Business

(WASHINGTON) — The number of job openings hit a record high of 10.9 million on the last day of July, the Department of Labor said Wednesday, as businesses struggle to lure back workers in the wake of COVID-19’s shock to the economy.

The latest figure on job openings beats the record high of 10.1 million that was just set the previous month in June, but may not yet reflect the impact of the delta variant’s spread on the labor market. Still, the fresh data paints a complicated picture of economic recovery as job openings soar despite unemployment levels remaining elevated.

Job openings increased across the economy, with major increases in health care and social assistance, finance and insurance, as well as accommodation and food services, the DOL said.

In addition to job openings reaching a high, the number of people leaving their jobs is also at record high levels. The quits rate in July was 2.7%, the BLS said Wednesday, tying with June and April of 2021 for the highest on record.

Economists have attributed the recent labor crunch to lingering health concerns over the virus that may have some workers not wanting to return to the workplace, a child care crisis that has disproportionately impacted working women, as well as harder-to-quantify factors as many Americans reassess what they want from a job after living through a once-in-a-century pandemic that has left more than 600,000 Americans dead.

The unemployment rate in August was 5.2%, a reflection of major improvements in the labor market compared to before the vaccine rollout, but still above the pre-pandemic 3.5% seen in February 2020. Broken down further, employment has risen by some 17 million jobs since April 2020, but the economy is still down some 5.3 million jobs compared to February 2020.

Despite the unemployment rate remaining elevated, many firms have reported struggles hiring staff — which has resulted in average wages rising, especially among service industries or jobs requiring face-to-face contact. The average hourly earnings for workers in August was some $30.73.

The latest data from the DOL also comes as enhanced pandemic-era unemployment benefits expired this week for millions of Americans. Despite the rhetoric from many Republican lawmakers, however, data indicates that yanking pandemic unemployment benefits — as a handful of states have already done — did not contribute to job growth. Researchers at JPMorgan found “zero correlation” between job growth and state decisions to drop the federal unemployment aid, the Associated Press reported.

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(NEW YORK) — Get ready to catch ’em all!

Oreo just announced the release of a limited-edition Pokémon cookie pack.

The Pokémon x Oreo cookie pack pays tribute to some of your favorite Pokémon, including Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle.

There are 16 designs and each Oreo will be embossed with a different character.

Some cookies will be harder to find than others, just like in the Pokémon world.

“The rarity of the designs embossed on the cookies range from easy to find to hard to find, and the hardest to find (Mew) is featured on an extremely limited amount of the total cookies produced,” Oreo said in a press release.

Along with the collaboration, there will be an art installation with more than 8,000 3-D replicas of the cookies on the Venice Beach Boardwalk in Los Angeles until Oct. 3.

The Pokémon x OREO cookie pack will be available at retailers nationwide starting Sept 13.

Time to eat ’em all.

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(NEW YORK) — Jury selection for the trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes began last week and was completed over a three-day process, with the prosecution and the defense agreeing on seven men and five women.

Holmes was charged by the Department of Justice with 12 counts of fraud more than three years ago, accused of defrauding investors, patients and doctors. She potentially faces decades in prison if convicted. She has pleaded not guilty.

Three weeks ago, a panel of 240 potential jurors were summoned to complete a 28-page questionnaire that focused heavily on their media consumption and knowledge of those involved with the case, as well as their own medical history. The defense had originally submitted a more extensive questionnaire with 112 pages and 45 questions that presiding United States District Judge Edward Davila then trimmed.

Of the 240 potential jurors, Davila and attorneys from both the prosecution and defense called in 132 to the Robert F. Peckham Federal Courthouse for questioning. Holmes was present in the courtroom alongside her team of lawyers, who watched and took notes as potential jurors entered for voir dire.

One of Davila’s first questions to the potential jurors was related to whether any of them had seen the media coverage surrounding Holmes. About half raised their hands, including now-dismissed potential juror Michael Roccaforte.

Roccaforte spoke exclusively to ABC News’ Rebecca Jarvis on “The Dropout: Elizabeth Holmes on Trial” podcast, where he described his experience throughout the process. He recalled seeing Holmes standing in front of the courthouse while he and other potential jurors were walking in.

“She was kind of staring at all the jurors as they walked in … almost looking as if she was about to greet us or something,” Roccaforte told ABC News.

Once in the courtroom, he described Holmes as “confident, poised” and “a little bit intense.”

Roccaforte, who is a radio producer in San Francisco, told Davila it would be difficult for him to do his job and avoid seeing the breaking news around the trial.

“I’m looking at my computer and it’s just Theranos, Theranos, Theranos,” he told ABC News, recalling his conversation in court.

Ultimately, Roccaforte was dismissed, and the banter between him and Davila caused some in the crowd to laugh, including Holmes.

“Elizabeth Holmes looked back at me and chuckled herself and we made eye contact for a second,” Roccaforte said.

Other potential jurors were released for a range of reasons, from their own health issues to financial hardships to biases they couldn’t put aside.

“The ideal juror for Elizabeth Holmes would be someone who would … find her to be a likable kind of person … or has either personally or knows someone close to them who believes they have been wrongfully prosecuted in a case, so they just have a general mistrust of government or authority figures,” James McGarity, a partner at the jury consulting firm R&D Strategic Solutions, told Jarvis on “The Dropout: Elizabeth Holmes on Trial.”

Defense attorney Jose Baez said the defense would benefit if the jury included a small business owner or entrepreneur.

“You want people who have the audacity to take a chance, to risk their livelihood on something that’s unproven and, at the same time, they could relate to having bad people working for you or sometimes things that are outside of your control,” Baez said.

As for the prosecution’s ideal juror, defense attorney Dick DeGuerin, who is currently representing accused murderer Robert Durst, said they would like somebody “that wants to enforce the law no matter what.”

McGarity agreed, saying the prosecution would likely seek “people who are what we call ‘law and order’ types, who invest a lot of faith in the law and law enforcement, people who believe that charges against someone like Ms. Holmes would not be brought unless there is solid evidence.”

The jury now ranges in age from 19 to about 60 years old. Of the 12 jurors, six are white, four are Hispanic, and two are Asian. There are also two jurors who said that English was not their first language, with one saying that she had to use a translation device on her phone to understand some of the words in the questionnaire.

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(DETROIT) — People looking to buy a new car, might want to pump the brakes on their search for now. General Motors announced it will temporarily shut down eight of its 15 North American assembly plants due to a microchip shortage that automakers need to build vehicles.

The shutdown takes effect Tuesday, Sept. 7.

Watch the full report from ABC’s Good Morning America:

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(WASHINGTON) — Expanded pandemic unemployment benefits, put in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic, expired on Monday.

Impacting approximately 12 million Americans, the benefits had been in place for more than a year, providing an additional $300 per week in unemployment insurance as well as expanded benefits for gig workers and people who have been unemployed long term.

The White House said Friday there was no plan to reevaluate the end date of these benefits.

“As you know that was temporary, the emergency unemployment benefits,” Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

“It’s important to take a step back to look at the national landscape here,” Jean-Pierre added. “In about half of all states, 24 governors have already made the decision to eliminate pandemic unemployment benefits, in the remaining 26 states, unemployment levels vary wildly from 3 to 7%.”

She also reiterated Biden’s calls for states that want to extend those benefits to use funding from the $1.9 trillion COVID relief package.

Last week, new data from the Department of Labor showed a steep decline in the number of jobs added in August. Employers added just 235,000 jobs last month, down from the approximately 1 million jobs added in both June and July. These numbers come as the spread of the more contagious delta variant has appeared to slow the pace of economic recovery.

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(NEW YORK) — When COVID-19 reached the U.S. and government restrictions set in — closing indoor dining in much of the country — millions of restaurant workers found themselves without jobs. But now, as restaurants are reopening and people are once again going out to eat, owners are facing a different challenge: Their workers haven’t returned.

“The thing I remember most about those early months and weeks was the word ‘grief,'” said Sava Farah, owner of The Pulpo Group, which operates three restaurants in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “We had to lay off over 200 employees that we called family.”

At the time, no one knew how long restaurants would be forced to supplant their revenue with to-go orders and outdoor dining. For many, that was never going to cut it.

The National Restaurant Association estimates that in the first six months of the pandemic, nearly one in six restaurants — almost 100,000 businesses — shut down.

Depleted industry

Things began to look up in December 2020, as the federal government gave authorization to the first two COVID-19 vaccines. Shortly after, cases began declining, restrictions started to be lifted and restaurants were once again able to open their doors for indoor dining.

But even though the customers returned, many workers did not.

“If you look at who is working in restaurants in 2019 versus today, there’s about a million people who have disappeared,” said Micheline Maynard, Washington Post columnist and author of the soon-to-be-released book “Satisfaction Guaranteed: How Zingerman’s Built A Corner Deli Into a Global Food Community.”

The labor shortage is having wide-ranging effects on the industry. Many restaurants are having to cut hours, sometimes opening only for dinner service rather than all-day service. Some are even cutting entire days of service.

The reasons behind the labor shortage have become political.

Republicans argue that money offered as part of enhanced unemployment packages passed by Congress has taken away the incentive for people to return to work.

Those enhanced unemployment benefits won’t be around forever, though. The Biden administration is ending federal enhanced unemployment benefits on Labor Day, and prior to that, more than half of U.S. states had already ended unemployment boosts.

Democrats, meanwhile, argue that it’s not a matter of paying people too much to stay home, it’s a matter of paying people too little to work.

“You get a very low wage,” said Maynard about many restaurant jobs. “As much as $5 less than the minimum wage, and then your tips are supposed to bump you up to minimum or above.”

But even restaurants that offer higher wages are having issues finding workers.

An industry in need of a reset

Micheline Maynard and Sava Farah say the real problem lies within the industry itself.

The hospitality industry is already high-stress and physically taxing, and now the pandemic has brought new challenges, including an increased risk of exposure to COVID-19.

“Servers are tasked with reminding people that they have to have a mask on,” Maynard said.

Those who return to restaurant work are also having to work harder due to staffing shortages. But because they’re missing that extra set of hands, service becomes slower and tables don’t turn over as quickly.

“And the person who hears the complaints about that is the server,” said Maynard. “It’s hard on the staff, it’s hard on the owners, they’re stressed all the time [and] people are leaving.”

Sava Farah said well before the pandemic the stress of the restaurant industry was already leading to a “burnout culture” — one that often came along with drugs and alcohol use.

Now, with the added problem of the staffing shortages, she thinks it’s time for a reset in the industry — even if that means some doors have to close.

“I don’t think that’s a very bad thing. I know at least one of my restaurants is closed,” said Farah. “There’s just way too much competition in the marketplace currently and it causes all the restaurants around to have to lower their prices. And when you lower your prices, you lower your pay rates, you lower your profit margins, you lower the caliber of the restaurant.”

Micheline Maynard said it might also be time for legislators to get involved, especially if more federal money ends up going to restaurants.

“Basically Congress, and then the Obama and Bush administrations said there are going to be some strings attached,” Maynard said, recalling the auto bailouts during the Great Recession that ushered in industry reforms. “Restaurants need that same kind of examination.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Employers added 235,000 jobs in August, far below expectations of 720,000 new hires, and the unemployment rate dipped slightly to 5.2%, the Department of Labor said Friday.

The fresh labor market data comes as the spread of the more contagious delta variant has throttled the pace of the recovery. The latest figure is a steep fall from the approximately 1 million jobs that were added in both June and July.

So far this year, job growth has averaged 586,000 jobs per month, the DOL said. While employment has risen by some 17 million since April 2020, the economy is still down about 5.3 million jobs from its pre-pandemic level in February 2020 — when the unemployment rate was at a historic low of 3.5% prior to COVID-19 walloping the labor market.

Notable job gains last month occurred in professional and business services (which saw an uptick of 74,000 jobs), transportation and warehousing (which saw a rise of 53,000 jobs), private education (which saw an increase of 40,000 jobs), and manufacturing (which added 37,000 jobs).

Employment in retail trade declined by 29,000 jobs in August, likely a reflection of the virus resurgence, with major losses in food and beverage stores (where 23,000 jobs were lost).

Leisure and hospitality employment was unchanged in August, the DOL said, after back-to-back gains the previous months. Employment in leisure and hospitality is still down by 1.7 million jobs compared to pre-pandemic levels.

The latest data continues to reflect the uneven impact of the COVID-19 downturn. The unemployment rate for white workers was 4.5% in August, compared to 8.8% for Black workers, 6.4% for Hispanic workers and 4.6% for Asian workers.

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) fell in August to 3.2 million, but is 2.1 million higher than in February 2020. These long-term unemployed accounted for 37.4% of the total unemployed in August, according to the DOL.

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(NEW YORK) — Once a touchy subject in the private sector, a new survey indicates that most firms are now planning on having COVID-19 vaccine mandates for their workforce.

The number of companies requiring workers to get the shot is expected to surge over the next several months, according to data released by Wednesday by Willis Towers Watson, a multinational advisory and insurance firm.

Over half of the employers surveyed (52%) said that by the fourth quarter of 2021, they could have one or more vaccine mandate requirements in the workplace. This ranges from requiring vaccinations for employees to access common areas (such as cafeterias) to requiring the jab for a subset of specific employees to requiring it for all employees. This is a major hike from the current 21% of firms that have some type of vaccine mandate in place for employees.

The survey was conducted between Aug. 18 and 25 — in the wake of the insidious spread of the more contagious delta variant — and respondents included nearly 1,000 U.S. employers that together employ nearly 10 million workers.

“The delta variant has made employers take new actions to keep their workers — and workplaces — safe and healthy. We expect even more employers to institute vaccine mandates in the wake of FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine,” Dr. Jeff Levin-Scherz, the population health leader at Willis Towers Watson, said in a statement.

“This is not an easy situation for employers to navigate,” Levin-Scherz added. “For instance, new policies such as tracking workers’ vaccinations can improve safety but also bring additional administrative requirements. At the same time, employers will continue efforts to encourage vaccination and communicate regularly with employees.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are imploring Americans to get the COVID-19 vaccine to protect themselves and those around them from the virus that has left more than 600,000 dead in the U.S.

“COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective,” the CDC states on its website. “Millions of people in the United States have received COVID-19 vaccines under the most intense safety monitoring in U.S. history.”

Still, vaccine requirements have emerged as a hot button issue for a vocal faction of Americans resisting the shot, despite the U.S. recording the highest number of coronavirus cases.

Breaking down the survey data further, some 29% of employers said they are planning or considering making vaccinations a requirement to gain access to the workplace, and some 21% are planning or considering vaccination as a condition of employment for all employees.

The number of firms that track or will track their employees’ vaccination status is also rising, the data found. Some 59% of employers currently track their employees’ vaccination status, and an additional 19% are planning or considering to do so later this year — bringing the total to some 78% of employers.

Around 31% of employers are either offering or considering offering financial incentives to staff for getting vaccinated.

The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission said employers can legally require COVID-19 vaccines to re-enter a physical workplace as long as they follow requirements to find alternative arrangements for employees unable to get vaccinated for medical reasons or because they have religious objections. Still, mandates have spurred showdowns and lawsuits from workers across the country.

Approximately 61.4% of the U.S. population 12 years of age and older are fully vaccinated as of Wednesday, according to CDC data, and some 72.2% have received at least one dose.

Separate from vaccine mandate plans, around 80% of respondents also said that they require employees to wear masks indoors at any location — and an additional 13% are planning or considering doing so. A majority (75%) are also using workplace exposure tracing to alert employees to a potential exposure, with another 8% planning or considering doing so.

As for a return to normal, about 39% of companies now expect their organizations won’t reach a “new normal” in terms of returning to the workplace and ending pandemic-related policies and programs until the second quarter of 2022. About a quarter (26%) expect a return to normal in the first quarter of 2022.

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(CHICAGO) — As new COVID-19 cases emerge with the spread of the delta variant, businesses have implemented updated health protocols to ensure staff and customer safety.

While certain cities and states now require proof of vaccination to dine inside or shop in stores, fast food chains are assessing their own best practices.

Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald’s USA, recently discussed in an internal company meeting the enhanced safety policies for their restaurants and franchisees in consultation with public health experts and the Mayo Clinic.

According to the fast food company, Erlinger surmised in the meeting that McDonald’s will continue to operate its business from the same mindset they had during the peak of the pandemic 18 months ago.

“We’re monitoring the impact of the delta variant closely and recently convened together with our franchisees to underscore existing safety protocols, reinforce our people-first approach and provide updates on the rise in cases in the country,” a representative said in a statement shared with “Good Morning America.”

While the company said it has successfully served customers through digital, delivery, drive-thru and dine-in over the last 18 months, McDonald’s said it will consider adapting as needed.

“Should we see further changes in customer behavior, we are well positioned to adapt while maintaining high standards for safety,” the statement said.

McDonald’s initially closed its U.S. dining rooms in March 2020 and reopened to 70% capacity last month with procedures that incorporate local case counts, local regulations and guidance and community feedback.

Local owners and operator work in partnership with the field offices to make dining room decisions.

McDonald’s has implemented a facial covering requirement for all crew and customers in hot spot counties regardless of vaccination status. Additionally, all corporate employees are required to get vaccinated.

Erlinger also told employees that meetings are continuing, but with strict safety protocols and limits on size in place.

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(New York) — This year, 17 children have already died after being left in hot cars. Since 1990, more than a thousand children have lost their lives. But a new technology on the market is aiming to prevent these tragedies.

The potentially life-saving innovation is an alarm in the 2022 Genesis GV70 that, according to the manufacturer, sounds as quickly as 10 seconds. Hidden inside the roof above the back seat is a radar that Genesis says can detect a child even if the only movement is a soft breath.

Dr. Emily Thomas, an automotive safety engineer with Consumer Reports, showed ABC News how the child detection system works with her own 4-year-old son, Micah.

“You want something that is more fine-tuned and able to detect even those small motions that we’re making just by being a human, by breathing and our chest moving,” Thomas said.

She instructed her son Micah to stay as still as he could in his car seat, started the car as if driving away and then turned it off as if she’s reached her destination. She then got out of the vehicle, closed the door and locked it.

Even with Micah staying still and wearing a mask, the alarm went off in 20 seconds.

The system will also send the driver a notification on their phone if they have the Genesis app downloaded.

But it doesn’t come without drawbacks.

“The biggest shortcoming is that the system only works once the vehicle has been locked,” Thomas said.

Other manufacturers like GM and Ford have also unveiled occupant alert systems, but the rear door has to be opened at some point during the trip to activate it.

The infrastructure bill before Congress would make hot car alert systems mandatory in all new cars.

“That is really what is needed to put an end to these terrible and unthinkable tragedies,” Janette Fennell, founder and president of KidsandCars.Org, told ABC News. “Cars can now be made with a technology that’s only $10 to $20 and it will save lives.”

Thomas explained that even if you don’t have a new car that has these systems, that there are things you can do now as a parent or caregiver to prevent these deaths.

“If I could tell parents and caregivers three things that they could do right now, even without this kind of technology, it would be first, create a routine where every single car ride, even if your child’s not with you, you check the backseat,” she said.

She recommends placing an object of yours in the back seat such as a phone, wallet or jacket — anything that you will need at the end of your trip.

“If you create that routine, you’re teaching your brain to always check the back, regardless of whether your child is there or not,” Thomas said.

Secondly, she says to create a visual reminder in the front seat when your child’s with you by putting a toy or a pacifier near you.

“We might think that we don’t need that,” she explained. “But our brains work very efficiently and at the base level, it recognizes routine. It puts us into muscle memory mode. And we just do the thing that we’re going to be doing and we always do. So changes in routine are often the cases where these situations happen.”

Her last tip is to always keep your vehicle locked at home and your keys out of reach.

“This helps to prevent that gained access scenario,” Thomas said. “And even if you don’t have kids, be a good neighbor, keep your vehicles locked and your keys out of reach. The kids in your neighborhood can get trapped inside your car.”

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