Things To Do In SW Florida

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ

NEW YORK (AP) — When Kate Smith worked a 9-to-5 office job, she was burned-out, suffering from daily migraines and thinking, “I can’t do this for the rest of my life.”

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She didn’t have to. For her next role, Smith landed a remote, full-time marketing job that enabled her to travel the world.

Her laptop lifestyle took her to Bali, where she lived and worked for a year-and-a-half. “Every day, I was riding my scooter through the rice fields and thinking, ‘I love my life, this is amazing,’” she said. “And that feeling never fades. … I feel so grateful for the freedom and flexibility.” read more

By STAN CHOE, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are slipping Friday as Wall Street questions whether the U.S. job market has slowed by just enough to get the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates to help the economy, or by so much that a downturn may be on the way.

After jumping to an early gain, the S&P 500 erased it and fell 0.5% below the all-time high it set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 239 points, or 0.5%, as of 12:57 p.m. Eastern time, after swinging between a gain of 148 points and a loss of 409. The Nasdaq composite slipped 0.2%.

The action was more decisive in the bond market, where Treasury yields tumbled after a report from the U.S. Labor Department said employers across the country hired fewer workers in August than economists expected. The U.S. government also said that earlier estimates for June and July overstated hiring by 21,000 jobs.

The disappointing numbers follow last month’s weaker-than-expected update, along with other lackluster reports in the intervening weeks, and traders now are betting on a 100% probability that the Fed will cut its main interest rate at its next meeting on Sept. 17, according to data from CME Group. Such cuts can give a kickstart to the economy and job market, but the Fed has held off on them this year because they can also give inflation more fuel. read more

By PAUL WISEMAN, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The American job market, a pillar of U.S. economic strength since the pandemic, is crumbling under the weight of President Donald Trump’s erratic economic policies.

Uncertain about where things are headed, companies have grown increasingly reluctant to hire, leaving agonized jobseekers unable to find work and weighing on consumers who account for 70% of all U.S. economic activity. Their spending has been the engine behind the world’s biggest economy since the COVID-19 disruptions of 2020.

The Labor Department reported Friday that U.S. employers — companies, government agencies and nonprofits — added just 22,000 jobs last month, down from 79,000 in July and well below the 80,000 that economists had expected.

The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3% last month, also worse than expected and the highest since 2021.

“U.S. labor market deterioration intensified in August,” Scott Anderson, chief U.S. economist at BMO Capital Market, wrote in a commentary, noting that hiring was “slumping dangerously close to stall speed. This raises the risk of a harder landing for consumer spending and the economy in the months ahead.” read more

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN and BERNARD CONDON, AP Business Writers

The world’s richest man could become its first trillionaire if Elon Musk hits a series of extremely aggressive targets for his electric car company over the next decade, according to a proposed pay package released by the company.

Tesla said in a regulatory filing Friday that it will hand Musk shares worth as much as 12% of the company in a dozen separate packages if the company meets certain performance targets, including massive increases in car production, share price and operating profit. If approved by shareholders, the new pay package could make Musk the world’s first trillion dollar executive, and would mark a new level of outsized pay in a country already known for extreme compensation. But the payoff is in shares, not cash, and the goals are extreme as well.

Musk overcame doubters to turn Tesla into the world’s most valuable car company, but he could face even steeper odds in hitting the targets set by the company’s compensation committee — not least because of Tesla’s main business of making electric vehicles is currently in a slump, in part because of Musk’s foray into right-wing politics. read more

By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump’s signing of an order to implement lower tariffs on automobiles and other Japanese imports as a step that addressed uncertainty for key industries.

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The reduction to 15% from the previous 25% was agreed between the two sides on July 22.

“Tariff negotiations between Japan and the United States was the top priority for the government and we have put all our effort into achieving an agreement in a best possible way as soon as possible,” Ishiba said Friday. “The way it was achieved … is just excellent.” read more