White House criticizes Amazon over alleged tariff listings
A dispute blew up Tuesday between online retail giant Amazon and the White House after a media outlet reported the company plans to tell consumers how much extra they would pay because of tariffs on items imported from China.
Amazon denied the report that appeared on Punchbowl News and said tariff costs would be displayed next to total prices on the retailer’s website. The company said in a statement that it considered doing this on its low-cost Amazon Haul store, but “this was never approved and is not going to happen.” Still, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday morning accused Amazon of being “hostile and political” during a press briefing, according to The New York Times.
Job openings dropped slightly last month
The number of job openings fell in March to 7.2 million, down 300,000 from the previous month, according to a report Tuesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Openings were down just over 900,000 from one year ago. In the federal government, where the Trump administration has been actively reducing the workforce, the number of openings was down 36,000.
The agency also reported the number of people hired held steady last month at 5.4 million.
Report cites potential for coliving in former offices
Chicago and Washington, D.C., both of which are struggling with vacant office space and homelessness, could address those problems by converting some buildings to housing, according to a report.
Architecture firm Gensler and public policy nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts are proposing turning empty office towers into apartments designed for coliving, in which people have private living units but share communal spaces like bathrooms and kitchens.
These homes could rent for half the median cost of an apartment and help people earning as little as 40% of the area median income, Pew said. Each furnished room would be about 150 to 220 square feet.