GoKawiil
Tech News
In an NYSE interview, a manufacturing executive said domestic production in the U.S. can reach price parity with, or even undercut, Chinese-made goods. The claim came in response to a question about whether a focus on American-made products puts the speaker at a competitive disadvantage on cost.
The US Department of Labor is investigating nine universities—including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, MIT, Caltech, Arizona State, Brown, UC Davis and the University of Pittsburgh—over their use of J-1 visas for international postdoctoral researchers. Vice-President JD Vance announced the probe on October 8, saying it aims to curb visa fraud and prevent universities from using international researchers to undercut wages for American graduate students and researchers. Several universities confirmed receiving subpoenas and said they comply with visa regulations.
Anthropic published an internal report Friday showing its workforce has shifted over the past year, with junior employees in technical roles falling from 21% to 14%, and junior technical hires dropping from 27% to 9%. The company also said technical staff now make up 56% of its workforce, down from 61%, as non-technical employees increasingly use coding tools to build software themselves. A survey cited in the report found 27% of employees felt more productive due to Claude, while 20% said their work had shifted from doing tasks to overseeing Claude's output.
A new analysis mapped the US Department of Labor's O*NET taxonomy of 923 occupations and nearly 18,800 workplace tasks against 29 widely used AI benchmarks, including Mercor's APEX suite. The researchers found that only a small fraction of real-world work tasks, by weighted hours, are represented in these benchmarks, leaving roughly 90% of US working hours without benchmark coverage.
A Wall Street Journal risk briefing notes that major technology companies are bringing data centers online ahead of schedule even as artificial intelligence development confronts a significant new obstacle. The same report says U.S. tariff pressure is pushing other countries to strengthen their forced-labor regulations.
The Department of Labor reported that the consumer price index increased 3.7% year-over-year in September, up from 3.4% in August, with monthly costs rising 0.6%, the sharpest increase in five months. Core prices, excluding food and energy, climbed 2.6% annually, up from 2.4% the prior month, driven partly by higher gas, clothing, and airfare costs.
Amazon now operates more than 1 million robots across its warehouses, making it the largest robot operator in the world, according to the company. Despite this automation push, Amazon remains the second-largest corporate employer globally with over 1.5 million full- and part-time human workers, per its 2025 annual report, and plans to expand its robot fleet further through new manufacturing facilities.
In a Fox News interview, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said artificial intelligence could boost productivity enough that people choose to work fewer days, potentially a three-day workweek. He said this shift could result in a labor shortage as workers opt for more leisure time instead of maintaining current work hours.
The Trump administration has barred Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys and Tata from the PERM program, which lets H-1B visa holders pursue permanent residency by certifying no qualified American workers are available. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said the agency is investigating whether the companies committed fraud by undercutting American workers through foreign hiring. Vice President JD Vance specifically accused Microsoft of abusing the visa system, a claim Microsoft disputes, saying it hires according to visa standards while also building American talent.
The Labor Department has halted processing of new and pending permanent labor certification applications tied to H-1B visa holders at Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Capgemini. Vice President JD Vance said the companies had abused the green-card system by under-advertising US jobs to justify hiring foreign workers instead, singling out Microsoft as the heaviest user of the process. Microsoft responded that most of its H-1B filings were extensions for existing staff rather than new hires, and that new-hire visas represent only 1 percent of its US workforce.
The U.S. Department of Labor said it will stop accepting new applications under its Permanent Labor Certification program for Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Capgemini, Tata, Wipro and HCL. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said Microsoft and Adobe were suspended due to multiple active federal investigations, and cited figures showing the companies have collectively sought millions of foreign worker visas since 2009. Vice President JD Vance separately criticized Microsoft over 2025 layoffs, saying the company would be barred from the program until it prioritizes American workers.
Carnival Corporation has posted record-breaking cruise bookings even as consumers face weak confidence, high gas prices, a shaky labor market, Middle East conflict, and anxiety over AI. The company's results suggest travel demand has remained resilient despite broader economic and geopolitical pressures.