Spending for job search

It takes a lot of money to make money, especially when it comes to looking for a job these days. Josh Morgan, 45 years old, was laid off from his senior finance role late last year. After several fruitless months of searching for a new one, he paid a company about $10,000 for six months’ help. The firm provides weekly meetings with a career strategist to evaluate open roles and source potential jobs from talent recruiters. Two converging forces are driving up the cost of finding a job for many Americans. One is the exploding cottage industry of networking and job-search subscriptions, career-coaching services and artificial-intelligence tools — all capitalising on job seekers’ frustrations in a stalled hiring market. The other is the growing length of the average job search as companies slow recruiting and leave positions unfilled.

(Adapted from “Inside The $10,000 Job Search: Career Coaching, LinkedIn Fees, Résumé Help,” by Lindsay Ellis, published on August 10, 2025, by the Wall Street Journal)

Tracking the US presidency

Donald Trump claims to have ended six wars in six months and has been angling for a Nobel Peace Prize. Americans are less convinced of his diplomatic prowess. In February, his net approval rating — the share who approve, less the share who disapprove — for foreign policy was two. It has since fallen steadily. In last week’s survey — which began on the day that Mr Trump met Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, in Alaska and ended on the day Volodymyr Zelensky, his Ukrainian counterpart, visited the White House — it was -14. More Americans think Mr Trump is an ineffective negotiator with foreign leaders than believe he is an effective one. Just 32pc said that the American and Russian presidents made at least some progress towards ending the war. Mr Trump’s net approval rating for his handling of the Ukraine-Russia conflict is -10.

(Adapted from “Tracking The Presidency,” updated on August 23, 2025, by The Economist)

Shooting abroad

Marvel is one of many Hollywood companies that have shot in Georgia to take advantage of the state’s generous production tax credits. It made nearly two dozen superhero movies and TV shows in the Atlanta area. But beginning with this summer’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” Marvel is making most of its upcoming content in the United Kingdom. Rising costs in Georgia mean it’s now cheaper to shoot in the UK, according to a person familiar with the matter. Marvel is making two new “Avengers” movies and the next “Spider-Man” at a facility outside London where parent company Disney has a long-term lease. Marvel’s departure is part of a nearly 50pc drop in production spending in Georgia over the past three years. The precipitous decline has raised questions about whether state subsidies built a “Hollywood of the South,” or sparked a gold rush that’s ending faster than it began.

(Adapted from “Disney’s Marvel Abandons Georgia, Taking Livelihoods With It,” by Ben Fritz, published on August 17, 2025, by the Wall Street Journal)

AI takeover

If artificial-intelligence models have a hometown, it is probably Ashburn, northern Virginia, just outside Washington, DC. Data centres are part of the cluster — the world’s biggest — which last year guzzled more than a quarter of the power produced by Virginia’s main electrical utility. Fears of a slowdown abound in America, with high interest rates and tariff chaos weighing on most of the economy. But they are doing little to reduce the breakneck pace at which firms are building the infrastructure needed for artificial intelligence. Such investment has accounted for some 40pc of America’s real GDP growth over the past year. The trouble is that the very sector powering so much of the country’s economic growth is squeezing the rest of its output. The AI buildout is not a normal investment boom, and it could spell trouble for America if it turns into a bust.

(Adapted from “How America’s AI Boom Is Squeezing The Rest Of The Economy,” by Lindsay Ellis, published on August 10, 2025, by the Wall Street Journal)

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, August 25th, 2025