Sherwood News

Finding an internship is getting trickier

The first rung of the career ladder looks more elusive

7/25/24 12:45PM

As ambitious students everywhere will know, there’s been a lot of talk around the decline of internships this year, as top companies have looked to cut costs by reducing the amount of young workers they’re welcoming onto their sought-after summer programs.

On Monday, for example, the FT reported that Goldman Sachs took on 200 fewer undergrads for its ultra-competitive summer analyst internship this year… while JPMorgan slashed their analyst class of ‘24 by 10% (600 interns). Big banks aren’t the only ones grabbing headlines for their shrinking college student offerings either: Tesla caught some flak in May after rescinding summer internship offers just weeks before successful applicants were due to start.

Limited experience

Paid or unpaid, internships have become a tried-and-tested method for thousands of young people to get their first real taste of the corporate world. However, per data from student job search site Handshake (reported by Bloomberg), some key industries have been cooling on the concept, with internship postings down in tech (-14%) and financial services (-13%) year-over-year in May ‘24.

Similarly, data from the Indeed Hiring Lab, provided by its Director of North American Economics Research Nick Bunker, also broadly confirms the internship cooldown. While the number of Indeed job posts with “internship” or “intern” in the title was up from 2019 at the start of the year, listings have seriously tapered since, coming in well below 2022 and 2023 levels from February onwards.

Whether what we’re seeing indicates a growing shift away from internships, or just a correction from a post-pandemic new blood boom, the decline in postings is causing competition for roles to heat up: there were over 315,000 applicants for Goldman’s ~2,700 summer analyst positions in 2024, making a spot on the program more exclusive than a place at Harvard.

Max Knoblauch2h

The Trump administration is reportedly planning a 50% made-in-America requirement for USMCA tariff relief

Qualifying for USMCA-related lower tariffs may soon require more US-made vehicle components, according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal.

The Trump administration is reportedly planning to introduce a 50% US content requirement for vehicles covered by the trade pact to receive lower tariffs. The content would be measured by cost, according to the WSJ.

There currently isn’t any US-specific requirement for those lower tariff rates, but in order to receive preferential tariffs, vehicles are must contain at least 75% regional content (components made in North America). Per Reuters reporting, the Trump admin is seeking to raise the Regional requirement to 82%.

These reported plans are subject to change as the US negotiates USMCA terms with Mexico over the next few months.

Overall, Tesla will likely have the easiest time qualifying for any stricter requirements. The automaker’s vehicles contained the highest amount of US/Canadian content in 2025, according to American University research. Ford, GM, and Stellantis all scored lower. Notably: the underlying government data that many domestic content measurements rely on intentionally combines US and Canadian components, so it’s difficult to know exactly how much of any given vehicle is specifically US-made.

Exclusive | Trump Administration Wants Autos Under USMCA to Be at Least 50% Made in America

These reported plans are subject to change as the US negotiates USMCA terms with Mexico over the next few months.

Tom Jones8h

The $640,000 Luce makes the average Ferrari look like a bargain

Put aside the shape; put aside the smoothing out of Ferrari’s iconic sharp edges; put aside, even, the calls from former Chairman and President Luca Cordero di Montezemolo to “take the Prancing Horse off.” On the grounds of price alone, Luce detractors might have a point.

By now, many of us will have read the criticisms of Ferrari’s first fully electric vehicle, as the Luce — which was unveiled to the world earlier this week and promptly saw the company’s shares crash out in New York and Milan — gets subtly shaded by competitors online and not-so-subtly shaded by basically everyone else.

What makes all of this worse for Ferrari is that, even by the luxury car maker’s notoriously high standards, they’ve slapped a pretty hefty price tag on the Luce, and the company’s CEO, Benedetto Vigna, has already been forced to defend the €550,000 ($640,000) price point, saying yesterday that it’s “fair to pay for innovation,” per Reuters.

While Ferrari’s cars have been getting more expensive of late, as recently as 2022, Ferrari’s average revenue per car sold was around $340,000. At nearly twice that price, this new electric model is obviously proving a little much (visually, conceptually, and financially) for many loyal and long-standing fans of the Prancing Horse to stomach.