster, better hiring process, and AI is an obvious step,” wrote Adam Starr, OPM’s chief information officer, in a blog post. “It currently takes on average a whopping 87 days to hire in the federal government. Clearly, the current process is not working.”Agencies should review AI involved in hiring processes and determine whether they are “high-impact” or “presumed high-impact,” according to a memo released on Thursday. High-impact use cases are ones where AI “output serves as a principal basis for decisions or actions with legal, material, binding, or significant effect on” civil rights, privacy, access to critical government programs, critical infrastructure, public safety and more, according to the document sent to agency heads.For high-impact cases, agencies must either implement “minimum risk management practices”...

Against all odds, the U.S. job market is in a good place. Employers added 172,000 jobs in May, blowing past analyst forecasts and sustaining the healthy pace of payroll gains from the two prior months. Average monthly job growth from March through May has tripled from roughly 63,000 a year ago to nearly 190,000 this spring.The economy has faced one headwind after another over the past year: the highest tariffs in more than 70 years; the Iran war; a recurrence of the inflationary pressures that slammed Americans during the pandemic; persistent public pessimism, or "vibecession," as millions struggle with the cost of living; and immigration restrictions.Despite these challenges, the labor market is showing surprising strength after weakening toward the end of 2025 and into early 2026.  Several forces account for the recent burst in job growth, according to economists. Strong corporate profits are "a huge part of the equation," eToro U.S. investment analyst  Bret Kenwell told CBS News. "That's what gives them the...

The United States has unexpectedly shed thousands of jobs, according to government data, despite President Donald Trump's claims he had led an economic revival in the country.The world's largest economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, data published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed, signalling a potential weak labour market after months of steady growth.The unemployment rate has remained relatively steady though at 4.1 per cent, likely a result of falling labour supply as the US economy grapples with an aging population and lower net migration.Since taking office for his second term, Mr Trump has unleashed a spate of policies aimed at reviving domestic manufacturing and curbing surging inflation.The United States has unexpectedly lost thousands of jobs, despite President Donald Trump claiming he had led an economic revival in the country. (Reuters: Evelyn Hockstein)But based on the new figures, job growth hit a peak in March before declining in the next three months and entering negative territory in...

(Alliance News) - Stocks ended a winning week on the front foot on Friday, while the pound pushed higher against the dollar after weak US jobs figures.The FTSE 100 index closed up 33.20 points, 0.3%, at 10,901.09. The FTSE 250 ended up 159.44 points, 0.7%, at 24,854.86, another record close, while the AIM All-Share closed up 8.76 points, 1.1%, at 795.89.For the week, the FTSE 100 was up 0.3%, the FTSE 250 was up 3.7%, and the AIM All-Share was up 4.0%.The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.4% at 1,084.11, the Cboe UK 250 was 0.7% higher at 21,681.70, and the Cboe Small Companies ended up 1.0% at 19,010.52.The advance in the pound came as the US labour market unexpectedly shed 23,000 jobs in July, missing the FXStreet-cited consensus for an increase of 80,000.The Bureau of Labor Statistics also sharply revised lower previous months' data, cutting June payroll growth to 20,000 from 57,000 and May's reading to 63,000 from 129,000....

New research by Goldman Sachs economists finds that AI is already a measurable drag on the U.S. job market—erasing roughly 16,000 net jobs per month over the past year, with the pain falling hardest on Gen Z and entry-level workers. Goldman's breakdown shows AI substitution wiped out roughly 25,000 jobs per month in the past year, while augmentation added back about 9,000. The findings, contained in a Goldman Sachs U.S. Daily note authored by economist Elsie Peng, represent one of the most granular attempts yet to separate AI's two competing effects on employment: substitution, when AI replaces human workers outright, and augmentation, when AI makes existing workers more productive and may even expand hiring. Goldman's economists combined standard AI exposure scores with a complementarity...

Job seekers speak with employer representatives and browse information tables as they attend an Inspire Together job and resource fair in Los Angeles, California on July 29, 2026. Patrick T. Fallon | Afp | Getty ImagesNonfarm payrolls in the U.S. unexpectedly declined in July, but so did the unemployment rate, leaving investors with mixed signals on how to process the latest jobs report.Here are three key takeaways:Misleading numbers: The payroll decline of 23,000 wasn't quite as bad as it looked and the drop in the unemployment rate to 4.1% wasn't nearly as good as it looked. The main reason for the red headline number was a loss of 53,000 government workers, a development economists say was largely owing to seasonal factors that could get revised away. Private payrolls actually rose by 30,000. At the same time, the unemployment rate fell due to yet another decline in workers employed or actively looking for a job. The vanishing labor force: On that...

Anderson County lands Signature Foods USA plant, 202 jobsANDERSON COUNTY, S.C. —Signature Foods USA, a food products manufacturer, announced Thursday it has chosen Anderson County for its first South Carolina operation. The company’s $11.5 million investment will create 202 new jobs. Signature Foods USA produces refrigerated prepared foods for the American market, including prepared meats and cheeses, dips, spreads, wraps, and rolls. The company is headquartered in New York City and the Anderson County plant will be the company’s first manufacturing operation in the U.S.Signature Foods USA’s new manufacturing facility, located at 211 Pine Road in Easley, will produce dips and spreads to be sold in the deli section of retail grocery stores. Individuals interested in applying should contact the company’s Human Resources Manager Corderiette Calhoun (corderiette.calhoun@signaturefoods.com).The Coordinating Council for Economic Development approved job development credits related to the project. The council also awarded a $400,000 Set-Aside grant to Anderson County to assist with the costs of building...

Nonetheless, the report isn't universally strong, with 33k downward revisions to the previous two months. The breakdown shows that it is the three usual suspects that contributed virtually all the jobs: leisure & hospitality +47k, government +22k and private education & healthcare services +59k. Remember, the federal government workers who accepted deals to leave won't drop off until the October report, which will now be combined with the November report and released on 16 December. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate rose to 4.4% from 4.3% and wage growth rose only 0.2% month-on-month. The unemployment rate comes from a separate survey of households. This showed a 470,000 increase in the labour force, but only 251,000 found jobs, so unemployment grew by 219,000. This survey tends to be more volatile than the establishment survey of firms that generates the non-farm payrolls number. Source link...

Over the last year, US corporate leaders have often explained layoffs by saying the positions were no longer needed because artificial intelligence had made their companies more efficient, replacing humans with computers.But some economists and technology analysts have expressed skepticism about such justifications and instead think that such workforce cuts are driven by factors like the impact of tariffs, overhiring during the Covid-19 pandemic and perhaps simple maximising of profits.In short, the CEOs are allegedly engaged in “AI-washing”.“You can say, ‘We are integrating the newest technology into our business processes, so we are very much a technological frontrunner, and we have to let go of these people,’” said Fabian Stephany, a departmental research lecturer at the Oxford Internet Institute.In 2025, AI was cited as a reason for more than 54,000 layoffs, according to a December report from the consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.In January, Amazon alone laid off 16,000 workers after making 14,000 reductions in October.Beth Galetti, senior vice-president...