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  • India is set to become the world’s most populous country. Can it create enough jobs? | CNN Business

    India is set to become the world’s most populous country. Can it create enough jobs? | CNN Business

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    New Delhi
    CNN
     — 

    India will overtake China this year to become the world’s most populous country.

    The likelihood of India passing that major milestone within a few months shot up Tuesday, when China reported that its population shrank in 2022 for the first time in more than 60 years.

    This shift will have significant economic implications for both Asian giants, which have more than 1.4 billion residents each.

    Along with the population data, China also reported one of its worst economic growth numbers in nearly half a century, underscoring the steep challenges the country faces as its labor force shrinks and the ranks of the retired swell.

    For India, what economists and analysts call the “demographic dividend” could continue to support rapid growth as the number of healthy workers increases.

    There are fears the country might miss out, however. That’s because India is simply not creating employment opportunities for the millions of young job seekers already entering the workforce every year.

    The South Asian nation’s working-age population stands at over 900 million, according to 2021 data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This number is expected to hit more than 1 billion over the next decade, according to the Indian government.

    But these numbers could become a liability if policymakers do not create enough jobs, experts warned. Already, data show a growing number of Indians are not even looking for work, given the lack of opportunities and low wages.

    India’s labor force participation rate, an estimation of the active workforce and people looking for work, stood at 46%, which is among the lowest in Asia, according to 2021 data from the World Bank. By comparison, the rates for China and the United States stood at 68% and 61% respectively in the same year.

    For women, the numbers are even more alarming. India’s female work participation rate was just 19% in 2021, down from about 26% in 2005, the World Bank data shows.

    “India is sitting on a time bomb,” Chandrasekhar Sripada, professor of organizational behavior at the Indian School of Business, told CNN. “There will be social unrest if it cannot create enough employment in a relatively short period of time.”

    India’s unemployment rate in December stood at 8.3%, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), an independent think tank headquartered in Mumbai, which publishes job data more regularly than the Indian government. In contrast, the US rate was about 3.5% at the end of last year.

    “India has the world’s largest youth population … There is no dearth of capital in the world today,” Mahesh Vyas, the CEO of CMIE, wrote in a blog post last year. “Ideally, India should be grabbing this rare opportunity of easy availability of labor and capital to fuel rapid growth. However, it seems to be missing this bus.”

    Lack of high quality education is one of the biggest reasons behind India’s unemployment crisis. There has been a “massive failure at the education level” by policymakers, said Sripada, adding that Indian institutions emphasize “rote-learning” over “creative thinking.”

    As a result of this toxic combination of poor education and lack of jobs, thousands of college graduates, including those with doctorates, end up applying for lowly government jobs, such as those of “peons” or office boys, which pay less than $300 a month.

    The good news is that policymakers have recognized this problem and started putting “reasonable emphasis on skill creation now,” Sripada said. But it will be years before the impact of new policies can be seen, he added.

    Asia’s third largest economy also needs to create more non-farm jobs to realize its full economic potential. According to recent government data, more than 45% of the Indian workforce is employed in the agriculture sector.

    The country needs to create at least 90 million new non-farm jobs by 2030 to absorb new workers, according to a 2020 report by McKinsey Global Institute. Many of these jobs can be created in the manufacturing and constructions sectors, experts said.

    As tensions between China and the West rise, India has made some progress in boosting manufacturing by attracting international giants such as Apple to produce more in the country. But, factories still constitute only 14% of India’s GDP, according to the World Bank.

    With a 6.8% expansion in GDP forecast for this fiscal year ending March, the South Asian nation is expected to be the world’s fastest growing major economy. But, according to a former central banker, even this growth is “insufficient.”

    “A lot of this growth is jobless growth. Jobs are essentially task one for the economy. We don’t need everybody to be a software programmer or consultant but we need decent jobs,” Raghuram Rajan, the former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, told media company NDTV, last year.

    According to the Mckinsey report, for “gainful and productive employment growth of this magnitude, India’s GDP will need to grow by 8.0% to 8.5% annually over the next decade.”

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  • Silicon Valley layoffs go from bad to worse | CNN Business

    Silicon Valley layoffs go from bad to worse | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Shortly before Thanksgiving, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy confirmed rumors that layoffs had begun in multiple departments at the e-commerce giant and said it would review staffing needs into the new year.

    On Wednesday, Jassy provided a sobering update on that review: Amazon is cutting more than 18,000 jobs, nearly double the 10,000 that had previously been reported and marking the highest absolute number of layoffs of any tech company in the recent downturn.

    At Amazon and other tech companies, the second half of last year was marked by hiring freezes, layoffs and other cost-cutting measures at a number of household names in Silicon Valley. But if 2022 was the year the good times ended for these tech companies, 2023 is already shaping up to be a year when people at those companies brace for how much worse things can get.

    On the same day Amazon announced layoffs, cloud-computing company Salesforce said it was axing about 10% of its staff – a figure that easily amounts to thousands of workers – and video-sharing outlet Vimeo said it was cutting 11% of its workforce. The following day, digital fashion platform Stitch Fix said it planned to cut 20% of its salaried staff, after having cut 15% of its salaried staff last year.

    The continued fallout in the industry comes as tech firms grapple with a seemingly perfect storm of factors. After initially seeing a boom in demand for digital services amid the onset of the pandemic, many companies aggressively hired. Then came a whiplash in demand as Covid-19 restrictions receded and people returned to their offline lives. Rising interest rates also dried up the easy money tech companies relied on to fuel big bets on future innovations, and cut into their sky-high valuations.

    Heading into 2023, recession fears and economic uncertainties are still weighing heavily on consumers and policymakers’ minds, and interest rate hikes are expected to continue. Beyond that, the growing number of layoffs may also give certain tech companies some cover to take more severe steps to trim costs now than they may have otherwise done.

    While there have been some layoffs recently in the consumer goods sector and hints of more to come elsewhere, the situation in Silicon Valley remains in stark contrast to the economy as a whole.

    The Labor Department’s latest employment report on Friday pointed to a year of extraordinary job growth in 2022, marking the second-best year for the labor market in records that go back to 1939. Meanwhile, a separate report from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found tech layoffs were up 649% in 2022 compared to the previous year, versus just a 13% uptick in job cuts in the overall economy during the same period.

    In his note to employees this month, Jassy chalked up the need for significant cost cutting at Amazon to “the uncertain economy and that we’ve hired rapidly over the last several years.” Others across the industry have echoed those points, with varying degrees of atonement.

    In a series of apologies that are beginning to sound the same, Silicon Valley business leaders from Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg to Salesforce’ Marc Benioff have blamed the wave of job cuts on their own misreading of how pandemic-fueled demand for tech products would play out.

    Benioff began a memo to the employees of Salesforce last week by invoking, as he so often does, the Hawaiian word for family. “As one ‘Ohana,” he wrote, “we have never been more mission-critical to our customers.” But the economic environment was “challenging,” Benioff wrote. “With this in mind, we’ve made the very difficult decision to reduce our workforce by about 10 percent, mostly over the coming weeks.”

    “As our revenue accelerated through the pandemic, we hired too many people leading into this economic downturn we’re now facing, and I take responsibility for that,” Benioff went on to say. Like other tech leaders, however, it’s unclear if Benioff will face any repercussions to his title or compensation.

    Patricia Campos-Medina, the executive director of the Worker Institute at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, slammed this spate of mea culpas as “empty apologies” to the workers now paying for their miscalculations.

    While there will be a lot of near-term uncertainty for these tech workers, as well “a big economic hit on their lives,” Campos-Medina added, “I do think that this is a very skilled workforce that will find a way to engage back in the economy.” She predicts many of the laid-off tech workers will likely be able to find jobs and “we will see more stability in the mid-to-long term.”

    But the end may still not be in sight. Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities said last week that the Salesforce and Amazon layoffs “add to the trend we expect to continue in 2023 as the tech sector adjusts to a softer demand environment.” The industry is now being forced to cut costs after “spending money like 1980’s Rock Stars to keep up with demand,” he added.

    And despite the robust overall labor market, there are growing concerns that tech layoffs could spread elsewhere.

    “I think we’re seeing an inflection point; the rate of jobs growth is slowing and a lot of these tech layoffs that we’re hearing about, I think are going to start materializing across the broader economy by the end of the first quarter,” John Leer, chief economist at Morning Consult told CNN’s Chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans in an interview Friday.

    In that sense, at least, Silicon Valley may once again be ahead of the curve, but not in the way it wants.

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  • What to expect at work this year | CNN Business

    What to expect at work this year | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    The pandemic has transformed work over the past three years in ways few expected. It normalized remote work, created a shortage of critical workers and drove home to organizations that employees’ mental health and need for a sane work-life balance are critical to retention and engagement.

    So what does 2023 likely hold for you at your job, regardless of your industry?

    There are welcome and unwelcome developments on tap, along with some potentially confusing ones, too.

    Let’s get the bad news out of the way first.

    Regardless of whether the United States slips into a recession, there will be more widespread job cuts than what we’ve seen happening so far in industries like tech, media and finance.

    “We’re starting to see more layoffs pick up in other industries. I do anticipate rising layoffs in most sectors,” said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president of outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

    But that shouldn’t be surprising, given that layoffs in 2021 and 2022 were at their lowest levels since 1993.

    That said, the job market has cooled a bit — but it’s still running hot, with a high level of job openings per job seeker.

    The overall slowdown in hiring is likely to continue, with employers more likely to reinstate performance-improvement plans for underperforming employees and performance-related layoffs, Challenger predicts.

    And, of course, should there be a real recession, the layoffs would cut much deeper.

    While there is still tension between executives and employees about how many days people should be physically present at work, hybrid work and work flexibility isn’t going away.

    “Today, the majority of employers (66%) are permitting hybrid working and an additional 9% give employees the option to work from home every day,” according to benefits consulting firm Mercer.

    Nevertheless, this may be the year employers start to actually enforce their minimum-days-in-the-office mandates, Challenger said.

    Just this week, for example, Disney CEO Bob Iger ordered employees to return to corporate offices four days a week beginning March 1.

    Front-line employees like retail workers, health care aides and security guards, whose jobs require them always to be on site, may be offered other forms of flexibility, said Emily Rose McRae, senior director of research at Gartner, a workplace consulting firm.

    That could include being given a regular schedule, as opposed to working “on demand,” where they don’t know their schedule in advance, McRae said. It also could mean getting more paid leave, or that front-line workers could opt out of working certain shifts or certain days.

    McRae said she sees more employers offering what she calls “proactive rest” options this year.

    The idea is to actively help people recover before becoming fully depleted not only by work, but by the upending of their lives from the pandemic and the social and political upheaval of the past few years.

    “The big shift is in recognizing our work force is in trouble,” McRae said.

    Proactive rest can take many forms. Some employers may offer days off — whether it’s a whole week or just one day a week for a set period of time. Or it could simply mean branding a given workday as a no-meeting day.

    Information technology professionals will continue to win the day at work when it comes to who gets the biggest raises and bonuses.

    “Most organizations are anticipating the talent market to remain as competitive, or more competitive, at least in the first half of this year,” said Tony Guadagni, a senior principal in Gartner’s HR practice. “They will do what they have to to attract that critical talent.”

    Employers’ projected increases for this year in terms of merit increases (3.9%) and total pay (4.3%) are the highest they’ve been in 15 years, according to workplace consulting firm Mercer. But given that inflation is still pacing higher than those levels, you may not feel the raise you get is making a huge difference in what you can afford — unless your skills are in high demand.

    It used to be difficult to figure out whether you were being paid competitively for your talents, since companies weren’t open about what they paid others and colleagues wouldn’t discuss their pay.

    But now that New York City, the state of California, and a handful of other states and localities have implemented pay transparency rules for job postings, it will be easier in 2023 to confirm you’re being paid fairly relative to your teammates, and to determine the salary range on offer if you’re looking for a new job.

    Still, these laws are very new, and companies have not been uniform in how they’re handling the new rules. Some recent job postings, for instance, have advertised unhelpfully wide pay ranges — think $50,000 to $200,000.

    Beyond the big benefits employers typically offer full-time staffers (e.g., subsidized health insurance, a 401(k) match, etc.), they also offer a range of secondary benefits or perks, such as tuition reimbursement, supplemental life insurance, a stipend for home office supplies or financial coaching.

    Gartner and Mercer are seeing more companies let employees decide how best to spend these perk dollars by letting them direct a fixed amount of money across the secondary benefits that are most important to them.

    Your organization may engage in “quiet hiring” this year, if it hasn’t already.

    It’s a misleading term, in that it is neither quiet nor does it involve actual hiring.

    Rather, your company will want to repurpose existing employees — possibly you, if you have relevant skills — for the employer’s highest priority projects this year.

    That could be a great opportunity if you hate being limited to the same tasks of your official job, or if you want to develop new skills and work with new people in your company.

    It also could be highly frustrating, especially if a company is simply putting everyone on rotation to make sure understaffed, critical tasks get done by anyone with the adequate skills to do so.

    Either way, “quiet hiring” may offer an initial taste of a broader trend likely to unfold over the next several years that could spell the end of “jobs” — and specifically job descriptions as we know them, according to consulting firm Deloitte.

    That’s because many employers want to transition away from being a jobs-based organization to a skills-based one so they can quickly adapt to change, address talent shortages and provide their workforce with opportunities to develop professionally, said Arthur Mazor, a principal global leader at Deloitte’s Human Capital Practice.

    So instead of viewing you as a holder of Job X, your company is likely to view you as a person with an array of skills that can be deployed in many ways.

    Early adopters this year can be found across various industries, Mazor said — from software makers to auto manufacturers to financial services to health care.

    Even at companies that have not formalized a shift to being a skills-based organization, the change is happening anyway. Roughly 70% of workers say they’re already doing work outside of their job, according to Deloitte.

    One recent example, cited in Deloitte’s latest work report, comes from M&T Bank, a leading Small Business Administration lender. Its chief talent officer told the firm, “when the Paycheck Protection Program was rolled out during the pandemic, we had to stop thinking about jobs and start thinking about skills. … By focusing on skills versus jobs — and rapidly mobilizing talent in an agile way — we outperformed our peers.”

    It’s too early to determine exactly how this will play out for employees, in terms of incentives offered for switching to a new project or pinch-hitting for another department, how an employee’s work will be assessed and rewarded, and how much say they will get in the projects assigned.

    But done right, Mazor said, employees should have the opportunity to share on an internal database their skills and what areas they wish to develop before being matched with a new assignment.

    “This isn’t a clandestine effort. It involves worker input.”

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  • Lovie Smith said the NFL had ‘a problem’ about Black coaches. A year later he was fired and the league is being criticized yet again about its lack of diversity | CNN

    Lovie Smith said the NFL had ‘a problem’ about Black coaches. A year later he was fired and the league is being criticized yet again about its lack of diversity | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    When Lovie Smith was hired by the Houston Texans in February 2022 as the team’s new head coach, he said the NFL had “a problem” with hiring Black coaches and diversity.

    “I realize the amount of Black head coaches there are in the National Football League,” Smith told reporters just under a year ago.

    “There’s Mike Tomlin and I think there’s me, I don’t know of many more. So there’s a problem, and it’s obvious for us. And after there’s a problem, what are you going to do about it?”

    Smith was fired Monday at the end of his one and only season at the helm of the Texans, finishing with a record of 3-13-1.

    Smith is the second Black coach in two years to be relieved of his duties by the Texans, which fired David Culley at the end of the 2021 season.

    Smith’s time in charge wasn’t full of wins and high points – though his parting gift to the organization was a last-minute Hail Mary victory over the Indianapolis Colts, which saw them relinquish the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NFL draft to the Chicago Bears. But his Texans team showed togetherness and competence, traits often desired by outfits undergoing a rebuild.

    Houston general manager Nick Caserio said Smith’s firing was the best decision for the team right now.

    “On behalf of the entire organization, I would like to thank Lovie Smith for everything he has contributed to our team over the last two seasons as a coach and a leader,” Caserio said in a statement.

    “I’m constantly evaluating our football operation and believe this is the best decision for us at this time. It is my responsibility to build a comprehensive and competitive program that can sustain success over a long period of time. We aren’t there right now, however, with the support of the McNair family and the resources available to us, I’m confident in the direction of our football program moving forward.”

    But the firing of the 64-year-old coach, the Texans organization as a whole, and the measures implemented by the league to promote diversity have been heavily criticized by former players and TV pundits.

    “The Houston Texans have fired Lovie Smith after 1 year. Using 2 Black Head Coaches to tank and then firing them after 1 year shouldn’t sit right with anyone,” former NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III tweeted Sunday, when news of Smith’s firing broke.

    On ESPN, Stephen A. Smith and NFL Hall of Famer Michael Irvin also condemned the decision. Smith called the Texans organization an “atrocity.”

    “They are an embarrassment. And as far as I’m concerned, if you’re an African American, and you aspire to be a head coach in the National Football League, there are 31 teams you should hope for. You should hope beyond God that the Houston Texans never call you,” Smith said.

    Irvin said Black coaches are being used as “scapegoats” by the Texans.

    “It’s a mess in Houston and they bring these guys in and they use them as scapegoats. And this is what African American coaches have been yelling about for a while and it’s blatant, right in our face,” he said.

    When CNN contacted the Texans for comment, the team highlighted the moment at Monday’s news conference when Caserio was asked why any Black coach would consider working for the team, and his response was that individual candidates would have to make their own choices.

    “In the end it’s not about race. It’s about finding quality coaches,” the general manager said. “There’s a lot of quality coaches. David (Culley) is a quality coach. Lovie (Smith) is a quality coach.

    “In the end, each coach has their own beliefs. Each coach has their own philosophy. Each coach has their comfort level about what we’re doing. That’s all I can do is just be honest and forthright, which I’ve done from the day that I took this job, and I’m going to continue to do that and try to find a coach that we feel makes the most sense for this organization. That’s the simplest way I can answer it, and that’s my commitment.

    “That’s what I’m hired to do, and that’s what I’m in the position to do. At some point, if somebody feels that that’s not the right decision for this organization, then I have to respect that, and I have to accept it.”

    CNN has reached out to Lovie Smith for comment.

    At the beginning of the 2022 season, NFL.com reported Smith was one one of just six minority head coaches in the NFL, a low number in a league where nearly 70% of the players are Black.

    Since Art Shell was hired by the Los Angeles Raiders in 1989 as the first Black head coach in modern history, there have been 191 people hired as head coaches, but just 24 have been Black.

    However, the NFL has taken steps to increase diversity in the coaching ranks.

    Notably, in 2003, the NFL introduced the Rooney Rule to improve hiring practices in a bid to “increase the number of minorities hired in head coach, general manager, and executive positions.”

    But the Rooney Rule hasn’t been an unqualified success.

    In 2003, the Detroit Lions were fined $200,000 for not interviewing any minority coaches before hiring Steve Mariucci as their new head coach.

    In response to criticism, the NFL announced it was setting up a diversity advisory committee of outside experts to review its hiring practices last March. Teams would also be required to hire minority coaches as offensive assistants.

    Despite changes to the rule being implemented in recent years to strengthen it, a 2022 lawsuit alleges that some teams have implemented “sham” interviews to fulfill the league’s diversity requirements.

    Last February, former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores filed a federal civil lawsuit against the NFL, the New York Giants, the Denver Broncos and the Miami Dolphins organizations alleging racial discrimination.

    Flores, who is Black, said in his lawsuit that the Giants interviewed him for their vacant head coaching job under disingenuous circumstances.

    Two months after submitting the initial lawsuit, Flores added the Texans to it, alleging the organization declined to hire him this offseason as head coach “due to his decision to file this action and speak publicly about systemic discrimination in the NFL.”

    In response to the lawsuit, the Texans said their “search for our head coach was very thorough and inclusive.”

    The NFL called Flores’ allegations meritless.

    “The NFL and our clubs are deeply committed to ensuring equitable employment practices and continue to make progress in providing equitable opportunities throughout our organizations,” the league said in response to the lawsuit.

    “Diversity is core to everything we do, and there are few issues on which our clubs and our internal leadership team spend more time. We will defend against these claims, which are without merit.”

    But 12 months after firing their last Black head coach, the Texans have fired another one.

    “How do you hire two African Americans, leave them one year and then get rid them?” questioned NFL Hall of Famer Irvin.

    “You know the mess that Houston is,” Irvin added. “We get the worst jobs and we don’t get the opportunity to fix the worst jobs, just like this.

    “I don’t know any great White coach that would take the (Texans) job unless you give them some guarantees. ‘You’re going to have to guarantee me four years to turn this place around.’ But the African American coaches can’t come in with that power because Lovie wouldn’t have got another job.

    “This was his last chance to get back into the NFL and you have to take what’s on the table to try to change that.”

    The Texans are now searching for a new head coach under general manager Caserio. The new appointment will be Caserio’s third coach in the role: It is almost unprecedented for a general manager to get the opportunity to hire a third head coach with the same team.

    Texans chairman and CEO Cal McNair said he would take on a more active role in the hiring process. The next head coach will be the organization’s fourth in three years.

    According to the NFL, the Texans have requested to speak to five candidates already about filling Smith’s position, a list that includes two Black coaches.

    After Smith was hired in March 2021, McNair said: “I’ve never seen a more thorough, inclusive, and in-depth process than what Nick (Caserio) just went through with our coaching search.”

    At that introductory news conference, Smith spoke candidly about how to bring greater diversity to the NFL coaching ranks.

    “People in positions of authority throughout – head coaches, general managers – you’ve got to be deliberate about trying to get more Black athletes in some of the quality control positions just throughout your program. If you get that, they can move up, that’s one way to get more.”

    Smith continued: “It’s not just an interview, if you’re interviewing a Black guy. It’s about having a whole lot of guys to choose from that look like me. And it’s just not about talk. You look at my staff, that’s what I believe in. And letting those guys show you who they are. That’s how we can increase it, then it’s left up to people to choose. We all have an opportunity to choose, and that’s how I think we’ll get it done.”

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  • LinkedIn is having a moment thanks to a wave of layoffs | CNN Business

    LinkedIn is having a moment thanks to a wave of layoffs | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    In a normal year at this time, a typical LinkedIn feed might be full of posts about year-end reflections on leadership and professional goals and suggested lifehacks for the year ahead — possibly with a few posts from CMOs offering tips on brand strategy, for good measure.

    Those posts are still there. But mixed in are many others about job hunts, offers of support for laid off friends and colleagues, and advice for coping with career hurdles in an uncertain economic environment.

    Some LinkedIn users affected by recent layoffs have formed groups on the site aimed at providing assistance, coordinating around signing exit paperwork and aiding with connections for new jobs. One LinkedIn group of employees affected by the November layoffs at Facebook-parent Meta, for example, now has more than 200 members. Even bosses who are doing the laying off have turned to LinkedIn to explain themselves and seek support or advice, as one marketing CEO did in a post alongside a tearful selfie last year (to mixed results).

    If the first year of the pandemic was marked by widespread layoffs in lower paying retail and services jobs, the past few months have been defined by something different: the prospect of a white-collar recession. Even as the overall job market remains strong, there has been a wave of recent layoffs in the tech and media industries — which just so happen to make up a core part of LinkedIn’s user base. Suddenly, the normally staid professional network has become both a vital lifeline for recently laid off workers and a surprisingly lively social platform.

    The LinkedIn mobile app was downloaded an estimated 58.4 million times worldwide in 2022 across the Google Play and Apple app stores, up 10% from the prior year, according to research firm Sensor Tower.

    The number of posts on LinkedIn mentioning “open to work” were up 22% during November compared to the same period in the prior year, according to data provided by the company. LinkedIn says it also saw a steady increase in the rate of users adding connections last year compared to the year prior, a sign that users were more active on the platform.

    The uptick in use appears to have been good for LinkedIn’s business. The platform posted 17% year-over-year revenue growth in the three months ended in September, according to parent company Microsoft’s most recent earnings report. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told analysts in the October earnings call that LinkedIn was seeing “record engagement” among its 875 million members, with growth accelerating especially in international markets.

    Some of LinkedIn’s momentum may predate the wave of layoffs. “There’s been an uptick in [LinkedIn use] since the pandemic,” said Jennifer Grygiel, an associate professor and social media expert at Syracuse University. “You had to do social distancing and we were quarantining and people were working remotely so there was a shift in real-life networking possibilities.”

    LinkedIn rose to the occasion — and now it may be rising to another one.

    Even apart from the layoffs, the social media landscape has been through a volatile year. Facebook and Instagram have been criticized by users for racing to turn their services into TikTok. TikTok has been criticized over concerns that user data could end up in the hands of the Chinese government. And after Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter late last year, the platform has been criticized for morphing into a possible haven for its most incendiary users.

    But LinkedIn remains, as ever, LinkedIn — and at this moment, with fears of a looming recession and career concerns top of mind, LinkedIn may be just what the digital world needs.

    Grygiel said many people working in media or academia are likely now looking for somewhere to build and engage in professional communities other than Twitter. And while upstart Twitter alternatives like Mastodon have experienced a surge in growth, they still don’t have the same sort of network effect that comes with a legacy platform’s broad user base.

    LinkedIn in recent years has leaned into courting influencers who regularly post content to the site, potentially giving users more reasons to visit. And the platform has been growing its “learning” section, which provides video courses taught by various industry experts and which the company says experienced a 17% increase in hours spent as of November compared to the year prior. But lately it appears users have more than enough reason to use LinkedIn amid a wave of thousands of layoffs.

    Perhaps the clearest and most public examples of LinkedIn’s new centrality came from rival social networks like Twitter.

    In the wake of Twitter’s November mass layoffs — in which half the company was terminated, followed by additional firings and exits — many former and remaining employees took to LinkedIn, rather than the platform they had built, to seek support, community and new opportunities.

    One group of Twitter employees created a spreadsheet of laid-off workers from the company alongside recruiters hiring for other firms, and used LinkedIn to help facilitate sign-ups. Another pair of former Twitter employees set up a system to connect job hunters with recruitment professionals open to volunteering to provide free resume review and interview prep services, which they promoted through LinkedIn.

    “We completely understand how the job-hunting process can be scary and overwhelming … While we can’t guarantee where your next opportunity will be or when it will come, we can offer guidance, so you will be ready for that opportunity when it arrives,” Darnell Gilet, a former Twitter senior technical recruiter who helped coordinate the effort, said in a LinkedIn post.

    Gilet, who was affected by the mass layoffs at Twitter in November following Elon Musk’s takeover, told CNN last month that around 28 different recruiters and talent acquisition professionals had agreed to participate in the system, and that he himself had spoken to nearly two dozen job seekers since shortly after he was laid off to offer advice and support. He said LinkedIn seemed like the obvious place to promote the service.

    “Chaos creates opportunity for somebody, right?” Gilet said. “People are getting laid off and you have this recession that’s looming, the ideal place … that would have the greatest growth opportunity from that would be a platform that’s focused on careers like LinkedIn. So it makes perfect sense.”

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  • America capped off an extraordinary year for job growth, adding 223,000 positions in December | CNN Business

    America capped off an extraordinary year for job growth, adding 223,000 positions in December | CNN Business

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    Minneapolis
    CNN
     — 

    The US economy added 223,000 jobs in December, according to the monthly employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, capping a year of extraordinary job growth and marking the second-best year for the labor market in records that go back to 1939.

    The unemployment rate fell back to a record low of 3.5% from a revised 3.6% in November.

    Economists were expecting 200,000 job gains for the last month of the year, according to Refinitiv. December’s job total is lower than the downwardly revised 256,000 jobs added in November.

    Including last month’s gains, which are subject to revision, the economy added about 4.5 million jobs in 2022. That’s the second-highest-ever total, after the 6.7 million jobs added in 2021 — a boomerang from 2020’s 9.3 million job losses.

    The labor market slowed in 2022, compared to the previous year’s tear. December’s jobs total represents the lowest monthly gains in two years.

    Those latest gains come following months of jumbo interest rate increases from the Federal Reserve in its attempt to cool off the economy after inflation last year hit its highest level since the 1980s. Those efforts have, so far, remained mostly elusive.

    That means the Fed is entering 2023 looking for a considerably softer and looser labor market — notably, increased labor participation, a better alignment of job seekers to open positions, and lower levels of wage growth.

    “This is about the best report one could hope for, given a still very hot US labor market,” said Joe Brusuelas, principal and chief economist for RSM US.

    Wall Street responded positively to Friday’s jobs data, with the Dow rising by almost 500 points by mid-morning — mostly a reaction to the slower pace of wage growth. Average hourly earnings increased 0.3% over the previous month and 4.6% annually. That’s compared to 0.4% month-on-month growth in November and 4.8% annual growth.

    The December report showed that the labor force participation rate, an estimation of the active workforce and people looking for work, ticked up to 62.3% from 62.2%.

    Labor force participation rates have been on a decline — largely due to demographic changes and aging Baby Boomers — since hitting a high of 67.3% in early 2000, and had fallen to 63.3% in the month before the onset of the pandemic. The participation rate has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, vexing economists and the Fed, while also contributing to an imbalance of worker supply and demand.

    “The labor market is moving in the right direction for the Federal Reserve, according to the December employment report, but is not there yet,” Gus Faucher, senior economist for PNC Financial services said in a statement. “Job growth is slowing to a more sustainable pace, and wage growth is softening as demand in the job market slackens somewhat.”

    However, with job growth well above pre-pandemic levels, when job gains averaged 164,000 in 2019, and the unemployment rate returning to a 50-year low, there is little indication that there will be enough of a boost in the labor force to help cool off the job market, he said.

    Some of the largest monthly gains were in industries such as leisure and hospitality, health care, and accommodation and food services, which all were hit hard during the pandemic. There were also notable monthly job losses in technology and interest-rate-sensitive sectors that surged during the pandemic and are now rebalancing as consumers shift spending toward services.

    Industries such as information, finance and professional and business services, shed jobs between November and December.

    The losses seen in areas such as professional and business services are likely an effect of the waves of mass layoffs hitting the tech industry, said Ken Kim, a senior economist at KPMG.

    “We are seeing a little bit of spread to other areas,” he said.

    In addition to Friday’s strong jobs numbers, several other pieces of jobs data released this week continue to reflect a healthy labor market. Wednesday’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report showed that the number of available jobs remained steady at 10.5 million in November. It also showed that quits, layoffs and hires didn’t really show any major signs of cooling that month.

    ADP’s private-sector employment report on Thursday also showed a robust labor market, with 235,000 jobs added in the private sector during December, well exceeding expectations of 150,000.

    And Thursday’s weekly jobless claims fell by 21,000 to 204,000 for the week ending November 26, while continuing claims decreased to 1.69 million from 1.72 million to 1.61 million.

    —CNN’s Matt Egan contributed to this report.

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  • US job openings totaled 10.5 million in November, more than expected | CNN Business

    US job openings totaled 10.5 million in November, more than expected | CNN Business

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    Minneapolis
    CNN
     — 

    The number of available jobs in the United States totaled 10.46 million in November, according to data released Wednesday by the Department of Labor.

    That’s more than the 10 million total job openings that economists were expecting, according to Refinitiv, and slightly lower than the upwardly revised October total of 10.51 million.

    “The US labor market remains on fire,” Nick Bunker, head of economic research for Indeed Hiring Lab, said in a statement about the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS. “The flames may have receded a bit from the highs of the initial reopening of the economy, but demand for workers remains robust and workers are seizing new opportunities.”

    There were still about 1.7 job openings for each job seeker in November, unchanged from October, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Federal Reserve closely monitors this ratio, since tightness in the labor market means employees have greater leverage to seek higher wages, which in turn drives up inflation.

    The robust number of job openings remains “a testament to the resilience of demand for labor on Main Street, even as job openings tumbled on Wall Street,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist with ZipRecruiter, in a tweet posted shortly after the report was released.

    Job hiring inched down to 6.06 million in November from 6.11 million in October, according to the report. Layoffs fell to 1.35 million from 1.45 million, and the number of people quitting their job increased to 4.17 million from 4.05 million.

    “The Great Resignation is far from over — quits surged in November, to 4.2 million,” Pollak said. “They have now been above 4 million for 18 straight months, after coming in at 3.4 million before the pandemic and averaging 2.6 million in the prior years.”

    Although openings came in above expectations, the JOLTS report likely won’t spur a dramatic change in course from the Fed, economists for labor market analytics company Lightcast said during a webcast Wednesday morning.

    “This report shows more positive signs for the economy than originally expected,” said Bledi Taska, Lightcast’s chief economist. “This was a very surprising report, but in some ways that’s positive for the economy overall. This report moves us from cautious to cautiously optimistic. I don’t expect to have to use the word recession any time soon.”

    Labor turnover activity this month will provide a good window of where the labor market may be heading, Taska said, adding that he would expect layoff activity to rise but not to a point of where it would indicate a serious recession was taking hold.

    The data comes ahead of the government’s closely watched monthly jobs report, which is set to be released on Friday and is expected to show that 200,000 jobs were added to the US economy in December.

    While that number is slightly lower than in previous months, it caps off an unusually strong year for the labor market — all the more so, given the Fed’s efforts to slow the economy in order to rein in demand and inflation.

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  • White House cautiously optimistic over economy in 2023: ‘Absolutely no sign’ job growth will tumble or unemployment will spike | CNN Politics

    White House cautiously optimistic over economy in 2023: ‘Absolutely no sign’ job growth will tumble or unemployment will spike | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    As Wall Street and Main Street fret about a potential recession, White House officials are projecting confidence about the economy’s ability to weather the storm in 2023.

    “We’re feeling cautiously optimistic because we are starting to see some real concrete measurable signs of progress,” Aviva Aron-Dine, deputy director of the White House National Economic Council, told CNN in a Zoom interview.

    The Biden administration economist pointed to a range of metrics showing inflation has cooled off, real wages have heated up and the job market has defied doomsday predictions.

    The White House is hoping for a soft landing, in which the Federal Reserve tames inflation without crashing the economy.

    “We remain optimistic about a transition to stable, steady growth with lower inflation – without giving up labor market gains, without a recession,” Aron-Dine said.

    So far, so good – at least from the administration’s perspective.

    For the moment, metrics suggest the economy has remained resilient and consumers are more optimistic as inflation has eased. The Conference Board’s latest consumer confidence index this month, for example, showed a significant jump from November. And after spiking to record highs in June, gas prices have plunged to 17-month lows, delivering a major boost to consumers.

    And some broader trends appear to be working in the administration’s favor, like hiring, which has slowed but has not collapsed.

    There is “absolutely no sign” that job growth will fall on a “sustained basis” below a pace of roughly 150,000 jobs a month, Aron-Dine said.

    Last month, the US economy added a surprisingly strong 263,000 jobs. That’s down sharply from 647,000 in the same period last year – but still a very healthy pace.

    Despite a series of mass layoffs in the tech and media industries, Aron-Dine added that there is “no sign of a big increase in unemployment.”

    Indeed, initial jobless claims remain very low. The Labor Department said Thursday that first-time claims for unemployment benefits rose just slightly in the latest week and remain near two-month lows. However, some economists – including ones at the Fed – warn this trend could be about to change due in large part to continued pressure from higher borrowing costs.

    After raising interest rates for a seventh meeting in a row, the Fed last week projected the unemployment rate will rise from a historically low level of 3.7% today to 4.6% by the end of next year. That implies an increase of approximately 1.6 million unemployed people.

    Some, though certainly not all, business leaders and major banks expect the US economy will slip into a downturn next year. For instance, PNC is now projecting a “mild recession” that is similar to the downturns of 1990-1991 and 2001.

    “The risk of a recession is elevated right now – certainly higher than six months or a year ago,” Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC, told CNN. “We need to be prepared for a recession sometime in the spring or summer of 2023.”

    Other economists including Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, are growing more confident a recession may be avoided.

    Although Fed officials say a soft landing is still possible, some of the Fed’s own metrics are flashing red.

    A New York Fed model that uses shifts in the bond market to forecast recession risks finds there is a 38% chance of a recession in the next 12 months. That narrowly surpasses the peak in 2019 and is the highest level since just before the Great Recession.

    There are signs that cracks are forming in consumer spending – the main engine of the US economy – due to high inflation that has forced some Americans to dip into savings and turn to credit cards. Retail sales declined in November by the most in nearly a year as shoppers pulled back on everything from furniture and cars to even e-commerce.

    Asked about the surprise retail sales slump, Aron-Dine noted this metric can experience significant volatility.

    “If you look at the data over a more extended period, you’re just not seeing any signs that would make us think that is a significant concern,” she said.

    In that effort to transition away from high inflation, Aron-Dine said, the White House continues to evaluate ongoing risks, calling the war in Ukraine “one of the most significant risks that we monitor.”

    “I think all year, we’ve seen that there are signs of real strength and opportunities for a successful transition, and that there are significant risks. And so our work, our strategy has been about trying to take advantage of the strengths and mitigates the risk,” she said, later adding, “I think we have reason for optimism, reasons to believe the US economy is well positioned, but there are global challenges and high on that list is potential downstream consequences of the war in Ukraine for food and energy as we saw this year and more generally.”

    Another hurdle Biden’s economic team will face in the new year will be achieving consensus among a newly divided Congress.

    Biden’s first two years in office were marked by the passage the administration’s proposed major spending bills aimed at bolstering the country’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, overhauling major social safety net programs, enhancing domestic supply chains and making climate investments.

    But some major provisions the Biden White House has pushed for, including the revival of the enhanced child credit have failed to move forward in Congress. The previous expansion of the child tax credit lifted 2.1 million children out of poverty in 2021, according to the Census Bureau.

    A last-ditch effort this month to pass the credit into law as part of the $1.7 trillion government spending bill failed. And with Republicans taking over the House of Representatives next year, its passage is even less likely.

    “It is a disappointment that Republicans blocked inclusion of Child Tax Credit improvements during the lame duck,” Aron-Dine said, adding, “I won’t get ahead of agenda setting our strategy for next year, but of course, this will remain a priority for us.”

    Along with broader efforts to tackle inflation and avoid a recession, the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act will also be top of mind for Biden economic officials in the coming year.

    A slate of provisions in the IRA are scheduled to roll out in January, including home energy efficiency tax credits and a $35 cap on the cost of insulin for seniors on Medicare.

    And CNN previously reported that along with deploying a messaging strategy aimed at highlighting existing accomplishments, as Biden heads into the new year, the White House is looking to highlight ways the Inflation Reduction Act will lower everyday costs.

    Aron-Dine told CNN that the enactment of the IRA “is just going to have a huge effect in shaping our work in the year ahead, with one of our biggest priorities really being just making sure that we fully realize the potential of that law.”

    And as the administration prepares to frame Biden’s agenda ahead of the State of the Union address next year, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese told the Wall Street Journal this week that officials are considering a push for policies aimed at getting Americans back to work, including childcare and eldercare benefits.

    It’s not clear whether the White House is considering using executive authority or proposals to Congress to move forward on the initiative. Aron-Dine declined to offer specifics.

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  • The US economy grew much faster than previously thought in the third quarter | CNN Business

    The US economy grew much faster than previously thought in the third quarter | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    America’s economy grew much faster than previously thought in the third quarter, a sign that the Federal Reserve’s battle to cool the economy to fight inflation t is having only limited impact.

    The Commerce Department’s final reading Thursday morning showed gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the US economy, grew at an annual pace of 3.2% between July and September. That was above the 2.9% estimate from a month ago. Economists surveyed by Refinitiv had expected GDP to stay unchanged from its previous reading.

    The report said the stronger-than-expected reading was due to increases in exports and consumer spending that were partly offset by a decrease in spending on new housing. Consumer spending is responsible for more than two-thirds of the nation’s economic activity.

    The Fed has been raising interest rates throughout the year to cool demand for goods and services and reduce inflation. Economists have been worried for quite some time that the Fed’s actions could tip the US economy into recession next year.

    Inflation has cooled in recent readings, but the US economy has stayed strong. Some surveys released this week suggest the Fed’s higher rates are not slowing spending by businesses or consumers.

    A recent survey of chief financial officers found the current level of interest rates have not impacted their spending plans. And consumer confidence improved in December according to a survey by the Conference Board, reaching the highest level since April.

    In addition, employers have continued to hire at a historically strong pace, although layoffs have increased in some industries, especially technology.

    A separate Labor Department report Thursday showed that unemployment claims remained relatively unchanged.

    Initial weekly claims for unemployment insurance benefits ticked up to 216,000 for the week ended, December 17. The previous week’s total was upwardly revised by 3,000 to 214,000.

    Economists were expecting initial claims to land at 222,000, according to Refinitiv.

    The weekly initial claims totals are hovering around pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, weekly claims averaged 218,000.

    Continuing claims, which include people who are collecting benefits on an ongoing basis, dropped slightly to 1.672 million for the week ended December 10. The prior week’s number of continuing claims were revised up to 1.678 million.

    The final GDP report is one of most backward-looking readings the government releases, looking at the state of the economy nearly three months ago. The current forecast from economists is that growth in the current period will be only 2.4%, significantly slower than Thursday’s reading.

    Still, Wall Street was concerned that the GDP report could give the Fed more runway to raise rates. Stocks fell modestly Thursday. Dow futures were 200 points, or 0.6% lower. S&P 500 futures fell 0.8%.

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  • The Fed will raise rates again. But it’s playing with fire | CNN Business

    The Fed will raise rates again. But it’s playing with fire | CNN Business

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    A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here.


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    The Federal Reserve is all but guaranteed to announce Wednesday that it will once again raise interest rates. But investors are hopeful it will be a smaller increase than the last four hikes.

    Traders are betting on just a half-point increase. Federal funds futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange show an 80% probability of a half-point hike.

    The Fed bumped up rates by three-quarters of a percentage point in the past four meetings (June, July, September and November). That followed two smaller rate hikes earlier this year. The central bank’s key short-term interest rate, which sat at zero at the beginning of the year, is now at a range of 3.75% to 4%.

    The hope is that inflation pressures are finally starting to abate enough that the Fed can pivot — Fed-speak for a series of smaller rate hikes -— to avoid crashing the economy into a recession.

    But it may not be that simple. The government reported Friday that a key measure of wholesale prices, the Producer Price Index, rose 7.4% over the past 12 months through November. That was a bit higher than the expected rate of 7.2% but a marked slowdown from the 8% increase through October.

    The more widely watched Consumer Price Index data for November comes out Tuesday, just a day before the Fed announcement. CPI rose 7.7% year-over-year through October.

    As long as inflation remains a problem, the Fed is going to have to tread cautiously.

    “Inflation has probably peaked but it may not come down as quickly as people want it to,” said Kathy Jones, chief fixed income strategist for the Schwab Center for Financial Research.

    Jones still thinks the Fed will raise rates by only half a point this week and may look to hike them just a quarter point in early 2023. But she conceded that the Fed is now sort of “making it up as they go along.”

    The other problem: The Fed’s rate hikes this year have had limited impact on the economy so far. Yes, mortgage rates have spiked and that has severely hurt demand for housing, but the job market remains strong. Wages are growing, and consumers are still spending. That can’t last indefinitely.

    “The cumulative impact of higher rates are just beginning. Hence, the Fed has to step down its pace a bit,” Jones said.

    So investors are going to need to pay attention not to just what the Fed says in its policy statement about rates and what Powell talks about in his press conference. The Fed also will release its latest projections for gross domestic product growth, the job market and consumer prices Wednesday.

    In September, the Fed’s consensus forecasts called for GDP growth of 1.2% in 2023, an unemployment rate of 4.4% and an increase in personal consumption expenditures, the Fed’s preferred measure or inflation, of 2.8%. It seems likely that the Fed will cut its GDP target and raise its expectations for the jobless rate and consumer prices.

    The likelihood of an economic downturn is increasing, and the Fed’s projections may reflect that. But the Fed is not expected to start cutting interest rates until 2024 at the earliest, so it may be too late for the central bank to prevent a recession.

    “A pivot or pause is not a cure-all for this market,” said Keith Lerner, co-chief investment officer at Truist Advisory Services. “Rate cuts may be too late. Recession risks are still relatively high.”

    The US economy isn’t in a recession yet. But are American shoppers tapped out? We’ll get a better sense of that Thursday after the government reports retail sales figures for November.

    Economists are actually forecasting a small dip of 0.1% in retail sales from October. But it’s important to put that number in context. Retail sales surged 1.3% from September and 8.3% over the past 12 months.

    So it’s possible consumers were simply getting a head start on holiday shopping. Inflation has an effect on the numbers too, since retail sales have been impacted (positively) by the fact that people have to spend more money for stuff.

    One market strategist also pointed out that as long as price increases continue to slow, consumers will feel more confident as well.

    “Everybody has been talking about inflation this year. Going forward, it will be more about disinflation in 2023 or 2024,” said Arnaud Cosserat, CEO of Comgest Global Investors.

    What does that mean for investors? Cosserat said people should be looking for quality consumer companies that still have pricing power and can maintain their profit margins. Two stocks that his firm owns that he said fit that bill: Luxury goods maker Hermes

    (HESAF)     and cosmetics giant L’Oreal

    (LRLCF)    .

    Monday: UK monthly GDP; earnings from Oracle

    (ORCL)

    Tuesday: US Consumer Price Index; Germany economic sentiment

    Wednesday: Fed meeting; EU industrial production; UK inflation; earnings from Lennar

    (LEN)     and Trip.com

    (TCOM)

    Thursday: US retail sales; US weekly jobless claims; ECB and Bank of England rate decisions; earnings from Jabil

    (JBL)

    Friday: Eurozone PMI; UK retail sales; earnings from Accenture

    (ACN)    , Darden Restaurants

    (DRI)     and Winnebago

    (WGO)

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  • Job site ZipRecruiter cutting 20% of its staff | CNN Business

    Job site ZipRecruiter cutting 20% of its staff | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Fewer employers looking for workers means 270 employees at job search site ZipRecruiter will soon be out of a job.

    The company is cutting 20% of its staff by the end of this month, the company disclosed in a filing late Wednesday.

    “This action was taken in response to current market conditions and after reducing other discretionary expenses, with a view toward driving long-term efficiency,” according to the filing.

    The company had previously said it is experiencing a “typical softness in jobs posting” in January, but sounded other alarms about a slowing in the labor market. Its first quarter revenue fell 19% from a year earlier and it forecast that its revenue in the current quarter would be down nearly 30% from the second quarter of 2022.

    The job search site still projects adjusted earnings that are roughly the same for this year as last year, although it said to do so it would “respond to our environment quickly” by “increasing our focus on profitability during times of decreased demand from employers.”

    About half of the 270 employees losing their job are in the sales and customer support teams. The company will take a charge of between $7 million to $9 million to cover severance costs. It expects to still make the same level of profits, excluding special items such as severance, as in its earlier guidance.

    It also announced that CEO Ian Siegel agreed to a 30% cut in base salary, as of June 1. He has a base salary of $550,000, according to an earlier filing, but had total compensation last year of about twice that amount.

    Layoffs across the tech sector have become widespread in recent months. Amazon, one of the nation’s largest private-sector employers, has announced two rounds of job cuts this year totaling 27,000 positions, and Facebook holding company Meta has announced 21,000 job cuts since last fall. Alphabet, Microsoft and Salesforce — and especially Twitter — have all announced large job cuts.

    Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said Thursday there have been 137,000 layoffs in the sector in the first five months of the year, the most job cuts in the sector since there were 168,000 in all of 2001, the year after the dot.com bubble burst.

    Despite all the job cuts in technology and also in media, US employers overall are still hiring more people than they’re cutting.

    Private sector employment increased by 278,000 jobs in May, according to ADP’s monthly National Employment Report released Thursday, much stronger than the 170,000 forecast by economists. Economists are also forecasting a gain of 190,000 jobs for May when the Labor Department issues its monthly jobs report Friday. The April jobs report also came in much stronger than expected, as employers added 253,000 jobs.

    Still, hiring is at a slower pace than a year ago, when employers added 445,000 jobs a month, on average, in the first half of 2022. The Labor Department’s count of job openings, while up 3% in April compared to March, is down 14% from a year earlier — though that still means there are 1.8 jobs available for every job seeker.

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  • Dylan Mulvaney says Bud Light’s backlash response was ‘worse than not hiring a trans person at all’ | CNN Business

    Dylan Mulvaney says Bud Light’s backlash response was ‘worse than not hiring a trans person at all’ | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Dylan Mulvaney on Thursday broke her silence about the fallout that occurred after the trans influencer made two Instagram posts sponsored by Bud Light earlier this year.

    Bud Light’s sponsorship of an April 1 Instagram post by Mulvaney set off a firestorm of anti-trans backlash and calls for a boycott. Mulvaney herself also faced a wave of hate and violent threats.

    Now, in a video posted to Instagram Thursday, Mulvaney is calling on Bud Light and other companies not only to work with trans and other queer influencers, but to support them through the process, even as trans rights are under fire across the country and corporations face anti-LGBTQ+ campaigns.

    Mulvaney said she has “been scared to leave my house, and I have been ridiculed in public, I have been followed,” and she criticized Bud Light for not standing by her and the partnership. She said the company never reached out to her in the wake of the backlash.

    “For a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse in my opinion than not hiring a trans person at all because it gives customers permission to be as transphobic and hateful as they want,” Mulvaney said. “And the hate doesn’t end with me, it has serious and grave consequences for the rest of our community.”

    When the backlash ignited in April, Bud Light first responded with a straightforward explanation of its relationship with social media influencers like Mulvaney. But later it released a vague statement from the CEO that failed to offer support for Mulvaney or the trans community. Bud Light sales dropped in the ensuing weeks, the company lost its top rating from a major LGBTQ+ nonprofit and it placed two marketing executives on leave.

    The controversy over the sponsored posts came as trans rights are under attack. Over 400 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced in state legislatures this year through April 3, according to American Civil Liberties Union, including ones restricting access to gender-affirming care for trans youth. Generally, transgender people are more than four times as likely to be victims of violent crime than cisgender people, according to a study from the UCLA School of Law.

    The Bud Light backlash also coincided with anti-LGBTQ+ campaigns against other big brands, including Target.

    Mulvaney’s statement followed a Wednesday appearance by Brendan Whitworth, CEO of Bud Light owner Anheuser-Busch, on CBS Mornings, in which he repeated the company’s recent statements about wanting to “focus on what we do best, which is brewing great beer for everyone,” and did not directly answer a question about whether the campaign was a mistake.

    “I think the conversation surrounding Bud Light has moved away from beer, and the conversation has become divisive, and Bud Light really does not belong there, Bud Light should be about bringing people together,” Whitworth said.

    In her video, Mulvaney appeared to address that sentiment, saying, “supporting trans people, it shouldn’t be political.”

    “There should be nothing controversial or divisive about working with us, and I know it’s possible because I’ve worked with some fantastic companies who care,” Mulvaney said. “But caring about the LGBTQ+ community requires a lot more than just a donation somewhere during Pride month.”

    She added: “We’re customers, too, I know a lot of trans and queer people who love beer.”

    In a statement responding to Mulvaney’s video, an Anheuser-Busch spokesperson told CNN on Thursday that, “we remain committed to the programs and partnerships we have forged over decades with organizations across a number of communities, including those in the LGBTQ+ community. The privacy and safety of our employees and our partners is always our top priority. As we move forward, we will focus on what we do best — brewing great beer for everyone and earning our place in moments that matter to our consumers.”

    –CNN’s Danielle Wiener-Bronner contributed to this report.

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