Homes burn as wildfire tears through California Gold Rush town
A lightning-sparked wildfire tore through the historic Gold Rush town of Chinese Camp on Tuesday, destroying at least five homes.
While officials haven’t reported any deaths or injuries in the historic mining town, the uncontained conflagration, now named the 6-5 Fire, had burned roughly 7,000 acres as of Thursday morning. The blaze also destroyed historic structures in the town that Chinese miners founded in 1850.
The 6-5 Fire is the largest of several blazes believed to have been started by lightning strikes in Calaveras, Stanislaus, and Tuolumne counties, according to CalFire.
Artificial intelligence isn’t causing layoffs in region, NY Fed says
Are employers utilizing artificial intelligence laying off workers in the region?
Not quite yet, said the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The branch spent August asking businesses if AI adoption has had any bearing on workforces. “Businesses reported a notable increase in AI use over the past year, yet very few firms reported AI-induced layoffs,” the bank wrote in its Liberty Street Economics blog. “Indeed, for those already employed, our results indicate AI is more likely to result in retraining than job loss.”
The bank surveyed businesses across New York and northern New Jersey on the matter, finding that 40% of service firms used AI, and 44% expected to use the tool within the next six months. Popular AI applications involved marketing, analytics, and data management.
While AI-induced layoffs over the past six months were limited to just 1% of firms polled, that number could rise over the next six months. Thirteen percent of the service firms surveyed said they anticipated layoffs in that period. Still, the NY Fed cautioned, the “projection is perhaps tempered by the fact that in last year’s survey, about the same share expected to lay off workers, when in fact very few did so this year. No manufacturers reported layoffs this year or last year, and none expected layoffs over the next six months.”
Even if layoffs don’t materialize, AI is affecting some hiring practices, the NY Fed reported. Roughly 12% of AI-using service firms revealed that they hired fewer workers in the past six months due to AI, and nearly 25% of firms that say they’ll use AI in the coming months also plan to cool hiring. However, even that cooling is tempered by some service and manufacturing firms saying they hired more workers due to AI; some firms that reported layoffs also reported more hiring.
“Although not common,” the NY Fed wrote, “some firms who laid off or scaled back hiring also hired new workers, suggesting the effects of AI on individual firms’ workforces are complex.”
Unemployment filings near June levels
As the U.S. job market cools, last week saw a higher-than-predicted increase in Americans filing for unemployment, according to weekly data from the Department of Labor.
For the week ended Aug. 30, the advance number for seasonally adjusted initial unemployment insurance claims hit 237,000, its highest metric since June and an 8,000-claim increase from the previous week’s unadjusted number. The four-week moving average was also up.
The uninsured unemployment rate was 1.3% for the week ended Aug. 23, staying flat from the preceding week. Continuing claims for insured unemployment were down week to week, falling 4,000 to 1.94 million.
