Open for business: It's still a job seekers' market

8/29/23 8:00PM

A little cooler

‍As summer begins to draw to a close, America’s hot job market is showing signs of cooling, with openings for July dropping to their lowest level in over 2 years according to yesterday’s update from the Labor Department.

There were around 340,000 fewer job openings in comparison to June, as vacancies dipped below 9 million for the first time since March 2021. There’s still plenty of work out there, however: the 8.83 million openings figure from July remains elevated from pre-pandemic levels.

‍We’re (still) hiring

‍The narrowing gap between labor supply and demand was enough to see stocks rally, as the S&P 500 enjoyed its best single day performance since May, and undoubtedly put smiles on the faces of a few Fed chiefs. However, the ratio of job openings to unemployed people still sits at ~1.5, still one of the highest readings in the last 20 years.

Tom Jones

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Texas sues Netflix, accusing streamer of spying on children and collecting user data without consent

The state of Texas filed a lawsuit Monday against streaming giant Netflix, alleging that the company has built a “behavioral-surveillance program of staggering scale.”

The suit alleges that Netflix is “deceptively designed” to be addictive, using features like autoplay to get viewers hooked, “mining those users for data, and then converting that data into lucrative intelligence for global advertising juggernauts.”

“When you watch Netflix, Netflix watches you,” the lawsuit reads.

“This lawsuit lacks merit and is based on inaccurate and distorted information,” Netflix said in a statement to Sherwood News. “Netflix takes our members’ privacy seriously and complies with privacy and data‑protection laws everywhere we operate.”

Texas is seeking civil penalties of “up to $10,000 per violation” of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act, along with an additional penalty of up to $250,000 per violation involving a consumer aged 65 or older.

“Netflix is not the ad-free and kid-friendly platform it claims to be. Instead, it has misled consumers while exploiting their private data to make billions,” said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the press release announcing the lawsuit.

Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment.