Hardee's seeks 560 more workers
The local franchisee for Hardee's restaurants, J&S Restaurants Inc. in Cleveland, Tennessee, is currently hiring at all 42 of its restaurants with openings for a total of 560 jobs.
Company officials said each Hardee's ilocation will be interviewing job candidates every weekday at 2 p.m. Hardee's is offering a free meal with each interview.
Hardee's starting pay ranges from $10 to $14 an hour, depending upon experience, and J&S offers benefits such as free team member meals, service awards for each month of service, retention bonuses, and BlueCross health insurance benefits for full-time workers.
The company said it has a variety of full- and part-time openings and interested persons may apply online at weloveourbiscuits.com.
D.C. sues Amazon for antitrust violations
The District of Columbia has sued Amazon, accusing the online retail giant of anticompetitive practices in its treatment of sellers on its platform. The practices have raised prices for consumers and stifled innovation and choice in the online retail market, the DC attorney general alleges in an antitrust suit.
The suit filed Tuesday in the District of Columbia court maintains that Amazon has fixed online retail prices through contract provisions and policies it applies to third-party sellers on its platform. It alleges these provisions and policies prevent sellers that offer products on Amazon.com from offering their products at lower prices or on better terms on any other online platform, including their own websites.
"We filed this antitrust lawsuit to put an end to Amazon's illegal control of prices across the online retail market," DC Attorney General Karl Racine said in a conference call with reporters. "We need a fair online marketplace that expands options available to (District of Columbia) residents and promotes competition, innovation and choice."
Racine noted that Amazon is the world's biggest online retailer, controlling 50% to 70% of online market sales.
Consumer confidence dips but remains high
Consumer confidence ticked down slightly in May but remains nearly as high as its been since the pandemic began.
The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its consumer confidence index fell to 117.2 from April's 117.5 reading, the highest level since February of 2020, just before the pandemic began.
Consumers' expectations for the future may be less bright because the tailwind from Americans spending their $1,400 stimulus checks could be fading. Earlier this month, the Commerce Department reported that retail sales in the U.S. flattened out in April after soaring in March, when many Americans received those government checks and boosted their spending.
Economists have said that rising confidence should bolster overall economic growth as consumers, who account for 70% of economic activity, spend more as lockdown restrictions are eased or abandoned altogether in many places.
Regulators downgrade Mexican safety ratings
U.S. regulators have downgraded Mexico's aviation safety rating, a move that prevents Mexican airlines from expanding flights to the United States just as travel is recovering from the pandemic.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday it downgraded Mexico after finding that the country does not meet standards set by a United Nations aviation group.
The downgrade means that U.S. airlines won't be able to sell tickets on flights operated by Mexican airlines, a setback that will mainly hit Delta Air Lines, which has a partnership with Aeromexico.
Delta said its own service to Mexico is not affected by the downgrade, and it will continue to operate all its flights there normally. Delta might have to issue new tickets, however, to customers who used Delta to book a flight operated by Aeromexico.
Aeromexico said its flights won't be affected, and it will work with Mexican regulators to reverse the downgrade.
"At Aeromexico, safety is our top priority and because of that we will continue to operate under the highest international standards," the airline tweeted.
- Compiled by Dave Flessner