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Tag: Jobs and careers

  • Economic spotlight turns to US jobs data as markets are roiled by high rates and uncertainties

    Economic spotlight turns to US jobs data as markets are roiled by high rates and uncertainties

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    WASHINGTON — Job growth in the United States has remained resilient for the past 2 1/2 years even after high inflation flared and the Federal Reserve jacked up interest rates at the fastest pace in four decades.

    The September jobs report that the Labor Department will issue Friday will show just how much of that durability remains. Additional threats to the economy have emerged in recent weeks, including much higher long-term interest rates, rising energy prices, the resumption of student loan payments, widening labor strikes and the ongoing threat of a government shutdown.

    Economists have forecast that employers added 163,000 jobs last month, a solid increase, though down sharply from the pace earlier this year, when the economy was adding an average of 310,000 jobs a month in the first quarter. The unemployment rate is expected to drop to 3.7%, near a 50-year low, from 3.8% in August.

    A growing body of evidence, though, suggests that the job market is cooling — something Fed officials would like to see. A slower pace of hiring eases pressure on employers to offer higher pay to find and keep employees, which, in turn, can help cool inflation. Businesses often raise their prices to cover their higher labor costs.

    Fewer Americans are quitting their jobs after a surge in resignations in the aftermath of the pandemic. Most people quit to take other jobs with higher pay, so the decline in quitting indicates that workers now see fewer available opportunities elsewhere.

    And while the government reported a jump in open jobs in August, other measures, like those compiled by the job listings website Indeed, showed little change in that month and a steady decline in job vacancies for more than a year.

    Yet the job market has been so strong for so long that a slowdown, as long as it remains gradual, would still keep it at healthy levels. The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits, which tends to track the pace of layoffs, has remained persistently low. Many companies are reluctant to shed workers after having found it difficult to staff up again after the 2020 pandemic recession ended with a quick and robust recovery.

    And surveys by the Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, found that both manufacturing and services companies kept adding jobs last month. Among banks, restaurants, retailers and other service sector companies, hiring accelerated in September compared with August, according to the ISM.

    Friday’s jobs report comes at a time when the Fed is scrutinizing every piece of economic data to determine whether it needs to raise its key rate once more this year or instead just leave it elevated well into next year. After 11 hikes beginning in March 2022, the Fed’s benchmark rate stands at a 22-year high of roughly 5.4%. The central bank’s rate increases have led to much higher borrowing costs for consumer and businesses across the economy.

    On the one hand, Fed officials, including Chair Jerome Powell, have stressed that inflation remains too far above their 2% target and that another rate hike might be needed to reduce it to that level. At the same time, several Fed policymakers have underscored that they want to be careful not to raise borrowing rates so much as to trigger a deep recession.

    One of them, Mary Daly, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said Thursday that a slower pace of hiring could help persuade the Fed not to hike again this year.

    “If we continue to see a cooling labor market and inflation heading back to our target, we can hold interest rates steady and let the effects of policy continue to work,” Daly said in remarks to the Economic Club of New York.

    After a period in the spring when traders seemed to expect the Fed to reverse course and cut interest rates soon, the financial markets have increasingly recognized that the central bank will keep its key rate elevated well into 2024. That’s one reason why the yield on the 10-year Treasury note has surged since July, reaching a 16-year high this week before slipping to 4.7% Thursday.

    The 10-year yield is a benchmark rate for other borrowing costs, including mortgages, auto loans and business borrowing. The average rate on a fixed 30-year mortgage jumped to nearly 7.5% this week, the highest level in 23 years. The higher yield has, in turn, punished stocks. The S&P 500 stock index has tumbled 7.2% since late July.

    The surge in longer-term rates coincides with other threats to the economy, from higher gas prices and this week’s resumption of student loan payments to the autoworkers’ strike and the risk of a government shutdown next month, all of which could leave consumers with less money to spend to power the economy.

    The economy’s growth in the current October-December quarter could slow to an annual rate as low as a 0.7%, Goldman Sachs has estimated, sharply below a roughly 3.5% pace in the July-September quarter.

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  • Auto worker strike highlights disparities between temporary and permanent employees

    Auto worker strike highlights disparities between temporary and permanent employees

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    TOLEDO, Ohio — When Rhonda Naus got a job inspecting Jeep Wranglers fresh off the assembly line, her paycheck added up to roughly half of what her co-workers were making. But with that came an expectation that her temporary status eventually would become permanent with a big jump in wages.

    Six years later, she’s still doing the same work as her colleagues at Stellantis and still making a lot less.

    “I knew I had to start at the bottom. I didn’t think I’d be at the bottom forever,” said Naus, who’s among thousands of striking United Auto Workers nationwide pushing for pay and benefit increases along with an end to multiple tiers of wages for workers across the companies.

    From office workers to delivery drivers, companies have become increasingly reliant on temporary workers. Automakers have used the lower-paid workers for years to fill in for absent and vacationing full-time employees and to staff up when production increases.

    Tiers for the Detroit automakers were created starting in 2007 as the UAW tried to help them out of serious financial troubles. Even so, GM and Chrysler ended up in government-funded bankruptcies.

    Today, union leaders say the Detroit automakers are abusing the system to save money by treating temps like full-time workers — one major point of contention in current contract talks that has led to more than 25,000 auto workers going on strike.

    “Temp work has to be temporary work,” said UAW President Shawn Fain weeks before the strike began. “We’re going to end the abuse of temps.”

    The union is also asking for pay raises as part of the contract talks, as well as a 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay, the restoration of traditional defined-benefit pensions for new hires and a return of cost-of-living pay raises, among other benefits.

    Under contracts negotiated in 2019, temporary workers reach full-time status at GM after 19 months of continuous employment and at Ford after two years. At Stellantis, maker of Jeeps, Rams and Chryslers, they get preferential hiring but no guarantees.

    In the current negotiations, GM and Stellantis have made offers to increase temporary worker starting pay from $16.67 to about $20 per hour. Ford raised its offer to $21 per hour with profit sharing and said it would make temporaries full-time workers after 90 days of continuous service.

    Once temporary workers become full time, they start on a higher pay scale that eventually would reach the top assembly plant wage of $32 per hour.

    Of the Detroit Three, Stellantis relies most heavily on temporary employees, who make up about 12% of its UAW workforce, or just over 5,100 employees. GM said its temporary workforce accounts for between 5-10% of its total union members while Ford is at about 3%.

    Temps — also known as supplemental employees — account for about one in every five of the 5,800 unionized workers at the Stellantis plant that makes Jeeps.

    “You can be here 10 years and still not be full time. That’s crazy,” said Logan Bohn, of Woodhaven, Michigan, who has worked at the plant in Toledo for two years.

    Starting pay for Stellantis temporary workers is $15.78 per hour — less than some fast food restaurants — and caps out at $19.28 after four years.

    Neither Ford nor GM would comment on Fain’s assertion that the companies are paying poverty wages to temps. A Stellantis spokeswoman noted that the company has said it wants an agreement “that fairly rewards our workforce for their contribution to our success, without significantly disadvantaging Stellantis against our nonunion competitors.”

    The UAW’s effort to eliminate tier wages was emboldened this summer when UPS agreed to end the system for its drivers in a new contract with the Teamsters.

    Along the picket lines outside the auto plants, even workers who wouldn’t directly benefit from ending the tier-wage system say it’s a top issue for them. Jennifer Navarre, a full-timer on the Jeep assembly line in Toledo, Ohio, said it’s an unfair arrangement.

    “We have to fight together,” she said.

    It’s not just the wages that are unequal for temporary workers. They have less health care benefits and don’t get profit sharing checks or other performance bonuses. They also must deal with unpredictable schedules and can be told to work overtime when others are allowed to go home.

    “Some weeks you’re working six or seven days, then a few weeks later, it’s boom, ‘We don’t need you here’ or ‘We only need you on Monday,’” Naus said.

    Workers in Toledo say there’s high turnover among temporary workers and that many left when Amazon opened a nearby distribution center and after a solar panel plant expanded its operations.

    Orlando Evans, hired in by Jeep five years ago, said many temps who’ve stayed work second jobs with flexible hours because they never know when they’ll be asked to work six days a week or none at all. He started a business driving people to the airport and around town.

    “The idea came on after all the times I’d been sent home,” he said. Evans hasn’t left the temporary job with the automaker because he needs health care coverage for his three children and two step kids.

    “Outside of that, there’s not too much more reason to stay,” he said.

    Courtney Torres, who has four children at home, said she lives paycheck to paycheck while working six days a week.

    “I just get health care and hope,” she said.

    The hope, she said, is that the new contract will give her and the others a direct route to full-time employment.

    “I want a career, I want to be some place, I want to be able to take a vacation, take my kids on vacation,” she said. “Honestly, if they don’t give us a clear path, I don’t plan on staying. I’m struggling to keep up.”

    ___

    Krisher reported from Detroit.

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  • Auto worker strike highlights disparities between temporary and permanent employees

    Auto worker strike highlights disparities between temporary and permanent employees

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    TOLEDO, Ohio — When Rhonda Naus got a job inspecting Jeep Wranglers fresh off the assembly line, her paycheck added up to roughly half of what her co-workers were making. But with that came an expectation that her temporary status eventually would become permanent with a big jump in wages.

    Six years later, she’s still doing the same work as her colleagues at Stellantis and still making a lot less.

    “I knew I had to start at the bottom. I didn’t think I’d be at the bottom forever,” said Naus, who’s among thousands of striking United Auto Workers nationwide pushing for pay and benefit increases along with an end to multiple tiers of wages for workers across the companies.

    From office workers to delivery drivers, companies have become increasingly reliant on temporary workers. Automakers have used the lower-paid workers for years to fill in for absent and vacationing full-time employees and to staff up when production increases.

    Tiers for the Detroit automakers were created starting in 2007 as the UAW tried to help them out of serious financial troubles. Even so, GM and Chrysler ended up in government-funded bankruptcies.

    Today, union leaders say the Detroit automakers are abusing the system to save money by treating temps like full-time workers — one major point of contention in current contract talks that has led to more than 25,000 auto workers going on strike.

    “Temp work has to be temporary work,” said UAW President Shawn Fain weeks before the strike began. “We’re going to end the abuse of temps.”

    The union is also asking for pay raises as part of the contract talks, as well as a 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay, the restoration of traditional defined-benefit pensions for new hires and a return of cost-of-living pay raises, among other benefits.

    Under contracts negotiated in 2019, temporary workers reach full-time status at GM after 19 months of continuous employment and at Ford after two years. At Stellantis, maker of Jeeps, Rams and Chryslers, they get preferential hiring but no guarantees.

    In the current negotiations, GM and Stellantis have made offers to increase temporary worker starting pay from $16.67 to about $20 per hour. Ford raised its offer to $21 per hour with profit sharing and said it would make temporaries full-time workers after 90 days of continuous service.

    Once temporary workers become full time, they start on a higher pay scale that eventually would reach the top assembly plant wage of $32 per hour.

    Of the Detroit Three, Stellantis relies most heavily on temporary employees, who make up about 12% of its UAW workforce, or just over 5,100 employees. GM said its temporary workforce accounts for between 5-10% of its total union members while Ford is at about 3%.

    Temps — also known as supplemental employees — account for about one in every five of the 5,800 unionized workers at the Stellantis plant that makes Jeeps.

    “You can be here 10 years and still not be full time. That’s crazy,” said Logan Bohn, of Woodhaven, Michigan, who has worked at the plant in Toledo for two years.

    Starting pay for Stellantis temporary workers is $15.78 per hour — less than some fast food restaurants — and caps out at $19.28 after four years.

    Neither Ford nor GM would comment on Fain’s assertion that the companies are paying poverty wages to temps. A Stellantis spokeswoman noted that the company has said it wants an agreement “that fairly rewards our workforce for their contribution to our success, without significantly disadvantaging Stellantis against our nonunion competitors.”

    The UAW’s effort to eliminate tier wages was emboldened this summer when UPS agreed to end the system for its drivers in a new contract with the Teamsters.

    Along the picket lines outside the auto plants, even workers who wouldn’t directly benefit from ending the tier-wage system say it’s a top issue for them. Jennifer Navarre, a full-timer on the Jeep assembly line in Toledo, Ohio, said it’s an unfair arrangement.

    “We have to fight together,” she said.

    It’s not just the wages that are unequal for temporary workers. They have less health care benefits and don’t get profit sharing checks or other performance bonuses. They also must deal with unpredictable schedules and can be told to work overtime when others are allowed to go home.

    “Some weeks you’re working six or seven days, then a few weeks later, it’s boom, ‘We don’t need you here’ or ‘We only need you on Monday,’” Naus said.

    Workers in Toledo say there’s high turnover among temporary workers and that many left when Amazon opened a nearby distribution center and after a solar panel plant expanded its operations.

    Orlando Evans, hired in by Jeep five years ago, said many temps who’ve stayed work second jobs with flexible hours because they never know when they’ll be asked to work six days a week or none at all. He started a business driving people to the airport and around town.

    “The idea came on after all the times I’d been sent home,” he said. Evans hasn’t left the temporary job with the automaker because he needs health care coverage for his three children and two step kids.

    “Outside of that, there’s not too much more reason to stay,” he said.

    Courtney Torres, who has four children at home, said she lives paycheck to paycheck while working six days a week.

    “I just get health care and hope,” she said.

    The hope, she said, is that the new contract will give her and the others a direct route to full-time employment.

    “I want a career, I want to be some place, I want to be able to take a vacation, take my kids on vacation,” she said. “Honestly, if they don’t give us a clear path, I don’t plan on staying. I’m struggling to keep up.”

    ___

    Krisher reported from Detroit.

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  • The Army is launching a sweeping overhaul of its recruiting

    The Army is launching a sweeping overhaul of its recruiting

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    WASHINGTON — The Army is launching a sweeping overhaul of its recruiting to focus more on young people who have spent time in college or are job hunting early in their careers, as it scrambles to reverse years of enlistment shortfalls.

    A major part of this is the formation of a new professional force of recruiters instead of relying on soldiers randomly assigned to the task.

    Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, in an interview with The Associated Press, said some of the changes will begin in the next 90 days but a wholesale transformation will take years.

    “We have not been recruiting very well for many more years than one would think from just looking at the headlines in the last 18 months,” Wormuth said, adding that the Army hasn’t met its annual goal for new enlistment contracts since 2014.

    Last year, the Army fell 15,000 short of its enlistment goal of 60,000 while competing with higher-paying companies in a tight job market and trying to overcome two years of the coronavirus pandemic, which shut down access to schools and public events. In the fiscal year that ended Saturday, the Army brought in a bit more than 50,000 recruits, falling short of the publicly stated “stretch goal” of 65,000.

    Army officials, however, said that number still allows the service to meet its required total strength of 452,000. They said the Army also signed up an additional 4,600 recruits for future contracts, in an effort to build back the pool of delayed-entry recruits, which had eroded. Those recruits will go to basic training over the next year.

    On Tuesday, Wormuth told reporters in a briefing that the Army has not yet decided what the new fiscal year’s recruiting goal will be, but said it would likely be less than 65,000. The lower number, she said, also reflects the fact that the size of the Army has been shrinking from the 485,000 level during the peaks of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

    In testimony before Congress during his confirmation hearing, Gen. Randy George, who is now chief of staff of the Army, called recruiting ” the No. 1 challenge that we face and the one thing that we have to be focused on.” And he said the service must better tailor its messaging and marketing.

    The Navy and the Air Force also fell short of their recruitment goals for the fiscal year that ended Saturday, but leaders said both did better than predictions earlier this year. The Marine Corps and the tiny Space Force have said they would meet their enlistment targets.

    Marine leaders, including Brig. Gen. Walker Field, who heads the Corps’ eastern recruiting region, have said one key to their success is choosing the right recruiters and encouraging successful ones to stay on. The Marines are also repositioning recruiting stations to areas where populations have grown.

    The Army’s recruiting increase this year is considered a short-term victory made possible by a number of new and upgraded programs and benefits. But Wormuth said it will take systemic changes in how the Army approaches the labor market and sells the service as a career to turn things around.

    At the same time, she said the Army must concentrate on the things it can change since there are many things it cannot, such as lack of fitness among youths and unwillingness to serve.

    While recruiters have long relied heavily on high school seniors or graduates to fill the ranks, Wormuth said they need to reach beyond that pool and seek applicants on job sites like ZipRecruiter, Indeed or Glassdoor.

    “The vast majority of people who are out there making employment decisions are people who have more than a high school education,” Wormuth said. “We need to figure out how to talk to that much broader labor market.”

    She said that as more students go on to college, high school graduates now make up just 15% to 20% of the labor market. And the Army gets about half of its recruits from that shrinking population.

    “We are not abandoning the high school market by any means,” Wormuth said, but by 2028 she wants the Army to have one-third of its recruits to have more than a high school diploma, rather than the current one-fifth,.

    Part of that is showcasing the Army’s higher-tech jobs with computers, satellites and artificial intelligence to lure those who may still think of the service as just infantry troops.

    The other major change, which will begin to form in the coming months, is the transition to a professional recruiting workforce. Rather than using soldiers who are “voluntold” to take on a special assignment as recruiters, the Army is establishing a new permanent and specialized enlistment workforce.

    There are currently about 8,000 Army recruiters, and only a bit more than a third have recruiting as their actual job classification.

    The change will mirror how private companies work and will take several years. But Wormuth said the Army will quickly start a pilot program to begin identifying and training the new force. As part of the process, the Army will use a new aptitude test designed to identify soldiers who have a higher potential for being successful recruiters.

    Other changes will include planning larger Army career fairs and restructuring the command leadership, elevating the head of recruiting to a three-star job with a four-year term for more continuity.

    And, while the Army will still look at increased bonuses and push the health care and education funding in the military, money is not likely to be a key driver for recruits. And recruiters will need to sell the less tangible benefits of service.

    “At the end of the day, I think that what offsets what we don’t offer in terms of compensation we make up for with being part of something bigger,” Wormuth said. “Ask anyone wearing a uniform in my office. They will tell you that what keeps them re-enlisting or staying until 20 years or beyond is the people and doing something that really matters.”

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  • More evidence that the US job market remains hot after US job openings rise unexpectedly in August

    More evidence that the US job market remains hot after US job openings rise unexpectedly in August

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    WASHINGTON — U.S. job openings unexpectedly rose in August, another sign the U.S. labor market remains strong despite higher interest rates — perhaps too strong for the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve.

    American employers posted 9.6 million job openings in August, up from 8.9 million in July and the first uptick in three months, the Labor Department said Tuesday. Economists had expected only another 8.9 million vacancies. The number of layoffs and of people quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in their prospects — were both essentially unchanged from July.

    Nick Bunker, head of economic research at the Indeed Hiring Lab, noted that most of the August increase in openings came from just one industry: professional and business services. “”Yes, the job market is still retaining a lot of heat,” he said, “but it hasn’t gone back on the boil.”

    The Federal Reserve wants to see the red-hot U.S. job market cool off, reducing pressure on businesses to raise pay, which can feed into higher prices. The central bank has raised its benchmark rate 11 times since March 2022 to combat inflation.

    Fed Chair Jerome Powell has expressed hope that hiring would moderate in the least painful way possible — with fewer vacancies and less job-hopping rather than through layoffs.

    The strong jobs data sent a ripple through U.S. markets with many investors seeing increased odds of more aggressive actions by the Fed. The Dow Jones dipped by 100 points in seconds.

    So far, the economy has cooperated. Openings and quits are down from their 2022 peaks, while the unemployment rate (at 3.8% in August) remains near a half-century low. And inflation, which hit a four-decade high in mid-2022, has decelerated markedly over the past year, raising hopes that the Fed can achieve a so-called soft landing — raising rates just enough to rein in rising prices without tipping the economy into a recession.

    The Fed chose not to raise rates at its last meeting Sept. 19-20. But Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said the unexpected increase in openings may keep the Fed “open to another rate hike this year.”

    Loretta Mester, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, late Monday said that rising gas prices could thwart further progress on inflation by pushing up related costs, such as shipping and airfares, and underscored that the Fed may still hike its key rate later this year. The rate is already at a 22-year high of about 5.4%.

    “I suspect we may well need to raise the (Fed’s) rate once more this year and then hold it there for some time as we accumulate more information on economic developments,” Mester said.

    _____

    AP Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report.

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  • Billionaire Ryan Cohen takes over as CEO at GameStop, adding to chairman role

    Billionaire Ryan Cohen takes over as CEO at GameStop, adding to chairman role

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    Billionaire Ryan Cohen, the largest individual investor in GameStop, is taking over as CEO at the video game retailer.

    Cohen is already the board chairman and the company’s largest individual investor. GameStop said in a statement that Cohen won’t receive compensation for serving as its president, CEO and chairman.

    The CEO job at GameStop, which became one of the most well-known meme stocks to create a frenzy among retail traders on Wall Street, has become a rotating door with the company trying to survive as technology upends the gaming industry.

    In June, the Grapevine, Texas-based company fired CEO Matthew Furlong, the former Amazon executive who was brought in two years ago to turn the struggling video game retailer around.

    GameStop’s previous CEOs include Richard Fontaine, Daniel DeMatteo, Paul Raines and George Sherman.

    Shares of Gamestop Corp. spiked 7% Thursday before the opening bell.

    Cohen’s holding company RC Ventures is the biggest investor in GameStop, holding about a 12% stake. Cohen co-founded Chewy, the online pet supply company, and had hoped to modernize GameStop, founded in 1984.

    Cohen began snapping up large stakes of GameStop at a time when the company was being buffeted by new technology. Gamers no longer needed GameStop because they were downloading games, rather than buying digital discs.

    GameStop’s meme stock story is so intriguing that a movie was created about it, called “ Dumb Money.” The company’s shares took off two years ago after a band of smaller-pocketed investors helped boost its stock 1,000% in two weeks. The surge for GameStop and other downtrodden stocks at the time laid bare how much power is being wielded by a new generation of investors, armed with apps on their phones that make trading fun.

    During the run-up of GameStop’s price, many people were bellowing on Reddit and other social media platforms that this was their chance to stick it to hedge funds. But the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission has said that it doesn’t believe hedge funds were broadly affected by investments in GameStop and other meme stocks.

    In June 2021, GameStop raised more than $1 billion in a stock sale. A previous stock offering raised about $551 million.

    Last year GameStop’s shares surged after the video game retailer announced that it would attempt its first stock split in 15 years.

    But the shares have seesawed back and forth over time, going through spurts of ups and downs. The shares currently hover near $20.

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  • Chevron says Australian LNG plant is back to full production after 3 days at 80% output

    Chevron says Australian LNG plant is back to full production after 3 days at 80% output

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    The Chevron Corp. says a liquefied natural gas plant in Australia has resumed full production after a fault cut output by one-fifth for three days

    ByThe Associated Press

    September 18, 2023, 1:23 AM

    A Chevron LNG processing plant is under construction on Barrow Island, Western Australia, April 11, 2016. A Chevron Corp. liquefied natural gas plant in Australia had resumed full production after a fault cut output by one-fifth for three days amid strike action, the U.S. energy giant said on Monday, Sept. 18, 2023. (Ray Strange/AAP Image via AP)

    The Associated Press

    ADELAIDE, Australia — A Chevron Corp. liquefied natural gas plant in Australia had resumed full production after a fault cut output by one-fifth for three days amid strike action, the U.S. energy giant said on Monday.

    A turbine tripped at the Wheatstone LNG plant in Western Australia state on Thursday last week as around 500 unionized Chevron staff escalated strike action over pay and conditions.

    Wheatstone and Chevron’s Gorgon plant, both in the state’s Pilbara region, account for between 5% and 7% of global LNG supply.

    Chevron said full production did not resume at Wheatstone until Sunday night.

    “During this time, LNG continued to be produced at approximately 80% of usual rates and vessel loading continued,” a Chevron statement said.

    “There has been no change to scheduled LNG deliveries,” Chevron added.

    Wheatstone produces 8.9 million metric tons (9.8 million U.S. tons) of LNG a year.

    About 500 Chevron employees who are members of the Offshore Alliance, a partnership between the Australian Workers’ Union and the Maritime Union of Australia that represents workers in Australia’s offshore oil and gas industry, stopped work for a second consecutive day on Sunday and warned of further disruptions to come.

    The union argues that less experienced non-union labor that is filling in for striking union members would lead to a reduction in LNG output and cost Chevron more than the higher wages and improved conditions that are demanded.

    The union blamed incompetence of non-union labor for a four-hour delay in LNG being shipped from Wheatstone on Friday.

    “It is pretty clear that Chevron’s so-called contingency workforce aren’t up to it,” Offshore Alliance posted on social media on Saturday.

    Australian Associated Press reported the turbine fault at Wheatstone was caused by an instrumentation issue unrelated to the strike. The strike action includes bans on mooring tankers and loading them with LNG, The Australian Financial Review newspaper reported last week.

    The Offshore Alliance has not responded to requests for comment.

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  • New York employers must include pay rates in job ads under new state law

    New York employers must include pay rates in job ads under new state law

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    ALBANY, N.Y. — Help-wanted advertisements in New York will have to disclose proposed pay rates after a statewide salary transparency law goes into effect on Sunday, part of growing state and city efforts to give women and people of color a tool to advocate for equal pay for equal work.

    Employers with at least four workers will be required to disclose salary ranges for any job advertised externally to the public or internally to workers interested in a promotion or transfer.

    Pay transparency, supporters say, will prevent employers from offering some job candidates less or more money based on age, gender, race or other factors not related to their skills.

    Advocates believe the change also could help underpaid workers realize they make less than people doing the same job.

    A similar pay transparency ordinance has been in effect in New York City since 2022. Now, the rest of the state joins a handful of others with similar laws, including California and Colorado.

    “There is a trend, not just in legislatures but among workers, to know how much they can expect going into a job. There’s a demand from workers to know of the pay range,” said Da Hae Kim, a state policy senior counsel at the National Women’s Law Center.

    The law, signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2022, also will apply to remote employees who work outside of New York but report to a supervisor, office or worksite based in the state. The law would not apply to government agencies or temporary help firms.

    Compliance will be a challenge, said Frank Kerbein, director of human resources at the New York Business Council, which has criticized the law for putting an additional administrative burden on employers.

    “We have small employers who don’t even know about the law,” said Kerbein, who predicted there would be “a lot of unintentional noncompliance.”

    To avoid trouble when setting a salary range, an employer should examine pay for current employees, said Allen Shoikhetbrod, who practices employment law at Tully Rinckley, a private law firm.

    State Senator Jessica Ramos, a Democrat representing parts of Queens, said the law is a win for labor rights groups.

    “This is something that, organically, workers are asking for,” she said. “Particularly with young people entering the workforce, they’ll have a greater understanding about how their work is valued.”

    ___

    Maysoon Khan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Maysoon Khan on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

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  • Love pop music? Largest US newspaper chain is hiring Taylor Swift and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter writers

    Love pop music? Largest US newspaper chain is hiring Taylor Swift and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter writers

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    LOS ANGELES — This week the United States’ biggest newspaper chain posted to its site two unusual job listings: a Taylor Swift reporter and a Beyoncé Knowles-Carter reporter.

    Gannett, which owns more than 200 daily papers, will employ these new hires through USA Today and The Tennessean, the company’s Nashville-based newspaper. The job description for the Swift-focused role announced Tuesday says the company is seeking “an energetic writer, photographer and social media pro who can quench an undeniable thirst for all things Taylor Swift with a steady stream of content across multiple platforms.”

    “Seeing both the facts and the fury, the Taylor Swift reporter will identify why the pop star’s influence only expands, what her fanbase stands for in pop culture, and the effect she has across the music and business worlds,” the company’s website says.

    Gannett announced Wednesday it’ll also hire a reporter dedicated to covering Beyoncé. The company says it’s looking for a writer who is “capable of a text and video-forward approach, who can capture Beyoncé Knowles-Carter’s effect not only on the many industries in which she operates, but also on society.”

    Online criticism of these new roles come in part because of major layoffs at Gannett, where the workforce has shrunk 47% in the last three years due to layoffs and attrition, according to the NewsGuild. At some newspapers, the union said the headcount has fallen by as much as 90%. Last year alone, Gannett cut about 6% of its roughly 3,440-person U.S. media division.

    Some journalists criticized the listings for presenting superfan behavior as a full-time journalism job, especially as job opportunities shrink and music journalists are paid low wages. And that’s compounded by the existential crises of the job, which is beholden to music streaming, algorithms and clicks.

    Both of the Gannett positions require five years of journalism experience working in a digital-first newsroom and the ability to travel internationally. The hourly rates for these roles is listed in a range of $21.63 and $50.87.

    Omise’eke Tinsley, academic and author of “Beyoncé in Formation: Remixing Black Feminism,” says this type of role makes space for more positive stories about Black women.

    But also, she adds, the existence of both jobs directly reflects Beyoncé and Swift’s economic power. “If there wasn’t that component to it, there wouldn’t be a Beyoncé reporter,” Tinsley said.

    It is not uncommon for journalists to develop a beat on a specific figure, particularly in politics — as evidenced by Amy Chozick, who the New York Times hired in 2013 to cover Hilary Clinton exclusively. But most entertainment journalists are responsible for reporting on a wide range of talent — even if they are subject matter experts on a specific artist.

    That was the case for Los Angeles Times reporter Suzy Exposito, who called herself an “unofficial” beat reporter on popular reggaetonero Bad Bunny because she spent a disproportionate amount of time in a previous job covering him compared to other priorities.

    “His near-weekly output became really overwhelming, and it took away focus from a lot of other artists who were also making compelling work,” Exposito said. “He’s so prolific that I think I literally ran out of new words to describe him at some point. He could use his own reporter, too.”

    She said a major challenge for entertainment journalists is the sheer volume of releases from pop artists. “The business of music is a numbers game,” Exposito said. “Hit records become deluxe editions become sold-out world tours, and it can be dizzying for a general music journalist to keep up with when the market is flooded with more releases than ever before.”

    So, are artist-specific jobs the future of music journalism?

    “It is a bit odd, but Taylor Swift Inc., I guess you would call it, is a big economic driver right now,” said Eric Grode, director of the Goldring Arts Journalism and Communications program at Syracuse University. “Taylor Swift is doing a lot of newsworthy things beyond just selling concert tickets, so a reporter would have a lot of good material to work with.”

    If a reporter takes the job seriously and provides more than breathless concert coverage, their established expertise could be valuable for a news organization, Grode said. Still, there are very few musicians who have such a wide cultural reach.

    Some journalists pointed out that while hiring these massively popular artist-specific roles reflect their influence in pop culture, they do fail to invest in local journalism at a company known for its local dailies.

    “At a time when so much serious news and local reporting is being cut, it’s a decision to raise some questions about,” Rick Edmonds, an expert at the journalism think tank Poynter Institute, said of the new positions.

    “There lies the question of SEO — which is essential to drawing traffic to digital media sites — and the fact that people are more likely to click on stories about Taylor or Beyoncé makes it a pretty obvious motivating factor in designating beat reporters to them,” Exposito said. “Digital media is now competing with fan accounts on social media — not when it comes to accuracy, but when it comes to being the first source to report on pop stars’ developments.”

    Top artists prioritize the attention and work of expert reporters, leading to what critic Soraya Roberts has called a “culture of sameness” — yet another barrier to local arts coverage.

    Tinsley believes that posts on social media criticizing the focus of these new roles may reflect a culture of sexism. “Adding to the pantheon of what figures and representatives matter has the potential to do something important,” she said. “I believe some of the dismissals (of these roles) have to do with what we value and don’t value as a society — and I think there’s an implicit misogyny in it.”

    Representatives for Taylor Swift and Beyoncé did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

    ___

    AP Media Writer David Bauder contributed to this story from New York.

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  • China’s ‘full-time children’ move back in with parents, as good jobs grow scarce

    China’s ‘full-time children’ move back in with parents, as good jobs grow scarce

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    TAIPEI, Taiwan — When she first moved to the Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen after graduating from college, Marguerite Wang imagined she would spend her career working hard in a big city. Instead, she’s living with her parents in her hometown in northeastern China.

    A record of more than one in five young Chinese are out of work, their career ambitions at least temporarily derailed by a depressed job market as the economy struggles to regain momentum after its long bout with COVID-19.

    Wang, who was laid off from a gaming company in December, is among an estimated 16 million young Chinese who, daunted by the difficulties of finding decent jobs, have moved back home. She asked that her English nickname be used out of concern that speaking to foreign media might hurt her job prospects.

    After spending six months unsuccessfully applying for jobs in Shenzhen, the 29-year-old did something she had never imagined doing: she asked to move back home. Now she spends her days watching soap operas and studying Japanese to apply for a master’s program in Japan.

    Adult children returning to the nest is by no means unique to China, and many Chinese do live in extended families. But by some measures, young Chinese are enduring the country’s worst job market in generations, and many are coping by taking refuge with their parents.

    The urban unemployment rate for the 16-to-24 age group reached a record 21.3% in June. In July, the government stopped publishing age-specific data, prompting speculation the politically sensitive numbers had shot up even higher.

    If “full-time adult children” were counted as unemployed, the jobless rate would be more than double the official rate of almost 20 percent in March, Zhang Dandan, a Peking University economics professor, said in an op-ed in the Chinese business magazine Caixin in July.

    That would be a more accurate assessment of the unemployment crisis, said Zhang, who declined an interview request from AP. Her article was later removed from one of Peking University’s WeChat accounts, where it had been shared.

    The job drought is a ticklish problem for the ruling Communist Party, which is overseeing a sluggish post-pandemic economic recovery worsened by a downturn in the property market.

    The economy grew at a 6.3% pace in April-June compared to the same period a year earlier, when parts of China were under draconian COVID-19 lockdowns. Exports have been sinking as other major economies slow.

    China’s overall urban unemployment rate is officially 5.3%, but young people have been disproportionately affected. Over the past two years, Beijing has cracked down on industries such as high tech and education that usually hire young college graduates. That led to mass layoffs and shutdowns in both sectors.

    Other fields such as agriculture and construction lack enough workers, but most college graduates want less physically demanding white-collar positions. Research by online recruitment firm Zhilian Zhaopin showed a quarter of this year’s graduates wanted to work in the tech field.

    “There are job opportunities, but the job opportunities are low quality,” said Xiang Biao, head of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Germany. “So for the only child of a family, who received education, who grew up in a so-called time of abundance, it’s very difficult to embrace that kind of job.”

    An abundance of good jobs has been a mainstay of the social contract between the ruling party and young Chinese, Xiang said. A shortage of decent jobs undermines the Communist Party’s assertion that the country’s strong economy proves China’s political model is superior to Western democracies.

    There’s no evidence of significant political unrest over the unemployment problem, but late last year, protests against the government’s stringent “zero-COVID” policies sprouted across the country in the most direct challenge to the party in over 30 years. An official report in November noted that the growing “anxiety, disappointment and confusion generated by college students” could shake confidence in China’s economic future.

    Resorting to the usual Communist Party exhortations to toughen up, in June Chinese President Xi Jinping urged young people to “eat bitterness” – or endure hardship – “to create a better China.” Earlier this year, the Communist Youth League urged college graduates to “roll up their sleeves” and take up blue-collar jobs.

    Instead of eating bitterness, Xiang said, “full-time adult children” are taking advantage of the wealth accumulated by their parents to sit out the job drought, rest up and prepare for exams for relatively stable government jobs or for postgraduate studies.

    The trend also reflects changing attitudes among parents who typically would push their children to succeed financially and socially but now increasingly value their emotional well-being, especially when they see their them facing practical difficulties, said Mu Zheng, an assistant professor of sociology at the National University of Singapore.

    Having acquired a degree of financial security after decades of sustained economic growth, many parents now have the wherewithal to provide more support to their grown children.

    That was the case for Gui Xiaoru, who passed up the small-town teaching job she was offered after graduation because she was hoping for a better-paying position in a bigger city.

    She instead moved back home to Mianyang, in southwestern China’s Sichuan province, to study for a civil service exam. She cooks dinner for the family and goes grocery shopping. In return, she gets a 2,000 yuan (about $274) monthly allowance that allows her to focus on her studies.

    It’s a peaceful lifestyle, though she knows it’s temporary.

    “I think this phenomenon is normal,” Gui said, “but we can’t keep this status going forever.”

    Many “full-time adult children” are documenting their lives and domestic duties on social media. Some take on clearly defined roles such as cleaning, cooking and running errands for fixed monthly allowances.

    Wang Sinian, a 21-year-old from Bole, a city in far western China’s Xinjiang region near its border with Kazakhstan, started working at her parents’ home in April after finishing her studies at a Canadian university. On the social media platform Xiaohongshu, she documented her daily duties – scrubbing the kitchen, mopping floors, ironing clothes and running errands, in exchange for pocket money.

    But as is true for many of those who return home, her gig turned out to be temporary. In July, she returned to Canada to pursue a master’s degree.

    Marguerite Wang, the former gaming company employee, said she mostly keeps her parents company in return for pocket money.

    She’s cherishing the slower pace of life and time for reflection.

    “I don’t want to be in the same kind of work situation as before,” she said, “where I didn’t have a private life and all my energy went into my work, but I actually didn’t know what I was so busy for.”

    ___

    Associated Press reporter Fu Ting in Washington and researcher Wanqing Chen in Beijing contributed to this story.

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  • Online gig work is growing rapidly, but workers lack job protections, a World Bank report says

    Online gig work is growing rapidly, but workers lack job protections, a World Bank report says

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    WASHINGTON — Online gig work is growing globally, particularly in the developing world, creating an important source of employment for women and young people in poorer countries where jobs are scarce, according to a World Bank report released Thursday.

    The report estimates the number of global online gig workers at as many as 435 million people and says demand for gig work increased 41% between 2016 and the first quarter of 2023. That boost is generating concern, though, among worker rights advocates about the lack of strong job protections in the gig economy, where people work job to job with little security and few employment rights.

    While location-based gig services such as Uber, Lyft and TaskRabbit require labor like moving and delivery, online gig assignments can be largely done at home. Tasks include image tagging, data entry, website design and software development.

    For women in the developing world, “there aren’t enough opportunities and they really struggle to get good quality jobs because of constraints and household responsibilities,” said Namita Datta, lead author of the World Bank report.

    She said online gig work provides women and underprivileged youth “a very interesting opportunity to participate in the labor market.” Roughly 90% of low-income countries’ workforce is in the informal sector, according to the report.

    Worker advocates stress the precariousness of gig work and the lack of job security, accountability from management and other social protections to workers’ health and retirement.

    “The economic conditions in developing countries are different from the U.S., but one thing that is universal is the importance of developing and prioritizing good jobs — with a basic minimum wage and basic labor standards,” said Sharon Block, executive director of Harvard Law School’s Center for Labor and a Just Economy. ”There might be different pathways and timelines of getting there, but that’s a universal value.”

    The report outlines how social insurance coverage is low among gig workers globally. Roughly half of the surveyed gig workers did not have a retirement plan and as much as 73% of Venezuelan gig workers and 75% of Nigerians did not have any savings for retirement.

    Lindsey Cameron, a management professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, said “because there are so few options available to workers in these developing nations,” online gigs — with or without social protections — were better than no job options for many workers.

    “And since workers are economically dependent on this work, and they don’t have any sort of basic protections, that’s what is ultimately exploitive. The odds are always in the platform’s favor, never the workers favor.”

    In the United States, gig workers, both online and onsite, represent a growing portion of the workforce and there is ongoing contention about worker rights on these platforms.

    A 2021 Pew Research study, the latest available, shows that 16% of U.S. adults have earned money through an online gig platform, and 30% of 18- to 29-year-olds have done so.

    Transportation and delivery companies Uber, Lyft, and Grubhub have been entangled in dozens of lawsuits over minimum wage, employment classification and alleged sexual harassment.

    “Right now, there are too many jobs where workers are misclassified,” Block said. “Which means many workers are not guaranteed minimum wage, do not have a social safety net, they don’t get unemployment, or workers compensation.”

    “Now some states have stepped in to mandate paid leave, but if you don’t live in one of those states, you have to play the good boss lottery.”

    The World Bank report was based on surveys across 17 countries, including Egypt, Argentina, Nigeria, Russia and China.

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  • Biden celebrates unions and job creation during a Philadelphia Labor Day appearance

    Biden celebrates unions and job creation during a Philadelphia Labor Day appearance

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    PHILADELPHIA — President Joe Biden, who often says he’s the most pro-union president in history, touted the importance of organized labor and applauded American workers in building the economy during a Labor Day appearance in Philadelphia on Monday.

    The Democratic president spoke about how the economy is recovering from the crippling coronavirus pandemic and about what his administration has done to pay for infrastructure improvements, and cited the importance of unions in building the middle class.

    As the pace of the Republican primary season escalates, Biden is trying to reclaim ground among working class voters that abandoned Democrats and moved their allegiance to former President Donald Trump and others over cultural issues. And on Monday in Philadelphia he gave a preview of that argument, repeatedly referring to Trump as “the last guy” and likening Trump’s job creation record to that of President Herbert Hoover, who presided over the country as it spiraled into the Great Depression and was soundly defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt.

    Speaking of Trump — who is the leading Republican candidate in the polls so far — Biden said: “He left office with fewer jobs in America than when he got elected into office.”

    Biden spoke to a crowd of union members from a diversity of industries — from steel workers to stage hands — and focused on the impact that his administration’s policies have had on working people.

    “This Labor Day we’re celebrating jobs, good-paying jobs, jobs you can raise a family on, union jobs,” Biden told the crowd. Instead of standing at the podium, the president held the microphone in his hand and walked around the stage behind signs that read “UNION STRONG.”

    Labor Day, a holiday honoring workers, comes this year against the backdrop of increasingly emboldened U.S. unions of all kinds and a potential strike by 146,000 United Auto Workers union members.

    The president was asked about whether there might be a strike and said he didn’t think it would happen. That drew a quick reaction from the UAW’s President Shawn Fain, who said he was “shocked” by the president’s words and saying that the president “must know something we don’t know.”

    “I think we’ve got a long ways to go,” Fain said. “All three are required to have an agreement done by Sept. 14. That’s the deadline for all three. And if they don’t there will be action.”

    The union is pushing for pay raises, a shorter work week and restoration of traditional pensions. Fain said General Motors and Stellantis have yet to put forth a response to the union’s economic proposals, while Ford’s economic offer was far short of union demands. The union has filed unfair labor practice charges against GM and Stellantis for being slow to bargain, charges the companies have denied. Fain said the union’s intent is not to strike but to get a fair agreement.

    Labor Day also comes as the U.S. has added jobs and more people have begun looking for work — the most since January. That is news Biden is eager to highlight as he seeks reelection in 2024.

    Biden still needs to persuade voters that his policies are having a positive impact on their lives. Only 36% of U.S. adults approve of Biden’s handling of the economy, slightly lower than the 42% who approve of his overall performance, according to an August poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

    Biden was making his Labor Day speech days after news that America’s employers added 187,000 jobs in August, evidence of a slowing but still-resilient labor market despite the high interest rates the Federal Reserve has imposed.

    Friday’s report from the Labor Department also showed that the unemployment rate rose from 3.5% to 3.8%, the highest level since February 2022 though still low by historical standards. But the rate rose for an encouraging reason: 736,000 people began looking for work last month, the most since January, and not all of them found jobs right away. Only people who are actively looking for a job are counted as unemployed.

    The president frequently talked about the importance of middle-class workers in the economy, saying that when the middle class does well, “everyone does well.”

    At the Tri-State Labor Day event in Philadelphia, hundreds of union workers donning their local T-shirts waited on a warm and muggy morning to see the president speak.

    Lenny Nutter, a Philadelphia resident wearing a yellow Laborers International Union shirt, said he attended the event to support Biden, adding that unions have been more active than they used to be, due in part to the president’s policies.

    “Unions are adding members, and a lot more work has been given to union workers,” Nutter said.

    Biden has used executive actions to promote worker organizing, has personally cheered unionization efforts at corporate giants like Amazon and has authorized federal funding to aid union members’ pensions. Just last week, the Biden administration proposed a new rule that would make 3.6 million more U.S. workers eligible for overtime pay, the most generous such increase in decades.

    “Now you’re going to get paid overtime,” the president told the crowd.

    Biden also has traveled the country, trumpeting how union labor is building bridges and improving train tunnels as part of the bipartisan $1.1 trillion public works package Congress passed in 2021.

    The 36th annual Tri-State Labor Day Parade and Family Celebration is hosted by the Philadelphia AFL-CIO, whose website says it comprises more than 100 local labor unions representing more than 150,000 workers.

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  • Biden heads to Philadelphia for a Labor Day parade and is expected to speak about unions’ importance

    Biden heads to Philadelphia for a Labor Day parade and is expected to speak about unions’ importance

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    WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden, who often says he’s the most pro-union president in history, is heading to Philadelphia on Monday for the annual Tri-State Labor Day Parade.

    The Democratic president is expected to speak about the importance of unions in the United States and how the economy is recovering from the crippling coronavirus pandemic.

    Labor Day, a holiday honoring workers, comes as the U.S. has added jobs and more people have begun looking for work, the most since January, all news Biden is eager to highlight as he seeks reelection in 2024.

    “As we head into Labor Day, we ought to take a step back and take note of the fact that America is now in one of the strongest job-creating periods in our history,” Biden said Friday from the Rose Garden, where he spoke after the news that America’s employers added 187,000 jobs in August, evidence of a slowing but still-resilient labor market despite the high interest rates the Federal Reserve has imposed.

    Friday’s report from the Labor Department also showed that the unemployment rate rose from 3.5% to 3.8%, the highest level since February 2022 though still low by historical standards. But the rate rose for an encouraging reason: 736,000 people began looking for work last month, the most since January, and not all of them found jobs right away. Only people who are actively looking for a job are counted as unemployed.

    “People are coming off the sidelines, getting back to their workplaces,” Biden said.

    Biden has used executive actions to promote worker organizing, has personally cheered unionization efforts at corporate giants like Amazon and has authorized federal funding to aid union members’ pensions. Just last week, the Biden administration proposed a new rule would make 3.6 million more U.S. workers eligible for overtime pay, the most generous such increase in decades.

    Biden also has traveled the country, trumpeting how union labor is building bridges and improving train tunnels as part of the bipartisan $1.1 trillion public works package Congress passed in 2021.

    “Unions raise standards across the workforce and industries, pushing up wages and strengthening benefits for everyone,” Biden said Friday. “You’ve heard me say many times: Wall Street didn’t build America. The middle class built America, and unions built the middle class.”

    The 36th annual Tri-State Labor Day Parade and Family Celebration is hosted by the Philadelphia AFL-CIO, whose website says it comprises more than 100 local labor unions representing more than 150,000 workers.

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  • Students transform their drab dorm rooms into comfy living spaces

    Students transform their drab dorm rooms into comfy living spaces

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    NEW YORK — From $300 studded headboards and $100 coffee table books to custom-made cabinets to disguise your mini-fridge, students are spending big bucks to decorate their dorm rooms, adding yet another layer to the soaring costs of college.

    Some are even going so far as to hire interior designers to beautify their 12 feet by 20 feet of space.

    Lesley Lachman, 18, planned her furnishings for her dorm room with her roommate immediately after deciding to attend the University of Mississippi back in May. The Rye, New York resident scoured websites like Pinterest and designed her room herself — with hues of pink, purple and green culled from a mix of pricey brands like Essentials with Eden as well as less expensive items from Ikea and Facebook Marketplace. Total cost for the design? About $3,000, covered by her parents.

    “There’s so much work that had to be done because it felt lackluster. It didn’t feel homey,” said Lachman, who posted a “before” and “after” video of her room on TikTok.

    The “before” video shows stark yellow cinderblock walls, a mustard-colored built-in desk and an open closet. The “after” video shows a complete makeover, with lacey curtains to cover the closet, embroidered pillows and a cushy white headboard to dress up her bed, and customized framed art of hearts.

    “I’m so in love with the room,” Lachman said after her redesign. “I want to leave the door open and want everyone to stop by and admire it.”

    Overall, the back-to-college season is big business, with families expected to spend an average of about $1,367 per person, up 14% from a year ago, according to an annual survey conducted this summer by the National Retail Federation and market researcher Prosper Insights & Analytics. Spending on big-ticket items such as electronics and dorm furnishings as well as necessities like food accounted for more than half of the increase, NRF said.

    Meanwhile, the total cost of college — including tuition, fees, room and board — almost doubled between 1992 and 2022, rising from an inflation-adjusted average of $14,441 per year to $26,903 across all types of universities, according to National Center for Education Statistics, the statistical branch of the Education Department. Dorm costs saw a similar spike over the same time span, rising from $3,824 to $7,097.

    Sara Hunt, 19, a sophomore at New York University from Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, wanted her dorm room to look cozy but her budget was $100. That’s because she’s footing 30% — or nearly $30,000 a year — of NYU’s annual college bill. Financial aid picks up the rest.

    “I definitely try to work on being positive and not comparing myself to other people because I’m so lucky for what I have. But it is really stressful,” said Hunt, who worked more than 60 hours last year and took a job as a pastry chef this summer to help pay for her college expenses.

    For her dorm décor, Hunt scoured Goodwill stores, Dollar Tree, T.J. Maxx and Five Below for deals on neon lights, wall paper decals and beddings. She also rummaged through bins of returned items from major retailers at a discount bazaar in her hometown.

    Jamel Donnor, a professor at William & Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia, and a leading expert on inequity in education, said the big divide in dorm furnishings marks an “unspoken reality of the have and have nots.” He noted that the stark differences in dorm decorating between those who have money and those who don’t can make some students wonder if they should even be at their college.

    “There’s this imposter syndrome,” he said.

    Dorm supplies e-tailer Dormify is playing to both ends of the budget. For the first time this fall, it’s offering various bundles of essentials including a pack of 19 items for $159 that includes bath towels and a comforter for those who are more price conscious. For the big spenders, Dormify unveiled an interior designer service for $450 with interior decorator Jen Abrams; it plans to roll out the offering with other designers next year.

    Amanda Zuckerman, co-founder and president of Dormify, noted TikTok has raised the bar in dorm furnishings, creating “the ability to become TikTok famous or go viral because of how well decorated your room is.” Average orders are up 15% this fall, she said.

    Dawn Thomas launched an interior design service — After Five Designs — in Jackson, Mississippi 20 years ago for college students after designing dorm rooms for her own children who were going away to school. She said in the past few years, she has seen plenty of other designers now working with students.

    Thomas noted parents spend as much as $10,000. One of the more popular items is a custom-made $1,900 cabinet that covers the refrigerator in the dorm.

    But she’s also noticing parents are starting to hold back on certain items.

    “The economy hasn’t been that great this year,” she said. “And I’ve noticed the sky is not the limit.”

    Emma Kirk, who is from Grenada, Mississippi and a freshman at University of Mississippi, tapped into Thomas’s services and bought a gold studded headboard, custom-made pillows and bedspread among other items. She didn’t know what the total bill was since her parents paid for it. But she said her parents reined her in whenever she picked out something too expensive.

    “(Thomas) would work out something where we could get something similar,” she said.

    Even on her tight budget, Hunt — the NYU student — says she is happy with her dorm room décor.

    “At NYU, so many parents pay for everything. But I’m not here to judge,” she said. “The truth is, even if I had all the money in the world, I probably would still decorate my room the way that I have it now.”

    ______

    Follow Anne D’Innocenzio: http://twitter.com/ADInnocenzio

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  • US employers added a solid 187,000 jobs in August in sign of a still-resilient labor market

    US employers added a solid 187,000 jobs in August in sign of a still-resilient labor market

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    WASHINGTON — The nation’s employers added 187,000 jobs in August, evidence of a slowing but still-resilient labor market despite the high interest rates the Federal Reserve has imposed.

    The job growth marked an increase from July’s revised gain of 157,000 but still pointed to a moderating pace of hiring compared with earlier this year. From June through August, the economy added 449,000 jobs, the lowest three-month total in three years.

    Friday’s report from the Labor Department showed that the unemployment rate rose from 3.5% to 3.8%, the highest level since February 2022 though still low by historical standards. But the rate rose for an encouraging reason: A sizable number of people — 736,000 — began looking for work last month, the most since January, and not all of them found jobs right away. Only people who are actively looking for a job are counted as unemployed.

    Indeed, the proportion of Americans who either have a job or are looking for one rose in August to 62.8%, the highest level since the February 2020, before COVID-19 slammed into the U.S. economy.

    The August jobs report also showed that wage gains are easing, a trend that may help signal to the Fed that inflation pressures are cooling: Average hourly wages rose 0.2% from July to August and are up 4.3% from August 2022. The year-over-year increase was down from 4.4% in both July and June.

    In addition to reporting August job growth, the Labor Department on Friday revised down the gains for June and July by a combined 110,000. A decelerating job market could help shift the economy into a slower gear and reassure the Fed that inflation will continue to decelerate. The Fed’s streak of 11 interest rate hikes have helped slow inflation from a peak of 9.1% last year to 3.2% now. Given signs that inflation has continued to ease, many economists think the Fed may decide no further rate hikes are necessary.

    The Fed wants to see hiring slow because intense demand for labor tends to inflate wages and feed inflation. The central bank hopes to achieve a rare “soft landing,” in which its rate hikes would manage to slow hiring, borrowing and spending enough to curb high inflation without causing a deep recession.

    Optimism about a soft landing has been growing. The economy, though growing more slowly than it did in the boom that followed the pandemic recession of 2020, has defied the squeeze of increasingly high borrowing costs. The gross domestic product — the economy’s total output of goods and services — rose at a respectable 2.1% annual rate from April to June. Consumers continued to spend, and businesses increased their investments.

    The Fed wants to see hiring decelerate because strong demand for workers tends to inflate wages and feed inflation.

    So far, the job market has been cooling in the least painful way possible — with few layoffs. The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits — a proxy for job cuts — fell for a third straight week.

    Instead of slashing jobs, companies are posting fewer openings — 8.8 million in July, the fewest since March 2021. And American workers are less likely to leave their jobs in search of better pay, benefits and working conditions elsewhere: 3.5 million people quit their jobs in July, the fewest since February 2021. A lower pace of quits tends to ease pressure on companies to raise pay to keep their existing employees or to attract new ones.

    Economists and financial market analysts increasingly think the Fed may be done raising interest rates: Nearly nine in 10 analysts surveyed by the CME Group expect the Fed to leave rates unchanged at its next meeting, Sept. 19-20.

    Despite what appears to be a clear trend toward slower hiring, Friday’s jobs report could get complicated. The reopening of school can cause problems for the Labor Department’s attempts to adjust hiring numbers for seasonal fluctuations: Many teachers are leaving temporary summer jobs to return to the classroom.

    And the shutdown of the big trucking firm Yellow and the strike by Hollywood actors and writers are thought to have kept a lid on August job growth.

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  • Stock market today: Asian shares boosted by Wall Street rise on consumer confidence and jobs

    Stock market today: Asian shares boosted by Wall Street rise on consumer confidence and jobs

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    TOKYO — Asian shares rose Wednesday, boosted by a Wall Street rally that came on positive reports on consumer confidence and job openings.

    Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 0.3% in afternoon trading to 32,312.75. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.4% to 2,563.37. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.5% to 18,574.12, while the Shanghai Composite inched up 0.1% to 3,139.28.

    Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 jumped 1.2% to 7,297.70, after the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported the monthly Consumer Price Index indicator rose 4.9% in the 12 months to July.

    That was lower than the expected 5.2%, marking the first time since February 2022 that the indicator fell below 5%.

    “But given that it is still a distance away from the RBA’s 2% to 3% target, the central bank may continue to maintain its hawkish-pause stance for some policy flexibility, although we are likely seeing the end of its tightening process,” said Yeap Jun Rong, market analyst at IG.

    On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 1.5% to 4,497.63, its third-straight gain and its biggest since early June. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.8% to 34,852.67, and the Nasdaq composite finished 1.7% higher, at 13,943.76.

    Big tech stocks powered much of the rally Tuesday. Apple rose 2.2% and Nvidia climbed 4.2%. Advancers outnumbered decliners by 4 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange. Bond yields fell broadly. Markets in Europe and Asia also rose.

    The latest gains came as investors reviewed reports on consumer confidence and the labor market. The Conference Board, a business research group, reported that consumer confidence tumbled in August, surprising economists that were expecting levels to hold steady around the strong July reading. Consumer confidence and spending have been closely watched amid persistent pressure from inflation.

    Also on Tuesday, the government reported that job openings fell to the lowest level since March 2021, a larger drop than economists expected. The report also showed that the number of Americans quitting their jobs fell sharply for the second-straight month, clear signs that the labor market is cooling in a way that could reduce inflation.

    A strong job market has been credited as a bulwark against a recession, but it has made the Fed’s mission to tame inflation more difficult. The latest data will likely be welcomed by the central bank, because fewer job openings and less quitting reduces pressure on employers to raise pay to find and keep workers.

    “Markets reacted to the release of the consumer confidence and job opening reports by rallying, with both bonds and stocks up on the news as odds for a Federal Reserve rate hike at their next meeting in September fell,” said Sam Millette, fixed income strategist for Commonwealth Financial Network.

    The Fed has been raising its main interest rate for more than a year to its highest level since 2001, in an effort to bring inflation back down to its 2% goal. The central bank held rates steady at its last meeting and Wall Street is betting that it will do the same at its September meeting.

    Investors and economists have several more big economic reports on tap this week. The government will provide another update on the nation’s gross domestic product later Wednesday. It will also release its monthly employment report for August on Friday.

    The yield on the 2-year Treasury, which tracks expectations for the Fed, fell significantly after the latest consumer confidence and job openings reports. It slipped to 4.90% from about 5.03% just before the report was out. It stood at 5.05% late Monday. The 10-year Treasury yield also fell, dropping to 4.12% from 4.21% late Monday.

    In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude rose 34 cents to $81.50 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 27 cents to $85.76 a barrel.

    In currency trading, the U.S. dollar edged up to 146.23 Japanese yen from 145.87 yen. The euro cost $1.0877, down from $1.0881.

    ___

    AP Business Writers Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga contributed.

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  • Job vacancies, quits plunge in July in stark sign of cooling trend in the US labor market

    Job vacancies, quits plunge in July in stark sign of cooling trend in the US labor market

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    WASHINGTON — Businesses posted far fewer open jobs in July and the number of Americans quitting their jobs fell sharply for the second straight month, clear signs that the labor market is cooling in a way that could reduce inflation.

    The number of job vacancies dropped to 8.8 million last month, the Labor Department said Tuesday, the fewest since March 2021 and down from 9.2 million in June. Yet the drop appeared to be even steeper because June’s figure was initially reported as 9.6 million. That figure was revised lower Tuesday.

    July’s figure was still healthy historically — before the pandemic the number of openings had never topped 8 million. And there are still roughly 1.5 available jobs for each unemployed worker, which is also elevated but down from a peak last year of 1.9.

    “While it might take more time, more applications, and stronger job interview performances to land a job than it did in 2021 and 2022, there are still plenty of jobs going unfilled,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter.

    Fewer Americans also quit, with 3.5 million people leaving their jobs last month, down from 3.8 million in June, the lowest since February 2021. Most Americans quit work for other, better-paying jobs, and during and after the pandemic there was a big spike in quitting as workers sought higher pay and benefits elsewhere.

    A separate report Tuesday also showed that consumers were less confident in the economy last month, a trend that could cool consumer spending in the coming months.

    The Federal Reserve will likely welcome Tuesday’s data, because fewer job openings and less quitting reduces pressure on employers to raise pay to find and keep workers. Pay raises are great for employees, but they can also lead companies to increases prices to offset the higher labor costs, which can push up inflation.

    Evidence that the economy is slowing, on top of a steady decline in inflation from its peak of 9.1% in June 2022 to 3.2% last month, could prompt the Fed to skip a rate hike at its next meeting in September.

    Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and other Fed officials have hoped that a steady drop in the number of job openings could help bring down inflation, without requiring the layoffs that many economists have warned would be necessary to rein in prices.

    “So far, job openings have declined substantially without increasing unemployment — a highly welcome but historically unusual result that appears to reflect large excess demand for labor,” Powell said in a high-profile speech Friday at the Fed’s annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. But it isn’t clear whether the decline will persist, he said, “and this uncertainty underscores the need for agile policymaking.”

    Later this week, the government will issue its jobs report for August, which economists forecast will show that employers added 170,000 jobs this month. While that would be a solid increase, it would be the smallest in almost three years, and also point to a potential softening in the economy.

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  • Massachusetts governor declares state of emergency amid influx of migrants seeking shelter

    Massachusetts governor declares state of emergency amid influx of migrants seeking shelter

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    BOSTON — Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey declared a state of emergency Tuesday, citing an influx of migrants seeking shelter at a time when the cost of housing — already in short supply — continues to rise.

    There are nearly 5,600 families or more than 20,000 people – many of whom are migrants — currently living in state shelters, including infants, young children and pregnant women. That is up from around 3,100 families a year ago, about an 80% increase, Healey said.

    Many of the migrants are arriving by plane from other states. In the past 48 hours alone, she said, 50 migrant families have landed in the state in need of shelter.

    “It’s exponentially more than our state has ever served in our emergency assistance program,” she said. “These numbers are being driven by a surge in new arrivals in our country who have been through some of the hardest journeys imaginable.”

    The migrants arriving in Massachusetts are the face of the international migrant crisis and are coming at a time when the state is already experiencing a housing crunch, Healey said.

    She called on the federal government for financial help, and more urgently, expedited work authorizations to allow the new arrivals to more quickly find jobs and start earning a living, she wrote in a letter to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.

    In the letter, Healey pointed to work authorizations as a primary driver of the crisis. Currently, she said, it can take weeks, months or more than a year to receive the authorizations.

    “Our new arrivals are most eager to work. The last thing they want is to be dependent,” she said.

    As part of the emergency declaration, Healey said she is renewing a call to local organizations that can assist those seeking shelter as well as to people interested in sponsoring a family in their home.

    The state has also launched a new migrant relief fund to help raise money to aid migrants.

    The contributions will be used to help pay for a range of goods and services for migrants, including food, clothing, diapers and transportation as well as health screenings, translation services, legal assistance and English classes.

    As a right-to-shelter state, Massachusetts is legally required to provide eligible families shelter through its emergency assistance program.

    Geralde Gabeau, executive director of the Immigrant Family Services Institute, has worked with immigrants arriving from Haiti and said they are ready to get to work.

    “The new families coming to our communities are wonderful human beings,” she said. “They are ready to work. They are ready to contribute to our economies.”

    Healey and state lawmakers should rescind the state’s right-to-shelter policy, said Paul Diego Craney of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, a conservative group.

    “Perhaps it is time for the governor to take a trip to the southern border to see firsthand the open southern border crisis,” he said in a statement.

    More than 80 cities and towns across the state have already felt the impact of new migrants and support the emergency declatarion, said Geoff Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association.

    “Community leaders want state and federal agencies to step in to provide these families with the services and support they need to be safe and healthy,” he said.

    Other states have faced challenges with soaring numbers of migrants.

    On Monday, New York Mayor Eric Adams announced a plan to house as many as 2,000 migrants on an island in the East River where a migrant center was set up last year and then taken down weeks later.

    Some states led by Republicans — including Texas and Florida — have bused or flown immigrants to states and cities led by Democrats, including California, Massachusetts. New York and Chicago.

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last year flew 49 Venezuelan migrants to the upscale Massachusetts enclave of Martha’s Vineyard.

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  • Ukrainians move to North Dakota for oil field jobs to help families facing war back home

    Ukrainians move to North Dakota for oil field jobs to help families facing war back home

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    DICKINSON, N.D. — Maksym Bunchukov remembers hearing rockets explode in Zaporizhzhia as the war in Ukraine began.

    “It was terrible,” he said. He and his wife sent their adult daughter west to Lviv for safety and joined her later with their pets.

    Now, about 18 months after the war broke out, Bunchukov is in North Dakota, like thousands of Ukrainians who came over a century ago.

    He is one of 16 new arrivals who are part of a trade group’s pilot effort through the Uniting for Ukraine humanitarian program to recruit refugees and migrants during a workforce shortage. Twelve more Ukrainians are scheduled to arrive by Aug. 15 as part of the North Dakota Petroleum Council’s Bakken Global Recruitment of Oilfield Workers program.

    Some workers want to bring their families to North Dakota while others hope to return to Ukraine.

    “I will try to invite my wife, invite my daughter, invite my cat and invite my dog,” Bunchukov told The Associated Press a week after his arrival.

    The Bakken program has humanitarian and workforce missions, said Project Manager Brent Sanford, a former lieutenant governor who watched the Bakken oil rush unfold during his time as mayor of boomtown Watford City from 2010 to 2016.

    The oil boom initially was met by an “organic workforce” of western North Dakotans with experience in oil field jobs elsewhere, but as the economy reeled from the Great Recession, thousands of people flocked to the Bakken oil field from other states and even other countries to fill high-wage jobs, Sanford said.

    Technological advances for combining horizontal drilling and fracking — injecting high-pressure mixtures of water, sand and chemicals into rocks — made capturing the oil locked deep underground possible.

    “People came by planes, trains and automobiles, every way possible from everywhere for the opportunity for work,” Council President Ron Ness said. “They were upside down on their mortgage, their life or whatever, and they could reset in North Dakota.”

    But the 2015 downturn, coronavirus pandemic and other recent shocks probably led workers back to their home states, especially if moving meant returning to warmer and bigger cities, Sanford said. Workforce issues have become “very acute” in the last 10 months, Ness said.

    Ness estimated there are roughly 2,500 jobs available in an oil field producing about 1.1 million barrels per day. Employers don’t advertise for every individual job opening, but post once or twice for many open positions, he said.

    An immigration law firm told Ness that Uniting for Ukraine would fit well for North Dakota given its Ukrainian heritage, similar climate and agrarian people, he said.

    The program’s sponsors, including company owners, managers and employees, agree to help Ukrainians find work, health care, schools for their children and safe and affordable housing.

    About 160 Ukrainians have arrived in North Dakota, the majority in Bismarck, as part of Uniting for Ukraine, according to State Refugee Coordinator Holly Triska-Dally.

    Applications from prospective sponsors from around the state have “gone up considerably” in recent months, likely due to more awareness but also Ukrainians who are “working and beginning to thrive” and filing to support their family, she said.

    The two dozen or so Ukrainians might not seem like many arrivals on national or statewide scales, but they will make a significant difference for cities like Minot and Dickinson. The cities haven’t traditionally been major resettlement hubs, but now “there’s a strong likelihood” the workers’ families will join them, adding to the economy and schools, Triska-Dally said.

    Bunchukov, who had jobs in mechanics and furniture sales in Ukraine, works for road contractor Baranko Bros. Inc. He and other new arrivals have experience in Alaska’s seafood industry. Others have worked on cruise ships or held different seasonal jobs. Because of those jobs, many workers already hold Social Security numbers and have studied English, Sanford said.

    Dmytro Haiman, who said his English skills steered him toward the Bakken program, recalled sheltering with relatives in his grandmother’s cellar as the war began and bombs fell on his hometown, Chernihiv. In the first months of the war he drove people west to safety and brought canned food, medicine and even generators to Chernihiv amid supply shortages.

    He told the AP he expected to work in water transportation and hopes to earn enough money to help his family, “to help us to rebuild our country.”

    The Bakken program aims to recruit 100 workers by the end of 2023, and 400 after one year. Those 400 may not all be Ukrainians. Some will drive, start in shops or build roads, pads and fences, “everything from there up to well site operations,” Ness said.

    The workers will start in construction and other basic jobs starting at $20 an hour and can rise quickly. They also can leave their jobs or the state while they’re in the Uniting for Ukraine program, which grants “humanitarian parole” lasting two years with a goal of a longer path beyond, but that depends on the federal government, Sanford said.

    Four translators help workers with forms, training and community acclimation, Sanford said. One employer has rented eight apartments for workers, while others are in extended-stay hotels until they can find apartments.

    Glenn Baranko, president of the contractor building paths to drilling rigs and providing environmental services in the oil field, planned to assign jobs to five initial workers based on their skillsets.

    The labor shortage led his company to hire a full-time recruiter, “but there’s still a need,” said Baranko, whose great-grandfather came to the area from Ukraine.

    At a recent lunch for several workers hosted by the Ukrainian Cultural Institute in Dickinson, the new arrivals crowded around a map to point out their hometowns. The cooks laid out dishes of rice rolls, beet bread, deviled eggs and filled dumplings called perogies.

    The institute preserves the area’s Ukrainian heritage and has raised more than $10,000 for humanitarian aid since the war began in February 2022, institute Executive Director Kate Kessel said.

    Mannequins wearing traditional garb, displays of decorated eggs and a Ukrainian library fill the institute’s space. A large banner bearing “Peace to Ukraine” stood over the people eating lunch at tables.

    Ivan Sakivskyi, who works for Baranko, said he looks forward to opportunities for promotion, such as driving heavy equipment, and gaining new experience.

    Though he doesn’t plan to live long-term in the U.S., Sakivskyi said he would like to return for work after visiting loved ones in his home country.

    “My heart and my soul” are in Ukraine. “It’s my friends,” the Odesa native said. “It’s my family.”

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  • Ukrainians move to North Dakota for oil field jobs to help families facing war back home

    Ukrainians move to North Dakota for oil field jobs to help families facing war back home

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    DICKINSON, N.D. — Maksym Bunchukov remembers hearing rockets explode in Zaporizhzhia as the war in Ukraine began.

    “It was terrible,” he said. He and his wife sent their adult daughter west to Lviv for safety and joined her later with their pets.

    Now, about 18 months after the war broke out, Bunchukov is in North Dakota, like thousands of Ukrainians who came over a century ago.

    He is one of 16 new arrivals who are part of a trade group’s pilot effort through the Uniting for Ukraine humanitarian program to recruit refugees and migrants during a workforce shortage. Twelve more Ukrainians are scheduled to arrive by Aug. 15 as part of the North Dakota Petroleum Council’s Bakken Global Recruitment of Oilfield Workers program.

    Some workers want to bring their families to North Dakota while others hope to return to Ukraine.

    “I will try to invite my wife, invite my daughter, invite my cat and invite my dog,” Bunchukov told The Associated Press a week after his arrival.

    The Bakken program has humanitarian and workforce missions, said Project Manager Brent Sanford, a former lieutenant governor who watched the Bakken oil rush unfold during his time as mayor of boomtown Watford City from 2010 to 2016.

    The oil boom initially was met by an “organic workforce” of western North Dakotans with experience in oil field jobs elsewhere, but as the economy reeled from the Great Recession, thousands of people flocked to the Bakken oil field from other states and even other countries to fill high-wage jobs, Sanford said.

    Technological advances for combining horizontal drilling and fracking — injecting high-pressure mixtures of water, sand and chemicals into rocks — made capturing the oil locked deep underground possible.

    “People came by planes, trains and automobiles, every way possible from everywhere for the opportunity for work,” Council President Ron Ness said. “They were upside down on their mortgage, their life or whatever, and they could reset in North Dakota.”

    But the 2015 downturn, coronavirus pandemic and other recent shocks probably led workers back to their home states, especially if moving meant returning to warmer and bigger cities, Sanford said. Workforce issues have become “very acute” in the last 10 months, Ness said.

    Ness estimated there are roughly 2,500 jobs available in an oil field producing about 1.1 million barrels per day. Employers don’t advertise for every individual job opening, but post once or twice for many open positions, he said.

    An immigration law firm told Ness that Uniting for Ukraine would fit well for North Dakota given its Ukrainian heritage, similar climate and agrarian people, he said.

    The program’s sponsors, including company owners, managers and employees, agree to help Ukrainians find work, health care, schools for their children and safe and affordable housing.

    About 160 Ukrainians have arrived in North Dakota, the majority in Bismarck, as part of Uniting for Ukraine, according to State Refugee Coordinator Holly Triska-Dally.

    Applications from prospective sponsors from around the state have “gone up considerably” in recent months, likely due to more awareness but also Ukrainians who are “working and beginning to thrive” and filing to support their family, she said.

    The two dozen or so Ukrainians might not seem like many arrivals on national or statewide scales, but they will make a significant difference for cities like Minot and Dickinson. The cities haven’t traditionally been major resettlement hubs, but now “there’s a strong likelihood” the workers’ families will join them, adding to the economy and schools, Triska-Dally said.

    Bunchukov, who had jobs in mechanics and furniture sales in Ukraine, works for road contractor Baranko Bros. Inc. He and other new arrivals have experience in Alaska’s seafood industry. Others have worked on cruise ships or held different seasonal jobs. Because of those jobs, many workers already hold Social Security numbers and have studied English, Sanford said.

    Dmytro Haiman, who said his English skills steered him toward the Bakken program, recalled sheltering with relatives in his grandmother’s cellar as the war began and bombs fell on his hometown, Chernihiv. In the first months of the war he drove people west to safety and brought canned food, medicine and even generators to Chernihiv amid supply shortages.

    He told the AP he expected to work in water transportation and hopes to earn enough money to help his family, “to help us to rebuild our country.”

    The Bakken program aims to recruit 100 workers by the end of 2023, and 400 after one year. Those 400 may not all be Ukrainians. Some will drive, start in shops or build roads, pads and fences, “everything from there up to well site operations,” Ness said.

    The workers will start in construction and other basic jobs starting at $20 an hour and can rise quickly. They also can leave their jobs or the state while they’re in the Uniting for Ukraine program, which grants “humanitarian parole” lasting two years with a goal of a longer path beyond, but that depends on the federal government, Sanford said.

    Four translators help workers with forms, training and community acclimation, Sanford said. One employer has rented eight apartments for workers, while others are in extended-stay hotels until they can find apartments.

    Glenn Baranko, president of the contractor building paths to drilling rigs and providing environmental services in the oil field, planned to assign jobs to five initial workers based on their skillsets.

    The labor shortage led his company to hire a full-time recruiter, “but there’s still a need,” said Baranko, whose great-grandfather came to the area from Ukraine.

    At a recent lunch for several workers hosted by the Ukrainian Cultural Institute in Dickinson, the new arrivals crowded around a map to point out their hometowns. The cooks laid out dishes of rice rolls, beet bread, deviled eggs and filled dumplings called perogies.

    The institute preserves the area’s Ukrainian heritage and has raised more than $10,000 for humanitarian aid since the war began in February 2022, institute Executive Director Kate Kessel said.

    Mannequins wearing traditional garb, displays of decorated eggs and a Ukrainian library fill the institute’s space. A large banner bearing “Peace to Ukraine” stood over the people eating lunch at tables.

    Ivan Sakivskyi, who works for Baranko, said he looks forward to opportunities for promotion, such as driving heavy equipment, and gaining new experience.

    Though he doesn’t plan to live long-term in the U.S., Sakivskyi said he would like to return for work after visiting loved ones in his home country.

    “My heart and my soul” are in Ukraine. “It’s my friends,” the Odesa native said. “It’s my family.”

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