Private fusion companies raised $3.8 billion in the first eight months of this year, already surpassing all of last year's investment, as firms like Pacific Fusion and Helion Energy push toward commercial electricity targets. Despite this funding surge and scientific milestones like the National Ignition Facility's 2022 net energy gain experiment, no company has yet demonstrated a system that produces more electricity than it consumes on a sustained, grid-ready basis.
In an essay titled 'What Will Become Scarce,' economist Alex Imas argues that as AI takes over most economically necessary labor, the jobs that remain for humans will center on relationships rather than skills or output. He compares this shift to pre-industrial economies, where goods and services were inseparable from the social bonds of the people providing them.
Fresh government data show U.S. wage growth trailing inflation, with the Employment Cost Index revealing a 0.4% year-over-year drop in real wages and salaries through June. Meanwhile, labor's share of nonfarm business income hit a record low of 52.8% in the second quarter, prompting economists to ask whether AI is beginning to squeeze pay even before it eliminates jobs outright. Research from Apollo Global Management suggests workers in AI-exposed occupations are already seeing slower real-wage gains.
Homebuilders facing a shortage of roughly 1.2 million homes and hundreds of thousands of unfilled construction jobs are turning to robotics, but the real progress is coming from targeted tools like error-checking systems, trade-coordination software, and factory-built modules rather than humanoid robots on job sites. NAHB data shows residential construction productivity has grown just 16% since 1993, far behind the broader economy's 50%-plus gains, while labor shortages cost builders about $11 billion annually and add two months to build times.
A new Gallup survey finds 47% of Americans now want unions to hold more influence, up from 43% in 2023 and just 25% in 2009. Meanwhile, those wanting less union influence fell to 23%, and overall approval of unions climbed to 71%, matching levels last seen in 1965.
A Wall Street Journal report cites experts recommending anthropology, mathematics and philosophy as college majors better suited to an AI-driven job market than computer science, whose recent graduates face a 6.1% unemployment rate versus a 5.7% overall rate. The experts argue these fields build distinctly human skills—like understanding behavior and abstract reasoning—that AI cannot easily replicate, even as long-term demand for software developers remains strong.
A NASA-developed image-processing method called decorrelation stretch, originally created to pull extra detail from satellite and Mars rover photos, has been repurposed to reveal ancient artwork invisible to the naked eye. Using this technique, a Singaporean archaeologist uncovered roughly 200 faded paintings at Angkor Wat between 2010 and 2012, including scenes of horseback riders and musicians. The method reached archaeology through Jon Harman, a medical imaging professional and rock-art hobbyist who adapted NASA's published algorithm into the widely used Dstretch software.
NSF NOIRLab's DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys team has published DR11, a 5.6-trillion-pixel map spanning 75% of the night sky and cataloging roughly 4 billion celestial objects. Built from 263,407 ground-based exposures gathered by 160 scientists, the release expands coverage by 50% over DR9 and restores northern-sky data missing from DR10, and it's freely accessible for public exploration.
Workers' rights group LaborLab has released new tools letting employees see which consultants and law firms their employers hire to resist unionization efforts, and how much money is being spent. The launch highlights a roughly $1.7 billion industry of union avoidance specialists that, per Labor Department data, about 75% of employers rely on when facing organizing drives.
Labor force participation among Americans 65 and older has climbed to 19.2%, up from roughly 12% in 2000, and 42% of sitting CEOs are now 60 or older—an unusually high share, according to executive recruiter Cowen Partners. Companies like Boeing, Verizon and Cracker Barrel have repeatedly brought back older or previously retired executives rather than promoting younger leaders.
A Boeing 767-300 cargo plane operated by 21 Air under Amazon's Prime Air branding overshot the runway at Miami International Airport on Sunday and caught fire. At least five people died and five more were injured, forcing the airport to shut down its runways temporarily.
Fast Company's Best Workplaces for Innovators 2026 program singled out eight companies that depend heavily on skilled tradespeople for their category honors. Judges evaluated how these firms foster innovation specifically among workers in skilled-labor roles rather than traditional office or tech positions.
GoKawiil