What we’re reading (6/20)
“Thousands Of Laid-Off Government Workers Are Flooding A Shrinking Job Market” (Bloomberg). “housands of private government consultants laid off during the Trump administration’s cost-cutting crusade are increasingly flooding a shrinking labor market. Job postings among seven of the 10 consulting companies singled out by the General Services Administration for contract cuts are down about 27% since 2023, and about 11% from a year ago, according to data scraped from job boards by labor market analytics firm Lightcast.”
“In A Rocky Job Market, Power Has Shifted Back To Employers. Hiring Is Down, Promotions Are Scarce, And RTO Is In.” (Business Insider). “It's getting harder to negotiate a new job and move up the career ladder at your current gig. Exclusive data from Gusto, a payroll and benefits platform for small and medium-sized businesses, showed that the rate of workers receiving a promotion, meaning a title bump and a raise of at least 5%, peaked at 14.5% around mid-2022 and has now fallen to just over 10%.”
“High Costs Have Ended America’s Love Affair With Cars” (Wall Street Journal). “Lately…Americans have been losing that car-loving feeling. Actually, they’re at the dish-throwing stage. Light-vehicle sales have fallen by about 1.7 million a year since 2016, reflecting the number of younger consumers declining the pleasures of ownership. Millions more remained trapped in toxic relationships with abusive elders. The average age of passenger cars on the road is currently 14.5 years, according to S&P Global’s data.”
“Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab Closes On $2B At $10B Valuation” (TechCrunch). “Thinking Machines Lab, the secretive AI startup founded by OpenAI’s former chief technology officer Mira Murati, has closed a $2 billion seed round, according to The Financial Times. The deal values the 6-month-old startup at $10 billion. The company’s work remains unclear. The startup has leveraged Murati’s reputation and other high-profile AI researchers who have joined the team to attract investors in what could be the largest seed round in history. According to sources familiar with the deal cited by the FT, Andreessen Horowitz led the round, with participation from Sarah Guo’s Conviction Partners.”
“Pope Leo Calls For An Ethical AI Framework In A Message To Tech Execs Gathering At The Vatican” (CNN Business). “Pope Leo XIV says tech companies developing artificial intelligence should abide by an ‘ethical criterion’ that respects human dignity. AI must take ‘into account the well-being of the human person not only materially, but also intellectually and spiritually,’ the pope said in a message sent Friday to a gathering on AI attended by Vatican officials and Silicon Valley executives. ‘No generation has ever had such quick access to the amount of information now available through AI,’ he said. But ‘access to data — however extensive — must not be confused with intelligence.’”
