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U.S. job openings fell to the lowest level in more than five years, another sign that the American labor market remains sluggish. The Labor Department reported Thursday that vacancies fell to 6.5 million in December — from 6.9 million in November and the fewest since September 2020. Layoffs rose slightly. The number of people quitting their jobs — which shows confidence in their prospects — was basically unchanged at 3.2 million. December openings came in lower than economists had forecast. The economy is in a puzzling place. Growth is strong: Gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — advanced from July through September at the faste…

Ethan Bernstein is a professor of business administration in the Organizational Behavior unit at the Harvard Business School. He spent five years at The Boston Consulting Group and two years in executive positions at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Michael Horn is the author of several books, including the award-winning Disrupting Class, Choosing College, Blended, and From Reopen to Reinvent. He is the cofounder of and distinguished fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute. He also teaches at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and cohosts the higher education podcast Future U. Bob Moesta is the president and founder of the Re-Wired Group, an adj…

Hiring likely remained subdued last month as many companies have sought to avoid expanding their workforces, though the job gains may be enough to bring down the unemployment rate. December’s jobs report, to be released Friday, is likely to show that employers added a modest 55,000 jobs, economists forecast. That figure would be below November’s 64,000 but an improvement after the economy lost jobs in October. The unemployment rate is expected to slip to 4.5%, according to data provider FactSet, from a four-year high of 4.6% in November. The figures will be closely watched on Wall Street and in Washington because they will be the first clean readings on the labor market…

U.S. employers added a surprisingly strong 130,000 jobs last month, but government revisions cut 2024-2025 U.S. payrolls by hundreds of thousands. The unemployment rate fell to 4.3%, the Labor Department said Wednesday. The report included major revisions that reduced the number of jobs created last year to just 181,000, weakest since the pandemic year of 2020, and less than half the previously reported 584,000. The job market has been sluggish for months even though the economy is registering solid growth. But the January numbers came in stronger than the 75,000 economists had expected. Healthcare accounted for nearly 82,000, or more than 60%, of last month’s new job…

The skies over London could soon get a lot more exciting. Joby Aviation, the California-based electric air taxi company, announced an exclusive partnership with Virgin Atlantic on Saturday that it says will pave the way to launching its vehicles across the United Kingdom. The partnership will see Joby’s services integrated into Virgin’s app and website, and connect passengers at Heathrow and Manchester airports. Passengers will be able to reserve a seat on a Joby air taxi using Virgin’s app, the companies say. The announcement did not say when service is expected to begin. “We are delighted to be partnering with Joby to bring short-haul, zero-emission flights…

When it comes to podcasting, it’s Joe Rogan’s world. The Joe Rogan Experience was the most popular podcast of 2025, according to Apple’s just-released rankings. This is the first year Rogan has topped the Apple charts. Last year, he took the bronze medal, behind The Daily and Crime Junkie (both of which still made the Top 10 this year). Two years ago, he didn’t make the list (thanks to an exclusivity agreement with Spotify, signed in 2020—where he also currently holds the No. 1 spot). Rogan’s podcast certainly had head-turning guests this year, including a much-listened-to interview with Elon Musk. The Daily, from The New York Times, was Apple’s second-most popula…

Inspired by the ongoing auction of Bob Ross paintings to raise money for public television, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver is putting some of its own TV artifacts up for auction for a good cause. Host John Oliver dedicated the close of Sunday’s season finale to local public television, which is facing an unprecedented crisis. Federal budget cuts could by next year close as many as 115 public television and radio stations in the U.S. serving 43 million Americans, according to the Public Media Bridge Fund, a philanthropic initiative. “These stations can fill a vital community role,” Oliver said during Sunday’s show. johnoliversjunk.com Bob Ross Inc. said …

Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday raised its 2025 sales forecast after reporting quarterly earnings that topped Wall Street expectations, and announced plans to spin off its orthopedics business into a standalone company. The healthcare conglomerate now expects product revenue of $93.5 billion to $93.9 billion, about $300 million higher than its prior forecast and above analysts’ expectations of $93.4 billion, according to LSEG data. Alongside the upbeat forecast, J&J said it plans to separate its orthopedics business into a standalone company named DePuy Synthes within the next 18 to 24 months, marking its second major spinoff since 2023. J&J’s orthope…

Before Wicked opened on Broadway in October 2003, the musical’s production team took the show to the Curran Theatre in San Francisco for what’s called an “out of town tryout.” The five-week run allowed the producers, writers, and director to work out the kinks ahead of the show’s Broadway debut. During the San Francisco run, University of Southern California film student Jon M. Chu happened to be home for the weekend visiting his parents, who owned a Chinese restaurant called Chef Chu’s in Los Altos, California, just outside Silicon Valley. Chu was the youngest of five children growing up in a family that spent their free time playing instruments or going to the balle…

As the founder of World Central Kitchen, renowned chef and humanitarian José Andrés has truly mastered the art of leading through crisis. Andrés shares insights from his new book, Change the Recipe—a candid collection of personal stories that doubles as a playbook for navigating uncertainty, breaking rules, and leading with heart. José also explores how AI is poised to reshape the food industry and more. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company Bob Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with today’s top business leaders navi…

JPMorgan Chase unveiled its new 60-story headquarters to the public on Monday, one of the first major office buildings to be constructed after the COVID-19 pandemic and one that will remake the New York City skyline for decades. The bronze and steel tower at 270 Park, which reportedly cost $3 billion, replaced the Union Carbide Building, which sat on a full city block at 48th Street and Park Avenue for nearly 60 years. JPMorgan expects to house roughly 10,000 of its 24,000 New York-based employees in the new building, with employees starting their first workday at the tower at the same time as the company holds its ribbon cutting ceremony. “For 225 years, JPMorgan…

JPMorgan Chase will directly invest up to $10 billion in U.S. companies with crucial ties to national security. The investment plan revealed Monday will focus on four areas: supply chain and advanced manufacturing in critical minerals, pharmaceutical precursors, and robotics; defense and aerospace; energy independence, with investments in battery storage and grid resilience; and strategic technologies, including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and quantum computing. The investment is part of the bank’s Security and Resiliency Initiative, a $1.5 trillion, 10-year plan to facilitate, finance, and invest in industries critical to national security. “It ha…

Stablecoins that offer interest-bearing rewards may increasingly resemble bank deposits. But unlike traditional deposits, they lack the regulatory safeguards that undergird the banking system. That gap, according to JPMorgan CFO Jeremy Barnum, risks creating what he calls a “parallel banking system.” The issue is already on lawmakers’ agenda. During JPMorgan’s fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call, Evercore analyst Glenn Schorr noted that Congress is preparing to debate stablecoin policy, referencing a letter from the American Bankers Association that underscores the urgency of addressing a loophole around interest on stablecoins. Schorr added that Treasury estimated “$6.…

“Welcome to the future!” David Arena, head of global corporate real estate for JPMorganChase, is standing on a sweeping staircase in a soaring travertine-clad lobby addressing a crowd. He’s there to welcome visitors to the ribbon cutting of 270 Park Ave., the banking behemoth’s new global headquarters in Manhattan. Behind him, an American flag hitched to a fluted bronze mast flies vigorously (it’s propelled by an artificial breeze that required a remarkable amount of fine-tuning). Standing next to him are the people who helped design and build the $3 billion, 2.5 million-square-foot supertall: JPMC CEO Jamie Dimon, British architect Norman Foster, developer Rob …