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(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. saw stronger than expected job growth in June, as the economy added 372,000 jobs and the unemployment rate remained at 3.6%, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday.

The data shows moderately lower but robust job growth, despite aggressive borrowing cost increases from the Federal Reserve.

The leisure and hospitality industry continued to show strong growth, adding 67,000 jobs, though a slight dip from the positions added over the month prior. Jobs were also added in health care and professional and business services.

The labor force participation rate, a measure of working-age Americans who hold jobs or are actively looking for one, inched down to 62.2% in June, suggesting that workers still remain on the sidelines. That figure stands 1.2 percentage points below pre-pandemic levels seen in February 2020.

Wage increases — a key metric for observers of inflation focused on consumer demand — rose 0.3% over last month and 5.1% over the past year. Those measures are largely unchanged from the report released a month prior.

The new data arrives at a precarious moment. Across the economy, acute financial distress could grow as the Fed pursues a series of rate hikes that aim to dial back sky-high inflation but risks tipping the economy into a recession. At its most recent meeting, last month, the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate 0.75%, its largest rate increase since 1994.

“It’s amazing how head-spinning the predictions of the economy have been,” said Teresa Ghilarducci, a labor economist at The New School for Social Resarch. “Inflation was the top issue before the Fed met last month and now it’s recession,” she added.

Heightening the sense of economic uncertainty, the S&P 500 suffered its worst first-half performance of any year since 1970, falling 20.5%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell even further over that period, dropping more than 28%.

Economic data released this week presented a mixed picture of the job market. Employers posted 11.3 million job openings in May, a dropoff from the peak of 11.8 million in March but far higher than pre-pandemic levels, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Wednesday. The statistics indicate that demand for workers dipped but remained strong in May.

On the other hand, data released by the Labor Department on Thursday showed that jobless claims stood at 235,000 last week, an increase of 4,000 from the week prior and the highest seen since mid-January. The data suggests that the tight labor market may be loosening, a possible sign of an economic slowdown.

Ghilarducci, the labor economist, cautioned that the persistence of a low unemployment rate in June may not mean that the economy remains in good shape, since the unemployment rate often lags behind overall economic trends.

“The unemployment rate is a note from a different time,” she said.

Still, the White House and the Federal Reserve are watching closely to see if jobs data reveals anything about their difficult tight-rope walk of fighting sky-high prices by slowing down demand, while simultaneously avoiding the type of steep slowdown that could cause a recession.

In recent months, strong hiring had turned the monthly jobs report into a recurring indicator of the hot U.S. labor market.

Prior to May, the U.S. enjoyed a streak of 12 straight months in which it added at least 400,000 jobs. Meanwhile, for the past three months of jobs data — from March to May — the unemployment rate has stood at 3.6%, a tick above the 3.5% unemployment rate that the U.S. saw in February 2020.

On Friday, April and May numbers were revised to show 74,000 fewer jobs added in those months.

ABC News’ Zunaira Zaki contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a slew of major U.S. companies said they will cover travel costs for employees who cannot access an abortion where they live.

High-profile brands like Apple, Target, Starbucks, Amazon and Disney, ABC News’ parent company, are among those that vowed to help employees afford such travel, as 26 states are “certain or likely” to ban abortion in the aftermath of the court ruling, the Guttmacher Institute predicted in October. In several states, abortion bans have already taken hold.

But the new policies position companies as a key bulwark for abortion rights in states banning the procedure, raising concerns over the privacy of employees who may share intimate details of their personal lives in order to access the subsidy for travel costs. Fear of retribution or discrimination based on the desire to access the employee benefit could dissuade women from using it, experts told ABC News.

Assessing such privacy concerns is difficult in the early days of these policies, when companies are still figuring out exactly what implementation will require and the state-by-state legal environment remains in flux, the experts said. They added that federal law offers robust, albeit incomplete protection for the confidentiality of medical information, urging companies to administer the plan through a health insurer rather than deliver the benefit directly.

“Women should not assume with these policies that their privacy is absolutely 100% guaranteed,” said Wendy Parmet, a professor of health law at Northwestern University. “On the other hand, there are protections.”

“We risk the situation in which the fear itself becomes a more formidable barrier to access to needed care than the actual laws,” she added.

A central question for the new policies covering travel for abortion procedures hinges on whether companies administer the subsidy through an insurer or do it themselves, experts said.

If the benefit is provided through an insurer, then employees will retain the strong privacy protections that they receive whenever pursuing a medical procedure or health benefit through employer-provided health insurance, said Sharona Hoffman, a health law professor at Case Western Reserve University. In such cases, HIPAA prevents the release of medical information about a patient, she added.

If a company provides the benefit directly, then those same privacy protections will not apply. “HIPAA doesn’t apply to employers — there’s no HIPAA privacy coverage,” Hoffman said.

She noted that federal law does offer some confidentiality protections for sensitive medical information held by an employer through the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“If they learn somebody has HIV or cancer, they can’t disclose that to anyone else, unless they have to disclose it to a supervisor who has to provide accommodations to personnel,” she said, noting that it’s unclear how such protections will apply in the case of women seeking to use a company’s coverage for abortion-related travel.

Experts also emphasized the uncertain implications of potential legislation that may aim to prevent people from traveling to other states for an abortion. If such a law took effect and empowered law enforcement to subpoena information from companies or insurers that administer the travel subsidy, then they could be forced to turn over information.

“There’s a HIPAA exception for law enforcement,” said Hoffman, the health law professor at Case Western Reserve University. “Even health care providers have to respond to requests from law enforcement.”

Companies must establish guidelines for how they will respond to potential legal attacks on their policies, said Sonja Spoo, the director of reproductive rights campaigns at the feminist advocacy group UltraViolet.

“If you’re going to provide these benefits to workers, you need to make sure you have a plan in place to protect them,” she said. “Make sure employees are safe from attempts by whoever is in power to see information and weaponize it.”

ABC News posed questions about privacy concerns to 20 top companies that have announced policies that cover travel for employees who cannot access abortion nearby. Eight companies responded, of which seven provided a general comment about their policies but did not answer questions about privacy protections.

One company, Yelp, responded directly to questions from ABC News about privacy concerns regarding its policy.

“​​The privacy and safety of our employees were critical to how we would introduce this benefit, which is administered through our health insurance provider, ensuring confidentiality,” a Yelp spokesperson told ABC News. “Yelp will never receive any information on who incurred a claim and/or received reimbursement.”

Several companies responded to privacy questions about their policies covering employee travel with general statements on the new policies, including Bank of America, Lyft, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Meta, the parent company of Facebook.

“We intend to offer travel expense reimbursements, to the extent permitted by law, for employees who will need them to access out-of-state health care and reproductive services,” a Meta spokesperson told ABC News. “We are in the process of assessing how best to do so given the legal complexities involved.”

As the political and legal terrain shifts, companies will need to constantly adapt to ensure employee information remains private, Kirsten Vignec, an employment attorney at the law firm Hill Ward Henderson, told ABC News.

“​​This is the beginning — not the end — of the transition as a result of the change in precedent,” she said.

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(NEW YORK) — A jury has convicted former Theranos president Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani of defrauding investors and patients in connection with his multi-billion-dollar blood-testing startup.

Balwani, on Thursday, was found guilty on all 12 counts of fraud, for a scheme prosecutors alleged and have now proved he orchestrated alongside his former romantic partner and Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes.

Balwani faced 10 counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Holmes, who faced the same charges as Balwani, was convicted on four counts of fraud in January and awaits sentencing in September.

While Holmes was only convicted on counts related to investors, a jury found Balwani also defrauded patients.

The feds originally charged Balwani and Holmes together. But their trials were later severed after Holmes revealed she may testify to abuse at the hands of Balwani.

Prosecutors said Balwani and Holmes, who touted her startup’s technology as capable of accurately and reliably running any blood test, fraudulently raised hundreds of millions of dollars from investors.

Money poured in, but the miniature blood-testing device, dubbed the “Edison,” could never run more than 12 tests, government attorneys said.

Balwani joined the company in 2009, guaranteeing a $10 million loan and quickly rising to the post of president and COO of Theranos. While his attorneys sought to distinguish his position in the company from the CEO, Holmes, prosecutors say he played an equal role in the fraud.

“I am responsible for everything at Theranos. All have been my decisions too,” read a text message from Balwani to Holmes in July 2015, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Schenk presented to the jury in his final argument.

“Of course [Balwani] had a hand in making the decisions at Theranos,” defense attorney Jeff Coopersmith said during his closing argument.

But, Coopersmith, said in meetings with investors and others, “everyone was listening to Elizabeth Holmes.” The company was her vision, he added, and Balwani had bought in.

“Mr. Balwani is not a victim. He’s a perpetrator of the fraud,” the prosecutor, Schenk, said to wrap up his remarks.

Wayne Kaatz, a juror on the Holmes case, told ABC News in an exclusive interview earlier this year that his group of 12 jurors convicted Holmes, in part, because “everything went through her,” he said. “She had final approval.”

He also revealed his team found Holmes’ testimony largely not credible. Balwani, in his trial, did not take the stand.

Wayne Kaatz, a juror on the Holmes case, told ABC News in an exclusive interview earlier this year that his group of 12 jurors convicted Holmes, in part, because “everything went through her,” he said. “She had final approval.”

He also revealed his team found Holmes’ testimony largely not credible. Balwani, in his trial, did not take the stand.

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(NEW YORK) — After a gunman killed seven people and wounded dozens more at an Independence Day parade outside Chicago on Monday, thousands turned to the online platform GoFundMe to donate money to the victims — the latest example of the public gathering online to fundraise after a tragedy.

While websites like GoFundMe have made such philanthropy increasingly easy, there can be risks.

Highland Park, Illinois, Mayor Nancy Rotering warned the community about potential fundraising scams in a Tuesday morning news conference. By then GoFundMe had already established a specialized hub with links to fundraisers it said it had verified.

Donors had raised millions across 11 different pages as of Wednesday, the website showed. Comments poured in offering well-wishes; some hoped for more gun reform. At least one donor said they were sending care from as far away as Australia.

“As a parent trying to enjoy the little things in life with my own kids, I am deeply saddened that this is where we are now in our world, having to fear a street parade. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of you,” said a comment from a user named Joanna Castello.

One fund will support the family of a couple killed in the shooting. Irina and Kevin McCarthy’s 2-year-old son, Aiden, was found alone in the aftermath. He was later reunited with his grandparents, according to a Highland Park city manager.

As of Thursday morning, the fundraiser for the slain couple had drawn almost $3 million, more than six times its initial goal of $500,000 — with more than 50,000 individual donations.

Many donors directly addressed the couple’s orphaned son in their messages.

One GoFundMe donor identified as Lauren Cohen wrote: “Aiden, I am so sorry for your unimaginable and tragic loss. We are all looking out for you and are heartbroken for you, your family and all of the victims of this tragedy. Sending love.”

The parade shooting “hub” is not the first instance when GoFundMe has been used in the wake of a mass shooting.

Following the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school massacre in May and disasters including West Coast wildfires and the 2021 Surfside Condo collapse in Florida, GoFundMe has continued to establish so-called “crisis hubs,” according to a Medium post the company shared last year.

When news reports of a crisis arise, GoFundMe said it directs a team that monitors related fundraisers, according to the post. The company works with newsrooms, government officials and law enforcement during the verification process.

Some funds are held by the platform until payment information is confirmed — even if the fundraiser is verified, the Medium post shows.

GoFundMe does not always deem unverified fundraisers fraudulent. They can still accumulate donations, according to the post. But organizers cannot withdraw funds from pages that have not been vetted.

A GoFundMe spokesperson told ABC News Wednesday that the platform requires details such as government ID, banking information and addresses when verifying pages. GoFundMe guarantees a full donation refund in cases of fraud, the spokesperson said.

Donors can also directly report pages to GoFundMe for investigation and contact organizers with questions on the site if they want to know more before donating, the spokesperson said.

Kevin Scally, chief relationship officer for the nonprofit evaluator Charity Navigator, told ABC News that fraudulent activity often takes place outside platforms like GoFundMe. Scally said scammers are more likely to target people through look-alike fake webpages and direct, personal appeals.

Scally said GoFundMe has made great strides in fraud protection, citing the policy of validating users before allowing them to withdraw funds. Still, he urged prospective donors to do their research.

“It’s typically best to do some due diligence and make sure that, if you are supporting an organization or you’re supporting a personal fundraiser, you’re doing that through a verified, valid means,” he said.

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(NEW YORK) — Stock market woes will persist into the second half of the year but signs of hope will emerge for beleaguered investors, experts told ABC News of their predictions.

The stock market took a historic plunge over the first half of the year, and many of the same economic threats still loom as inflation remains sky-high and the Federal Reserve pursues aggressive moves to tame price hikes by raising borrowing costs. That means volatility will continue to hammer markets in the coming months, experts told ABC News.

But the major indexes will likely end 2022 higher than they stand now, as rock-bottom share prices begin to promise a buy-low opportunity that outweighs the risk of further decline, the experts said. As investors eventually jump off the sidelines, the market will stabilize and begin to recover, they predicted.

Over the first six months of the year, the S&P 500 — a popular index to which many 401(k) accounts are pegged — plummeted 20.6%, marking its worst first-half performance of any year since 1970. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell even further, dropping more than 28% over the same period; the Dow Jones Industrial average dropped more than 14%.

Persistent threats to the market include inflation, ongoing interest rate hikes, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and a potential recession. In the short term, these looming dangers will put downward pressure on the stock market, since market performance depends on the financial outlook of companies across the economy, experts said.

Ultimately, investors are deciding whether to buy or sell based on the likelihood that a given business will succeed over the coming months and years, Howard Silverblatt, a senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices, told ABC News.

“It all comes down to earnings,” Silverblatt said. “We’re buying a stock based on how much we think the company is going to make.”

Economic headwinds will make it challenging for companies to show investors a path to success, experts told ABC News.

For instance, in order to tame an inflation rate last seen more than four decades ago, the Federal Reserve has undertaken an aggressive effort to raise borrowing costs, which in theory should slow the economy, slash demand, and reduce prices. But the approach will likely weigh on markets, as investors anticipate poor business performance amid the economic slowdown, Silverblatt said.

“In order to stop inflation, the Fed has got to create pain,” he said. “Nobody likes pain. If I’m taking a splinter out of my finger, I’m still yelling and screaming as I’m doing it.”

At its most recent meeting, last month, the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate 0.75%, its largest rate increase since 1994. The Federal Reserve has said it expects to continue raising interest rates in response to elevated inflation.

Experts also cited the threat posed by a potential recession, which many observers define through the shorthand metric of two consecutive quarters of decline in a nation’s inflation-adjusted gross domestic product, or GDP. A country’s GDP is the total value of goods and services that it produces.

If the U.S. were to enter a recession, it would likely further dampen the hopes of businesses and consumers alike, which could slow economic activity and batter markets, experts said.

“The market is suspect of the prospects for earnings and growth,” Harvey said.

But the market will reach a point at which it has dropped far enough that share prices present investors with a purchase that looks more like a buy-low opportunity than a risk of further losses, the experts said. At that point, the market will stabilize and begin to recover as traders jump back into stocks, they added.

Market analysts expect the stock market to reach this point of bottoming out sometime before 2023. Past recoveries suggest market performance can suddenly flip, said Sam Stovall, the chief market strategist at research firm CFRA.

“To know how frequently these declines occur — but then again, how quickly the market gets back to break even and beyond — it will remind investors they are better off preparing a shopping list,” Stovall said. “Think more about buying than bailing.”

But investors should take into account their level of financial cushion, and thus their ability to withstand losses in the short term, said Silverblatt, the analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

“Even if you think your stock is the best stock in the world — the new Apple or Amazon — in two years,” he said. “If you can’t live through it because you can’t take the loss, you can’t play it.”

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(NEW YORK) — Summer has just started but millions around the country have already experienced record-breaking heat waves, forcing people to blast air conditioning and think of ways to protect their homes during an onslaught of high temperatures, all while trying to keep energy costs low.

The U.S. has already seen heat indexes reach dangerous levels this summer. Last month, Shreveport, Mississippi, reached 105 degrees, while temperatures in Houston, Texas, hit 103 degrees.

Drought conditions in parts of the country also make it ripe for pasture losses, water shortages and wildfires, which puts people’s homes at risk.

Protecting your homes

Extreme weather is costing Americans billions of dollars. In 2020, extreme weather cost U.S. taxpayers $99 billion, with heat waves and droughts costing taxpayers an average of $6.4 billion a year since 1980, according to the Center for American Progress.

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, some tips homeowners could use to protect their home include adding insulation to keep the heat out, incorporating window reflectors and weather stripping windows and doors.

How to conserve energy during a heat wave

“Windows and doors are critical,” Jim Reinhart, CEO and president of Ygrene, told ABC News. “Today’s windows and doors are way more efficient than those that many homes were constructed in 30 to 40 years ago.”

Reinhart said having a proper roof is also important in protecting your home from extreme heat and can help reduce your energy costs by at least 20%.

Rising temperatures can also increase a house’s humidity if not properly maintained, which can cause mold to grow.

If roofs, windows and doors are not regularly supported, issues, such as water damage, can cause bigger and more expensive problems, Reinhart added.

“A lot of what we ask people to do is not to just fix it, but fix it appropriately,” he said.

Keeping energy costs down

Customers are expected to be hit hard financially because of rising energy costs, especially during the summer.

Utility companies have warned customers that the high costs of natural gas are leading to an increase in electricity prices. The war in Ukraine has forced the U.S. to export a record amount of gas, driving up the price.

Some tips the Department of Energy suggests for keeping costs down include setting your thermostat to a temperature you’re comfortable with and an indoor temperature that isn’t that much different from the outside temperature.

Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) suggests setting your thermostat to 78 degrees or higher and using ceiling fans to help circulate the air throughout a room.

Logan Atkinson, executive director at Alliance for Affordable Energy, told ABC News people should look to see what energy efficiency programs their states offer to help reduce costs.

“Most utilities are required around the country are to provide [these programs],” Atkinson said. “If you’re a low-income homeowner, most of those programs are free of charge entirely.”

Rising temperatures will undoubtedly lead to an increased usage of people’s air conditioning systems.

Homeowners with heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, commonly referred to as HVAC, should have them serviced by a technician to ensure they’re running efficiently.

The cost to replace an HVAC system costs an average of $7,000, with some systems going up to $10,000, according to Home Advisor. It is more economical to maintain it than replace a broken system.

Atkinson said the efficiency programs could cover some costs if you’re keeping the system serviced.

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(NEW YORK) — A recent surge of U.S. labor organizing has spotlighted, above all, union campaigns at two high-profile corporations: Amazon and Starbucks.

But a watershed union victory last month at an Apple store in Towson, Maryland, may set off a nationwide labor campaign that combines the massive corporate heft of a company akin to Amazon and the nationwide wave of union victories on display at Starbucks, escalating a monthslong spike in worker organizing even as the economy approaches a possible recession, labor scholars and organizers told ABC News.

A succession of union wins at Apple stores across the U.S. is hardly assured and would likely take an extended period of time, since each Apple store employs far more workers than a typical Starbucks shop, making it more difficult and time-consuming to organize each location, the experts said. They also cautioned that Apple retains wide latitude to oppose unionization, which could hinder union efforts.

Unionized Apple store workers in Maryland “showed it’s possible,” said David DiMaria, an organizer with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, or IAMAW, who led the labor campaign at the store. “These workers have inspired lots of other Apple workers around the country.”

Since the victory last month, the IAMAW has garnered interest in unionizing from numerous Apple store employees “in all types of markets all over the country,” added DiMaria, though he declined to say how many total stores were represented by the workers. The company has more than 270 U.S. stores.

Workers at the store in Maryland organized over concerns about wages, professional development, scheduling, and Covid risks, the latter of which have worried workers since the pandemic began more than two years ago, DiMaria said.

The successful union campaign in Maryland, which began about a year ago, coincided with similar efforts at other Apple stores. Workers at a location in Grand Central Terminal, in New York City, have undertaken an ongoing union drive. Meanwhile, at a store in Atlanta, the Communications Workers of America withdrew a request for a union vote in May days before it was set to take place, citing anti-union efforts from Apple and logistical challenges posed by Covid.

In May, Apple raised the entry-level pay of its retail employees from $20 to $22 per hour amid the union activity, as well as sky-high inflation and a tight labor market.

Apple declined a request for comment for this article. CWA did not respond to a request for comment.

The surge of organizing at Apple comes amid an overall uptick in union activity nationwide. Petitions for union elections increased 57% over the first six months of fiscal year 2022, which ended on March 31, compared with the same six-month period a year prior, the National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, said in April.

Over recent months, national attention has focused on union campaigns at Amazon and Starbucks, which have followed disparate trajectories.

In April, warehouse workers at a 6,000-worker Amazon facility formed the first-ever U.S. union at the company, though no additional warehouses have unionized since. While at Starbucks, an initial union victory at a store in Buffalo in December set off a wave of union elections, which now total 225 elections, of which the union has won 182, or 81%, the NLRB told ABC News.

“Starbucks shows that victory begets victory,” said Alex Riccio, a Philadelphia-based organizer with the union Workers United who works on Starbucks labor campaigns. “Once people see there’s a path to victory and a path to power, it has a galvanizing effect.”

But a wave of victories at Apple stores would likely prove more difficult and time-consuming because each shop employs more workers than a typical Starbucks, experts said. Ninety-eight workers voted in the union election at the Apple store in Maryland; as opposed to Starbucks union votes, which range in number but typically involve about 30 employees.

“The larger the workplace, the more uncertainty with respect to the organizing environment,” said Michael Duff, a professor at the St. Louis University School of Law and former attorney with the NLRB. “In trying to organize bigger places, it takes time to figure out whether you have support or not.”

An anti-union campaign from Apple may also limit or slow organizing at Apple stores, though opposition from employers can instead fuel the spread of labor campaigns, experts said.

Apple has not taken a public stance on the recent union efforts, but the company hired lawyers from Littler Mendelson, the law firm retained by Starbucks in its effort to fight unionizing workers. Workers at the store in Atlanta filed a complaint with the NLRB over alleged mandatory anti-union meetings, and Vice reported that the company sent anti-union talking points to managers at multiple stores to share with employees.

Meanwhile, managers at the store in Towson, Maryland, told workers false information about dues payments and mischaracterized how the bargaining process would work, said DiMaria, the lead organizer at IAMAW, citing conversations with workers.

“Employers have a lot of leeway in carrying out anti-union campaigns,” said Risa Lieberwitz, a professor of employment law at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. “It could make it more difficult.”

When asked whether more Apple stores will unionize, DiMaria expressed cautious optimism.

“If I could call that, I’d play the lottery,” he said. “I know the public would love to see these tidal waves, but it’s the workers who are going through this and they need to build it themselves to sustain.”

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(NEW YORK) — Melissa Gates, who is physically disabled and uses a cane or scooter to move around, was actively searching and applying for a federal job. It took her 20 years before she finally received a position as a secretary for NASA.

She said she wanted the stability and the health care benefits that were likely to come from a government job. And she did everything she could to get one: applying to positions online, going through state-run disability organizations, even traveling for career fairs.

“I would always travel down, standing on long lines, just to have them tell me to submit my resume on one of their sites, which I could have already done on my own,” Gates said. “That’s how my journey started.”

She moved to Maryland from New Jersey in order to get help from the nonprofit disability employment organization Melwood, which provides employment, job training and skill development services to more than 2,000 disabled people each year.

Though she said she was never outwardly discriminated against because of her disability, she wonders if it may have played a role in her job search.

“All the other avenues that I had tried to utilize to help me get this dream job of a federal career were unsuccessful,” Gates told ABC News. “Within six months, I had three interviews and was able to secure a job where I am now at NASA.”

In 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found the unemployment rate for disabled people was 10.1% – which is about twice as high as the rate for those without a disability.

The National Council on Disability said that people with disabilities also live in poverty at more than twice the rate of people without disabilities, and account for more than half of those living in long-term poverty.

Inaccessibility plagues hiring practices and workplaces across the country, making it harder for disabled people to get interviews, score jobs and find a workplace that meets their needs.

The hiring process has inadvertently made it harder for some disabled people to prove their ability to do the job. Scott Gibson, who is the chief strategy officer at Melwood, said simple steps can be taken to correct seemingly innocent mistakes that lead to the exclusion of disabled candidates.

Accommodations during the hiring process, Gibson said, could be as easy as having a quieter space in a job fair to talk with candidates, or training hiring managers about unconscious bias that could affect their perception of disabled people.

“This old way of doing things isn’t perfect and maybe if we try something new, you’ll find out that great talent is right in front of you,” said Gibson.

And even when people are hired, workplaces may not be the most accommodating to disabled and neurodivergent people. “Neurodivergent” refers to people whose brains may function in a different way than what is considered typical, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Before COVID-19, many workplaces were not designed with accessibility in mind.

For example, Gibson said noisy, crowded office spaces may be distracting to people with audio hypersensitivities, while a lack of a remote work can exclude or endanger immunocompromised people or people who are physically disabled.

Some office spaces may also be unwelcoming to people with wheelchairs or canes. Some disabilities require other accommodations, such as captioning during video calls or technology to enlarge text on screen.

COVID-19, however, has served as the beginning of a new era for accessibility for employees and employers.

“One of the great things that came out of COVID is it made many employers realize how easy it is to be accessible,” Gibson said.

With accessible hiring practices, people like Gates can get a fair shot at jobs across industries.

“Give us a chance,” Gates said. “We’ll show you what we can do.”

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(NEW YORK) — The CEO of Delta Air Lines apologized to customers who were impacted by widespread delays and cancellations in a letter on Thursday.

“If you’ve encountered delays and cancellations recently, I apologize,” Delta’s CEO Ed Bastian said in the letter.

Delta and other major airlines continue to struggle with the strong demand for air travel, forcing airlines to cancel thousands of flights in the last several weeks. While airlines have blamed weather and air traffic control for the delays, airlines are also severely understaffed.

Bastian announced Thursday that corporate employees will be sent to two especially hard-hit airports — Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport — to help check baggage and check in travelers. Bastian said the company is making logistical changes to prevent additional delays and cancellations.

“Crews are being scheduled with more buffer room to help us absorb and adjust when factors like summer thunderstorms disrupt the operation,” Bastian said. “And as always, we’re issuing travel waivers ahead of inclement weather, enabling you to easily rebook travel if needed without worry.”

In the letter, Bastian said that Delta has added more than 15,000 new employees since the start of 2021. American, United and Delta are all hiring roughly 200 pilots per month.

The letter also comes as off-duty Delta pilots are picketing at major Delta hubs across the country during ongoing union contract negotiations.

“The environment we’re navigating today is unlike anything we’ve ever faced, but Delta is no stranger to challenging times, and our commitment to you is as strong as ever,” Bastian said. “We won’t stop until we’ve made things right, and we’ll never stop improving for you.”

Airlines expect the highest number of passengers since the start of the pandemic during the July 4 weekend. Delta is forecasting more than 3 million travelers alone.

Delta preemptively slashed hundreds of flights from its schedule between July 1 to Aug. 7 due to staffing concerns. United Airlines has cut 50 daily flights out of Newark starting on July 1.

Lawmakers, including Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), called on airlines to “prioritize their passengers and address flight schedule issues” in a letter sent to major domestic airlines on Wednesday.

“If an airline cancels a flight for any reason, the airline must promptly provide passengers refunds, as required by the law,” they said. “As the July 4th holiday approaches, the reliability of the air travel system should not be up in the air.”

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg met with airline executives last week and pressed them on their ability to reliably operate their July 4 holiday flight schedules, a source familiar with the meeting told ABC News. Buttigieg also asked them to improve customer experience.

ABC News’ Amanda Maile contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — As the leaders of NATO’s 30 member countries convene in Madrid this week, preserving the alliance’s remarkable unity against Russian aggression is at the top of President Joe Biden’s agenda.

But as the war’s economic fallout ripples far beyond Eastern Europe, maintaining Americans’ support for Ukraine amid mounting fallout at home may be the greater challenge.

Before Russia launched its attack, the average price for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S was near $3.50. Now, it hovers near $5. Inflation concerns were already ballooning before the war, and since its onset in February, year-over-year rates continue to surge.

Biden has pledged to do whatever he can to bolster the U.S. economy while promising to take down Russia’s — pledging to make President Vladimir Putin pay a staggering price for inciting the conflict.

So far, though, higher global prices have made it possible for Russia to reap higher revenues from its fuel exports, even while it exports less.

ABC News asked experts about whether the financial penalties levied against Russia are having unintended consequences and what other tools the Biden administration could use to counter Putin’s aggression that don’t hurt American consumers.

Sanctions’ side effects?

When it comes to evaluating the efficacy of the allies’ sanctions and embargo strategy, economists stress it will take time for the measures to show their true bite — on Russia.

In fact, in the near-term, Ginger Faulk, an international lawyer at Eversheds-Sutherland who represents multinational companies in matters involving the U.S. government’s regulation of foreign trade and investment, said there’s evidence the policies have been “counterproductive.”

“The sanctions have not stopped Russia from continuing its war and they’re not even threatening Putin’s hold on power in Russia,” Faulk said. “To date, Russia has been able to increase its spending on the war in spite of these sanctions.”

While Biden might blame “Putin’s price hike” for Americans’ pain at the pump, Faulk said there’s more to the story.

“The rise in gas prices that people are seeing is caused by a lot of factors, but make no mistake — one of the big factors is the shunning of Russian oil in global markets,” she said.

“I think if we had approached the embargoes more strategically at the outset, it wouldn’t have caused this.”

Douglas Rediker, a senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution, argues that beyond the Biden administration’s policies, the war’s roiling of supply chains and a diminished wiliness to trade with Russia have had a much greater role in rising costs.

“To some degree, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is what caused the price hikes, rather than the U.S. and E.U.’s reaction to it,” Rediker said.

“Gasoline prices have gone up. But they have not gone up primarily because of the sanctions that we’ve imposed on Russia. They’ve gone up because of the overall impact on supply chains, on trade, and diminish willingness to transact with Russia,” he added, noting that penalties on Moscow’s national banking system have also played a part.

Capping the cash flow

Fewer customers willing to do business with the Kremlin has resulted in other countries like China scooping up Russian oil at discounted rates. But instead of trying to hinder countries going against the U.S. and its allies from benefiting, experts say imposing a price cap on how much an importer can pay for Russian oil might be a better strategy.

“Sanctions lawmakers have to get smarter,” Faulk said. “That’s why you see the Treasury Department and the White House talking about reducing the price that Russia receives for the oil itself without actually taking those barrels off of the world market.”

Indeed, it’s a proposal that was on the table at this week’s meeting of G-7 nations, where a U.S. official said the leaders of the world’s most advanced economies were able to come “very close” to an agreement on a mechanism that would set a global price cap on Russian oil by imposing shipping restrictions on any product purchased above a certain threshold.

In theory, the restrictions would be enforceable because a London-based company insures the vast majority of the world’s oil tankers, so only countries in compliance would be allowed to use the company’s services.

“The goal here is to starve Russia, starve Putin of his main source of cash, and force down the price of Russian oil to help blunt the impact of Putin’s war at the pump,” a senior administration official said.

In addition to being able to charge less for its product, Faulk says Moscow will have to be content with the added expense of sending oil to faraway customers.

“It’s much more complex and expensive to send oil to China or to India rather than to Europe,” she said. “Those increased logistics costs and the sanctions discount will eat into Russian revenues.”

But whether importers would follow suit with price limits or establish workarounds is still unclear.

And there’s also the possibility that the Kremlin could respond to the measure by abruptly cutting off oil exports to the E.U. before its gradual embargo comes into full effect, or halting its supply of natural gas — which Europe relies on to heat nearly half of its homes.

“Russia is responding in a kind of economic tit-for-tat by cutting gas flows into Europe. And that doesn’t bode well for this winter,” Faulk said.

No easy fixes

The key to bringing down prices at home lies in a simple economic model: supply and demand. But experts say those variables are exceedingly difficult to manipulate.

To ramp up supply, Rediker says, the Biden administration has shown a willingness to work towards expanding the amount of fuel available to the global market, even if it means courting unsavory trade partners.

“There are steps to do deals with — if not the devil — certainly do deals with countries we have demonized for human rights and political behavior,” Rediker said, referencing authoritarian governments like Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

Trying to limit demand may be even less politically palatable.

“The Biden administration is very reluctant to see comparisons to the Carter administration,” Rediker said, recalling a speech the former president gave advising Americans to turn down their thermostats amid rampant inflation and the energy crisis of the 1970s. “I think they have that deeply penetrated in their political thinking and they want to avoid being seen as asking Americans to reduce the demand for fossil fuels.”

As for the White House proposal to temporarily lift the federal gas tax, Rediker says most economists would describe it a “political theater,” and that if it were to be enacted, it could actually result in increased inflation by prompting more federal borrowing.

With no straightforward solution, he says support for the war could wane.

“As the war has continued on, the American public may still be supportive of Ukraine. But the question is, are they willing to make an overt sacrifice that’s being reflected in higher prices at the pump?” Rediker said. “I think that’s an open question.”

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