Labour Market

The premium skill now commanding higher pay for Asia’s graduates

They treat AI fluency as a daily discipline, but employers that lag risk missing the talent and productivity gains the market is already pricing in

Joseph Ryan (left) and Stephen Dunstan co-founded Hit Refresh in 2021 to address what they saw as fundamental inefficiencies in the traditional F&B model.

A broken F&B model and Hit Refresh’s bid to reset it with freshpod kiosks

Through this initiative, the startup is rethinking how meals are prepared and served

As more companies turn to chatbot-flogging as a proxy for productive AI adoption, a plethora of unintended consequences will thrive.
THINKING ALOUD

‘Tokenmaxxing’ your way to a zero-day work week

As firms link AI usage to performance, workers will face a peculiar, self-cannibalising logic

World Bank Group president Ajay Banga admits that focusing people on the long-term is daunting, given a series of short-term shocks that have buffeted the global economy.

World Bank chief sounds alarm about looming jobs crisis even after Iran war ends

At current trajectories, developing countries will generate only about 400 million jobs, leaving a deficit of 800 million jobs

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted 219,000 for the week ended April 4.

US weekly jobless claims rise, but remain at low levels

Federal Reserve has room to keep interest rates unchanged

Last year, the Fed stayed in wait-and-see mode, assessing the economic fallout from President Donald Trump’s sweeping policy changes.

Strong US jobs numbers make the Fed’s job easier

March job growth gives policymakers some breathing room to focus on the inflation side of their mandate

The March jobs report showed the economy adding workers across sectors. Manufacturing gained 15,000 jobs, the most since November 2023 when factories added 22,000 new positions, and there were gains in construction, leisure and hospitality, and transportation as well.

Stronger, broader hiring could ease Fed job market worries

[WASHINGTON] Hiring that strengthened and broadened in March will likely cement the US Federal Reserve’s plans to keep interest rates on hold for the foreseeable future, easing concerns about a weaken...

In the AI age, being entrepreneurial could mean using the technology to free up time for what only humans can do.
THE BROAD VIEW

It’s not just about what AI can’t do. It’s also about what humans need.

Rather than race to automate everything, we should be deliberate about when and how we engage with the technology

Job openings, a measure of labour demand, decreased 358,000 to 6.882 million by the last day of February.

US job openings fall in February; hiring lowest since pandemic 

Layoffs and discharges increase 61,000 to a still-low 1.721 million

Eggs frozen in a woman’s late 20s or early 30s preserve her reproductive potential at a healthier stage, giving her greater flexibility to align career development with family planning.

Can egg freezing help Singapore companies retain female talent?

As Singapore confronts record-low fertility and an ageing population, supporting reproductive choice could support workforce resilience