The nation’s employers pulled back on their hiring in April but still added a decent 175,000 jobs in a sign that persistently high interest rates may be starting to slow the robust U.S. job market. Last month’s hiring gain was down sharply from the blockbuster increase of 315,000 in March. Yet the moderation in the pace of hiring, along with a slowdown last month in wage growth, will likely be welcomed by the Federal Reserve, which has kept interest rates at a two-decade high to fight persistently elevated inflation. Hourly wages rose a less-than-expected 0.2% from March and 3.9% from a year earlier, the smallest annual gain since June 2021.

A bipartisan group of senators wants restrictions on the use of facial recognition technology by the Transportation Security Administration. The lawmakers say they're concerned about travelers’ privacy and civil liberties. In a letter Thursday, 14 lawmakers are calling on Senate leaders to use the upcoming reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration to limit use of the technology so Congress can put in place some oversight. TSA has been rolling out the technology at select airports in a pilot project. The agency says the system improves accuracy of identity verification without slowing passenger speeds at checkpoints. Passengers can opt out.

U.S. jobs openings slid in March to the lowest level in more than three years, but stayed at historically high levels in a sign that the job market remains resilient in the face of higher interest rates. The Labor Department reported Wednesday that employers posted 8.5 million vacancies in March, down from 8.8 million in February and the fewest since February 2021. Fewer workers quit their jobs, but layoffs fell. Monthly job openings are down sharply from a peak of 12.2 million in March 2022 but remain at a high level. Before 2021, they’d never exceeded 8 million — a threshold they have now reached for 37 straight months.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it will test ground beef for bird flu. Officials say they're confident that the nation's meat supply is safe, but are launching the studies after inactive viral particles were found in pasteurized milk. They will test beef for sale in states where dairy cows have tested positive. They'll also test dairy cows sent for slaughter. Experts say the virus poses no threat to food safety when food is properly treated and cooked. Bird flu was found for the first time in cows this spring.

Pay and benefits for America’s workers grew more quickly in the first three months of this year, a trend that could contribute to higher inflation and raise concerns about the future path of price increases at the Federal Reserve. Compensation as measured by the government’s Employment Cost Index rose 1.2% in the January-March quarter, up from a 0.9% increase in the previous quarter, the Labor Department said Tuesday.

Walmart is launching its biggest store-label food brand in 20 years in terms of the breadth of items. The country's largest retail said Tuesday that the brand, called Bettergoods, is just starting to land in Walmart stores and online. The company expects to have 300 products in the line by the fall, including frozen foods, dairy items, snacks, beverages, pastas and soups. The prices range from under $2 to under $15, with most products costing under $5. The launch comes as inflation has driven shoppers to seek less-expensive alternatives, lifting the popularity of private-label brands. Walmart hopes Bettergoods will appeal to younger customers who are not brand-loyal and want chef-inspired foods priced more affordably.

California is partnering with a New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company to purchase a generic version of Narcan. It's the most well-known version of naloxone that can save a person's life during an opioid overdose. Naloxone has been available without a prescription in the U.S. since last year. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a partnership with Amneal Pharmaceuticals on Monday. The company will sell naloxone packs to the state at a 40% discount. The naloxone eventually will be available under the CalRx label. California will give away much of the naloxone for free. It will also sell some to governments and businesses at the discounted rate.

Congressional negotiators are agreeing to help the Federal Aviation Administration hire more air traffic controllers and safety inspectors. House and Senate leaders said Monday they have agreed on a $105 billion bill governing the Federal Aviation Administration for the next five years. They say the bill will increase the number of air traffic controllers and require the FAA to use new technology designed to prevent collisions between planes on the ground. The agreement in Congress comes after several highly publicized close calls at the nation’s airports. The bill drops a House provision that would have raised the mandatory retirement age for airline pilots to 67; it'll stay at 65.

The IRS says more than 140,000 taxpayers filed their taxes through its new direct file pilot program. It says the program’s users claimed more than $90 million in refunds and saved roughly $5.6 million in fees they would have spent with commercial tax preparation companies. But despite what IRS and Treasury Department officials said Friday is a successful rollout, they don’t guarantee the program will be available next year for more taxpayers. They say they need to evaluate the data on whether building out the program is feasible. The government pilot program rolled out this tax season allowed certain taxpayers in 12 states to submit their returns directly to the IRS for free.

A measure of inflation closely tracked by the Federal Reserve remained uncomfortably high in March, likely reinforcing the Fed’s reluctance to cut interest rates anytime soon and underscoring a burden for President Joe Biden’s re-election bid. Prices rose 0.3% from February to March, the same as in the previous month. It was the third straight month that the index has run at a pace faster than is consistent with the Fed’s 2% inflation target. Measured from a year earlier, prices were up 2.7% in March, up from 2.5% in February. After peaking in 2022, the Fed’s favored inflation index cooled for most of 2023. Yet so far this year, the index has remained stuck above the Fed’s target rate.

The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate climbed this week to its highest level since late November, another setback for home shoppers in what’s traditionally the housing market’s busiest time of the year. The average rate on a 30-year mortgage rose to 7.17% from 7.1% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.43%. The average rates has now increased four weeks in a row. When mortgage rates rise, they can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for borrowers, limiting how much they can afford.

The South Carolina Senate has approved its budget. The final vote came Wednesday after approving items like requiring school children use the bathrooms of their sex assigned at birth and whether universities can spend state money to move to another athletic conference. The Senate's $15.8 billion budget for next fiscal year raises salaries for state employees and teachers, sets aside more money to improve and repair roads and bridges and doubles a planned income tax cut to 0.2%. It also sets up a showdown with the House as the House’s $500 million property tax rebate is not in the Senate plan.

The nation’s economy slowed sharply last quarter to a 1.6% annual pace in the face of high interest rates, but consumers — the main driver of economic growth — kept spending at a solid pace. The gross domestic product — the economy’s total output of goods and services — decelerated from its brisk 3.4% growth rate in the final three months of 2023. A surge in imports, which are subtracted from GDP, reduced first-quarter growth by nearly 1 percentage point. Growth was also held back by businesses reducing their inventories. Both those categories tend to fluctuate sharply from quarter to quarter. By contrast, the core components of the economy still appear sturdy.

The Biden administration has finalized a new rule set to make millions of more salaried workers eligible for overtime pay in the U.S. The move marks the largest expansion in federal overtime eligibility in decades. Starting July 1, employers will be required pay overtime to salaried workers who make less than $43,888 a year in certain executive, administrative and professional roles, according to the Labor Department. That cap will then rise to $58,656 by the start of 2025. The current overtime eligibility threshold is $35,568, which was set under the Trump administration in 2019 — just three years after a more generous Obama-era effort was ultimately scuttled in court.

U.S. companies would no longer be able to bar employees from taking jobs with competitors under a rule approved by a federal agency, though the rule is sure to be challenged in court. The Federal Trade Commission voted to ban measures known as noncompete agreements, which bar workers from jumping to or starting competing companies for a prescribed period of time. According to the FTC, 30 million people — roughly one in five workers — are now subject to such restrictions. The Biden administration has taken aim at noncompete measures, which are commonly associated with high-level executives at technology and financial companies but in recent years have also ensnared lower-paid workers, such as security guards and sandwich-shop employees.

A $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area has started construction. Monday's ceremony in Las Vegas drew U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg along with local and Brightline West company officials. The company plans to have trains running by 2028 from just south of the Las Vegas Strip to a commuter rail hub in Rancho Cucamonga, California. The track will be in the median of Interstate 15, where motorists in traffic jams would see trains whisk past at speeds comparable to Japan's bullet trains. A Brightline sister company already operates a fast train between Miami and Orlando in Florida.

Ukrainian and Western leaders have welcomed the passing of a desperately needed aid package for Ukraine by the U.S. House of Representatives. The Kremlin warned the passage of the bill would “further ruin” Ukraine. The House approved $61 billion in aid as Democrats and Republicans banded together after months of hard-right resistance over renewed American support for repelling Russia’s invasion. The Ukrainian president has warned that Ukraine would lose the war without U.S. funding. He praised American lawmakers for their decision. The Kremlin spokesperson called the approval of aid to Ukraine “expected and predictable" and warned it would result in the deaths of more Ukrainians.

The House has passed legislation that would ban TikTok in the United States if the popular social media platform’s China-based owner doesn’t sell its stake within a year. But don’t expect the app to go away anytime soon. House Republicans included TikTok as part of a foreign aid package that was a priority for President Joe Biden and had broad congressional support for Ukraine and Israel. Adding the TikTok measure meant that it would be fast-tracked after an earlier version had stalled in the Senate. The bill passed on Saturday now goes to the Senate. Both Democrats and Republicans have voiced national security concerns about the app’s owner, the Chinese technology firm ByteDance Ltd.

President Joe Biden has signed legislation reauthorizing a key U.S. surveillance law after divisions over whether the FBI should be restricted from using the program to search for Americans’ data nearly forced the statute to lapse. Barely missing its midnight deadline, the Senate had approved the bill by a 60-34 vote early Saturday with bipartisan support. The measure extends for two years the program known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. U.S. officials have said the surveillance tool, first authorized in 2008 and renewed several times since then, is crucial in disrupting terrorist attacks, cyber intrusions, and foreign espionage and has also produced intelligence that the U.S. has relied on for specific operations.

Barclay House of Aiken, a senior living community which was recently acquired by QSL Management, is hosting its first event under new management: Havana Nights, a social gathering which will be held at 530 Benton House Way location. 

A group of lawmakers from six states have worked on the first major proposals to reign in AI discrimination. But those bills face blistering headwinds from every direction. Lawmakers in Colorado, Texas and Connecticut, among others, have come together Thursday to argue the case for their proposals. The press conference follows a tug of war between civil rights-oriented groups and the industry over core components of the legislation. Organizations including labor unions and consumer advocacy groups are pulling for more transparency from companies. The industry is offering tentative support but digging in its heels over those accountability measures.

Prospective homebuyers are facing higher costs to finance a home with the average long-term U.S. mortgage rate moving above 7% this week to its highest level in nearly five months. The average rate on a 30-year mortgage rose to 7.1% from 6.88% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.39%. When mortgage rates rise, they can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for borrowers, limiting how much they can afford. Rates have been mostly drifting higher in recent weeks as stronger-than-expected reports on employment and inflation.

The spring homebuying season is off to a sluggish start as home shoppers contend with elevated mortgage rates and rising prices. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell 4.3% in March from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.19 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. That’s the first monthly decline in sales since December and follows a nearly 10% monthly sales jump in February. Existing home sales also fell 3.7% compared with March last year. The latest sales still came in slightly higher than the 4.16 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet. Home prices climbed compared with a year earlier for the ninth month in a row.

The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits didn’t change last week as the labor market continues to defy efforts by the Federal Reserve to cool it off. The Labor Department reported Thursday that unemployment claims for the week ending April 13 were unchanged from the previous week’s 212,000. Weekly unemployment claims are considered a proxy for the number of U.S. layoffs in a given week and a sign of where the job market is headed. In total, 1.81 million Americans were collecting jobless benefits during the week that ended April 6, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week.

Boeing is in the spotlight as members of Congress examine allegations of major safety failures at the embattled aircraft manufacturer. The Senate held back-to-back hearings on Wednesday to hear from aviation experts and people who have worked at Boeing. The witnesses included two whistleblowers, a former Boeing manager and a current engineer at the company who has made serious safety allegations about two of Boeing's biggest planes, the 787 Dreamliner and the 777. No Boeing representatives attended either hearing but the company has disputed the engineer's claims. Boeing has been in crisis mode since a door-plug panel blew off a 737 Max jetliner during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.

Regulators are approving Georgia Power's plan to build and buy more electrical generation ahead of schedule. The Georgia Public Service Commission voted Tuesday o approve an agreement negotiated between the utility and commission staff. The company says that if nothing else changes, the deal could result in a small rate reduction for existing customers. However, the unit of Atlanta-based Southern Co. isn't guaranteeing that rates will drop. Environmentalists warn the plan would let the utility buy power and build new plants without going through a competitive process. Using those sources would mean Georgia Power emits more climate-altering carbon dioxide.

The Biden administration is enlisting officials in 15 states to help enforce consumer-protection laws covering air travel. The U.S. Department of Transportation said Tuesday that it will give the states power to investigate complaints about airlines and ticket sellers, and then refer cases to the federal government for enforcement. Under U.S. law, only the federal government can regulate consumer-protection laws covering airlines. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says the agreement is legal. He's touting it as a way to increase protection for airline customers. Buttigieg pointed to travelers whose flights are canceled and then must wait days for another flight or pay more to fly home on another airline.

When it comes to the mental load of managing financial tasks, couples can fall into unproductive patterns that can lead to conflict, resentment and even willful ignorance. But by balancing these tasks with other household responsibilities, partners can each take ownership of occasional tasks such as doing taxes or adjusting investments, and day-to-day decisions such as budgeting and spending. They can check in periodically to see if they want to switch responsibilities, too. This way, both people are pulling their weight, and no one is left unaware of the family’s financial situation.

Boeing is defending the integrity of the fuselages on two of its largest planes. Boeing engineering executives explained Monday the process for assembling fuselage panels on the 787 Dreamliner. The panels are made of carbon composites, which Boeing says is very resistant to the kind of fatigue that can lead to microscopic cracks over time in convention aluminum fuselages. Boeing is defending its manufacturing ahead of congressional testimony on Wednesday by a whistleblower who says panels on the outside of Boeing 787s could eventually break apart during flight. The whistleblower says factory workers apply too much force to fit panels together on the factory floor, raising the risk of damage.

NASA is seeking a faster, cheaper way to bring rock samples from Mars to Earth. In the meantime, the space agency says the effort is on hold. Reviews put the total cost of the project at $11 billion, with an arrival date of 2040. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson says that's too much and too late. So he's asking private industry and each NASA center to come up with other options. The goal is to get at least some of the samples to Earth sometime in the 2030s for around $7 billion. A NASA rover on Mars has already collected some of the soil and rock samples.

After reporting dismal first-quarter sales, Tesla is planning to lay off about a tenth of its workforce as it tries to cut costs, multiple media outlets reported Monday. CEO Elon Musk detailed the plans in a memo sent to employees. The layoffs could affect about 14,000 of the 140,473 workers employed by the Austin, Texas, company at the end of last year. Musk’s memo said that as Tesla prepares for its next phase of growth, it needs to look at every aspect of the company for cost cuts and increased productivity, The New York Times and CNBC reported. News of the layoffs was first reported by electric vehicle website Electrek. Shares of Tesla fell nearly 3% in Monday morning trading after the news broke.

The global market has exploded for drinks that promise to do more than just taste good. So much so that grocery store beverage aisles are starting to look more like pharmacies. There are sodas made with mushrooms that supposedly improve mental clarity and juices packed with bacteria that claim to enhance digestive health. Water infused with collagen carries the promise of better skin, and energy drinks offer to help burn body fat. Welcome to the frenzy of functional beverages. What started in the late 1980s with caffeine- and vitamin-laced energy drinks like Red Bull has grown into a multi-billion-dollar industry. Hundreds of brands are vying for consumers’ attention with increasingly exotic ingredients and wellness-focused marketing.

Israeli leaders are crediting an international military coalition with thwarting Iran’s direct attack and calling the coordinated response a starting point for a “strategic alliance” of regional opposition to Tehran. But an official says Israel’s War Cabinet has met without apparent decision on next steps as a nervous world waits for any sign of further escalation of the former shadow war. The military coalition is led by the United States, Britain and France and appears to include a number of Middle Eastern countries. It shot down the vast majority of about 350 drones and missiles Iran launched overnight.

Federal prosecutors say a supervisor who managed security at a South Carolina prison accepted more than $219,000 in bribes over three years and got 173 contraband cellphones for inmates. Officials say 46-year-old Christine Mary Livingston was indicted earlier this month on 15 charges including bribery, conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering. Livingston worked for the South Carolina Department of Corrections for 16 years. She was promoted to captain at Columbia's Broad River Correctional Institute in 2016. Prosecutors say Livingston worked with an inmate, 33-year-old Jerell Reaves, to accept bribes for cellphones. Reaves is serving a 15-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter for shooting a man at a Marion County convenience store in 2015.

Consumer sentiment about the U.S. economy has ticked down but remains near a recent high, with Americans’ outlook largely unchanged this year.  The University of Michigan’s index, released in a preliminary version, showed that sentiment is about halfway between its all-time low, reached in June 2022 when inflation peaked, and its pre-pandemic averages. An increase in gas prices may have contributed to the decline in consumers’ outlook. Americans’ perceptions of future inflation also edged up, likely reflecting still-elevated prices. Consumers expect inflation to be 3.1% a year from now, which would exceed the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Still, that would be below the current level of 3.5%.

Consumer inflation remained persistently high last month, boosted by gas, rents, auto insurance and other items, the government said in a report that will likely give pause to the Federal Reserve as it consider how many — or even whether — to cut interest rates this year. Prices outside the volatile food and energy categories rose 0.4% from February to March. Measured from a year earlier, these core prices were up 3.8%. The March figures, the third straight month of inflation readings well above the Fed’s 2% target, provide concerning evidence that inflation is stuck at an elevated level and threaten to torpedo the prospect of multiple rate cuts this year.

Internet service providers will be required to be more transparent about the cost and performance of their internet service packages, thanks to new FCC rules that take effect this week. The new required pricing labels are modeled on nutritional labels and are meant to help consumers comparison shop and avoid junk fees. They will be mandated at every point of sale, both in persona, and online, the FCC said, beginning April 10.

There are lots of things college students and their parents should keep in mind before filing their taxes. While tax pros say it’s great for college students to start filing their own forms, parents and students should double-check everything carefully before anyone pushes the “submit” button.  College students also need to be careful that they understand whether or not their parents are claiming them as a dependent. Parents should also look into what college and education tax credits are available.

Norfolk Southern has agreed to pay $600 million in a class-action lawsuit settlement related to a fiery train derailment in February 2023 in eastern Ohio. The company said Tuesday that the agreement, if approved by the court, will resolve all class action claims within a 20-mile radius from the derailment and, for those residents who choose to participate, personal injury claims within a 10-mile radius from the derailment. But residents worry that the money won't go very far because the deal would include several towns around the derailment and their potential health needs down the road could be tremendous.

Discount carrier Spirit Airlines said it is deferring all aircraft on order from Airbus that were scheduled to be delivered in the second quarter of 2025 through the end of 2026. Spirit said Monday that it came to an agreement with the European plane manufacturer to delay delivery of the planes until 2030 and 2031. Spirit said the deferrals will bolster Spirit’s liquidity by about $340 million over the next two years. Florida-based Spirit also said it plans to furlough 260 pilots effective Sept. 1, 2024 as a result of the deferrals and ongoing problems with Pratt & Whitney GTF engines.

DETROIT (AP) — Just five years ago, a price-conscious auto shopper in the United States could choose from among a dozen new small cars selling for under $20,000. Now, there's just one: The Mitsubishi Mirage. And even the Mirage appears headed for the scrap yard. At a time when Americans increasingly want pricey SUVs and trucks rather than small cars, the Mirage remains the lone new vehicle whose average sale price is under 20 grand — a figure that once marked a kind of unofficial threshold of affordability. With prices — new and used — having soared since the pandemic, $20,000 is no longer much of a starting point for a new car.

After 20 years of business, the Antique Emporium in downtown Aiken has closed. According to Antique Emporium store owner Beverly Brown-Huff, it has been a great 20 years.

A building in Verenes Industrial Park north of Aiken recently sold for $4.1 million.