(NEW YORK) — Concerns about inflation have increasingly turned to concerns about the job market. Last month’s weaker than expected jobs report led to turmoil in stocks.
Expectations are that Friday’s report will show 161,000 jobs added when it’s released at 8:30 a.m.
If jobs come in around expectations it would mean a slowing but steady job market. Some economists are expecting less, around 150,000, pointing out that August data can often come in worse than expected and can be revised later.
Still, a significantly worse-than-expected report could once again lead to concerns that the Fed’s rapid raising of interest rates has hurt the economy and job market more than previously known.
The Fed is on track to cut interest rates at its next meeting announcement on Sept. 18.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell last month said “the time has come” to lower interest rates.
Powell indicated the Fed would soon bring interest rates down from a 23-year high. The shift could lower borrowing costs for everything from credit cards to auto loans to mortgages.
While the unemployment rate remains historically low, it ticked up to 3.8% last month. A sharp downward revision of job growth estimates in June and July lowered those totals by a combined 110,000 jobs.
Shein and Temu icons are seen displayed on a phone screen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on August 27, 2024. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Federal safety regulators are calling for an investigation into popular Chinese e-commerce websites Shein and Temu over concerns shoppers can easily purchase baby and toddler products that do not meet U.S. safety regulations.
In a joint letter Monday, Consumer Product Safety Commission Commissioners Peter A. Feldman and Douglas Dziak cited “recent media reports that deadly baby and toddler products are easy to find on these platforms.”
The letter did not single out specific products, but one report from business technology publication The Information, cited in the CPSC letter, found that padded crib bumpers, which were banned by Congress in 2022, are still available on the retailer websites.
Temu said in a statement to ABC News that it requires all sellers “to comply with applicable laws and regulations, including those related to product safety.”
“Our interests are aligned with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in ensuring consumer protection and product safety, and we will cooperate fully with any investigation,” a Temu spokesperson said.
A Shein spokesperson also told ABC News that the company prioritizes customer safety.
“At SHEIN, customer safety is our top priority and we are investing millions of dollars to strengthen our compliance programs,” Shein said in a statement. “In the last year SHEIN has spent over $10 million building a strong global compliance function and developing partnerships with internationally renowned testing agencies such as Intertek, SGS, BV, and TUV, to further enhance our safety practices. Earlier this year it was also announced that an additional $50 million dollars will be dedicated to fortifying our Global Compliance Center and initiatives to ensure strict adherence to our rigorous product safety standards and full compliance with applicable laws and regulations.”
The spokesperson added, “Our global team, including more than 1,000 U.S. employees, remains steadfast in its commitment to quality and safety for our customers, and we resolutely support the Commission’s mandate.”
Both Temu and Shein have exploded in popularity in the U.S., in part because their sites offer cheap prices on a variety of products from clothes to home goods.
The CPSC commissioners said e-commerce platforms can offer great deals to consumers, but it’s critical they comply with U.S. safety standards to avoid any risk of injury.
A Jaguar I-Pace autonomous vehicle from Waymo is seen pulling over to collect a passenger, Aug. 1, 2024, in Los Angeles. — Alex Stone/ABC News
(LOS ANGELES) — Waymo, the self-driving car division of Alphabet, first began offering its autonomous rideshare service on the streets of San Francisco earlier this year. Now the company is expanding, recently launching in Los Angeles.
Waymo’s electric Jaguar I-Pace SUVs operate as taxis, except there’s nobody in the driver’s seat. Using cameras, sensors and even microphones, it ferries riders to their destinations – if all goes according to plan – just as a human driver would.
“There is nobody behind the driver’s seat at all — in fact, often there’s nobody in the car at all, and it’s driving to pick somebody up,” says Andrew Chatham, senior director of commercialization, scale, and infrastructure at Waymo. He spoke with ABC Audio in LA for a new exhibit at the famed Petersen Automotive Museum highlighting the story of Waymo.
“So we use a variety of sensors on the car. There’s cameras, there’s radars and lidar — which is a laser range finding system. We take all that information, we look 360 degrees around us, multiple times a second, and we drive,” says Chatham.
And Waymo claims driving in one of their cars with the computers doing the work – accelerating, braking, stopping, and changing lanes – is actually safer than driving with a human behind the wheel.
“It’s very clear that it is ready for the streets — we’ve seen from statistics that it is safer than human drivers, so if you’re comfortable with those, you should be pretty comfortable with Waymo,” says Chatham. “Even more comfortable.”
But not everyone is comfortable.
“We’ve heard of these cars shutting down when they lose cell service, traffic being backed up, they don’t know how to maneuver through more, you know, winding roads. Blocking emergency vehicles. And also there’s an aspect of jobs being lost,” says Los Angeles City Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez.
“So as far as I can tell, there’s some things where we just have to put our foot down and this is one of them,” he says.
This summer, police in Phoenix, where the company also operates, pulled over a Waymo vehicle for driving into oncoming traffic while trying to navigate around a construction area. That maneuver is why Councilmember Soto-Martinez says he doesn’t want them on his streets.
“We are elected to provide safety, to deal with transportation issues, and so many other things for our residents, that’s what we are voted for,” says Soto-Martinez.
Waymo said the incident in Phoenix happened due to “inconsistent construction signage.”
But like it or not, self-driving cars are the future, according to Rahul Jain, a professor at the University of Southern California who specializes in electrical and computer engineering and works with Google.
“This is really inevitable, it’s going to happen,” says Jain, though he adds that wide-scale adoption of self-driving technology is likely a long way off.
“Twenty years might be the right timespan, when we see this technology reduce in cost enough, and also advanced sufficiently that it will be in passenger vehicles that people can buy,” he says.
Even still, Jain says the technology is currently safe for passengers, so much so that the next step for autonomous vehicle companies could be removing the vehicle’s steering wheel.
“There’s definitely going to be some transition as this technology evolves, you know, then it will be awhile before people become comfortable, and then we can feel comfortable with the steering wheel also missing. But I don’t think we’re there yet,” says Jain.
Chatham says, in general, his company’s technology is always learning. Already, the cars know to pull over when they detect the sound of a siren or flashing emergency lights. Next, he says, Waymo is tackling how autonomous vehicles behave in inclement weather conditions.
“Sure, on the map the lane is over here, but according to how everybody else is driving and where the divots are in the snow, it looks like the lane is really over here,” says Chatham. “And that’s something that the car starts to reason about and it’s getting more intelligent with AI about exactly where we want to drive to be like a human.”
But Councilmember Soto-Martinez has another issue: driverless taxis could mean a human is out of a job.
“It’s definitely taking jobs right now. I mean, there are autonomous vehicles driving folks around with the many issues,” he says. “In my community, those jobs are often done by people who just arrived in this country. … If that’s going to be outsourced to an autonomous vehicle that is gonna cause all these safety concerns, I have big issues with that.”
Jain says history would show technology always takes jobs, and that jobs change over time.
“Eventually there is some adjustment in the labor market. People find other kinds of jobs, and start to do more interesting jobs than I guess, driving cars around,” says Jain.
Chatham says while nobody is driving the cars, plenty of people are working at Waymo.
“Waymo’s provided a lot of jobs. We’ve do use several human beings to run the service, we have people operating the depots, we have people working in desk-based jobs. I’m employed by Waymo,” says Chatham.
“And I think it’s also easy to forget that people spend a lot of their time just sitting in traffic, beholden to the steering wheel that they’re sitting behind. And they can free up that time, and make people productive. That is time back in people’s lives,” he adds.
Waymo is already looking at what their next vehicle will look like, a custom built van-like vehicle designed by a Chinese firm called Zeekr.
“The base vehicle is really built as a versatile platform. This is really a vehicle that’s built to be a high thru-put taxi service. It’s very comfortable,” says Chatham.
Listen to this story and more on ABC Audio’s new special, On The Move:
Fisher-Price is recalling over 366,000 dumbbell toys that were sold as part of the brand’s Baby Biceps Gift Set. — United States Consumer Product Safety Commission
(NEW YORK) — Toy giant Fisher-Price is recalling hundreds of thousands of dumbbell toys due to a potential choking hazard.
The dumbbell toys were included in the Fisher-Price Baby Biceps Gift Set, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which announced the recall on Thursday. About 366,200 recalled units were sold in the United States, with another 37,850 sold in Canada.
Fisher-Price states on its recall website that the gray caps on the dumbbell toys can separate, leading to a potential choking hazard for infants. The company recommends taking away recalled toys from kids immediately.
The CPSC states that the dumbbell toys were sold between April 2020 through August 2024 and were part of Fisher-Price’s Baby Biceps Gift Set, which includes three additional toys and is marketed as suitable for children ages 3 months and up.
According to Fisher-Price and the CPSC, the dumbbell component features a plastic gray bar and red and orange plastic “weights” with gray caps on each side of the bar. The recalled dumbbell toys bear the model number GJD49 on the back of the kettlebell toy in the gift set.
The toys were manufactured in China and Vietnam and sold in the U.S. at stores nationwide, according to the CPSC. The toys were sold at Buy Buy Baby, Fred Meyer, Hobby Lobby, Kohls, Marshalls, Target, TJMaxx and Walmart stores and online at Amazon.com, Target.com, Walmart.com, Zulily.com and other websites, retailing for about $18.
Fisher-Price says it has received seven reports of incidents where the gray caps separated from the toy, but has not received any reports of injuries as a result of the incidents.
Customers with the recalled dumbbell toys can reach out to Fisher-Price for a $10 refund on the company’s recall website, which also provides instructions on how to dispose of the recalled toys. Fisher-Price says a receipt or proof of purchase is not required to receive a refund for the dumbbell toy.
ABC News has reached out to Fisher-Price for comment.
(NEW YORK) — A new bill that would allow some undocumented immigrants to receive loans to buy homes is sparking debate as it passes through the California Legislature.
Assembly Bill 1840 would make it clear that a person who applies for a loan under the California Dream for All Program cannot be disqualified solely because of their immigration status. It passed the state Senate with a 25-14 vote.
The program is run by California Housing Finance Agency, which generates revenue “through mortgage loans, not taxpayer dollars,” according to the agency’s website.
Their program provides a shared appreciation loan — which typically means that first-time homebuyers do not pay interest. Instead, they only have to pay back the original loan amount, plus 20% of any home value appreciation. The loan covers 20% of the purchase price or up to $150,000 to cover a down payment or closing costs.
The loan must be paired with a 30-year fixed interest rate first mortgage from the California Housing Finance Agency and the recipient does not have to make payments on the share appreciation loan until the first mortgage is paid off.
In a general statement on the program’s mission, Gov. Gavin Newsom stated: “As part of the state’s comprehensive efforts to improve affordability, build generational wealth and unlock access to housing, Dream For All is paving the way home for thousands of Californians. This program is more than just financial assistance – it’s about providing a pathway for individuals to achieve their California dream.”
It is not clear if Newsom intends to sign the bill. A two-thirds vote in each chamber of the legislature would be needed to override a veto — which could be achieved with the votes in favor of the bill thus far.
If the new bill is passed or signed into law, undocumented borrowers would be able to apply for the housing loan. However, they would be required to have a valid Social Security number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number in addition to meeting existing legal residency and documentation requirements.
This language would allow, for example, people who pay taxes but are not legal citizens, such as recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, known as DACA, to apply for the loan.
Supporters say the bill is intended to allow all those who pay taxes in the state to be able to qualify for the assistance.
“Homeownership is one of the largest contributors to building wealth for low and middle-income families,” said Cynthia Gomez, a deputy director at The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in an April hearing on the bill. “However, it’s also well understood that there are many barriers to access for homeownership, in particular for communities of color. California is solution-orientated, and we have implemented various policies that have made homeownership a reality for Californians.”
Critics argue that the money should not be geared toward people who are undocumented and that noncitizens should not be eligible for state programs.
“I just can’t get behind using our limited dollars for people who continue, who are in this country undocumented when we have very limited funds,” said state Rep. Joe Patterson during a hearing on the bill in April.
The Trump campaign told Politico that it believed the bill to be “fundamentally unfair but typical Democrat policy.”
The Senate Appropriations Committee said in a mid-August meeting that the cost pressures on the program, if it were to undergo an expansion, are “unknown,” but the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) indicated “that any costs to update program regulations to prohibit application disqualification based on immigration status would be minor and absorbable,” according to filings in the legislature on the bill.
The debate comes as immigration has continuously ranked as a top issue for 2024 voters, according to Gallup.
California has the largest undocumented population in the country, with an estimated population of 1.85 million undocumented immigrants in 2021, according to the Pew Research Center.
At the same time, California is dealing with a housing crisis, with a growing homeless population and increasingly high costs for housing.
California mid-tier homes are twice as expensive as the typical U.S. home — selling at more than $700,000, according to California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, and 28% of all homeless people in the U.S. live in California, the point-in-time report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recorded.
(NEW YORK) — United Airlines flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants, moved closer to a strike Wednesday after the union announced that 99.99% of service members voted in favor of strike authorization.
The vote included 90% of the United Airlines flight attendant staff.
Among the strike requests, flight attendants are demanding significant double-digit base pay increases, being compensated for time at work outside of flights, schedule flexibility and work rule improvements, job security, retirement and more, according to the union.
The historic vote marked the first time in 20 years that United flight attendants have authorized a strike, since the airline’s 2005 bankruptcy negotiations.
However, a strike will not occur immediately and despite the vote, there will be no immediate disruptions to airline operations.
Experts say it’s highly unlikely United flight attendants will actually walk off the job. There are a number of steps that must happen before a strike can take place and the president and Congress have the power to stall or stop an airline strike.
“To be clear, there is no work stoppage or labor disruption,” United told ABC News in a statement Wednesday. “Off-duty flight attendants are simply exercising their right to conduct an informational picket.”
The results of the strike authorization vote were announced as nearly 20 informational picket lines were seen at airports across the country.
“We deserve an industry-leading contract. Our strike vote shows we’re ready to do whatever it takes to reach the contract we deserve,” Ken Diaz, president of the United chapter of the Association of Flight Attendants, said in a statement Wednesday.
“We are the face of United Airlines and planes don’t take off without us. As Labor Day travel begins, United management is reminded what’s at stake if we don’t get this done,” he added.
After this week, the union walked away from federally mandated negotiations. The union will now ask the National Mediation Board to release them into a 30-day “cooling-off” period, which would set a potential strike deadline.
“The United management team gives themselves massive compensation increases while Flight Attendants struggle to pay basic bills,” Diaz continued. “The 99.99% yes vote is a clear reminder that we are unified in the fight against corporate greed and ready to fight for our fair share of the profits we create.”
Similar strike authorization votes have been cast at competing airlines including American, Alaska, Southwest, and more.
(NEW YORK) — This summer brought lots of buzz around “tourist taxes” and other fees that can get tacked on to normal travel expenses. Now, another fee that may be familiar to avid cruisers is increasing on one major cruise line.
The so-called “Crew Appreciation” fee is a daily amount that’s automatically added to a guests’ onboard accounts with Princess Cruises “to recognize the efforts of a wide variety of crewmembers who contribute to the experiences of all our guests” and are pooled and distributed throughout the year in compensation and bonuses.
Travelers will pay slightly more starting later this month depending on the type of accommodations they book, according to the cruise line, which last raised the price in February 2023.
Echoing recent headlines surrounding updates to airline baggage prices, Princess Cruises’ Crew Appreciation fee is rising by just $1 per person, per day in various classes of cabins.
Travelers in suites will see a $19 daily fee, while those in mini suites, cabanas or Club Classes will pay $18. Guests in all other staterooms will pay $17.
“The crewmembers eligible to receive these funds work in various departments, many of whom rotate among different ships, throughout our fleet of ships,” Princess states on its website. “Guests have complete discretion to adjust these crew appreciation [fees] while onboard; however, crew appreciation may only be adjusted prior to disembarking the ship and not refundable post cruise.”
Travelers can choose a prepaid crew appreciation option while managing their booking, but if it’s not adjusted up to the time a passenger settles up the account prior to disembarkation, the payment becomes final and nonrefundable.
Full details of the policy are available on the Princess Cruises website.
(NEW YORK) — More than 9,500 cases of 100% apple juice that were sold at Walmart have been recalled due to high levels of arsenic.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration upgraded the level of the apple juice recall, originally issued on Aug. 15, from unclassified to class 2, which indicates “a situation in which use of, or exposure to, a violative product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences,” but is unlikely to cause “serious adverse health consequences.”
“Product contains inorganic arsenic above action level set in industry guidance (13.2ppb),” meaning parts per billion, the FDA said of the juice.
The agency’s enforcement report stated that 9,535 cases of Great Value brand apple juice sold at Walmart in 25 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia had been voluntarily recalled by the manufacturer Refresco Beverages US Inc.
A representative for Refresco told ABC News in a statement, “We are aware that certain lots of the 100% apple juice we previously manufactured contains inorganic arsenic slightly above the FDA’s 10 ppb (parts per billion) action level in the FDA Final Guidance to Industry on Action Level for Inorganic Arsenic in Apple Juice, which aims at reducing the dietary exposure of contaminants to as low as possible. As a result, impacted products are being voluntarily recalled.”
The statement continued, “At this time there are no reported complaints or incidents of illness caused by the product. Per the FDA, it is not possible to completely prevent arsenic from entering the food supply, yet exposure to high levels of inorganic arsenic can have adverse health effects.”
The representative added that “the safety of consumers and the satisfaction of our customers are our top priorities” and that the company is “working diligently to address the situation.”
Product details of recalled apple juice
The contaminated Great Value beverages in question were sold in six-packs of 8-ounce plastic bottles with the UPC code 0-78742-29655-5.
The recalled apple juice has a “Best if used by” date code of DEC2824 CT89-6.
(NEW YORK) — Rising inflation has driven mortgage rates up, making it difficult for many Americans to find an affordable home. As a result, many potential buyers find themselves waiting for an interest rate cut to bring mortgage prices down.
For more than a year, LaToya Trotter has worked closely with trusted real estate agent Shannon Welch to find an ideal new home in the vibrant Chicago area. Trotter purchased their current home in 2020 for $45,000 in an all-cash offer.
Interest rates have dropped from their 23-year high in 2023 but are nowhere near the 3% homeowners enjoyed in 2020. This puts home prices at an all-time high, dramatically increasing moving costs.
According to the National Association of Realtors, the current monthly payment for a median-priced home has more than doubled since 2019. Buying a starter home in more than 200 U.S. cities now costs $1 million.
“It’s sad because there are people in America that will never make $1 million in their lifetime,” Welch said. “So how can they afford a million-dollar home?
Trotter, a single mother and electrical engineer, is searching for a new home priced at $400,000 to secure her 14-year-old daughter Adoniah’s future. She wants to move closer to her daughter’s school. The teenager attends a private Catholic high school located 30 minutes away from their South Chicago home.
She visited a three-bedroom, two-bath home listed for $340,000 and a five-bedroom, three-bath home with an asking price of more than $459,000.
Welch is keeping a keen eye on the market for her client. She doesn’t dismiss Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris’ promise to build 3 million new housing units if elected, but she thinks that plan misses the mark in Chicago.
“We have tons of inventory throughout Chicago land,” Welch said. “We have hundreds of properties on auction. We have properties that are abandoned.”
Harris proposed a plan to assist first-generation homebuyers by providing a down payment of up to $25,000.
While Harris’ Republican rival Donald Trump has yet to outline a housing plan if he wins back the White House in November, the Republican National Party this year pledged to promote homeownership through tax incentives.
According to a recent ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, more respondents trust Trump over Harris to handle the economy and inflation by 9 points. Over 85% of adults consider this a top issue in their presidential vote.
When asked who she’ll vote for this November, Trotter noted that she’ll back the candidate whose policies seem likely to offer her the best future.
“I’ll just again look to find whoever has policies that align more closely with what I’m looking to do today,” Trotter said. “It’s not about the past. It’s about looking forward.”
(WASHINGTON) — Borrowers eager for the Federal Reserve to abandon high interest rates could not have scripted a better four-word declaration than the one on Friday from Fed Chair Jerome Powell: “The time has come.”
Powell indicated that the Fed would soon bring interest rates down from a 23-year high. The shift could lower borrowing costs for everything from credit cards to auto loans to mortgages.
The pace and scale of rate cuts remains unknown, however. A cautious approach could leave borrowers saddled with high costs for the next several years while an aggressive reset could ease loan rates substantially within months.
“The question now is how far and how fast should the Fed cut rates?” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said in a post on X on Sunday.
The chances of an interest rate cut at the Fed’s next meeting in September are all but certain, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.
Market observers are divided over whether the Fed will impose its typical cut of a quarter of a percentage point or opt for a larger half-point cut. The tool indicates a roughly 60% chance of a quarter-point cut and a 40% chance of a half-point cut.
Over the remainder of the year, the most likely scenario is a quarter-point rate cut at each of the Fed’s three scheduled meetings in September, November and December, the CME FedWatch Tool shows.
The Fed is guided by a dual mandate to keep inflation under control and maximize employment. In theory, low interest rates help stimulate economic activity and boost employment; high interest rates slow economic performance and ease inflation.
In recent months, the labor market has slowed alongside cooling inflation. That trend was highlighted last month by a weaker-than-expected jobs report that raised concern among some economists that the U.S. may be headed toward a recession.
Recent trends have shifted the Fed’s focus away from controlling inflation and toward ensuring a healthy labor market, Powell said Friday.
“A cooldown in the labor market is unmistakable,” Powell said, adding that he would let economic performance dictate the course of rate cuts.
“The direction of travel is clear, and the timing and pace of rate cuts will depend on incoming data, the evolving outlook and the balance of risks,” Powell said.
Gregory Daco, chief economist at accounting firm EY, said in a statement to ABC News that he expects a quarter-point rate cut at each of the Fed’s next three meetings in an effort to soften the ongoing economic slowdown. However, worries about an imminent recession are overstated, Daco added.
The Fed aims to “buffer the economic downshift,” Daco said.
Deutsche Bank, which also projects three quarter-point rate cuts before the end of the year, said in a note to clients on Friday that a weak jobs report early in September could push the Fed to opt for a larger half-point cut at its meeting later that month.
“The softer-than-expected July jobs report and recent bouts of market volatility have shifted risks towards the Fed cutting more aggressively upfront,” Deutsche Bank said.
Analysts differ widely over the course of interest rate cuts in the next year or two. Zandi said the Fed should bring interest rates down significantly from the current target rate of between 5.25% and 5.5%. By the end of next year, interest rates should stand at 3%, he added.
By contrast, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers cautioned against an aggressive approach to interest rate cuts. “We need to be rather more cautious about the medium term outlook for monetary policy,” Summers said in a post on X on Saturday.
Still, Summers added, the need for some rate cutting is beyond question.
“Inflation is coming down. The economy is slowing. On current facts, absolutely the next move should be towards monetary policy easing,” Summers said.
