Facebook hires 10,000 to help build ‘metaverse’
Facebook says it plans to hire 10,000 workers in the European Union over the next five years to work on a new computing platform.
The company said in a blog post that those high-skilled workers will help build “the metaverse,” a futuristic notion for connecting people online that uses augmented and virtual reality. Facebook executives have been touting the metaverse as the next big thing, though their track record is spotty on predicting future trends and it could raise questions about privacy and the social platform gaining more control in people’s lives.
Facebook also is contending with antitrust crackdowns, the testimony of a whistleblowing ex-employee and concerns about how it handles misinformation.
TSA tries to boost worker vaccinations
With next month’s deadline quickly approaching, the Transportation Security Administration is racing to get more of its employees vaccinated against COVID-19 as required by a federal mandate.
Last month, President Joe Biden issued an executive order that requires federal employees to get fully vaccinated by Nov. 22. In the order, Biden said he was doing so to ensure “the health and safety of the Federal workforce and the efficiency of the civil service.”
About 60 percent of the TSA’s workforce has been vaccinated, “and that number needs to go quite a bit higher over the next few weeks,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske told CNN in an interview last week.
But a TSA spokesman said Monday that the agency doesn’t have information on the vaccination status of all of its employees. Thus, the figure is likely not an accurate reflection of the actual vaccination rate, he said.
To meet the president’s deadline, employees needed to have the first dose of the Moderna vaccine by Oct. 11 and the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine by Monday. That’s because of the wait between the shots, as well the time it takes to build immunity after the second injection.
Industrial output falls 1.3% from storm effects
The Federal Reserve reported Monday that U.S. industrial production fell 1.3% in September, much more than expected as the lingering effects of Hurricane Ida continue to stymie activity.
It was the worst showing since February’s 3.1% decline, when severe winter storms hammered much of the country. Nearly half, or 0.6% of the overall decline in total industrial production was attributable to the hurricane.
The Fed revised August’s reading down from a 0.4% gain to a 0.1% decline. Industrial production covers manufacturing, utilities and mining.
GameStop mania tests stock market investors
The stock market certainly shook when hundreds of thousands of regular people suddenly piled into GameStop early this year, driving its price to heights that shocked professional investors. But it didn’t break. That’s one of the takeaways from a report by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s staff released Monday about January’s “meme-stock” mania. As GameStop shot from $39 to $347 in just a week, some of the stock market’s plumbing began creaking, but the report indicated the market’s basic systems remain sound. The surge also laid bare how much power is being wielded by a new generation of investors armed with apps on their phones.
Deere resumes talks with striking UAW
Contract talks between Deere & Co. and its 10,000 striking workers have resumed, but it wasn’t immediately clear how far apart the two sides remain.
The strike began last Thursday after union members overwhelmingly rejected a proposed contract that would have delivered 5% raises to some workers and 6% raises to others depending on their positions in the factory. The last major strike at the maker of agricultural and construction equipment came in 1986.
The contracts under negotiation cover 14 Deere plants, including seven in Iowa, four in Illinois and one each in Kansas, Colorado and Georgia.
– Compiled by Dave Flessner