Stocks fell broadly in afternoon trading on Wall Street Tuesday, extending a slump for the major indexes as investors continue to worry about the state of the economy.

The S&P 500 fell 1.5% as of 12:01 p.m. Eastern. More than 85% of stocks in the benchmark index fell in the weak opening following a long weekend for the Independence Day holiday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 562 points, or 1.8%, to 30,532 and the Nasdaq fell 0.3%.

Small-company stocks also fell. The Russell 2000 shed 1.2%.

Energy companies had some of the biggest losses as U.S. oil prices fell 8.1%. Exxon Mobil shed 4%.

Banks also fell significantly, along with bond yields. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which helps set mortgage rates, fell to 2.79% from 2.90% late Friday. JPMorgan Chase fell 2.3%.

European markets were also lower.

Stocks remain in a slump that pulled the S&P 500 into a bear market last month, meaning an extended decline of 20% or more from a recent peak. The market's performance in the first half of 2022 was the worst since the first six months of 1970.

Inflation has been squeezing businesses and consumers throughout the year, but tightened its grip after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. The invasion sent oil prices higher globally and sent gasoline prices in the U.S. to record highs. That prompted a pullback in spending from consumers struggling with higher prices on everything from food to clothing.

Lockdowns in China from rising COVID-19 cases have also made supply chain problems worse.

Central banks have been raising interest rates in an attempt to temper inflation. The Federal Reserve has been aggressive in its shift from historically low-interest rates at the height of the pandemic to unusually big rate increases. But, that has raised concerns that the central bank could go too far in raising rates and hitting the brakes too hard on economic growth, which could bring on a recession.

Wall Street has been closely watching the latest economic updates for more clues on how inflation is impacting the economy and whether that could shift the Fed's position on rate hikes. Wall Street will get a closer look at the employment market on Friday when the government releases employment data for June.

Investors are also looking ahead to the next round of corporate earnings for a clearer picture of inflation's impact. Several big companies recently warned that their financial results are being squeezed by inflation, including spice and seasonings maker McCormick.

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As we enter the second half of the year, many Americans are questioning the stability of the U.S. economy amid fears we could be heading into a recession.

Later this month, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee will meet to discuss the likeliness of more interest rate hikes to address the nation's highest inflation in more than 40 years.

Consumer prices in June saw the biggest 12-month increase since 1981.

Mary Daly is the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and she suggests that the COVID-19 lockdowns and the war in Ukraine have both contributed in part to rising costs across the globe.

"We have a strong economy but inflation is too high," she said. "As an economist and policymaker, I was less startled. It [inflation] is something you can expect because we had a pandemic. We locked down the economy and then opened back up suddenly. We're ready as consumers to get back out there and buy things and do things, but supply chains are completely under siege."

Last month, the Federal Reserve attempted to tame rising costs by raising its key interest rate by 0.75% — its largest hike since 1994. It was the third rate hike from the central bank this year and more are expected.

But Daly said she isn't concerned that the Fed is overcooking things in order to tame down inflation.

"I'm not concerned because we put extraordinary emergency accommodation into the economy," she said. "We put a lot of support into the economy. When we did that, the economy was supported through the pandemic, and now we're just dialing back that support as we raise the interest rates through the end of the year. That should help bring inflation down to help get the economy back in balance."

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Consumers picked up their spending from May to June, underscoring their resilience despite painfully higher prices at the gas pump and in grocery aisles and allaying fears that the economy might be on the verge of a recession.

U.S. retail sales rose 1% in June, from a revised decline of 0.1 % in May, the Commerce Department said Friday.

The figures aren't adjusted for inflation and so largely reflect higher prices, particularly for gas. But they also show that consumers are still providing crucial support for the economy and spending on such discretionary items as furniture, restaurant meals and sporting goods.

SEE MORE: U.S. Inflation Reached 40-Year High Of 9.1% In June

At the same time, last month's spending gain is modest enough that it likely won't encourage the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates even more aggressively. Stock prices rose after the report's release.

Consumers still have significant savings, on average, bolstered by pandemic-era government relief checks and strong hiring and pay gains. JPMorgan executives said Thursday that their customers are still breaking out their credit and debit cards at a healthy pace.

The report showed consumers' ongoing appetite for nonessentials like gadgets and furniture. In fact, sales at furniture stores rose 1.4%, while consumer electronics stores rose 0.4%. Online sales showed a resurgence, posting a 2.2% increase. Business at restaurants was up 1%. But department stores took a hit, posting a 2.6% decline.

The solid figures bode well for the back-to-school shopping season, the second largest sales period behind the winter holidays. Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks spending across all payment forms including cash, forecasts that back-to-school spending will be up 7.5% from July 14 through Sept. 5 compared with the year-ago period when sales rose 11%.

But spending is volatile. The latest round of retail earnings reports published in May showed some slowing of spending, particularly with low-income shoppers. RH, an upscale furniture chain, cut its sales outlook for the year last month, pointing to deteriorating macro-economic conditions. It pointed to higher mortgage rates, which are slowing sales of luxury homes, indicating that even wealthy shoppers are pulling back.

Nevertheless, the overall solid spending came even as shoppers were confronted with high prices in all areas. U.S. inflation surged to a new four-decade high in June because of rising prices for gas, food and rent, squeezing household budgets and pressuring the Fed to raise rates aggressively — trends that raise the risk of a recession.

The retail sales report covers about a third of overall consumer spending and doesn't include services, such as haircuts, hotel stays and plane tickets.

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Susie Ingram has been a coupon-clipper all her life.

"It has saved me a lot of money over the years," said the 62-year-old resident of DeBary, Florida. She clips coupons and redeems them at her local Winn-Dixie supermarket to save on cereal, toilet paper, coffee, and snacks for her grandson, whom she is helping raise.

But over the past two years, Ingram said she has seen fewer deals. That's because some of Winn-Dixie's coupon offerings have moved exclusively online. At first, Ingram noticed that it was only a couple items, but now it's grown to dozens, including meat and produce.

Ingram has tried several times to download the store's app to redeem these coupons. But she isn't tech savvy and gave up.

She spends around $125 a week on groceries and said she'd save up to $30 a week if she were able to redeem the digital coupons — money that would go toward paying for clothing for her grandson, gas and cat food. The highest inflation in decades is taking a bite out of her paycheck and every dollar counts.

"If you're not 20-something with an expensive cell phone to do this, then too bad," she said.

Ingram's mother, who is 82 years old and lives off her Social Security benefits, struggles to use a cell phone and also is unable to take advantage of these digital coupons.

The Ingrams are part of a large group of digitally challenged shoppers unable to access online coupons.

As some manufacturers and stores cut back on printing weekly coupons and move more deals online, these shoppers are getting left out.

According to Pew Research Center, 39% of people 65 and over do not own a smartphone, and 25% don't use the internet. Additionally, 24% of adults with household incomes below $30,000 a year don't own a smartphone, while 41% don't have a computer. This means that millions of older and low-income shoppers — the people who often depend on coupons the most to stretch their dollars — are shut out of deals only available to online shoppers.

"This is a new hurdle for shoppers in store," said Edgar Dworsky, a consumer advocate and founder of Consumer World, who has documented this trend. "Isn't this the worst time to be paying higher prices? We're not talking about pennies."

Dworsky checked 50 top supermarkets' weekly advertisements in June and found that two-thirds of them advertise digital-only deals. Many had doubled or tripled the number of digital-only deals offered compared to the same week a year ago.

To be sure, Winn-Dixie still offers the Ingrams and other customers who aren't online ways to save.

The chain mails out printed coupons to customers' homes, has them on receipts, and has kiosks in stores where customers can enter the phone number linked to their free store rewards card to print out personalized coupons. Customers can sign up for the rewards program by telephone, too.

"We are very sensitive to the pressure that today's inflationary dynamic is putting on our customers, which is why we offer a variety of ways to save," said a spokesperson for Winn-Dixie-owner Southeastern Grocers.

But many consumers are moving online, and grocers have responded by stepping up their digital rewards.

Some companies, such as Walgreens, stopped printing coupon catalogs and moved their weekly advertisements online. CVS stopped printing them for newspapers but some are still in stores.

In the second quarter of 2020, redemptions of digital coupons in the United States surpassed redemptions of the most common type of paper coupons for the first time, according to market research firm Inmar Intelligence.

"The growth of digital coupons is outpacing the growth of print coupons," said Rob Wiesberg, the general manager of incentives at Inmar.

For stores, personalized digital coupons delivered to customers through their apps represent a more surgical option to reach customers than mass distribution through the newspaper.

Companies also get more data on customers when they download an app and can better track whether customers are responding to the coupons

"We used to have blunt instruments in the newspaper, where pricing had to go down for eight pages of items and whatever it was, and you had to release that six weeks before," Dick's Sporting Goods CEO Lauren Hobart said earlier this year.

But since the company has shifted its coupons to digital, "we are now literally making day-to-day decisions," she said.

ELMORE, Vt.  — As general stores in small towns across the country become victims to ever-expanding chain stores and supermarkets, some communities are successfully fighting back to save their beloved rural fixtures through new community funding efforts.

First opened in the early 1800s, the Elmore Store in Elmore, Vermont, has been a fixture of this town tucked next to a lake. It has all the usual staples and also serves as the post office. In this northern Vermont community without cell service, the Elmore Store has been a hub of communication and commerce for two centuries.

But back in 2019, the longtime owners put it up for sale. This tight-knit community worried that this place would be shuttered, like so many other small town stores in America. So, the town of Elmore, home to just 800 people, decided to do something.

"Everybody in town was worried about what would happen to the store," said Trevor Braun, a life-long Elmore resident.

Braun now sits on the board for the Elmore Community Trust a group formed to save the Elmore Store. Through an aggressive fundraising campaign in this tiny corner of rural America, they raised the $400,000 needed to buy the building.

"A large majority of donations were small donations from community members; $20 here and $25 dollars there added up over time," Braun added.

Back in January, Kate Gluckman and her husband, Mike, took over running the store. They don't own the building itself though. That's where the community trust comes in. The nonprofit owns the brick-and-mortar and is responsible for upkeep and maintenance.

"We want to preserve those spaces and preserve that way of life," Gluckman said.

All of that gives these small business owners a chance to focus on running a business, while at the same time ensuring this small town doesn't lose its store.

"I do think it is an innovative way to preserve these important spaces," she added.

At the turn of the 20th century, general stores could be found in nearly every American community. But in the 1930s, supermarkets began to spring up. Unable to compete, general stores closed from coast to coast.

Ben Doyle with the Preservation Society of Vermont says the Green Mountain State has lost at least 30 general stores in the last few decades.

"It can be really devastating for a community a real sense of loss, of community identity," he said.

But this preservationist is seeing more communities using the trust model to save small-town stores. Some rural towns are even in the process of reopening stores that have been closed for years.

"The store can actually focus on being a store. The landlord isn't trying to make a buck they're trying to make sure the mission of community vitality lives on," he said.

Lately, many major companies are rolling out requirements for employees to start coming into the office, which many employees aren't too thrilled about. A major point of contention? What we have to wear.  

Many Americans working from home have traded in pencil skirts and blazers for the casual comforts of home or maybe a nice shirt for zoom, but casual shorts.  

But the truth is, this isn't a new development thanks to the pandemic. U.S. revenue for men's suits declined from $2.2 billion in 2013 to $1.9 billion in 2018. And to look even further back, an estimate in 1948 from a clothing manufacturers association put that revenue at $12.5 billion with inflation. 

The pandemic may have accelerated the trend, but the decline in formalwear has been going on for decades now.  

In the mid-20th century, formalwear was not just an office staple. For both men and women, suits and hats were the standard for everyday activities: from shopping for groceries to going to the movies to watching sports games.  

But major fashion trends in the '60s and '70s opened the door for more variety within formalwear, especially as new styles were being seen on television.  

SEE MORE: California Bans Discrimination Based On Natural Hair

Colorful power suits and trousers were in, and outfits that could be worn both to the office and after-work drinks were seen as more practical and fashionable. It was what Esquire Magazine called "the rise of loose-collar culture." 

Soon, the rise of casual wear would become unstoppable, thanks to the khaki pants and button-down collared shirts in Silicon Valley.  

The '80s and '90s saw the invention and rise of "business casual," what this 1995 article from the Chicago Tribune declared was a "confusing" new world. Silicon Valley has already embraced a culture of rule-breaking, creativity, and risk over conformity.  

The rise of "athleisure" clothes during the past decades, like yoga pants and workout sneakers, coincided with this. By the time we reached the 2000s, formalwear was confined to only certain industries, and outside the office could be seen mostly during special occasions like weddings.  

Though it's worth noting, not even traditional industries might be so strict on the suit much longer! In 2019, Goldman Sachs relaxed their dress code to "business casual."

Some fashion experts have noted that the cultural implications of formalwear have been transferred to some areas of casual dress.  

Being able to work remotely and thus dress casually is more common in white-collar industries. One could argue there's a new flex of status with high-end athleisure brands like Lululemon, or streetwear from luxury brands like Gucci.  

Changes in culture shape our changes in fashion, and we can trace those changes through our decline in formalwear.  

Newsy is the nation’s only free 24/7 national news network. You can find Newsy using your TV’s digital antenna or stream for free. See all the ways you can watch Newsy here. 

Markets sold off worldwide on mounting signs the global economy is weakening just as central banks raise the pressure even more with additional hikes to interest rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at its lowest point of the year Friday. The S&P 500 fell 1.7%, close to its 2022 low. Energy prices also closed sharply lower as traders worried about a possible recession—Treasury yields, which affect rates on mortgages and other kinds of loans, held at multiyear highs. U.K. government bond yields snapped higher after that country's new government announced a sweeping plan of tax cuts.

Stocks tumbled worldwide Friday on more signs the global economy is weakening, just as central banks raise the pressure even more with additional interest rate hikes.

The S&P 500 fell 2% in afternoon trading, adding a dismal cap on what's already been a rough week. It's close to its low point of the year in mid-June.

European stocks fell just as sharply or more after preliminary data there suggested business activity had its worst monthly contraction since the start of 2021. Adding to the pressure was a new plan announced in London to cut taxes, which sent U.K. yields soaring because it could ultimately force its central bank to raise rates even more sharply.

The Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world aggressively hiked interest rates this week to undercut high inflation, with more big increases promised for the future. But such moves also brake their economies, threatening recessions as growth slows worldwide. Besides Friday's discouraging data on European business activity, a separate report suggested U.S. activity is also still shrinking, though not quite as bad as in earlier months.

"Financial markets are now fully absorbing the Fed's harsh message that there will be no retreat from the inflation fight," Douglas Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a research report.

Crude oil prices tumbled to their lowest levels since early this year on worries that a weaker global economy will burn less fuel. Cryptocurrency prices also fell sharply because higher interest rates tend to hit hardest the investments that look the priciest or the riskiest.

Even gold fell in the worldwide rout, as bonds paying higher yields make investments that pay no interest look less attractive. Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar has been moving sharply higher against other currencies. That can hurt profits for U.S. companies with lots of overseas business, as well as put a financial squeeze on much of the developing world.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 505 points, or 1.7%, to 29,572 and the Nasdaq fell 1.9% as of 3:43 p.m. Eastern. Smaller company stocks did even worse. The Russell 2000 fell 3%. U.S. crude oil prices slid 5.7% and weighed heavily on energy stocks.

More than 90% of stocks in the S&P 500 were in the red, with technology companies, retailers and banks among the biggest weights on the benchmark index. The major indexes are on pace for their fifth weekly loss in six weeks.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday lifted its benchmark rate, which affects many consumer and business loans, to a range of 3% to 3.25%. It was at virtually zero at the start of the year. The Fed also released a forecast suggesting its benchmark rate could be 4.4% by the year's end, a full point higher than envisioned in June.

Treasury yields have climbed to multiyear highs as interest rates rise. The yield on the 2-year Treasury, which tends to follow expectations for Federal Reserve action, rose to 4.19% from 4.12% late Thursday. It is trading at its highest level since 2007. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences mortgage rates, slipped to 3.68% from 3.71%.

The higher rates mean Goldman Sachs strategists say most of their clients now see a "hard landing" that pulls the economy sharply lower as inevitable. The question for them is just on the timing, magnitude and length of a potential recession.

Higher interest rates hurt all kinds of investments, but stocks could stay steady as long as corporate profits grow strongly. The problem is that many analysts are beginning to cut their forecasts for upcoming earnings because of higher rates and worries about a possible recession.

"Increasingly, market psychology has transitioned from concerns over inflation to worries that, at a minimum, corporate profits will decline as economic growth slows demand," said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist for LPL Financial.

In the U.S., the jobs market has remained remarkably solid, and many analysts think the economy grew in the summer quarter after shrinking in the first six months of the year. But the encouraging signs also suggest the Fed may have to jack rates even higher to get the cooling needed to bring down inflation.

Some key areas of the economy are already weakening. Mortgage rates have reached 14-year highs, causing sales of existing homes to drop 20% in the past year. But other areas that do best when rates are low are also hurting.

In Europe, meanwhile, the already fragile economy is dealing with the effects of war on its eastern front following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The European Central Bank is hiking its key interest rate to combat inflation even as the region's economy is already expected to plunge into a recession. And in Asia, China's economy is contending with still-strict measures meant to limit COVID infections that also hurt businesses.

While Friday's economic reports were discouraging, few on Wall Street saw them as enough to convince the Fed and other central banks to soften their stance on raising rates. So they just reinforced the fear that rates will keep rising in the face of already slowing economies.

——

Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber and Business Writers Joe McDonald and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

PORTLAND, Ore. —

President Joe Biden on Saturday called embattled British Prime Minister Liz Truss' abandoned tax cut plan a “mistake,” and said he is worried that other nations' fiscal policies may hurt the U.S. amid “worldwide inflation."

Biden said it was “predictable” that the new prime minister on Friday was forced to walk back plans to aggressively cut taxes without identifying cost savings, after Truss' proposal caused turmoil in global financial markets. It marked an unusual criticism by a U.S. president of the domestic policy decisions of one of its closest allies.

“I wasn’t the only one that thought it was a mistake," Biden said. "I disagree with the policy, but that’s up to Great Britain.”

Biden's comments came after weeks of White House officials declining to criticize Truss' plans, though they emphasized they were monitoring the economic fallout closely. He was speaking to reporters at an Oregon ice cream shop where he made an unannounced stop to promote the candidacy of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tina Kotek, as Democrats across the country face a tough political environment amid GOP criticism of their handling of the economy.

Biden said he was not concerned about the strength of the dollar — it set a new record against the British Pound in recent weeks — which benefits U.S. imports but makes the country's exports more expensive to the rest of the world.

The president said the U.S. economy "is strong as hell.”

“I’m concerned about the rest of the world,” he added. “The problem is the lack of economic growth and sound policy in other countries."

Said Biden: “It's worldwide inflation, that's consequential.”

Captain Dennis Tajer has taken to the skies as an airline pilot for over 20 years. He’s also the spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association and represents 15,000 American Airline pilots.

"This has been in the air for a long time and no one did anything about it," said Tajer.

He says the pandemic exacerbated a staffing problem carriers knew about by offering early retirements in what he calls a money-saving move and then failed to plan for a return to normal.

"They kept us from collapsing they weren't ready for the recovery," said Tajer.

Airlines were looking to save money during the 2020 pandemic shutdowns. The federal government stepped in with aid under the condition airlines couldn’t lay people off or furlough anyone.

"And then they took a hundred airplanes at American, and they retired them permanently. They didn't train pilots to go on new airplanes, and of those who retired, they did not train their replacements," said Tajer.

But things changed a year later as Americans started to travel again, and airlines added routes.

In 2021, the airline industry expected an increase of 42% in routes compared to 2019, according to data from Cirium Innovata a database tracking flight schedules across airlines.

More flights mean more pilots to get passengers to their destinations. But hiring more pilots doesn’t come without turbulence. In the past, airlines have turned to the Air Force as a pipeline to bring in pilots. But they’re also facing a shortage.

A congressional report in 2019 warned the Pentagon faced a shortfall of over 3,000 pilots, which it states has been "several years in the making."

"It was rare at the majors depending on the airline, to find someone who wasn't prior military. It was just the pipeline that was there everyone knew with the fall of the wall and the Soviet Union collapsing that the military wound down," said Tajer.

The FAA requires commercial pilots to log 1,500 flight hours for certification. And obtaining a commercial license after that isn’t cheap.

We looked at three different flight schools. A commercial pilot’s license price ranges between $30,000 to nearly $100,000.

"What young man or woman is thinking, 'Hey, I'm gonna go drop a $100,000, maybe make it, maybe not for a job that will come,'" Tajer said. "And go I'll be laid off, there will be bankruptcies, I'll be unemployed if you're looking at this as a business decision other than I just wanna fly what a horrid investment."

But some airlines are taking matters into their own hands. Phoenix-based Mesa Airlines recently purchased nearly 30 planes to help pilots build time toward their airline transport pilot license while trying to build a recruiting pipeline.

And American, United, Delta, Southwest, Frontier, and others are spearheading similar initiatives. Washington is also working toward a solution. In July, Republican Nebraska Senator, Deb Fischer, introduced the Let Experienced Pilots Fly Act. It would raise the retirement age from 65 to 67 — though pilots would only be allowed to fly within the U.S. — with a new emphasis on solving the issue.

Tajer believes it’s going to take time to get more new pilots in the cockpit.

"So, it's gonna take a while, and there's no magic switch. It takes a series of switches and everybody working together to get it done," said Tajer.

This means, for now, travelers and pilots are left having to pack their patience.

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If you're one of the 43.2 million people traveling on the road this Fourth of July, your wallet is most likely happier than it was this time last year. 

On July 4 of last year, the average cost of a gallon of gas was $4.80. Now AAA says it's about $1.50 cheaper in most of the country.

"As oil prices have dropped, the price at the pump has dropped too. So whereas last year people may have been paying $4.80 to $5 a gallon, now they're going to be paying $3.50 or less in most places," said AAA spokesperson Andrew Gross. 

The key words there: Most places.

Washington State has the highest gas prices in the nation — almost $5 a gallon. AAA says gas prices shot up due to maintenance on BP's 299-mile Olympia pipeline that runs from Blaine, Washington along the U.S.-Canadian border to Portland, Oregon. 

"The increases were passed on to consumers in the form of higher pump prices. There are some signs that drivers here will start to get some relief," said Marie Dodds, public affairs director for AAA Oregon/Idaho, in a statement. 

Expect to pay higher prices if you're traveling on the West Coast: Oregon, California, Nevada and Alaska are all over $4 on average. 

The cheapest gas can be found in the south, with Mississippi being the state with the lowest average gas price at just under $3 per gallon. 

SEE MORE: This state now has the most expensive US gas, and it's not California

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Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com

How much money do you plan on spending this holiday season?

A forecast released Thursday by the National Retail Federation expects to see a 6 to 8 percent growth in holiday spending over 2021.

“The overall outlook from those consumer fundamentals are very positive and support what we believe is a fairly good forecast,” said Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist of the National Retail Federation.

Keep in mind this does not include vehicles, gas, or food services. Just retail more broadly. The National Retail Federation said a few factors are at play here.

“Strong job and income growth has been important,” Kleinhenz said. “More jobs means more income, more spending.”

A jobs report released Friday shows the payroll grew by 261,000 in October, according to the Labor Department.

Kleinhenz said consumers also have a good bit of savings to spend from when everyone was saving during the pandemic.

“We can't minimize the importance of the ability for people to tap into their savings in many cases,” he said.

Kleinhenz said credit is also a factor. “Credit availability has supported spending.”

However, this forecast is not adjusted for inflation. The Consumer Price Index has climbed over 8 percent in the past year. If you take out food and energy, that number is around 6.5%. CPI is weighted toward essentials, but things like electronics and clothing aren’t going up at the same rate.

Some forecasts are not so optimistic.

Consulting firm McKinsey & Company said consumer demand has softened and inventory levels are high in an October holiday shopping report. They also mentioned many consumers are eager to spend and splurge.

International shipping company Maersk wrote in their Q3 report released Wednesday:

“With the war in Ukraine, an energy crisis in Europe, high inflation, and a looming global recession there are plenty of dark clouds on the horizon. This weighs on consumer purchasing power which in turn impacts global transportation and logistics demand.”

They did see an increase in revenue in the third quarter. Maersk is the world’s largest container and shipping company.

Whether you decide to save or splurge this year, experts seem to be at odds with spending habits this holiday season.

"If you liked it, then you should have put a ring on it." Just about everyone knows the words of Beyoncé. But where did this tradition come from? 

Like a lot of old traditions, the exact history of wedding rings is murky. But one belief dates back to ancient Egypt.

Egyptian pharaohs believed rings symbolized eternity, because of their circular shape, with no beginning and no end. Egyptians also believed in the "Vena Amoris" or the "vein of love." They thought a vein in the fourth finger on the left hand connected directly to the heart. That's why it's still common to wear a wedding ring on that finger. 

When Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, Greeks adopted the tradition of gifting a ring to show devotion. The tradition carried on when the Romans conquered the Greeks.

Some accounts say the Romans viewed the ring as a symbol of a husband's ownership over his bride as opposed to a sign of love. 

As time went on, the types of rings and motifs shifted. Rings became more popular in the West during World War II.

Men going off to fight gave them to their wives-to-be, as a promise to wed when they returned. During this time, more men started wearing rings, too. Men wore them while deployed, to remind them of their spouses back home. 

For many years, rings had different types of stones. In 1947, the diamond company De Beers helped popularize a diamond ring thanks to its famous slogan. 

The marketing strategy popularized diamond rings for wedding and engagement bands. According to a survey from The Knot 86% of engagement rings in the U.S. include a diamond center stone today, and the average ring costs $6,000. 

Newsy is the nation’s only free 24/7 national news network. You can find Newsy using your TV’s digital antenna or stream for free. See all the ways you can watch Newsy here.     

Whether it’s real or artificial, the cost of your Christmas tree could go up this year.

“Like all areas of agriculture, real Christmas tree reproduction, the costs are up,” said Marsha Gray, the executive director of the Real Christmas Tree Board. The organization represents companies that produce real Christmas trees grown in the U.S., and those that are imported.

Gray said input costs for these companies are up 11 to 20 percent. This includes things like fuel, fertilizer, and labor. The wholesale price of a tree will go up 5 to 15 percent, according to a survey of wholesalers by the Real Christmas Tree Board. That doesn’t necessarily mean that cost will be passed on to the consumer.

“Some of those costs are probably absorbing, but a certain amount of it they are passing on to those retailers who then, in turn, need to decide what retail price they’re going to charge,” she said.

According to a survey by the Real Christmas Tree Board, consumers expect inflation to impact real Christmas tree costs by approximately $4 to $12 per tree compared to last year.

“Prices, of course, to move everything are up, so that's one of those things that we consider an input cost but we’re really not expecting any real supply chain problems,” Gray said.

She explained that supply shouldn’t be an issue this year.

“We do have a tighter supply and have had a tighter supply for about 5 to 7 years. Not a big surprise because it takes us 10 years to produce that tree and turn it around. We can't change on a dime,” she said.

What about artificial trees? Last year, the industry was disrupted by supply chain problems.

“Last year, in 2021, the artificial Christmas tree industry had a really tough time because, with the supply chain delays, still many of us got our product late. At Balsam Hill we had 500 containers of Christmas trees and holiday decor come after Christmas,” said Mac Harman, the founder and CEO of Balsam Hill.

During the last holiday season, stores and companies didn’t have enough goods. Harman said for this year’s supply, companies put in orders for less stock. However, this was all purchased during a time when international cargo freight prices were at a high, which could be reflected in the prices consumers see this season.

Experts are still waiting to see if there will be a shortage of artificial trees this year. For now, stores have the stock they need, but prices could fluctuate, according to Harman.

There are some ways you can save regardless.

“Any time you're looking for an artificial Christmas tree, you want to shop early, especially this year,” said Harman. “What we’re seeing this year is that consumers are shopping later for their artificial Christmas trees and their holiday decor.”

Balsam Hill estimates people keep artificial trees for about 10 years.

The turbulence we’ve seen in pricing and supply is more likely to level out next year. “We expect that prices will come down next year because the supply chain costs are down and also raw material costs are down. But everything that was purchased this year was purchased so long ago, prices are up,” Harman said.

If you are purchasing a real Christmas tree, know specific details about height and species before you go pick one out. “Make sure you measure ahead,” Gray said.

She said most tree sellers have websites where you can see what they have and pricing beforehand.

Related video above: Is there a "best way" to brew coffee?

Coffee futures are crashing. But that might not mean too much for the price of your cup of coffee.

In August, Arabica coffee futures were trading at $2.43 per pound. By Wednesday, the price had tumbled to $1.59, a roughly 35% decline.

There are a few reasons for the steady drop in prices, explained Carlos Mera, head of the agri commodities markets team at Rabobank.

For one thing, weather in Brazil is better than it has been the past couple of years. Rainfall this fall suggests that the country will have a good coffee crop, securing supply.

"September is usually the start of the wet season," Mera explained. "The start of this wet season was actually very good."

Then there's the strength of the U.S. dollar.

"When the dollar goes up, everything measured in dollars, like international coffee prices, tend to go down," Mera said. Farmers outside of the U.S. are incentivized to sell their products because they'll earn a price in U.S. dollars which translates to a higher amount of currency at home.

"Farmers are keener to sell any stocks that they may be holding," Mera said.

The situation marks a sharp reversal from what was happening last year.

In November 2021, coffee futures climbed to the highest level since January 2012. That was thanks to severe drought and unusual frost conditions in Brazil, which caused turmoil in the market.

And short supplies of shipping containers put roasters on edge, inspiring them to stock up as much as possible.

Now, "there are some delays, but nothing in comparison to what it was before," Mera said.

Coffee has been getting more expensive for consumers, as well.

In the year through October, not adjusted for seasonal swings, coffee prices jumped 14.8% in the grocery store, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Starbucks said in November that it has raised prices this year by about 6%.

But the improved conditions won't necessarily mean a big decline in coffee prices for consumers, Mera noted. That's because while coffee prices are falling, other costs, like labor and distribution, are still high for producers.

"I think if we see dropping prices, [they] are going to be modest," he said.

Plus, big coffee companies like Starbucks secure long contracts, which help protect them from short-term volatility.

AAA has released data showing that a new state appears to have taken the top spot in the United States, for now, when it comes to high fuel prices. 

California has frequently topped the list, reaching an astonishing high of $6.29 per gallon at one point in June of 2022, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. 

Well that price fell to below $5 per gallon by May of this year. 

Now, AAA says, the new high is found in Washington state, with prices jumping up by around 32 cents this past month, hovering at around $4.93 per gallon in that state.

Still, California is not far behind, as prices there reached $4.86 per gallon this month. These prices are for regular fuel. 

It's interesting to look at how the prices between the two states compare to the same time last year. 

SEE MORE: Tesla tech closer to industry standard, Rivian joins charging network

While the price of gas in California was above $6.00 per gallon for regular fuel around the same time in 2022, that has dropped significantly a year later, landing now at around $4.86 recently. 

In Washington, it's a bit of a different story. Last year regular fuel at the same time came in at $5.52 per gallon. Today's price for the same grade comes in at $4.93 per gallon. 

Prices in states in the West remain, still, at some of the highest levels in the country with Oregon cruising in at $4.57 per gallon for regular fuel, AAA reported. 

Further east, Illinois is the outlier among Midwest and Eastern states on AAA's gas prices map at $4.02 per gallon for regular fuel.

Gas prices in Mississippi come in at a cool $3.00 per gallon for regular fuel, which is a relief for drivers in that southern state. 

As GasBuddy reported, it is the first time since 2005 that Washington's fuel prices have been higher than both Hawaii and California. 

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Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com

The hunt begins in darkness. Les Giese and his son Thor make their way through a public forest in Annandale, New Jersey to a tree stand where they’ll wait for dawn and if they’re lucky — a deer. We settle in, 25 feet above the ground, watching the sun rise through the trees. 

NEWSY'S SAM EATON: So what's the secret? You just. It's a matter of just waiting?

THOR GIESE: It's getting in between where they live and where they eat.  

After about four hours and no deer, we call it a day. We meet again on the trail with Thor’s dad, Les, who also came up empty. 

"They’re either running through the woods like a freight train or they’re like a ninja, you know," said Thor Giese. 

Les Giese and his son aren’t hunting deer for themselves. They’ve already filled their freezer with enough venison for the year. Any deer they get from now on will instead feed families in need. It’s a program run by the New Jersey chapter of Hunters Helping the Hungry and Giese is the president. 

"Right now, we're doing roughly 25,000 pounds of venison a year. Pretty close to 100,000 meals across the various food banks and pantries of New Jersey," said Les Giese. 

In the two and a half decades since he founded the non-profit with friends, Giese says it’s become one of the top three game meat donation programs in the country. But he says it’s not just about providing food for the hungry. It’s also about saving these forests. 

"A forest, a healthy forest like you see behind me here can handle 15 deer per square mile. This particular forest has probably got close to 150 deer, 10 times the carrying capacity of this forest," said Les Giese. 

And with one in 10 U.S. households struggling to feed their families Giese says hunting more deer as a source of lean, healthy protein is a no brainer. It’s also become a lifeline for New Jersey food banks. 

The problem of deer overpopulation in the forests of states like New Jersey is getting worse, but so is hunger. And it's places like this where the solutions to those two crises come together. 

Shannon Williams is interim director of Norwescap Food Bank in Phillipsburg, New Jersey. She says the warehouse we visited distributes two million pounds of food a year to food banks, soup kitchens and homeless shelters all over the state.  

SEE MORE: Inflation, Surge In Prices Impacting Food Banks

"This is the Norwescap Food Bank. This is our warehouse," said Williams. "And this is some of the venison that we received through the processors and through hunters helping the hungry and that we distribute to our agencies." 

Williams says the venison is in high demand, especially as the cost of providing meat to families has soared. 

"With the pandemic and now with the food inflation and the costs rising on everything, it's been very difficult and the need has just continued to rise. And we're we're doing our best to to keep food coming in and out as quickly as we can," she continued.  

From the rockies to New England and the deep South, white-tailed deer populations have exploded in recent decades. After being decimated by hunters in the 1930s, deer have made a stunning recovery, increasing one-thousand-fold in less than a hundred years. 

But the process has imperiled the same ecosystems that have sustained their recovery. 

Jay Kelly is a biologist at Raritan Valley Community College. He says more and more deer squeezing into smaller and more fragmented forests is sending the entire ecosystem into free fall. 

"So this is a typical forest in central New Jersey. What you see here, you'll find pretty much throughout the region. And what's noteworthy is the absence of any living things in the understory." 

"[At} about 15 [deer] per square mile regeneration starts to decline. The, you know, waist high seedlings will begin to disappear. And above 20 per square mile, everything begins to shut down in the forest with loss of bird populations, all components of the vegetative understory, arthropod, amphibian densities and so forth," said Kelly.  

In New Jersey deer densities usually exceed a hundred per square mile, creating what Kelly calls a zombie forest. Not only is the biodiversity lost, the only thing replacing the older trees as they die are invasive species like this Japanese angelica tree. 

"The canopy of leaves will come out of these angelica trees are these enormous compound leaves that have thorns on the stems of the leaf thorns and the leaf leaves and leaflets themselves. It's just armed with all sorts of defenses on every inch of the tree. It's really incredible," said Kelly. 

The good news is that once deer populations are reduced, the forest recovers.  

Duke Farms Nature Preserve in Hillsborough, New Jersey is a stark example of how quickly that change can happen.  

"So what you see here is about 15 to 17 years worth of regeneration since deer were initially managed aggressively at the site," said Kelly

Kelly says deer densities here reached 250 per square mile. After installing deer fencing and maintaining deer populations at much lower densities, the invasive species disappeared and the forest regenerated. 

"The trees that you see growing up, these are ash trees. There are hickory trees and oaks all growing in this understory," said Kelly. 

Kelly says short of reintroducing predators like wolves to these forests, hunting is the most effective means of reducing deer populations. But the number of hunters in the U.S. has been in steady decline since its peak in the 1980s. 

And in order to process the meat for food banks you need USDA certified butchers like J.B. Person’s family-owned Game Butchers in Lebanon, New Jersey. 

Person says his father started the business back in the 1960s.  

SEE MORE: Hunters Keep Food Pantries And Stomachs Full

"It's a pretty unique business — unfortunately. It's a dying trade," said Person.  

With grants now covering the cost of butchering for food banks, Person hopes more butchers will come online to help the program expand. In the meantime, he struggles to keep up. 

"And it doesn't last long. I mean, they come, they come pick up the meat — it sits in in their freezers for only maybe a week or two. And it's distributed and it's gone," said Person. 

That venison ends up at food banks. Flemington Area Food Pantry Executive Director Jeannine Gorman says they’re busier now than they’ve ever been. 

"We see anywhere from 50 to 70 clients, which pretty much means since COVID. And now in the height of financial inflation and everything else, we can see on average a person every three minutes," said Gorman.  

Cars line up to load pre-ordered food items. This is what the food insecurity crisis in America looks like. Bob Flanagan is one of them.  

"I'm self-employed, I'm a contractor. The bottom fell out after I got COVID because I can't work. I couldn't work," said Flanagan. 

Flanagan also used to hunt. But since COVID wrecked his lungs, forcing him to carry an oxygen tank with him at all times, he’s had to rely on the donations. 

"There's the venison. This is hamburger. I'll mix it up with the tomato sauce and make a spaghetti," said Flanagan.

It’s a rare thing for one crisis to help solve another. But Les Giese hopes the partnership he’s created between the state, the hunters, the butchers and the food banks offers a glimmer of hope. 

"We're trying to make the herd healthier. We're trying to make the forest healthier. We're trying to make some of the less fortunate people have some protein, low fat meat. Win win all the way around," said Les Giese. 

That night Giese, his family and friends gather to grill venison backstrap and share a meal.  

He says he grew up on a dairy farm in Illinois where sharing with neighbors was a way of life. And as the forests suffer, and more of his neighbors struggle to feed their families, Giese hopes that spirit of sharing will catch on. 

Newsy is the nation’s only free 24/7 national news network. You can find Newsy using your TV’s digital antenna or stream for free. See all the ways you can watch Newsy here. 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Birdie Hansen stumbled nose-first into her small business during a time when most businesses were standing still.

"It was just a little hobby that I was doing around when everyone was doing their sourdough starters," she said

Her pandemic project turned into Effing Candle Co. in Kansas City, where she and her husband make cozy candles with a big sense of humor.

It’s a business that’s been growing, despite the odds, but as many small businesses can relate, success hasn’t come easily.

"The cost of our materials have definitely gone up this year, our wax our fragrances. Shipping is more expensive. Labels have gone up. Like everything that we touch has gone up in price," she said.

What consumers are feeling in terms of inflation, small businesses feel too. Inflation right now is at 7.7% and, according to Deloitte, that’s reflected in the holiday spending outlook.

Holiday spending is expected to stay stagnant at $1,455 per household, but consumers plan to buy less gifts—nine compared to 16—and will pull back on non-gift spending by 12%.

While low-income earners plan on spending 25% more than last year, high-income earners will most likely spend 7% less.

"Every day was a teachable moment for the last two and a half years," said Larry Wigger, an associate professor of supply chain management at the University of Missouri Kansas City.

Wigger had a lot to talk about in his classroom lately. He says inflation has been made worse by the lack of labor and supply chain disruptions of both the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

"Just when we thought we were gonna recover it, set everybody back again," he said.

Wigger says that it will most likely take big shifts in society until we get back to how things were before the pandemic, including growing interest in blue-collar jobs and figuring out long-term supply solutions. In the meantime, there are opportunities for businesses to get creative to weather the current climate.

"Rethinking how you source your stuff, being creative about your hiring, and really thinking through your job descriptions," he said.

Getting creative is exactly what Birdie has been doing at her candle company.

What has worked in her favor is making sure her products come in a variety of price points, offering big discounts on imperfect products, and online gifts with purchases and free shipping minimums to entice buyers. She also hopes consumers keep small businesses like hers in mind when deciding where to spend this holiday season as every dollar continues to mean so much.

"We are just the ones out here making a product that we love, for consumers that we love," she said.

On Thursday, the U.S. reported slightly more Americans filed for jobless claims last week, but not as many as economists had forecast. The labor market remains one of the strongest pockets of the economy, which has been stifled under the weight of stubbornly hot inflation and rising interest rates.

Technology companies helped lift stocks Thursday, ending a five-day losing streak for the S&P 500, though the major indexes remain on pace for a weekly loss.

Low unemployment is good for the broader economy but makes it more difficult for the Federal Reserve to tame inflation. The central bank has been raising interest rates to curb borrowing and spending in order to cool stubbornly hot inflation. Its benchmark interest rate sits at 3.75% to 4%, the highest in 15 years.

The Fed will meet next week and is expected to raise its benchmark interest rate by a half-percentage point.

Resilient consumer spending, which is partly tied to strong employment, has also made the fight against inflation more difficult. It has been keeping the economy strong enough to stay out of a recession, analysts have said, but it is also increasing the chances that the Fed will go too far in raising interest rates. The Fed could potentially cause a recession by hitting the brakes too hard on the economy.

Wall Street will get more insight into how consumers feel about inflation and the economy on Friday when the University of Michigan releases its consumer sentiment survey for December. Investors will also get an update on how inflation is impacting businesses when the government releases its latest monthly report on wholesale prices Friday.

Activision Blizzard lost 1.5% after the Federal Trade Commission said it is suing to block Microsoft's planned $69 billion takeover of the video game company, saying it could suppress competitors to its Xbox game consoles and its growing games subscription business. Microsoft rose 1.2%.

The S&P 500 rose 0.8%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite closed 1.1% higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.5%.

Major indexes are all in the red for the week and have been swinging between big monthly gains and losses throughout the year. Investors' worries about inflation, rising interest rates and recession risks have made for a volatile market. That has also left Wall Street focused on data points on the economy, especially those regarding inflation.

"We'll continue to see outsized moves in the markets over the coming months," said Jeff Kleintop, chief global investment strategist at Charles Schwab. "We're going to be feeling our way through and there's going to be a lot of volatility."

The S&P 500 rose 29.59 points to 3,963.51. The Nasdaq gained 123.45 points to 11,082, and the Dow rose 183.56 points to 33,781.48.

Tech stocks powered much of the rally, along with health care companies and retailers. Chipmaker Nvidia climbed 6.5%, Pfizer rose 3.1% and Nike gained 2.8%.

Communication services stocks posted some of the biggest losses. T-Mobile US slid 3.3%.

Energy stocks also fell. The price of U.S. crude oil settled 0.8% lower at $71.46 per barrel, another low point for the year. ConocoPhillips dropped 2%.

Small company stocks gained ground. The Russell 2000 index added 11.39 points, or 0.6%, to 1,818.29.

Bond yields mostly rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which helps set mortgage rate s, increased to 3.49% from 3.42% late Wednesday.

Markets in Europe closed mostly lower, while markets in Asia ended mixed.

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Elaine Kurtenbach and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

The Federal Reserve says it will not raise interest rates this month.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell announced the decision Wednesday, making it the first time the Fed has decided to leave interest rates unchanged in 15 months.

In response to persistently high inflation levels, the Open Market Committee increased interest rates a remarkable 10 consecutive times between March 2022 and May 2023.

Wednesday’s move keeps the key interest rate at about 5%.

Since early 2022, the Fed has increased theFederal Funds rate from 0.75%–1% to 5%–5.25%.

SEE MORE: These groceries had the largest price increase in the last year

According to the committee, the reason behind the pause is that while inflation remains high, "recent indicators suggest that economic activity has continued to expand at a modest pace. Job gains have been robust in recent months, and the unemployment rate has remained low," and Fed officials want to take more time to fully "assess additional information and its implications" on hiking rates even more.

However, Powell signaled that rates could still go higher this year.

"Looking ahead, nearly all committee participants view it as likely that some further rate increases will be appropriate this year to bring inflation down to 2% over time," said Powell in a press briefing shortly after the report was released. "Nearly all committee participants expect that it will be appropriate to raise interest rates somewhat further by the end of the year."

Inflation has fallen significantly from a peak last summer of more than 9% but remains at 4%, which is double the Federal Reserve's target of 2%.

While this pause may be only temporary, experts say it will still allow banks to breathe a sigh of relief.

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Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com

Data released by the U.S. government on Thursday showed a drop in retail spending in November.

According to the data, spending declined by .6% compared to October. The decline was especially pronounced for commodities such as electronics and automobiles.

Spending at grocery stores increased by .8%, but some of that increase could be attributed to inflation. But the drop comes after months of gains by national retailers. There has been a 6.5% increase in spending at retailers since last year.

The National Retail Federation suggested that consumers are spending on household priorities going into the holiday season.

“Consumers continued to spend on household priorities and holiday gifts for loved ones this November despite continued inflation and rising interest rates,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. “Holiday shoppers are demonstrating resilience, and retailers are providing great products and experiences at the right price levels to help stretch household budgets.”

The NRF’s data analysis indicates that the U.S. is avoiding going into a recession despite high interest rates.

“While job and wage gains and built-up pandemic-era savings supported holiday shoppers in November, shoppers were squeezed by inflation and higher interest rates,” NRF chief economist Jack Kleinhenz said. “This was the first leg of the official holiday season and had a large hurdle to overcome with monthly comparisons because of early shopping in October, but the consumer remains surprisingly resilient. The healthy year-over-year comparison is more important and clearly shows that the economy is not in a recession.”

The Federal Reserve indicated on Wednesday that more rate hikes could be expected in the future as a tight job market could keep wage increases elevated. The Fed said it wants to lower inflation to 2% a year, down from the current marker of 7.1%. However, labor is the biggest expense facing most companies, and government data indicate average wages have increased by over 5% in the last year.

More than 1,100 cities, towns and villages in the U.S. lost their status as urban areas on Thursday as the U.S. Census Bureau released a new list of places considered urban based on revised criteria.

Around 4.2 million residents living in 1,140 small cities, hamlets, towns and villages that lost their urban designation were bumped into the rural category. The new criteria raised the population threshold from 2,500 to 5,000 people and housing units were added to the definition.

The change matters because rural and urban areas often qualify for different types of federal funding for transportation, housing, health care, education and agriculture. The federal government doesn't have a standard definition of urban or rural, but the Census Bureau's definition often provides a baseline.

"The whole thing about urban and rural is all about money," said Mary Craigle, bureau chief for Montana's Research and Information Services. "Places that qualify as urban are eligible for transportation dollars that rural areas aren't, and then rural areas are eligible for dollars that urban areas are not."

The Census Bureau this year made the biggest modification in decades to the definition of an urban area. The bureau adjusts the definition every decade after a census to address any changes or needs of policymakers and researchers. The bureau says it is done for statistical purposes and it has no control over how government agencies use the definitions to distribute funding.

There were 2,646 urban areas in the mainland U.S., Puerto Rico and U.S. islands on the new list released Thursday. Among them were three dozen new urban areas that were rural a decade ago.

"This change in definition is a big deal and a substantial change from the Census Bureau's long-standing procedures," said Kenneth Johnson, a senior demographer at the University of New Hampshire. "It has significant implications both for policy and for researchers."

Under the old criteria, an urbanized area needed to have at least 50,000 residents. An urban cluster was defined as having at least 2,500 people, a threshold that had been around since 1910. Under this definition, almost 81% of the U.S. was urban and 19% was rural over the past decade.

Under the new definition, hammered out after the 2020 census, the minimum population required for an area to be considered urban doubled to 5,000 people. Originally, the Census Bureau proposed raising the threshold to 10,000 people but pulled back amid opposition. The new criteria for urban areas shift the urban-rural ratio slightly, to 79.6% and 20.4%, respectively.

In 1910, a town with 2,500 residents had a lot more goods and services than a town that size does today, "and these new definitions acknowledge that," said Michael Cline, North Carolina's state demographer.

With the new criteria, the distinction between an urbanized area and an urban cluster has been eliminated since the Census Bureau determined there was little difference in economic activities between communities larger and smaller than 50,000 residents.

Of the 50 states, California was the most urban, with 94.2% of its population living in an urban area. Vermont was the most rural, with almost 65% of its population residing in rural areas.

For the first time, the Census Bureau is adding housing units to the definition of an urban area. A place can be considered urban if it has at least 2,000 housing units, based on the calculation that the average household has 2.5 people.

Among the beneficiaries of using housing instead of people are resort towns in ski or beach destinations, or other places with lots of vacation homes, since they can qualify as urban based on the number of homes instead of full-time residents.

"There are many seasonal communities in North Carolina and this change in definition to housing units may be helpful in acknowledging that these areas are built up with roads, housing, and for at least one part of the year, host many thousands of people," Cline said.

Housing, instead of population, is also going to be used for density measures at the level of census blocks, which typically have several hundred people and are the building blocks of urban areas. The Census Bureau said using housing units instead of population will allow it to make updates in fast-growing areas in between the once-a-decade censuses.

But there's another reason for switching to housing units instead of population: the Census Bureau's controversial new tool for protecting the privacy of participants in its head counts and surveys. The method adds intentional errors to data to obscure the identity of any given participant, and it is most noticeable in the smallest geographies, such as census blocks.

"The block level data aren't really reliable and this provides them an opportunity for the density threshold they picked to be on par with the population," said Eric Guthrie, a senior demographer in the Minnesota State Demographic Center.

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Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter: @MikeSchneiderAP

Bahamas authorities announced that billions in assets connected to the downfall of the crypto currency exchange FTX is being held after its founder Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested there at the request of U.S. authorities.

Bankman-Fried did not fight extradition and was under the watch of U.S. law enforcement, facing criminal charges for defrauding investors before the crypto exchange collapsed.

He is accused of taking billions of dollars in one of the worst crypto currency failures in recent history.

RELATED: Sam Bankman-Fried plea to come in fraud case over FTX cryptocurrency exchange

Rebecca Blackwell/AP

As Reuters reported, the Securities Commission of the Bahamas announced that it will hold assets from FTX totaling around $3.5 billion and will do so based on market pricing at the time of transfer.

Authorities in the Caribbean nation will hold those assets on a temporary basis, it was announced, before they are handed over to creditors and customers of the exchange, who own those funds.

The Federal Trade Commission proposed a rule Thursday that would ban U.S. employers from imposing noncompete clauses on workers, a sweeping measure that could make it easier for people to switch jobs and deepen competition for labor across a wide range of industries.

RELATED: Noncompete clauses can bring wages down by 20%, Treasury Department report finds

The proposed rule would prevent employers from imposing contract clauses that prohibit their employees from joining a competitor, typically for a period of time, after they leave the company.

Advocates of the new rule argue that noncompete agreements contribute to wage stagnation because one of the most effective ways to secure higher pay is switching companies. They argue that the clauses have become so commonplace that they have swept up even low-wage workers.

Opponents argue that by facilitating retention, noncompete clauses have encouraged companies to promote workers and invest in training, especially in a tight labor market. The public has 60 days to submit commentary on the rule before it takes effect.

During a Cabinet meeting, President Joe Biden called the FTC action "a huge step forward in banning non-compete agreements that are designed simply to lower people's wages."

"These agreements block millions of retail workers, construction workers and other working folks from taking better jobs and getting better pay and benefits in the same field," Biden said.

The FTC has moved aggressively to curb the power of major corporations under Chair Lina Khan, a legal scholar and Washington outsider whose appointment by Biden signaled a tough antitrust stance.

The agency estimates that the new rule could boost wages by nearly $300 billion a year and expand career opportunities for about 30 million Americans.

"Noncompetes block workers from freely switching jobs, depriving them of higher wages and better working conditions, and depriving businesses of a talent pool that they need to build and expand," Khan said in a prepared statement.

The FTC's proposal comes amid an already competitive job market, particularly in industries that suffered mass layoffs during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and have since struggled to recall their workers. Many workers remain on the sidelines, holding out for better pay, coping with lingering childcare or health issues, or opting for early retirement.

"There is a potential that it will contribute to the 'great resignation' that everyone is talking about to some degree, but employers are simply losing one of the tools in their toolbox and there are other ways to retain top talent," said Vanessa Matsis-McCready, associate general counsel and director of human resources for Engage PEO, which provides HR services for small- and medium-sized companies. "You will see a lot of business trying to retain top talent via raises or other fringe benefits."

Employers nationwide are still hiring and layoffs are historically low, despite high-profile job cut announcements from companies such as software provider Salesforce, Facebook's parent company Meta, and Amazon. The government is expected to announce Friday that employers added a solid 200,000 jobs last month, and that unemployment remained 3.7%, near a half-century low.

A 2019 analysis by the liberal Economic Policy Institute estimated that 36 million to 60 million workers could be subject to noncompete agreements, which the group said companies have increasingly adopted in recent years.

While such agreements are most common among higher-paid workers, the study found that a significant number of low-wage workers were subjected to them. The study found that more than a quarter of responding establishments where the average wage is less than $13 an hour use noncompetes for all their workers.

On Wednesday, for example, the FTC took action against three companies for unlawfully imposing noncompete clauses against workers, including low-wage security guards who were threatened with a $100,000 fine if they violated the agreement.

The EPI study found that many companies still impose noncompete clauses in several states that already ban or restrict them, including in California, where the practice has been prohibited for a century.

The proposed FTC rule would require companies to scrap existing noncompete causes and actively inform workers that they are no longer in effect, as well as prohibiting the imposition of new ones.

The proposal is based on a preliminary finding that noncompete clauses quash competition in violation of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. It would not generally apply to other types of employment restrictions, like non-disclosure agreements.

But Emily Dickens, chief of staff and head of public affairs for the Society for Human Resource Management, said the proposed FTC rule is overly broad and could potentially harm businesses that depend on them to thrive. She cited very small, emerging industries where crucial know-how cannot be safeguarded through non-disclosure agreements alone.

Dickens said SHRM, a group of more than 300,000 human resources professionals and executives around the world, will encourage its members to present specific situations that could justify noncompete clauses during the FTC's commentary period.

Although "there are jobs where it makes no sense to have noncompete," Dickens said, "this kind of blanket ban is going to stifle innovation."

While defenders of non-compete clauses argue they help start-ups and small business retain talent, opponents say they hinder recruitment at those same entities.

The Economic Innovation Group, a Washington-based public policy research group, applauded the rule and called on Congress to pass proposed legislation that would impose a similar ban with more permanency.

"Restricting the use of non-compete agreements is fundamentally good policy that will boost wages, improve workforce mobility, and encourage entrepreneurship and innovation throughout the economy," said John Lettieri, EIG's president and CEO.

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Associated Press writers Chris Rugaber and Nancy Benac in Washington contributed to this report.

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This story was first published on January 5, 2023. It was updated on January 6, 2023 to correct a quote from Vanessa Matsis-McCready of Engage PEO.

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This story was first published on January 5, 2023. It was updated on January 6, 2023 to correct the name of the Society for Human Resource Management. It also clarifies that the study by the Economic Policy Institute was based on a survey of responding companies.

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. — Mike Jenne takes his job as a van driver seriously; so seriously that he even lets his riders pick the music.

"I'm getting used to country music. That's not really my favorite, but I'm getting used to it," he laughed.

Every day, he drives his van more than 100 miles, helping a particular group of folks get to and from their jobs. A group that Jenne himself is a part of.

"I was having trouble finding the job because when I was younger, I did a bunch of things that I wasn't supposed to be doing, and a lot of people wouldn't accept the things that were on my record," he said.

Jenne is one of 77 million people in the country that have an arrest or conviction on their record. According to the US Chamber of Commerce, the unemployment rate for this population is 27% and 60% for folks up until four years after their release.

"I've since, I fixed those problems, and now, they're not an issue, but companies don't really understand that," he said. "That sort of hurts your pride."

These numbers are significant, but so are the statistics of our current labor shortage.

The Chamber says there are more than 10 million open jobs right now, but only 5.8 million unemployed people. Thanks to a number of factors, including pandemic-spurred early retirement and parents staying home due to a lack of child care, we're short 4 million people to fill jobs.

"It's just better to meet people where they're at and feel that they don't have to compromise their personal needs for their work needs," said Daryn Forgeron, who is a staff member at Working Fields.

It's a unique staffing agency in Vermont that helps folks with criminal records, or people struggling with homelessness, addiction mental illness, get on the right path to finding a job, with both community resources and peer support.

Historically, it's been tough work, but over the last year, they've noticed more employers asking for help.

"We've seen it kind of on the large scale in terms of just employers are more ready to partner with us. I think in the last year alone, we signed 35 new clients, which is incredible," she said. "There's more willingness to understand what we're talking about. There's a more openness of mind in terms of, 'Oh yeah, of course, there are people who are ready to work. I need them right now.'"

Tapping into a once-shunned workforce is good for business. The Center for Economic and Policy Research says that refusing to hire people with criminal records shuts the country out of up to $87 billion in annual GDP.

Eighty-five percent of HR leaders say second-chance hires perform the same or better than other employees.

"They'll show up as better work workers. They will be loyal, they will be punctual, they will be the things that you want when they can also be individually fulfilled," Forgeron said.

Jenne not only drives people who got a job through Working Fields to their jobs, but he also got back on his feet because of them. To him, it's way more than being about a company's bottom line, having someone take a chance on you is about building back up.

"I told them my situation and where I'm coming from, and they encouraged me and actually helped me recover," he said.

"We see you as a human being and not just the story that's been told about you... and employers are more willing to see that and employers are more willing to support that, and when they do, that person can build the life that they want and that is enormous," said Forgeron.

Our past is a part of our story, but for the people who believe it shouldn't always dictate our future, they hope that this pattern of employers taking chances on more folks continues well past the current worker shortage.

"Don't just look at the bad things. Look at their accomplishment, you know, just look beyond the mistakes," said Jeanne.