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  • Best standing desks of 2022 | CNN Underscored

    Best standing desks of 2022 | CNN Underscored

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    Whether you’re a professional, a student or somewhere in between, the “new normal” has meant trading in a proper desk for a work-from-home space. It could be your kitchen tablet, a small hallway turned into an office or even tossing together something in the bedroom. But what about a standing desk or convertor desk? The trend that has taken the professional industry by storm is now readily available — with literally countless options — and could be the perfect solution for working from home.

    That’s why we’ve been testing a handful of standing desks for months on end — from assembly to entire days spent on each — to find the best one for you.

    Best standing desk

    Best standing desk overall

    The Branch Adjustable Standing Desk is a near-perfect desk that can handle multiple monitors, dual laptops and a plethora of knickknacks. It’s also incredibly sturdy, with one of the best builds we’ve encountered.

    Branch’s standing desk might only come in two sizes and a handful of colors, but it doesn’t corner the product into oblivion. Instead, it keeps a high level of craftsmanship in a standing desk that ultimately rises above the best with seamless motion, a sturdy build and a design that doesn’t distract.

    It starts with the desktop — in this case, a 48-inch wide by 30-inch depth particle board laminate. You can also opt for white or a dark walnut finish. Either route, though, you’re stuck with a set of legs in white. What’s especially lovely about the Branch option is that the depth is wider than the average desk. This makes it easy for multiple monitors, a laptop (maybe a tablet as well), a notebook with plenty of room to spare.

    Furthermore, the desk’s front edge has a comfortable rounded bevel, making it pleasant to rest your arms on or lean into it without the feeling of a sharp corner jutting into your abdomen. During our testing, spills of water, coffee and never stained the finish, nor did the tabletop scratch. The side edges did peel a bit and showed some scuffs — but from pretty unnatural, heavy bangs.

    The Branch also features a metal plate in the center rear of the desk that can either tilt backward or forward to reveal a brush system, through which you can snugly run cables to keep them tidy — and it even kept loose Lightning and USB-C cables from falling through.

    While it’s not curved with an ergonomic cutout in the front like our previous overall pick — the ApexDesk Elite Series — we feel the Branch Standing Desk is a better overall package. Setup as a whole took about 20 minutes, and found a drill sped things up a bit. Branch does include all the necessary tools in the box and can be done with ease. The desk comes in two boxes — one with the legs and one that’s the desktop, and the directions were clear and thorough.

    Heights range from 25 to 52 inches, and you can make adjustments by the centimeter at most heights. Whether adjusting up or down, the transition was one of the smoothest we tested no matter how heavy the items we had atop the desk. The Branch comes standard with a control switch that’s on the left-hand side that features an LED dot display showing the exact height, an up and a down switch and four presets. Those presets are easy to set and one touch to operate.

    The Branch was also one of the sturdiest desks we tested, never rocking side to side or back and forth.

    Other top standing desks we recommend

    Best customizable standing desk

    Uplift V2-Commercial Standing Desk

    The Uplift V2-Commercial Standing Desk offers the widest breadth of customization out of any standing desk we’ve encountered, from size to finish to keypads — in addition to being a high-quality desk.

    Read our review

    Best budget standing desk

    SHW Electric Height-Adjustable Computer Desk

    The SHW Electric Height-Adjustable Computer Desk is a surprisingly functional, sturdy desk at an incredibly affordable price, comparatively. It was a breeze to assemble, comes with a cable management tray and features a digital keypad with memory presets. ​

    Read our review

    Best standing desk overall

    Most customizable standing desk

    Best budget standing desk

    What we loved about it

    The Branch Adjustable Standing Desk is a near-perfect desk — the sturdiest we tested (no matter the height) and one of the most comfortable to belly-up to thanks to its a slightly diagonally cut finish in the front. Setup took just 20 minutes.

    We value choice. And with such an investment, we appreciated Uplift’s customizability — from size to finish to keypads — that ensures you’re getting the exact desk you want.

    We were surprised by just how sturdy this affordable desk was once assembled, with minimal wobble from front to back and side to side at all heights. The this desk moves smoothly up and down without a hitch. Setup took just 25 minutes.
    What we didn’t like about it

    While you can choose from several finishes for the desktop, you’re stuck with white legs. Also, the side edges did peel a bit and showed some scuffs — but from pretty unnatural, heavy bangs.

    The Uplift was one of the toughest desks to assemble, thanks to and assembly took nearly an hour due to all the parts required. Expect an hour-plus of assembly time.

    We should note that the desktop is actually two planks of wood rather than one solid piece as the product photos may lead you to believe. Certainly looks and feels a bit cheaper than the other models highlighted.
    Key specs

    48-inch wide by 30-inch depth; adjustable from 25 inches to 52 inches high

    42-inch wide by 30-inch depth up to 80-inch wide by 30-inch depth; adjustable from 22.6-inches to 48.7-inches high

    47.25-inch wide by 24-inch depth; adjustable from Adjustable from 28-inches to 46-inches high
    Price

    $699

    $599+

    $209.87

    The testing process for these desks lasted nearly two months. We unboxed and assembled each desk, paying special attention to the amount of time each unboxing and building process took. We noted how long it took to put each one together, how clear the product’s instructions were and if any special tools were needed. Once each electric standing desk was fully built, we used it at both sitting and standing heights; desk converters, of course, were used only in standing positions. We used each product for at least three full workdays and carefully noted how each desk performed in terms of ease of adjustments and ergonomics. Overall, we evaluated them on what we considered the most important factors: function, build and length of warranty. After tallying up scores for each product, we also took value into consideration, factoring the starting price of each desk with regard to the features it delivered on, to determine our final winners.

    We broke the testing into the following categories and subcategories:

    Function

    • Comfort: We made note of whether the desk provided proper ergonomics at all heights, and, where applicable, in both sitting and standing positions.
    • Number of different height adjustments: We noted the range of heights the desk was capable of reaching.
    • Ease of adjustments: We considered how easy it was to adjust the height of the desk, noting how smoothly it was able to move up and down as well as how easy and intuitive the keypad, if there was one, was to operate.
    • Sturdiness from front to back: We noted how much the desk wobbled, if it all, from front to back.
    • Sturdiness from side to side: We noted how much the desk wobbled, if it all, from side to side.
    • Organization: We noted if the desk came standard with any slots/grommets to organize wires, cable management trays, extra outlets. etc.

    Build

    • Build quality: We looked at the quality of the desk’s materials, assessing whether it felt cheap or flimsy, as well as whether the desktop was prone to scratches and/or smudges.
    • Ease of assembly: We considered the time it took to unbox and fully assemble the desk, how clear the instructions were, if any special tools were necessary as well as if the included tools were efficient in the building process.
    • Appearance: We assessed the aesthetics of the desk — how it looked in a room/home office, if it was available in different colors and if so, how many.
    • Size: We noted how much equipment could fit on the desk, how much room it took up and whether it was available in more than one size and if so, how many.

    Warranty

    • We looked into the warranty for each product and noted the length of coverage and what parts were covered.

    ApexDesk Elite Series 60” (starting at $599.99)

    The ApexDesk Elite Series 60” — our previous pick for best standing desk overall — is a sturdy, gorgeous standing desk available in two desktop sizes, both big enough to accommodate multiple monitors and devices. With a curved front, it’s more comfortable to use in both sitting and standing positions compared with the other standing desks we tried, allowing us to sit closer to the desk. It also comes standard with covered grommets to manage your wires. When we re-tested against the Branch, we found the latter had a sturdier and overall more premium build — and, therefore, more worth your money.

    Fully Jarvis EcoTop Standing Desk (starting at $519 for 30×24”; fully.com)

    Let it be known that we adored this desk, for myriad reasons. A newer model produced by Fully’s Jarvis line, the EcoTop is the brand’s most eco-friendly design to date, crafted from locally sourced fiber in Oregon that’s a minimum 92% pre-consumer, recycled or recovered, meeting the Eco-Certified Composites (ECC) Sustainability Standard. Beyond this new desktop, it’s identical in build and function to the customer-favorite (and also earth-friendly) Jarvis Fully Bamboo Standing Desk — and it’s easy to see why it’s so beloved. It scored top marks for its range of sitting and standing heights (25.5” to 51.1”, the second largest range of all desks we tested, displayed in increments of 0.1”) as well as its ease of adjustments, with the industry-standard four memory presets being intuitive to program. This desk felt high-quality — according to Fully, it can support upwards of 350 pounds — though a bit more wobbly from side to side at higher heights than our best overall pick. Similar to the Uplift’s warranty, Jarvis desks are covered by an impressive all-inclusive 10-year warranty on all frame components, including motors and electronics, and a five-year warranty on desktop surfaces, excluding normal wear and tear, and damage caused by improper assembly, disassembly or repair.

    Ultimately, this desk lost points when it came to assembly. It was one of the most complicated builds of our pool, taking the most time and clocking in at a bit over an hour; particularly we found that the giant allen key, with prongs of equal lengths, made things clumsy to assemble. While the EcoTop features two uncovered grommets at the back corners for your cables, if you’d like to attach cord organizer, you’ll need a power drill to do so, as there are no pre-drilled holes. (We did appreciate that it came packaged with a surge protector, however.) The EcoTop is available in six sizes, and in black and white finishes.

    This is a solid desk — and was indeed a solid contender for winner — particularly if you value sustainable, earth-friendly materials.

    Vari Electric Standing Desk (starting at $650 for 60”; amazon.com; starting at $695 for 60” models; officedepot.com)

    Another one of our favorites, the Vari is a classic electric standing desk, and there’s a reason — well, many reasons — why you may have seen it in myriad office spaces throughout the country as the standing desk du jour. For one, it’s impossibly sturdy, racking up top marks in that category during our testing. And despite its heavyweight build, it was by far the easiest of the non-budget-priced electric standing desks to assemble, taking approximately 20 minutes to do so. The Vari moves up and down smoothly, from a minimum height of 25” to a maximum of 50.2” (the highest maximum height of all desks we tested), and its LED keypad displays increments of 0.1. Programming the four memory presets is easy as pie; we didn’t even need to consult an instruction manual for that. And while there wasn’t much difference among all our standing desks in terms of motor noise, we’d contend that the Vari was noticeably quieter than the others in our pool. It has a five-year warranty for all components.

    The Vari Electric Standing Desk is available in two sizes, 60×30”, 48×30” (starting at $550 at Amazon and Office Depot for the latter) as well as five finishes. Really the only place where it lost major points was in the category of organization. It features no grommets to contain wires, but rather a slightly indented back should you want to place it flush against the wall, so you’ll still have space for all your cables to comfortably hang; an additional wire tray is sold separately. (We did appreciate the complimentary bag hook that was included with our shipment.) The Vari came in just one point behind our overall winner, the ApexDesk Elite, so suffice it to say that we would recommend this desk in a heartbeat, so long as you can make do with that caveat.

    Readydesk 2 Adjustable Standing Desk ($154.99; amazon.com)

    While we were fans of this converter’s artsy, minimalist design, constructed from sustainable birchwood (it just screams “Brooklyn architect,” does it not?), admittedly we can understand how not everyone might be — and how it may not necessarily vibe with your decor scheme. Aesthetics aside, we appreciated how easily this converter assembles: Literally, it took just five minutes to unbox and slot the shelves into the base, no tools necessary. Because of this, it’s a good option for students living in dorms, or anyone else who may be moving around a lot and have minimal desktop space to work with. Disassembling is just as simple if you need to quickly get it out of the way and store it in a corner without taking up much space at all. Despite its lightweight build (it weighs in at less than 15 pounds), we found the Readydesk 2 to be impressively sturdy, both from front to back and side to side. It’s also designed with two keyhole-esque slots on each ledge to manage wires. The product has a one-year warranty free of defects in craftsmanship and material and a generous 100-day free return policy in the US.

    It fell short in a few categories, however: It’s available in just one size and color, and doesn’t provide as much room for equipment as other converters in our testing pool did. Its unfinished edges had us worried we might snag the fabric of our sleeve on it (a valid concern among reviewers as well, as we later learned). Because of the lack of grips at the base, depending on the surface beneath it, it could be prone to sliding, although we had no issues in this regard. And, given its unique design, it’s not the most ideal product if two or more people of different heights are sharing use of it, as you have remove the piece of wood and manually move it to a different slot if you’d like to change up the adjustments, which is easy enough, but obviously not as simple as raising or lowering a lever.

    Flexispot Standing Desk 48×30” ($249.99; amazon.com)

    The Flexispot Standing Desk is another budget-priced standing desk model, similar to the SHW. It’s available in black, white and mahogany finishes, and while it does look quite sleek, and the desktop is indeed one solid piece rather than two narrow pieces assembled side by side, for the same price as our best budget winner, it comes with some noticeable downfalls. For one, the basic model includes a keypad with only an up and down button; the desk has a standing range from 28–47.6”, but in order to know what height you’re standing at (if that’s important to you), you’ll have to tack on another $90 for the “standard” model, which is 55” long and includes a digital LED keypad with memory presets. There’s also a smaller, 42×24” model, for $244.99.

    We also noticed significant wobble once fully assembled, mostly from side to side but also from back to front. And on the topic of assembly: this desk arrives in two boxes, both pretty lightweight, but the instructions were confusing at times. A particularly baffling example: One step was to loosen bolts and stretch a rod, but the instructions didn’t specify to what length to stretch it. So we guessed, and when it came time to add the desktop, we had to loosen the bolts once again and then measure it to the correct length. Another step also required backtracking and unscrewing screws from a previous step. This desk comes with a five-year warranty for the frame, motor and other mechanisms, and a two-year warranty for the controller and switch, electronics.

    Seville Classics 27.8” Tilting Sit-Stand Height Adjustable Mobile Laptop Computer Desk Cart with Mouse Side Ergonomic Table ($44.99; homedepot.com)

    If you’re looking for a simple sit-stand option with enough room for your laptop and a mouse, and a laptop and a mouse alone, this Seville Classics desk is one worth considering. At just a hair under $50, unsurprisingly, you’re not getting a super-sturdy, smart standing desk option — but you are getting a product that gets the job done (the job being: providing the option to stand while at your computer), and on wheels to boot. Assembly was easy enough, as the desk is lightweight, and though the flimsy hexagon key wrench proved a bit difficult to use, we were able to build it in approximately 25 minutes. It comes with a one-year limited warranty.

    The desk adjusts from a minimum of 27.9” to a maximum of 40.7”, so if you’re above, say, 5’9”, we can’t imagine you’d find this the most ergonomic product to use. We should also note that the desktop’s tilt is not adjustable, i.e, you cannot position it parallel with the floor, and the manual twist-lock knob can be a bit annoying to use to make adjustments to heights. Bottom line: If you’re on a tight budget and looking for something that’ll allow you to take standing breaks from time to time, this is a perfectly adequate solution. It’s a desk that’s perhaps best suited to students, children, and those with minimal space.

    Vivo Height Adjustable 32-Inch Standing Desk Converter (starting at $109.95, originally $119.95; amazon.com)

    This Vivo converter was quite similar in both build and function to the Flexispot converter. Assembly required only attaching the keyboard tray to the base, which was simple enough, and adjustment is controlled via lever. It’s a standard desk riser, and we found its sturdiness to rival Flexispot’s as well, but ultimately we didn’t select it as a winner for a few reasons: We took value into consideration, and the Vivo is available only in one size, at a starting price of $119.99, versus Flexispot’s $99.99 for its 31-inch option. (For $159.99, you can snag the Vivo in light wood or white finishes, or dark wood for $179.99.) The width of both the keyboard and desktop are a bit smaller than the Flexispot converter we tested, at 10” and 15.75”, respectively, though it does rise to a maximum height of 19.5,” one inch higher than our winning converter does. It comes with two cable clips to stick to the underside of the product, and it has a three-year warranty. If you’re seeking a finish that isn’t solid black, could make use of another inch of height as a tradeoff for some desktop space, and you’re willing to shell out a bit more cash, we think the Vivo is a fine option.

    Ergo Desktop Kangaroo Pro Junior ($399; amazon.com)

    This desktop converter is unique in its design, and we appreciated the dual ergonomics at play here: Basically, the desktop work surface and your attached monitor adjust separately, allowing you to customize the setup more so than typically possible with a traditional desk riser. The desktop surface, which measures 24×18” — enough to fit a laptop, or a keyboard and mouse — is adjustable to 14.5” above your desk. You’ll have to mount your monitor, and though it took us a bit to figure out the twist-knob situation in order to adjust our monitor, we no sooner got the hang of it. However, we found the removable stabilization leg to, initially, be quite confusing, and ultimately, a crucial design flaw; while the adjustable rod is meant to provide extra stability to your desktop at all heights, we found it difficult to stay put, and ultimately not a reliable source of stability after all. The Kangaroo Pro Junior does, however, take up minimal space, and if you’re working with a single monitor and a keyboard, we could see why you might be interested in this product.

    High Rise Height Adjustable Electric Full Standing Desk DC840B (starting at $499.99, originally $609.99; victortech.com)

    The highlight of the Victor Technology’s High Rise standing — available in 4-foot top or 3-foot top versions — features a deep work space paired with various height levels. All of this allowed us to comfortably fit a laptop, phone, papers, water bottle and iPad with space to spare. Made from materials including wood and metal, the build is sturdy no matter the height at which it’s set. Taking less than 20 minutes to assemble, the desk came with tools to put it together and straightforward directions.

    There’s a memory function which lets you save four preferable heights — just tap the button and it adjusts to that exact height, ranging between 28.7 to 48 inches. Better yet, for anyone who works around other people, the desk is quiet when moving between heights.

    The High Rise does lack additional perks, like desktop customization, options for additional accessories or a curved design like the ApexDesk. The price is very similar to our top-ranked standing desks, but for the same price, many of those desks offer unique features that create an individualized experience for customers, including white board and laminate desktops.

    Read more from CNN Underscored’s hands-on testing:

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  • Biden ‘confident’ rail strike will be avoided though congressional hurdles loom | CNN Politics

    Biden ‘confident’ rail strike will be avoided though congressional hurdles loom | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    President Joe Biden said Tuesday he is “confident” a rail strike will be avoided while meeting with the top four congressional leaders, though any one senator could slow down the process of approving legislation that would avert such a strike – and at least one said he was planning to do so.

    “I asked the four top leaders in Congress to ask whether they’d be willing to come in and talk about what we’re gonna do between now and Christmas in terms of legislation and there’s a lot to do, including resolving the train strike,” Biden said while meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

    “It’s not an easy call but I think we have to do it,” Biden said. “The economy is at risk.”

    On Monday, Biden called on Congress to “immediately” pass legislation to avert a railroad shutdown by officially adopting a September tentative agreement approved by labor and management leaders. Rank-and-file members of four unions have rejected the agreement and are prepared to go on a railroad strike on December 9 without either a new labor agreement or congressional action.

    Biden, a longtime labor ally, along with Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and other administration officials helped unions and management reach a tentative deal averting a freight railroad strike in September.

    A railroad strike could clog supply chains and lead to a spike in prices on necessities such as gasoline and food – dampening an economy that many fear is heading toward a recession. It could also cost could cost the US economy $1 billion in its first week alone, according to an analysis from the Anderson Economic Group.

    Michael Baldwin, president of the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, one of the four unions whose members voted no on the deal, said Tuesday that Biden has let the union and its members down.

    “We’re trying to address an issue here of sick time. It’s very important,” Michael Baldwin, the president of the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, told CNN’s Jim Sciutto on “Newsroom.” “This action prevents us from reaching the end of our process. It takes away the strength and the abilities that we have to force bargaining or force the railroads into a situation to actually do the right thing.”

    Pelosi said Tuesday the chamber could vote as soon as Wednesday on legislation to adopt the September tentative agreement and avert a possible rail strike. Once passed, Senate action could occur later this week or next, several Senate sources have told CNN. The Senate is expected to have the votes to break a filibuster on the bill to avert a potential railway strike, the Senate sources also said. There are likely to be at least 10 Republicans who will vote with most Senate Democrats to overcome a 60-vote threshold.

    After the meeting, McConnell expressed openness to backing the legislation, and told reporters “We’re gonna need to pass a bill.”

    But any one senator can slow the process down as timing agreements to move along legislation typically require unanimous consent from all 100 members of the chamber. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, criticized the proposed deal to avert a rail strike on Tuesday. Sanders reiterated his threat to slow down rail measure unless he gets sick-leave amendment vote in a tweet Tuesday afternoon.

    “At a time of record profits in the rail industry, it’s unacceptable that rail workers have ZERO guaranteed paid sick days. It’s my intention to block consideration of the rail legislation until a roll call vote occurs on guaranteeing 7 paid sick days to rail workers in America,” he wrote.

    Any one member can delay a quick vote and potentially put off final action until after the December 9 deadline to avert a strike.

    Some Republicans are still skeptical of congressional intervention, arguing they would rather the issue be dealt with administratively.

    Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a frequent swing vote, told CNN that the measure “deserves careful consideration.”

    “I’m going to wait and listen to the debate at lunch today before reaching any kind of conclusion,” she said.

    Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, a member of GOP leadership, also told CNN she was still evaluating the plan.

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  • Snap demands employees work in office 80% of the time starting early next year | CNN Business

    Snap demands employees work in office 80% of the time starting early next year | CNN Business

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    CNN Business
     — 

    Snapchat’s parent company is asking workers to return to the office 80% of the time, or the equivalent of four days a week, beginning early next year, in the latest sign of tech employees receiving less flexibility nearly three years after the pandemic took hold and amid a wave of industry cost cutting.

    “After working remotely for so long we’re excited to get everyone back together next year with our new 80/20 hybrid model,” a spokesperson for Snap

    (SNAP)     confirmed to CNN in a statement Tuesday. “We believe that being together in person, while retaining flexibility for our team members, will enhance our ability to deliver on our strategic priorities of growing our community, driving revenue growth, and leading in [augmented reality].”

    The new policy will take effect at the end of February.

    News of Snap’s stricter in-office policy was first reported by Bloomberg, which cited an internal memo from CEO Evan Spiegel telling employees they may have to “sacrifice” some amount of “individual convenience” but it will benefit “our collective success.”

    Silicon Valley companies, known for their perk-filled campuses, were among the first to go remote in the early days of the pandemic. More recently, however, some have attempted to mandate workers spend more time in the office. Apple, for example, has called for its corporate workers to be in the office at least three days a week, sparking tensions with some of its staffers. But workers may have less leverage to push back amid a growing number of mass layoffs.

    In late August, Snap announced plans to lay off some 20% of its global employees, or more than 1,200 staffers. A number of other tech companies have since followed suit. Meta, Twitter and Amazon have all cut staff recently, while others like Apple

    (AAPL)     are rethinking their pace of hiring.

    After billionaire Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter

    (TWTR)     closed, he quickly fired some 50% of the social platform’s staff and reversed course on the company’s flexible remote-work policy.

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  • In Britain, nearly 200,000 workers are striking on Black Friday | CNN Business

    In Britain, nearly 200,000 workers are striking on Black Friday | CNN Business

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    London
    CNN Business
     — 

    Britain’s cost-of-living crisis is already taking the shine off Black Friday. Now, the annual shopping bonanza faces an additional threat from strikes that could disrupt deliveries, subdue online sales and deliver another blow to the slumping economy.

    Some 235,000 workers have gone on strike across the United Kingdom this week, encompassing schools, universities and the postal service. Workers are demanding better pay and working conditions as they struggle with soaring food and energy bills.

    Strike action by as many as 115,000 Royal Mail staff on Thursday and Friday threatens to disrupt Black Friday sales and deliveries at a crucial time of the year for retailers.

    Small businesses in particular are suffering “enormous damage” as a result of the postal strikes, as they “rely on an efficient mail service for so much of their trade,” according to a statement posted to LinkedIn and signed by Murray Lambell, eBay

    (EBAY)     UK general manager, Martin McTague, chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, and Michelle Ovens, founder of campaign group Small Business Britain.

    Postal workers are planning further strike action for November 30 and December 1, following walkouts in August and September.

    “Customers should expect delays to items posted just before, during or just after strike action,” Royal Mail said in a statement.

    Strikes have swept the United Kingdom this year, as workers grapple with a worsening cost-of-living crisis and an economy that is sliding into a recession. Wages have stagnated and failed to keep pace with inflation, now at a 41-year high, setting the stage for clashes between employers and employees.

    Those clashes have already caused widespread disruption, including to train travel, and are now spreading to even more sectors, such as education and healthcare.

    More than 70,000 university workers went on strike over pay, working conditions and pensions on Thursday and Friday at 150 universities across the United Kingdom.

    The strike is the biggest in the history of British higher education, affecting over 2.5 million students, according to the University and College Union, which organized the strike. Another strike is planned for November 30.

    In Scotland, every school on the mainland was shut Thursday after walkouts by as many as 50,000 teachers in the first day of national strike action over pay in almost 40 years, according to the Educational Institute of Scotland, a trade union.

    Meanwhile, the Royal College of Nursing, which has more than 300,000 members, said Friday that nurses would hold a strike on two days in December — the first in the union’s 106-year history — in support of its call for higher pay. Unison, a labor union representing nearly half a million health service workers, will complete its own strike ballot on Friday.

    According to the Office for National Statistics, 356,000 days were lost to strike action in August, not far off the previous high recorded in July 2014, when 386,000 days were lost. That number dipped to 205,000 in September.

    But the picture could get worse again before it gets better, with disruption stretching beyond Black Friday and well into the holiday season. Strike action will also add to losses facing companies and could prompt further job cuts.

    RMT, Britain’s largest transport union, on Tuesday announced four 48-hour strikes in December and January after talks with Network Rail collapsed. Network Rail’s chief negotiator, Tim Shoveller said that striking makes the “precarious financial hole” in which the company finds itself bigger and “the task of finding a resolution ever more difficult.”

    Drivers for Best Food Logistics, who deliver fresh food to restaurants including KFC, Burger King and Pizza Hut, have also voted to strike, according to a statement from the GMB Union on Thursday. No dates have yet been announced and a company spokesperson told CNN Business it is committed to “reach a way forward.”

    The Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents striking postal workers, has announced additional walkouts on December 9, 11, 14, 15, 23 and 24, which could jeopardize Christmas deliveries. Royal Mail says it has not yet been formally notified of these dates.

    Relations between the company and the union have deteriorated after they failed to reach an agreement on pay and changes to working terms and conditions during talks lasting seven months.

    According to Royal Mail CEO Simon Thompson, the strikes have added £100 million ($121.3 million) to Royal Mail’s losses so far this year and could lead to further job cuts on top of 10,000 already announced.

    “The CWU’s planned strike action is holding Christmas to ransom for our customers, businesses and families across the country, and is putting their own members’ jobs at risk,” Thompson said in a statement.

    Also on Friday, thousands of Amazon

    (AMZN)     warehouse workers plan to take part in protests and strikes in around 30 countries, including the United States, Britain, Japan, India, Australia, France, Germany and South Africa, according to UNI Global Union.

    This is the third year that the Make Amazon Pay campaign has organized a global day of action on Black Friday. Protests due to take place between shifts at an Amazon warehouse in Coventry, England on Friday evening are not expected to affect Black Friday deliveries.

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  • As Meta and Twitter slash staff, TikTok plans to keep hiring | CNN Business

    As Meta and Twitter slash staff, TikTok plans to keep hiring | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    While much of Silicon Valley is grappling with hiring freezes and job cuts, at least one social media company is still planning to keep hiring: TikTok.

    The short-form video app remains committed to its goal of hiring nearly 1,000 engineers at its Mountain View office, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to CNN on Monday. This specific hiring target is related to the company’s goal of ensuring US user data is overseen by a team based in the United States amid scrutiny in Washington due to its parent company ByteDance’s ties to China.

    News of TikTok’s hiring plans was first reported by The Information.

    TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew confirmed that the company was still recruiting during remarks last week at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore, in response to the topic of layoffs at other tech companies, including Facebook-parent Meta and Amazon.

    “We have always been more cautious in terms of recruitment,” Chew said at the conference. “At this stage of our growth, I think that our pace, our cadence, of hiring is just right for us.”

    In recent weeks, Meta said it was cutting 11,000 jobs across the company, Twitter cut about half its staff under new owner Elon Musk, and Amazon confirmed that it had begun wide-ranging layoffs. Current and former leaders of these companies have said they expanded too fast, particularly during the pandemic as consumers shifted their lives online. Now these same tech companies are facing whiplash in demand and cutting thousands of positions as broader economic conditions crumble and recession fears mount.

    The shift in the hiring landscape in Silicon Valley could help TikTok as it looks to appease critics and cement its position in the United States, and also as it works to expand into new product categories.

    TikTok’s career portal website currently lists more than 4,000 global positions, though it is not clear how often the hiring site is updated. In October, as some of the initial reports of hiring freezes and other cost-cutting measures began to emerge from Silicon Valley, TikTok made headlines for listing a number of new e-commerce-related roles that seemed to indicate it was looking to create a logistics and warehousing network in the United States.

    “We are still hiring,” Chew said at the conference last week, “although, you know, at a pace that we think has corresponds with the global challenges that we’re facing.”

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  • The Fed offers more clues about rate hikes | CNN Business

    The Fed offers more clues about rate hikes | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN Business
     — 

    Americans are getting ready for food, family and football on Thursday, but investors were still holding off until Wednesday afternoon before starting to give thanks.

    That’s because the Federal Reserve released the minutes from its latest meeting at 2pm ET Wednesday, which provided more clues about the central bank’s thinking on inflation and interest rate hikes.

    At its November 2 meeting the Fed raised rates by three-quarters of a percentage point — its fourth straight hike of such a large magnitude. But Fed chair Jerome Powell suggested at a press conference that the Fed may soon begin to slow the pace of hikes.

    The minutes from that meeting showed that several other Fed policymakers agreed with Powell’s assessment.

    “A number of participants observed that, as monetary policy approached a stance that was sufficiently restrictive to achieve the Committee’s goals, it would become appropriate to slow the pace of increase in the target range for the federal funds rate,” the Fed said in the minutes.

    The Fed added that “a substantial majority of participants judged that a slowing in the pace of increase would likely soon be appropriate.”

    Stocks, which were relatively flat and meandering before the minutes came out, popped after their release. The Dow ended the day up more than 95 points, or 0.3%. The S&P 500 jumped 0.6% and the Nasdaq rose 1%.

    Other Fed members, most notably vice chair Lael Brainard, had also hinted n recent speeches at a slower pace of hikes. Yet there have been confusing signals from other Fed officials, who have continued to stress that inflation isn’t going away and must be brought under control.

    To that end, the Fed said in the minutes that inflation remains “stubbornly high” and “more persistent than anticipated.”

    With that in mind, traders are now pricing in a more than 75% chance that the Fed will raise rates by only a half-point at its December 14 meeting, according to futures contracts on the CME. That’s up from odds of 52% for a half-point hike a month ago, but lower than an 85% likelihood of a half-point increase that was priced in just last week.

    A recent batch of inflation reports seem to suggest that the pace of runaway price increases is finally starting to slow to more manageable levels. The job market remains relatively healthy as well, although the most recent jobless claims figures ticked up from a week ago.

    But as long as the labor market remains firm and inflation pressures continue to ebb, the Fed will likely pull back on the magnitude of its rate hikes.

    Some experts are growing concerned that if the Fed goes too far with rates, the increases could eventually slow the economy too much and potentially lead to much higher unemployment, job losses and even a recession.

    The Fed’s rate hikes have had a clear impact on the housing market, with surging mortgage rates helping to put a dent into home sales.

    Still, Wall Street is growing more confident that the Fed might be able to pull off a so-called soft landing. The Dow soared 14% in October, its best month since January 1976. The Dow is up another 4.5% in November and is now only down 6% this year.

    The S&P 500 and Nasdaq also have rebounded significantly since October, but both of those broader market indexes remain down more sharply for the year than the Dow.

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  • HP says it will lay off up to 6,000 workers over the next couple years | CNN Business

    HP says it will lay off up to 6,000 workers over the next couple years | CNN Business

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    CNN Business
     — 

    HP Inc. announced on Tuesday that it will lay off thousands of workers over the next three years, becoming the latest tech company to significantly downsize staffing amid a souring economic climate.

    The computer maker disclosed the major job cuts in a statement accompanying its lackluster quarterly earnings report on Tuesday afternoon, where it also said sales dropped more than 11% compared to the same period last year.

    “The company expects to reduce gross global headcount by approximately 4,000-6,000 employees,” HP said. “These actions are expected to be completed by the end of fiscal 2025.”

    HP had previously reported having a global headcount of

    some 51,000 employees.

    HP President and CEO Enrique Lores added in a statement that the company’s so-called “Future Ready strategy” will “enable us to better serve our customers and drive long-term value creation by reducing our costs and reinvesting in key growth initiatives to position our business for the future.”

    The news makes HP the latest in a growing list of once-high-flying tech companies that are now announcing significant job cuts. Facebook-parent Meta recently said it was cutting 11,000 jobs across the company, and Amazon

    (AMZN)     confirmed last week that wide-ranging layoffs had begun at the e-commerce giant that would continue into next year.

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  • Twitter Africa employees accuse Elon Musk of discrimination over severance terms | CNN Business

    Twitter Africa employees accuse Elon Musk of discrimination over severance terms | CNN Business

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    CNN Business
     — 

    Laid-off employees at Twitter’s Africa headquarters are accusing Twitter of “deliberately and recklessly flouting the laws of Ghana” and trying to “silence and intimidate” them after they were fired.

    The team has hired a lawyer and sent a letter to the company demanding it comply with the West African nation’s labor laws, provide them with additional severance pay and other relevant benefits, in line with what other Twitter employees will receive.

    They have also petitioned the Ghanaian government to compel Twitter to “adhere to the laws of Ghana on redundancy and offer the employees a fair and just negotiation and redundancy pay,” according to a letter to the country’s Chief Labour Officer obtained by CNN.

    “It is clear that Twitter, Inc. under Mr Elon Musk is either deliberately or recklessly flouting the laws of Ghana, is operating in bad faith and in a manner that seeks to silence and intimidate former employees into accepting any terms unilaterally thrown at them,” the letter states.

    Twitter laid off all but one of the African employees just four days after the company opened a physical office in the capital Accra following Musk’s takeover. But the staff of about a dozen were not offered severance pay, which they say is required by Ghana’s labor laws, based on their employment contracts. They also claim they were not informed about the next steps — unlike employees in the United States and Europe — until a day after CNN reported on their situation.

    CNN contacted Twitter for comment but received no response.

    In the letter to Twitter Ghana Ltd, obtained by CNN, the African employees rejected a “Ghana Mutual Separation Agreement” from Twitter, which they say was sent to their personal emails offering final pay that the company claims to have been arrived at after a negotiation.

    Several members of the team and their lawyer told CNN that there was no such negotiation on severance pay. They claim it was below what is required by law and contradicts what Musk tweeted that departing employees would receive.

    “Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required,” Musk tweeted. Twitter informed the Ghana-based employees in early November that they would be paid until their last day of employment — December 4. And they will continue to receive full pay and benefits during the 30-day notice period.

    “It was very vague, did not talk about outstanding leave or paid time off, and just asked us to sign if we agree. I never bothered to go back to the document because it is rubbish and is still in violation of labor laws here,” one former employee told CNN on condition of anonymity.

    The Accra-based team accuses Twitter of dealing with them in bad faith, not being transparent, and discriminating against them compared to laid-off employees in other jurisdictions.

    “The employees are distressed, humiliated, and intimidated by this turn of events. There are non-Ghanaian employees, some with young families, who moved here to take up jobs and have now been left unceremoniously in the lurch, with no provision for repatriation expenses and no way to communicate with Twitter, Inc. and discuss or plead their case,” the notice to Ghana’s Chief Labour Officer says.

    Their attorney, Carla Olympio, says the sudden termination of almost the whole team violated Ghanaian employment law because it is considered a “redundancy” which requires three-month notice to authorities and a negotiation on redundancy pay.

    “In stark contrast to internal company assurances given to Twitter employees worldwide prior to the takeover, it seems that little attempt was made to comply with Ghana’s labor laws, and the protections enshrined therein for workers in circumstances where companies are undertaking mass layoffs due to a restructuring or reorganization,” she wrote in a statement to CNN.

    The employees said in their appeal to Ghana’s Chief Labour Officer that Twitter’s formal entry into the continent started with “great fanfare and with the support of the government,” and they expect similar attention to their plight now.

    They are demanding 3 months’ gross salary as severance pay, repatriation expenses for non-Ghanaian staff, vesting of stock options provided in their contracts, and other benefits such as healthcare continuation that were offered to staff worldwide.

    CNN has reached out to Ghana’s Employment and Labor Relations ministry for comment.

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  • Airbnb CEO on the tech downturn: ‘It’s like we’re all in a nightclub and the lights just came on’ | CNN Business

    Airbnb CEO on the tech downturn: ‘It’s like we’re all in a nightclub and the lights just came on’ | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    After years of seemingly unstoppable growth, the tech industry is now facing the “ultimate reality check” as it confronts broader economic uncertainty and waves of layoffs, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky told CNN on Thursday.

    “It’s like we’re all in a nightclub and the lights just came on,” Chesky said in an interview on “CNN This Morning.” After a period of “exuberance and euphoria,” he added, “now we all have to, like, take a hard look at things.”

    His remarks come at a difficult moment for the tech industry. Facebook-parent Meta said last week it was cutting 11,000 jobs after nearly doubling its staff during the pandemic. Amazon confirmed this week that lay offs had begun in its corporate workforce, with reports saying it plans to cut 10,000 positions. And Twitter recently cut approximately 50% of its staff as new owner Elon Musk races to bolster its bottom line.

    Airbnb may be an exception. Chesky said the company is not undergoing layoffs at this time, and in fact is hiring. But that is due in large part to the company cutting 25% of its staff at the start of the pandemic as the travel industry was clobbered, and losing more employees by attrition after.

    “Two-and-a-half years ago, we lost 80% of our business in eight weeks,” Chesky said. “People were predicting we were going to go out of business.”

    “We just hunkered down,” he added. “We rebuilt the company from the ground up, and we stayed really lean.” Now, Chesky said, “we’re stepping on the gas, we’re not putting on the brakes.”

    While the reckoning hitting much of Silicon Valley is painful, Chesky appeared to suggest that a more sober reassessment of the industry could also provide an opportunity for the tech sector to rethink its place in society, after years of criticism for the impact its products can have on people.

    “I think Silicon Valley has done so many amazing things for the world, but we have to be careful having a fetishization of new technology, as if the new technology is going to solve all the problems that the last technology created,” Chesky said. “We need more diversity in Silicon Valley, but that diversity should not just be demographic diversity. We need artists, humanists in this industry.”

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  • These fireball-dropping drones are on the frontlines of wildfire prevention | CNN Business

    These fireball-dropping drones are on the frontlines of wildfire prevention | CNN Business

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    CNN Business
     — 

    As US wildfires have grown larger and deadlier in recent years, one company is using drones and fire-starting “dragon eggs” to help prevent extreme blazes and save firefighters’ lives.

    Drone Amplified, a Nebraska-based startup, is using unmanned aerial technology to improve one of the oldest and most-effective methods of preventing wildfires: prescribed burns. This technique refers to the controlled application of fire by a team of experts to reduce hazardous fuel in areas prone to wildfires. “More prescribed fires mean fewer extreme wildfires,” according to the US Forest Service.

    Carrick Detweiler, founder and CEO of Drone Amplified, told CNN that this method works by “doing a very low intensity burn that will basically burn up the dead leaves and sticks that would cause major wildfires when they dry out later in the summer.”

    The company was started by two University of Nebraska-Lincoln engineering professors in 2017. In 2020, it was awarded a grant totaling $1 million for research and development from the National Science Foundation and Nebraska Department of Economic Development.

    Drone Amplified

    “We can reduce these huge wildfires by using more fire, when it’s safe to do so,” Detweiler added.

    While the technique of prescribed burns has been around for centuries (and was even used by Indigenous Americans for wildfire management), it can be laborious and risky at times for firefighters carrying it out today.

    Firefighters often must hike or ride an all-terrain vehicle through dense forest or mountainous terrain, carrying a drip torch to start small fires in specific, remote locations, according to Detweiler. “Then you have helicopters with a whole crew on board, flying really low and slow over the fire,” he added of other methods for prescribed burns.

    “About a quarter of all wildland firefighting fatalities are related to aviation,” Detweiler said. “And for me, this really was a motivation to start Drone Amplified and get these systems into the hands of firefighters.”

    While he said a helicopter can cover a larger amount of area than a drone, he notes that firefighters can also deploy “tens or thousands of our systems for the same cost as a helicopter.” A drone from the company costs about $80,000.

    fireball thumb 2

    Jon Hustead

    The drones carry so-called “dragon eggs,” or fireballs that ignite when they land on the ground. “They have potassium permanganate,” Detweiler said of the dragon eggs, adding that when you mix this with glycol it starts a chemical reaction — resulting in a fire. Some 400 of these fireballs can be secured onto a single 50-pound drone.

    The drones allow firefighters to work at a distance from flames, according to Detweiler, and in areas that are difficult to reach due to terrain or visibility. Moreover, the firefighting technology can be used, “when it’s dark, when it’s smokey, and when other airplanes can’t be out there.”

    The drones, which are controlled by an app, can also allow the fire-starting balls to be dropped in very specific locations. Precision is a critical element when conducting prescribed burns, because it is crucial for preventing fire escapes.

    While escapes are rare — the US Forest Service reports just one escape for every thousand burns — the outcomes can be devastating. Two recent controlled burns in New Mexico escaped and led to the state’s largest wildfire on record.

    Detweiler said his company’s equipment aims to prevent fire escapes through the use of thermal cameras, visual cameras and other technology that lets firefighters see through smoke.

    “Our app also allows the firefighter to put in geofences [boundaries] to prevent any ignitions outside of that area,” he added.

    While Drone Amplified is already being used by the US Forest Service and other federal agencies, Detweiler said he hopes to see the technology on the back of every firefighter’s truck in the future.

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  • Former Trump Org. CFO toes line of allegiances while testifying under plea deal condition | CNN Politics

    Former Trump Org. CFO toes line of allegiances while testifying under plea deal condition | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Former CFO Allen Weisselberg appeared visibly pulled in his Friday testimony between allegiance to his employer and needing to cooperate with prosecutors to satisfy his plea agreement in the criminal trial of the Trump Organization.

    The defense attorneys challenged him to that effect several times Friday morning, and attorney Susan Necheles briefly grilled him on his fears of going to jail if the plea deal falls apart.

    “What is in my mind is to tell the truth at this trial,” Weisselberg maintained each time he was asked about his motives on the stand.

    The line of questioning on cross-examination quickly turned heated between the lawyers, with defense attorney Alan Futerfas objecting to Necheles’ questioning at one point in the exchange.

    Weisselberg, the government’s star witness, again distanced former President Donald Trump from the internal “clean up” at the Trump Org. He testified Friday that he mostly dealt with Trump’s sons after Trump was elected president, saying he is not sure what the president knew about the company situation or when.

    “Once he was in the White House we had very little communication about things going on in the company,” Weisselberg testified.

    He also said that Trump’s sons, Eric and Donald Jr., became aware of the illegal practices after an internal review was conducted in 2017 and 2018. Weisselberg acknowledged that no one was disciplined or demoted after the scheme came to light. In fact, he said, he asked Eric Trump for a $200,000 raise in 2019, which he received.

    To win a conviction, prosecutors need to prove that Weisselberg intended to benefit the Trump entities – exactly what the jury will need to find will be determined by the judge when he gives the case to the jury.

    Weisselberg tread a fine line in his testimony, telling the jury he never wanted to hurt the company – his aim, he said, was mainly to pay less in taxes – but he knew at the time the company would also benefit from his schemes to some extent.

    “It was a benefit to the company but primarily it was due to my greed,” he said.

    Necheles also pushed Weisselberg to acknowledge that prosecutors want him to draw a correlation between his own greed and the tax perks his scheme offered the companies.

    “It is important to the prosecutors for you to testify to that,” she said.

    “I don’t know what’s important to the prosecutors,” Weisselberg said.

    Weisselberg did testify, however, that he and Jeff McConney, Trump Org. controller, never spoke specifically about benefits to the company or calculated how much the company would save as a result of the under reported income.

    “It was understood that by having less payroll you have less payroll taxes,” he said.

    Defense attorney Futerfas suggested the benefit to the Trump entities was minimal. He showed the jury a disbursement journal of Trump Org. expenses, including nearly $54,000 on flowers. The defense attorney compared more than $267 million in expenses over eight years with the roughly $24,000 in payroll taxes the companies did not pay on Weisselberg’s unreported fringe benefits spanning 12 years.

    Despite Weisselberg’s “betrayal” of the Trumps and their companies, the Trump Org. is still footing the bill for his large team of lawyers from multiple firms. His attorneys are some of the best in the city, Susan Hoffinger, the executive assistant district attorney in the Manhattan prosecutor’s office, said on redirect examination.

    Cracking a smile, Weisselberg said: “I hope so.”

    The courtroom dissolved into laughter, including from the judge and some jurors, and the prosecutor turned around smiling at Weisselberg’s legal team sitting in the second row of the gallery.

    Necheles later clarified with the decades-long Trump Org. executive that he stuck by the Trump family through tough years on the brink of bankruptcy.

    “And now you are in the worst time of your life,” Necheles asked.

    “I would say yes,” Weisselberg said.

    “And he has not kicked you to the curb,” she said.

    “He has not,” he responded.

    “You don’t understand that to mean he approves of what you did, do you?” Necheles asked.

    “No,” Weisselberg said.

    The trial has adjourned for the week and will only sit Monday and Tuesday of next week due to the holiday.

    Weisselberg is off the stand, after testifying across three days.

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  • Why foreign workers in the US are especially vulnerable to the Twitter turmoil | CNN Politics

    Why foreign workers in the US are especially vulnerable to the Twitter turmoil | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Twitter employees who are relying on the company for work visas have been left in limbo, finding themselves at the whims of its new billionaire owner, knowing if they quit, they may have to leave the United States.

    Earlier this week, Elon Musk gave remaining staff an ultimatum to commit to working “hardcore” or to leave. But some staff who would like to leave the company feel like they can’t because doing so, may leave them no choice but to depart the US, multiple former Twitter employees told CNN.

    Tech companies in the US, including Twitter, have leaned on an employment-based visa, known as H-1B, to bring skilled foreign workers into the country. The program allows companies in the US to employ foreign workers in high-skilled occupations like architecture, engineering, mathematics, among other fields.

    In fiscal year 2022, Twitter had nearly 300 people approved to work on H-1B visas, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services data. It’s unclear how many have chosen to stay.

    Facebook – another company that’s undergoing mass layoffs – had more than 1,300 people approved to work on H-1B visas, the data shows.

    Employees on temporary visas, like H-1B or other work visas, are especially vulnerable to the layoffs happening at Twitter and across the tech industry. Some staff who were on employment-based visas and have already been laid off by Musk have found themselves scrambling.

    “Firing folks who are on a H-1B in a major economic downturn is not just putting them out of the job, it’s tantamount to ruining their lives,” one former employee told CNN, adding that some people who had accepted Musk’s ultimatum had accepted it “out of self-preservation.”

    Twitter users are flocking to Mastodon. What is it?

    Fiona McEntee, an immigration lawyer based in Chicago, represents immigrants who are on H-1B visas and are part of the recent tech layoffs.

    While McEntee stressed everyone’s situation is unique, one of the primary challenges employees on H-1B visas face is that they have a limited window of time to find a new employer, adjust to another visa, or leave the United States. The 60-day grace period usually starts from the last day of employment.

    “It’s a short time period to line these things up.” McEntee said, noting that filing a visa transfer, for example, can take time. McEntee’s firm has been receiving multiple calls from people affected by the layoffs who are concerned about next steps.

    “A layoff is hard enough on people to begin with but when you’re faced with having to leave what’s been your home for a significant time, it adds a whole layer of trauma to this,” she told CNN.

    One former Twitter employee described the challenges facing a former colleague who is in the US with his family on an employment-based visa and now faces the prospect of having to leave.

    For that reason, some staff at Twitter who are on H-1B visas are staying on despite wanting to leave the company, a former employee told CNN, adding that they’re “concerned with being forced into a flooded job market where they may be unable to find a job and before being forced out of the country.”

    The US Department of Homeland Security issues 65,000 H-1B visas annually as mandated by Congress, in addition to another 20,000 for those who have a masters’ degree or doctorate from a US university. The visa can be granted for up to six years.

    “These are people who didn’t just necessarily arrive last year or the year before, or even when they were approved,” said David Bier, associate director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute. Bier noted that some people may have been working for Twitter under a different visa before being hired on an H-1B.

    “Many of these people will have been in this country for over a decade,” Bier said.

    One former Twitter employee stressed the importance of visa holders and their contribution to US innovation and technological leadership.

    “For companies to turn their backs on them now is particularly callous and destructive and undermines the trust talented people have around in the world in the hope of America and its opportunities,” they added.

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  • Fed officials crushed investors’ hopes this week | CNN Business

    Fed officials crushed investors’ hopes this week | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN Business
     — 

    Investors sleuthing for clues about what the Federal Reserve will decide during its December policy meeting got quite a few this week. But those hints about the future of monetary policy point to an outcome they won’t be very happy about.

    What’s happening: Federal Reserve officials made a series of speeches this week indicating that aggressive interest rate hikes to fight inflation would continue, souring investors’ hopes for a forthcoming central bank policy shift. On Thursday, St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said the central bank still has a lot of work to do before it brings inflation under control, sending the S&P 500 down more than 1% in early trading. It later pared losses.

    Bullard, a voting member on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), said that the moves the Fed has made so far to fight inflation haven’t been sufficient. “To attain a sufficiently restrictive level, the policy rate will need to be increased further,” he said.

    Those comments come a day after Kansas City Fed President Esther George, a voting member of the FOMC, said to The Wall Street Journal that she’s “looking at a labor market that is so tight, I don’t know how you continue to bring this level of inflation down without having some real slowing, and maybe we even have contraction in the economy to get there.”

    San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly added on Wednesday that a pause in rate hikes was “off the table.”

    A numbers game: Fed officials should increase interest rates to somewhere between 5% and 7% to tamp inflation, Bullard said Thursday. Those numbers shocked investors, as they would require a series of significant and economically painful hikes which increase the chance of a hard landing.

    The current interest rate sits between 3.75% and 4% and the median FOMC participant projected a peak funds rate of 4.5-4.75% in September. If those numbers hold steady, Fed members would only raise rates by another three-quarters of a percentage point.

    But Fed Chair Powell said at the November meeting that the projections are likely to rise in December and if Bullard is correct, that means investors can expect another one to three percentage points in rate hikes.

    Dreams of a pivot: October’s softer-than-expected CPI and producer price reading bolstered investors’ hopes that the Fed might ease its aggressive rate hikes and sent markets soaring to their best day since 2020 last week.

    But messaging from Fed officials this week has brought Wall Street back down to earth.

    That’s because market rallies help to expand the economy, said Liz Ann Sonders, Managing Director and Chief Investment Strategist at Charles Schwab, which is the opposite of what the Fed is trying to do with its tightening policy. Fed officials could be attempting to do some “jawboning” via excessively hawkish speeches in order to bring markets down, she said.

    The bottom line: Investors listen closely to Bullard’s comments because he’s known for having looser lips than other Fed officials, Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer of Bleakley Financial Group, wrote in a note Thursday. But his hawkish predictions may have been “overboard,” especially since he won’t be a voting member of the FOMC next year.

    Still, Wall Street analysts are listening. Goldman Sachs raised its peak fed funds rate forecast on Thursday to 5-5.25%, up from 4.75-5%.

    A series of high-profile layoffs have rattled Big Tech this month.

    Amazon confirmed that layoffs had begun at the company and would continue into next year, just days after multiple outlets reported the e-commerce giant planned to cut around 10,000 employees. Facebook-parent Meta recently announced 11,000 job cuts, the largest in the company’s history. Twitter also announced widespread job cuts after Elon Musk bought the company for $44 billion.

    The series of high-profile layoff announcements prompted fears that the labor market was weakening and that a recession could be around the corner.

    Those fears aren’t unwarranted: The Federal Reserve is actively working to slow economic growth and tighten financial conditions to rebalance the white-hot labor market. Further layoffs in both tech and other industries are likely inevitable as the Fed continues to raise interest rates.

    But this wave of layoffs isn’t as significant as headlines might lead Americans to believe. Thursday’s weekly jobless claims actually fell by 4,000 to 222,000 in spite of the surge in tech job cuts.

    In a note on Thursday Goldman Sachs analysts outlined three reasons why the layoffs may not point to a looming recession in the US.

    First off, the tech industry accounts for a small share of aggregate employment in the US. While information technology companies account for 26% of the S&P 500 market cap, it accounts for less than 0.3% of total employment.

    Second, tech job openings remain well above their pre-pandemic level, so laid-off tech workers should have good chances of finding new jobs.

    Finally, tech worker layoffs have frequently spiked in the past without a corresponding increase in total layoffs and have not historically been a leading indicator of broader labor market deterioration, Goldman analysts found.

    “The main problem in the labor market is still that labor demand is too strong, not too weak,” they concluded.

    Mortgage rates dropped sharply last week following a series of economic reports that indicated inflation may finally be easing, reports my colleague Anna Bahney

    The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.61% in the week ending November 17, down from 7.08% the week before, according to Freddie Mac, the largest weekly drop since 1981.

    But that’s still significantly higher than a year ago when the 30-year fixed rate stood at 3.10%.

    “While the decline in mortgage rates is welcome news, there is still a long road ahead for the housing market,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “Inflation remains elevated, the Federal Reserve is likely to keep interest rates high and consumers will continue to feel the impact.”

    Affording a home remains a challenge for many home buyers. Mortgage rates are expected to remain volatile for the rest of the year. And prices remain elevated in many areas, especially where there is a very limited inventory of available homes for sale.

    Meanwhile, inflation and rising interest rates mean many would-be buyers are also facing tightened budgets.

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  • Amazon CEO says job cuts will continue into next year | CNN Business

    Amazon CEO says job cuts will continue into next year | CNN Business

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    CNN Business
     — 

    Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said job cuts at the e-commerce giant would continue into early next year, in his first public remarks since the company began widespread layoffs earlier this week.

    “Our annual planning process extends into the new year, which means there will be more role reductions as leaders continue to make adjustments,” Jassy wrote in a letter to staff Thursday. “Those decisions will be shared with impacted employees and organizations early in 2023.”

    Jassy said that the company hasn’t “concluded yet exactly how many other roles will be impacted” by the layoffs, but added that “each leader will communicate to their respective teams when we have the details nailed down.”

    Amazon confirmed on Wednesday that layoffs had begun at the company, just days after multiple outlets reported the e-commerce giant planned to cut around 10,000 employees this week.

    Amazon

    (AMZN)     and other tech firms significantly ramped up hiring over the past couple of years as the pandemic shifted consumers’ habits toward e-commerce. Now, many of these seemingly untouchable tech companies are experiencing whiplash and laying off thousands of workers as people return to pre-pandemic habits and macroeconomic conditions deteriorate.

    Facebook-parent Meta recently announced 11,000 job cuts, the largest in the company’s history. Twitter also announced widespread job cuts after Elon Musk bought the company for $44 billion.

    Jassy alluded to the macroeconomic climate in his memo Thursday, saying this year’s annual operating review “is more difficult due to the fact that the economy remains in a challenging spot and we’ve hired rapidly the last several years.”

    Jassy said that this is the most difficult decision the company has had to make during his year-and-a-half tenure at Amazon’s helm.

    “It’s not lost on me or any of the leaders who make these decisions that these aren’t just roles we’re eliminating, but rather, people with emotions, ambitions, and responsibilities whose lives will be impacted,” Jassy wrote.

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  • Stocks have been clobbered this year, but people are still contributing to their retirement accounts | CNN Business

    Stocks have been clobbered this year, but people are still contributing to their retirement accounts | CNN Business

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    Stocks and bonds have been turning in volatile, bearish performances this year in an economy marked by high inflation and rising interest rates. But that hasn’t deterred most retirement savers, especially the youngest ones.

    401(k) participants have held relatively steady in their savings contribution rates and in their portfolio allocations, according to new third quarter data from Fidelity Investments. And GenZers have actually increased their contributions.

    By the end of the third quarter, the S&P 500 was down 25% for the year. The Nasdaq had fallen 33%. And the S&P US aggregate bond index was off about 13%.

    So it’s not surprising that the average 401(k) account balance fell to $97,200 in the third quarter, according to Fidelity, one of the country’s leading providers of workplace retirement plans. That’s down 6% from the second quarter and 23% from a year earlier.

    But the average savings rate among 401(k) participants, meanwhile, held relatively steady at 13.8%, which includes both employee and employer contributions. That’s only down a fraction from the 13.9% recorded in the second quarter and the 14% recorded in the first quarter.

    Meanwhile GenZers in the workplace – those roughly ages 22 to 25 – increased their savings levels from 10% to 10.3%. That may account for why the youngest generation of today’s employees actually saw their account balances increase 1.2% relative to the second quarter, despite terrible market performance.

    In terms of gender differences, men saved a bit more than women (14.5% versus 13.5%). And age wise, Boomers on the cusp of retirement saved the most (16.5%).

    Allocations also held fairly steady, Fidelity found, with only 4.5% of 401(k) and 403(b) plan participants opting to make a change in the third quarter. The majority of those who did made just one change, and only 29% of them opted for a more conservative investment.

    Despite the volatility in the markets and the economy this year, “Retirement savers have wisely chosen to avoid the drama and continue making smart choices for the long-term,” said Kevin Barry, president of Workplace Investing at Fidelity Investments.

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  • Twitter employees head for the exits after Elon Musk’s ‘extremely hardcore’ work ultimatum | CNN Business

    Twitter employees head for the exits after Elon Musk’s ‘extremely hardcore’ work ultimatum | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN Business
     — 

    Another employee exodus appears to be underway at Twitter as many workers rejected Elon Musk’s terms for staying with the company, choosing instead to depart, according to multiple current and former employees.

    As the deadline approached for Twitter employees to respond to Elon Musk’s ultimatum to commit to working in an “extremely hardcore” fashion at the company or leave, some employees appeared to publicly indicate they had chosen the latter option. On Thursday afternoon, Twitter staffers began posting the salute emoji, which has become a signal that someone is exiting the company. One Twitter employee said in a tweet that deciding to join the company was “one of the easiest decisions ever made. Deciding to leave today was 100% the opposite.”

    Meanwhile, an internal Slack channel at the company was filled with employees posting the salute emoji after the 5pm ET deadline, indicating they had chosen not to sign Musk’s pledge and depart the company, employees told CNN.

    Twitter’s remaining workforce had until 5 p.m. ET on Thursday to decide whether they wanted to be a part of the culture Musk wants to implement at the social media company, or else effectively resign, according to an email he sent to staff Wednesday.

    A former Twitter executive who recently exited the company described Thursday’s employee exits as a “mass exodus.”

    On Thursday evening following the exits, employees remaining at the company received an email alerting them that the company’s offices will be temporarily closed and badge access will be restricted through Monday, according to a copy of the email obtained by CNN from a current Twitter employee. Musk’s team similarly shuttered offices during the mass layoffs earlier this month out of a concern for safety and an apparent fear that exiting employees could attempt to sabotage the company on their way out.

    Two Twitter employees told CNN ahead of the deadline on Thursday that they planned to reject the ultimatum, citing a toxic work environment they say the billionaire has introduced. Another Twitter employee told CNN Wednesday they were still weighing the decision, saying the email from Musk “felt like a punch in the gut because no matter how you felt about wanting to stay or wanting to go, you were forced to make a decision and feel like you’re up against the time clock to make the best decision for you and your family.”

    The employee added: “Those decisions are more than just 24 hours.”

    Musk told employees on Wednesday that his goal is to build “Twitter 2.0” and that employees who choose to stay will be required to commit to working “long hours at high intensity” and presumably agreeing to Musk’s demand for Twitter employees, who have been largely working remotely, to return to in-office work. As of midday Thursday, employees still did not have clarity on which remote-work exceptions would be granted if they decide to stay, one employee said.

    Later on Thursday, amid an apparent scramble by management to avoid losing too many workers to the ultimatum, Musk sent an email to staff attempting to clarify his position on remote work, according to text of the email obtained by CNN from a Twitter employee who asked not to be identified.

    “Regarding remote work, all that is required for approval is that your manager takes responsibility for ensuring that you are making an excellent contribution,” Musk said in the email, adding that workers would be expected to attend in-person meetings no less than once a month.

    Twenty minutes later, Musk sent a follow up email saying: “At risk of stating the obvious, any manager who falsely claims that someone reporting to them is doing excellent work or that a given role is essential, whether remote or not, will be exited from the company.”

    The decision to issue an ultimatum came after Musk earlier this month fired half of Twitter’s staff, reducing its workforce to around 3,700 employees, and also reportedly cut many of Twitter’s contract workers. He also pushed out its top leadership and dissolved the board of directors. Musk also recently fired some employees for criticizing him in tweets or on internal Slack channels.

    “I don’t want to stick around to build a product that’s being poisoned from the inside and out,” said one of the employees who plans to reject the ultimatum, but requested anonymity to avoid putting the severance at risk. “Everyone has a price to a certain degree and this severance gives me some comfort into looking for a better environment in the time frame despite the economy.”

    That employee said management now appears to have grown concerned about the number of people planning to depart and are “scrambling” to convince talent to stay. Twitter, which has reportedly eliminated most of its public relations team, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Another Twitter employee, who asked not to be quoted, shared similar concerns and said they planned to also exit the company.

    A recently laid off employee who remains in touch with former coworkers told CNN that everyone they had spoken to plans to reject Musk’s ultimatum and exit the company. “People can’t overlook the public mockery and firing of other employees,” the former employee told CNN. “In the same vein, they can’t overlook or feel comfortable working for someone who has handled the last few weeks in the way Elon has.”

    “People don’t want to sacrifice their mental health and family lives to make the richest man in the world richer,” the former employee added.

    But the decision may not be so easy for others. The ultimatum comes during a difficult period for the tech industry, following mass layoffs and hiring freeze announcements at many major firms including Meta, Amazon, Lyft and others. Employees working in the United States from other countries could also risk losing their work visas if they leave the company.

    A fourth employee told CNN Thursday they plan to stay at the company “because change is rarely influenced from the outside.”

    The shakeup likely to come as a result of the ultimatum will be the last element of the “fundamental organizational restructuring” following Musk’s takeover, he told a Delaware court Wednesday during a trial over his Tesla pay package.

    Musk said in the Wednesday email that the “new Twitter” will be “much more engineering-driven,” leaving some non-engineering workers questioning whether their jobs could be at risk even if they opt to stay.

    “There’s no assurance in this, you’re just like, ‘I might be able to advocate for myself, I might not,’” the employee who expressed uncertainty about the decision said. “What’s behind this door? You don’t know. The only door you know that’s certain is the exit door.”

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  • Amazon confirms it has begun laying off employees | CNN Business

    Amazon confirms it has begun laying off employees | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Amazon confirmed on Wednesday that layoffs had begun at the company, two days after multiple outlets reported the e-commerce giant planned to cut around 10,000 employees this week.

    The initial cuts at Amazon will impact roles on the devices and services team, per a memo shared publicly by Dave Limp, senior vice president of devices & services at Amazon

    “After a deep set of reviews, we recently decided to consolidate some teams and programs. One of the consequences of these decisions is that some roles will no longer be required,” Limp said. “We notified impacted employees yesterday, and will continue to work closely with each individual to provide support, including assisting in finding new roles.”

    Limp did not specify how many employees have been cut.

    Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel told CNN Business in a statement that the company looks at all of its businesses as part of an annual operating review process. “As we’ve gone through this, given the current macro-economic environment (as well as several years of rapid hiring), some teams are making adjustments, which in some cases means certain roles are no longer necessary,” Nantel added.

    She continued: “We don’t take these decisions lightly, and we are working to support any employees who may be affected.”

    On Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning, many laid-off Amazon workers posted publicly on LinkedIn that they had been impacted by the job cuts and were looking for work. Some of these posts mentioned they were on teams involved with Amazon’s voice assistant, Alexa.

    Amazon and other tech firms significantly ramped up hiring over the past couple of years as the pandemic shifted consumers’ habits towards e-commerce. Now, many of these seemingly untouchable tech companies are experiencing whiplash and laying off thousands of workers as people return to pre-pandemic habits and macroeconomic conditions deteriorate.

    Facebook-parent Meta recently announced 11,000 job cuts, the largest in the company’s history. Twitter also announced widespread job cuts after Elon Musk bought the company for $44 billion, funded in part by debt financing.

    In a sobering sign of the times, a growing number of business leaders in the tech sector – from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey – have been issuing remorseful apologies in recent weeks as their employees lose their livelihoods.

    After reaching record highs during the pandemic, shares of Amazon have shed more than 40% in 2022 so far.

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  • Maryland condo explosion leaves 12 people, including 4 kids, injured | CNN

    Maryland condo explosion leaves 12 people, including 4 kids, injured | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A condo explosion in Montgomery County, Maryland, left a dozen people injured, two of them critically, kicking off a massive search-and-rescue operation Wednesday, the county fire chief said.

    The “significant” blast resulted in a structural collapse, Goldstein said.

    Authorities are “still working on the basis that there are unaccounted for personnel,” Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said. “We are diligently working to identify all the occupants.”

    There was a “gas-fed fire” in the building’s basement that fire crews are handling, and utility workers are attempting to turn off natural gas to the building, he said.

    Ten people were taken to hospitals, including two adults in critical condition. Four adults and four children were transferred with mild to moderate injuries. Two individuals were treated on scene and declined to go to the hospital, Goldstein said.

    The fire impacted two condo buildings with six units. Two other buildings were evacuated. Authorities are homing in on nine apartments, trying to account for each unit’s residents, Goldstein said.

    Residents told authorities they smelled gas Wednesday morning. Maintenance staff on site used a ladder to rescue a resident from a rear balcony and assisted a resident at the back of the building, the fire chief says.

    “Our 911 center has checked, and this morning there (were) no calls prior to the explosion for a gas leak or a gas smell,” Goldstein said, adding authorities were looking into whether there were reports of a gas odor last week.

    The fire remained active late Wednesday morning, Goldstein said, calling it a multi-day event. More information is expected at a Wednesday afternoon briefing.

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  • Elon Musk gives ultimatum to Twitter employees: Do ‘extremely hardcore’ work or get out | CNN Business

    Elon Musk gives ultimatum to Twitter employees: Do ‘extremely hardcore’ work or get out | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN Business
     — 

    Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk has given employees until Thursday evening to commit to “extremely hardcore” work or else leave the company, according to a copy of a late-night internal email sent by the billionaire and obtained by CNN.

    “Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore,” Musk wrote in the memo. “This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.”

    In the memo, Musk goes on to outline how Twitter will be “much more engineering-driven” and then gives staff an ultimatum. “If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below,” directing staff to what appears to be an online form.

    Musk said any employee who has not done so by 5 p.m. ET on Thursday will receive three months severance. The Washington Post was first to report the memo.

    The email, with the subject line “A fork in the road,” comes as Musk has publicly and privately clashed with Twitter employees over his approach to running the company. It also comes after Musk pushed out Twitter’s top execs, eliminated the board of directors and laid off roughly half the staff.

    “Whatever decision you make,” Musk said in the memo, “thank you for your efforts to make Twitter successful.”

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  • Twitter chaos spills into public view as Musk clashes with and fires employees on the platform | CNN Business

    Twitter chaos spills into public view as Musk clashes with and fires employees on the platform | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN Business
     — 

    Elon Musk has publicly clashed with a growing number of Twitter employees about the state of the platform, and fired at least one of them in a tweet, in an unusually visible sign of corporate chaos after his $44 billion takeover of the influential company.

    Musk on Monday got into a dispute with software engineer Eric Frohnhoefer on Twitter that ended with the billionaire tweeting “he’s fired,” and Frohnhoefer confirming he’d lost access to Twitter’s internal systems. The public termination came after Frohnhoefer tweeted evidence suggesting that Musk was “wrong” about his claims that Twitter was running, in the billionaire’s words, “super slow” in various countries.

    Frohnhoefer told CNN Monday night that he found out about the firing when a friend sent him Musk’s tweet and said that “no one even reached out to me from Twitter.” Frohnhoefer added that he had been “willing to give it a try” under Musk and described himself as “in the wait-and-see camp,” but that “everything that has been reported is true.” He described working for Musk as a “total sh*t show” and the current state of affairs as pure “chaos.”

    At least one other employee who chimed in offering context on the issue had also been fired as of Tuesday morning, according to a tweet by that employee. And a handful of other Twitter employees said Tuesday on the platform that they were fired by an email that said their “behavior has violated company policy,” with some speculating that the move may have been a reaction to comments they made in internal Slack channels. Sources have indicated to CNN that employees in recent days had been very candid in criticism of Musk in the company’s Slack. (CNN has attempted to contact fired employees to confirm.)

    In response to a tweet about news of the firings Tuesday, Musk said, “I would like to apologize for firing these geniuses. Their immense talent will no doubt be of great use elsewhere.”

    The firings come after Musk slashed half of Twitter’s staff and, reportedly, many of its contractors, in a manner that many critics have described as slapdash and could put the platform at risk. Musk’s retribution for those who disagree with him also comes as he has cemented his control over the company by pushing out Twitter’s top execs and eliminating its board of directors.

    In their absence, Musk is now running Twitter with the help of friends Jason Calacanis and David Sacks; his personal lawyer Alex Spiro; and, reportedly, engineers on loan from some of his other companies, including Tesla

    (TSLA)    . In addition to the public pushback from employees, some Twitter staff appear to have tried to appeal to Musk and his inner circle privately as they weigh numerous disruptive changes to the platform.

    An internal document obtained by CNN indicates that employees had raised concerns to Musk and others about some of the fallout that would likely occur if Twitter rolled out its new, $8-per-month paid verification service. The document, which is dated November 1 and proved prescient in its predictions, provides a list of recommendations for how to avoid the most extreme potential consequences of rolling out a subscription whereby anyone could pay $8 to receive a verified check mark.

    “Legacy Verification provides a critical signal in enforcing impersonation rules, the loss of which is likely to lead to an increase in impersonation of high-profile accounts on Twitter,” the document states, adding that such issues could result in a loss of trust among high-profile users. It also raised concerns that the service could result in a “pay to play” system in which key voices that can’t or won’t pay for the subscription, such as “individuals in sanctioned countries (including dissenters and activists)” could be deprioritized.

    Esther Crawford, a Twitter product manager who is reportedly now leading its Twitter Blue subscription service update, was briefed on the document ahead of last week’s rollout the paid verification option, as was Musk and his lawyer Alex Spiro, a source told CNN. The digital news outlet Platformer was the first to report details of the document.

    Within hours of the paid verification system launching last week, Twitter was hit with a wave of celebrity and corporate impersonators on its platform who quickly gamed the system, potentially adding to growing uncertainty among advertisers, who make up nearly all of Twitter’s business. The paid subscription service was suspended on Friday with little warning. It was not immediately clear when the company might restore the offering.

    Even with the apparent firings for employees who speak out, some continued to do so publicly. After Musk posted a graph purporting to show a slight uptick in Twitter’s daily active users, a data scientist at the company replied that the chart was flawed. In response to a user asking if the employee was “safe,” the staffer replied: “He’ll never catch me.”

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