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A.I. Doesn’t Have to Mean Layoffs by Patricia Cohen

A French multinational, Schneider Electric, decided to use artificial intelligence in manufacturing to make workers more productive, rather than to replace them. Here’s how that’s going. For many chief executives, success in adopting artificial intelligence is measured by the number of jobs they can eliminate. But such views reflect “a very narrow understanding” of A.I.’s potential, said Erik Brynjolfsson, who directs the Digital Economy Lab  at Stanford University. It’s a message that Schneider Electric, a global energy technology company based in France, has taken to heart. Before the company started using A.I., customer service agents received thousands of questions from callers and engaged in a grand hunt through millions of pages of information to track down the answer. Now A.I. does the hunting and details how the information was selected and the source. The agent then reviews and if necessary, modifies and refines the answer with the caller. In the last three months of 2025, call centers fielded 150,000 questions. Three-quarters of the time, A.I. was able to provide the right answer to straightforward questions. I. Doesn’t Have to Mean Layoffs – The New York Times

US Jobless Claims Inch Up, Labor Market Remains Stable

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits rose slightly last week, signaling a labor market that remains steady despite ongoing economic uncertainty. New data from the U.S. Department of Labor for the week ending March 21 shows initial jobless claims increased by 5,000 to 210,000. The four-week moving average was 210,500, a decrease of 250 from the previous week. At the same time, continuing claims fell to 1.82 million, the lowest level since May 2024. The figures suggest layoffs remain relatively low and employers are largely holding onto workers.  US Jobless Claims Inch Up, Labor Market Remains Stable – tEDmag

US Unemployment Hovers at Historically Low Levels

 The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits dipped to 245,000 last week, hovering at historically low levels, the Labor Department said Wednesday. The number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits the week of June 7 slid to 1.95 million. Weekly unemployment claims are a proxy for layoffs and mostly have stayed within a healthy band of 200,000 to 250,000 since the economy recovered from a brief but painful COVID-19 recession in 2020, which temporarily wiped out millions of jobs. US Unemployment Hovers at Historically Low Levels – tEDmag

Interesting: The Three Pillars of Independence of an Organization

The 3 Pillars of Independence most commonly refers to a framework from the UK voluntary sector (specifically promoted by organizations like Bond and the Directory of Social Change). It is a toolkit for assessing and maintaining the independence of charities, NGOs, or civil society organizations.

The Three Pillars are:

  1. Independent of Party Politics – The organization (or regulator) must remain free from bias or influence by any political party or the government of the day. Decisions should be impartial, not favoring one political side.
  2. Independent of Populism – It should not be swayed by popular public opinion, media-driven campaigns, or transient public pressure, especially on controversial or unpopular causes.
  3. Independent of the Press – Freedom from media influence or pressure, ensuring decisions are based on evidence and law rather than headlines or public narratives.

This toolkit was created to monitor potential political encroachment on charitable regulation and to ensure charities can operate without undue external interference.

 

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