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The U.S. job market was much weaker in 2024 and early this year than originally reported, adding to concerns about the health of the nation’s economy. Employers added 911,000 fewer jobs than originally reported in the year that ended in March 2025, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. The department issues the so-called benchmark revisions every year. They are intended to better account for new businesses and ones that had gone out of business. The numbers issued Tuesday are preliminary. Final revisions will come out in February 2026. The revision showed that leisure and hospitality firms including hotels and restaurants added 176,000 fewer jobs than originally reported, professional and business services companies 158,000 fewer and retailers 126,000 fewer. The report comes after the department reported Friday that the economy generated just 22,000 jobs in August, adding to fears that President Donald Trump’s erratic economic policies, including massive and unpredictable taxes on imports, have created so much uncertainty that businesses are reluctant to hire. Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets said the revisions painted a much weaker portrait of the job market than initially thought. While the revision doesnt say much about what has happened since March, it suggests the labor market had less momentum heading into the trade war. And, recent data suggest the market has downshifted further. Since March, monthly job creation has decelerated to an average 53,000. When the benchmark revisions last year showed 818,000 fewer jobs in the year ended March 2024, then-presidential candidate Trump declared the numbers had been rigged to conceal economic weakness and help Democrats in the 2024 election. However, he did not explain why the government would release the revised numbers two and a half months before voters went to the polls. The revisions will likely increase pressure on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates at its meeting later this month to give the economy a boost. After the Labor Department issued a disappointing jobs report for July, Trump fired the economist in charge of compiling numbers and nominated a loyalist to replace her. He was especially enraged by revisions that took 258,000 jobs off May and June payrolls. Government economists have been struggling with a dramatic drop in the number of employers that respond to their surveys. Still, most economists and financial analysts consider the official jobs numbers reliable. Paul Wiseman, AP economics writer
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E-Commerce
In May 2024, seafood restaurant chain Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy. While there were many factors that contributed to Red Lobsters Chapter 11, one in particularits endless shrimp offeringtook much of the blame. But now the company, having emerged from bankruptcy, is leaning into that financially disastrous offering by launching a new promotion that plays on peoples familiarity with its endless shrimp history. Heres what you need to know about Red Lobsters new SpendLESS Shrimp campaign. Endless shrimp helped send Red Lobster into bankruptcy In May 2024, Red Lobster filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Many of the headlines surrounding the companys bankruptcy concentrated on how its then-endless shrimp offering, where customers could eat as much shrimp as they wanted for a fixed price, led the company to an $11 million loss and, ultimately, insolvency. However, as Fast Company previously reported, while its endless shrimp losses helped contribute to Red Lobsters financial woes, they werent the only source of Red Lobsters troubles. Like many restaurant chains, Red Lobsters bottom line was impacted by declining foot traffic post-pandemic, inflationary pressures, and burdensome rental leases. But by the fall of 2024, Red Lobster emerged from bankruptcy with new owners, new bosses, and fewer storesand hopes for a return to profitability. Since then, the company has added new menu items and the return of old events to excite diners and boost sales. And now, the company is embracing its endless shrimp fiasco in hopes of clawing back even more customers. SpendLESS Shrimp is here Endless shrimp is probably never coming back, but that wont stop Red Lobster from trying to capitalize on its disastrous marketing campaign that helped send the company into bankruptcy. Red Lobster has announced a new campaign called SpendLESS Shrimp, which is clearly a bit of name play on its former endless shrimp promotion. In a press release announcing the campaign, the company didn’t even shy away from the association, stating, Red Lobster is turning the tide one year after emerging from bankruptcy by introducing a fresh take on a fan-favorite promotion. But SpendLESS Shimp, as its name suggests, wont allow you to access unlimited shrimp. Instead, the new campaign offers customers a new dish called Ultimate SpendLESS Shrimp, which is three different shrimp offerings for a fixed price of $15.99. Included in the Ultimate SpendLESS Shrimp dish is: Garlic Shrimp Scampi Shrimp Linguini Alfredo Popcorn Shrimp Announcing the promotion, Damola Adamolekun, Red Lobsters newest CEO, said, “Since stepping into this role, I’ve gotten questions about Endless Shrimp ‘Is it coming back? ‘What really happened with the promotion?’ ‘How much shrimp is too much shrimp?’ And it’s time we officially turn the tides. Adamolekun said the new Ultimate SpendLESS Shrimp dish is part of a new chapter at Red Lobster. It may not be endless, but you’ll definitely spend less. Yet it’s a dish that the company clearly hopes makes customers come in and spend more, so it can avoid a repeat of its recent past in the years ahead.
Category:
E-Commerce
Two former executives for the now-shuttered classified site Backpage.com are scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday in Phoenix for conspiring to facilitate prostitution by selling sex ads. A prosecutor has recommended five years of probation and restitution payments for former CEO Carl Ferrer and sales director Dan Hyer, both of whom pleaded guilty to conspiracy in 2018. The prosecutor said both men acknowledged their crimes and cooperated with authorities by testifying against a company founder during the 2023 trial. Backpage founder Michael Lacey was convicted of a single count of international concealment money laundering and sentenced to five years in prison and fined $3 million, though he remains free while he pursues an appeal. Chief financial officer John Brunst and executive vice president Scott Spear are each serving 10-year sentences for conspiracy and money laundering convictions. Prosecutors had argued that Backpages operators ignored warnings to stop running prostitution ads, some involving children. The operators were accused of giving free ads to sex workers and cultivating arrangements with others who worked in the industry to get them to post ads with the company. Backpages operators said they never allowed ads for sex and made an effort to try to delete such ads by assigning employees to remove them and creating automated tools. Their legal team maintained the content on the site was protected by the First Amendment. In pleading guilty, Ferrer acknowledged knowing a majority of Backpages revenues came from escort ads, conspiring to sanitize ads by removing photos and words that were indicative of prostitution and publishing a revised version of the notices. In sentencing memos, both the prosecutor and Ferrers attorneys say he helped shut down the site through his cooperation. His lawyers say Ferrer provided evidence linking defendants to the criminal enterprise and testified that Backpages increase in revenue stemmed mostly from prostitution. Hyer has previously participated in a scheme to give free ads to sex workers in a bid to draw them away from competitors and win over their future business. His attorney said her client is sincerely remorseful for his actions and contributed directly to the convictions of other defendants. Laceys first trial in 2021 ended in a mistrial when another judge concluded prosecutors had too many references to child sex trafficking in a case where no one faced such a charge. Before launching Backpage, Lacey founded the Phoenix New Times weekly newspaper with James Larkin, who was charged in the case and died by suicide in 2023 just before the second trial against Backpages operators was scheduled to begin. Lacey and Larkin held ownership interests in other weeklies such as The Village Voice and ultimately sold their newspapers in 2013. But they held onto Backpage, which authorities say generated $500 million in prostitution-related revenue from its inception in 2004 until 2018, when the government shut it down. A U.S. Government Accountability Office report released in June 2021 said the FBIs ability to identify victims and sex traffickers had decreased significantly after Backpage was seized by the government, because law enforcement was familiar with the site and Backpage was generally responsive to requests for information.
Category:
E-Commerce
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