• Trump called on Congress to scrap the "horrible" $52 billion CHIPS Act on Tuesday.
• It's not likely to happen. There's little GOP appetite to repeal it, and Democrats like the law.
• Plus, much of the 2022 bill has already been set in motion.

President Donald Trump casually told Congress on Tuesday to scrap a $52 billion bipartisan law designed to supercharge the American semiconductor manufacturing industry.

"Your CHIPS Act is a horrible, horrible thing," Trump said during a joint address to Congress on Tuesday night. "You should get rid of the CHIP Act, and whatever's left over, Mr. Speaker, you should use it to reduce debt, or any other reason you want to."

That landed with a thud among the Republicans who backed the sweeping legislation two and half years ago.

"I have to admit, I was surprised," Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, the Republican co-author of the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, told reporters on Wednesday morning. "It's been one of the greatest successes of our time."

The bill included $39 billion in subsidies for chip manufacturing in the US, plus $13.2 billion for semiconductor research and workforce development. The goal of the legislation was to make the US less reliant on chips manufactured in Taiwan, create US manufacturing jobs, and bolster competition with China — something that was especially important for national security-minded Republicans.

It passed both chambers on a bipartisan basis, garnering the enthusiastic support of then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, plus the support of 16 other GOP senators and virtually all Democrats.

Trump specifically criticized the subsidies, saying that he prefers to bring chip manufacturing to America via tariffs. "They take our money and they don't spend it," the president said.

Just because Trump is asking Congress to repeal the law doesn't mean it will happen — even though Republicans control both chambers and broadly support the president's agenda.

'I'd like to see what he's going to replace it with'

It would take not just unanimous GOP support, but the support of several Democratic senators, to get a repeal bill through the Senate.

For one, Democrats are unlikely to go for it.

"People are already feeling the positive impacts and new economic energy in their towns in every corner of America, from Ohio to Arizona," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement. "I do not think the president will find much support in Congress for weakening this legislation."

"I don't know what the hell he's on," Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego, whose home state of Arizona is home to a TSMC plant built with CHIPS Act funding, told BI of Trump.

Even among Republicans, there's a hesitancy to indulge Trump's latest demand.

Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas defended the bill, saying it "made it possible" for Trump to announce an additional investment by TSMC earlier this week.

Other GOP senators who voted for the CHIPS Act said they want to see more details from Trump before they back repealing the bill.

"I'd like to see what he's going to replace it with," Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told reporters. "I want to bring chip manufacturing here, but if he's got a different way to do it, I'm open-minded."

"If there's a consensus on addressing that problem in a better way, I'm open to suggestions," Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi told BI. "It was the first I'd heard of that proposal."

It's also the case that the part of the CHIPS Act that Trump opposes has already been set in motion over the last few years. Young told reporters that the "chips portion" of the bill "has mostly been implemented," and that he's reached out to the White House to get more clarity on Trump's position.

Before leaving office, the Biden administration allocated more than $33 billion in subsidies to 32 semiconductor manufacturers and suppliers.

To date, 20 companies have secured legally binding agreements, which collectively account for roughly 85% of the total allocated subsidies, Bloomberg reported. However, only about 11% of the allocated subsidies have been doled out so far: Funds are dispersed as companies hit certain benchmarks detailed in the agreements.

In November, a Commerce Department spokesperson told BI that the funding associated with a binding agreement could not be rescinded unless the company failed to comply with the terms of the deal. Absent that, they said rescinding funding would require an act of Congress.

"My expectation is that the administration will continue to support this supply chain resiliency and national security initiative," Young said. "If it needs to transform into a different model over a period of time, I'm certainly open to that."

Gallego argued that Trump's comments could still have an impact on the semiconductor industry, even if legislative repeal doesn't happen.

"If you are a business that's trying to relocate, or ramp up chip supplies in the United States, and you think that there's not going to be money for the CHIPS Act, you may not even start engaging, and you might start looking at other countries," the Arizona Democrat said.

• High energy costs burden much of the US, with Hawaii and Connecticut having the highest average bills.
• Extreme weather, volatile gas markets, and infrastructure investments are driving up utility costs.
• Renewable energy expansion in states like Colorado helped moderate cost increases.

Where you live can impact how much you pay for utilities.

That's because the price of electricity depends on more than just the price of oil and gas. It is also affected by local utilities' investment in infrastructure, whether the state is vulnerable to extreme weather, and the amount of renewable energy that powers the grid.

The most recent data published by the Energy Information Administration, a US government agency, showed that residents of Hawaii, Connecticut, and Alabama had the highest average monthly electricity bills in 2024. Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado had the lowest average bills.

As energy bills have risen even faster than overall inflation in recent years, the greatest burden falls on the lowest earners, who tend to spend a larger share of their budgets on utilities. While President Donald Trump has promised to slash energy prices in half by pursuing a "drill, baby, drill" agenda on oil and gas, energy analysts and economists told Business Insider it's not that simple.

Extreme weather combined with exploding costs to upgrade the infrastructure that delivers electricity across the country are fueling higher prices. Renewable energy has helped moderate prices in some states, but looming tariffs on Canada and Mexico combined with skyrocketing energy demand from data centers may only increase costs.

Energy experts shared some of the biggest factors driving energy costs and explained why there are disparities among states.

The cost of extreme weather and volatile gas markets hit low earners the hardest

Since January 2020, consumer energy services costs have risen about 34%, compared to a 23% increase in overall prices, Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed. Additionally, the Bank of America Institute found that the median utility bill payment for electricity, gas, and water rose 6% in January compared to a year earlier, double the 3% rise in overall inflation during this period.

These cost increases have hit people with the lowest incomes the hardest. A Bank of America Institute note said that in 2023, US households with annual incomes below $50,000 spent 6.8% of their earnings on natural gas and electricity costs, compared to 1.2% for households with annual incomes more than $150,000.

While it's no surprise that using more fuel or electricity can spike customers' energy bills, analysts told Business Insider that extreme weather, volatile oil and gas prices, and utilities' growing investments in the poles, wires, and big transmission lines that deliver power to homes are all contributing to increased costs.

Freezing winters — like the subzero temperatures that blanketed the US this year — and scorching summers can spike the demand for heat and air conditioning and hike costs. Utilities are investing in aging infrastructure that carries electricity from power plants to communities and can recover those costs from their customers. Oil and gas, which still supplies the majority of US electricity, is a volatile market vulnerable to global shocks like Russia's war in Ukraine.

Those shocks hit New England hard. The region, which includes Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, gets more than 50% of its power from natural gas. And unlike states such as Pennsylvania or Texas — where natural gas is underground in the region — a lot of the fuel for New England states is imported. This partly explains why energy costs are higher compared to the rest of the country, said Dan Dolan, president of the New England Power Generators Association, a trade group.

Dolan said wholesale electricity prices have fallen over the last two decades, but that's been offset by transmission costs soaring 800% between 2004 and 2023, data from New England's regional transmission organization showed.

"We've also seen a dramatic increase in the spending at the distribution level as we build out more substations, poles, and wires to highly electrified homes and businesses," Dolan said. "Those combined elements — transmission and distribution — now make up the largest single segment of the vast majority of electricity rates across New England."

Dolan added that New England states have more aggressive climate policies, including participation in a regional cooperative that caps carbon emissions from power plants and requires them to pay for every ton they emit — another cost that's passed on to customers.

On the opposite coast in California, extreme weather is driving higher utility bills, which averaged $159 a month in 2024. Utilities have spent billions of dollars on wildfire-related costs that are partially being passed on to consumers, said Brendan Pierpont, director of electricity modeling at Energy Innovation, a non-partisan energy and climate policy think tank.

Those costs include investments in preventing wildfires, like managing vegetation that can catch fire and burying power lines underground, as well as legal liabilities for blazes caused by their infrastructure.

Renewables can slow rising costs

Pierpont added that some states, including Colorado and New Mexico, have been able to moderate rising electricity costs in part by expanding solar and wind power.

"Many of the states with the cheapest power and lowest rate of increases have easy access to high-quality wind and solar resources," he said, citing a paper he authored last year.

Johanna Neumann, senior director of Environment America's Campaign for 100% Renewable Energy, said states that generate the highest percentage of their electricity from renewable energy sources have electricity rates that are below the national average, pointing to Iowa, South Dakota, and Oklahoma as examples.

"Renewables actually reduce wholesale electricity costs and reduce our dependence on notoriously volatile natural gas," she said.

However, not all states that have heavily invested in renewables have electricity rates lower than the national average. Neumann pointed to Hawaii as one example, where she said benefits from renewables investments are being offset by continued reliance on imported oil.

"These fuels have to be shipped to the island across long distances, leading to higher electricity costs," she said.

Texas is in a category of its own because the state's power grid is isolated from other regional ones. A deadly winter storm in 2021 that knocked out power and sent electricity prices soaring prompted state regulators to direct power plants to better prepare for extreme weather.

While Texas has abundant natural gas resources and is a leader in solar and wind development, the state aims to build more fossil fuel and small nuclear power plants to meet growing demand, said Michele Richmond, executive director of the Texas Competitive Power Advocates, which represents companies that produce power, including natural gas, wind, and nuclear.

Richmond added that Texas has a competitive, deregulated energy market that dispatches the cheapest power first to help offset some of the cost pressures. But it isn't immune from rising prices.

"We believe that having a diversified fuel mix is good for reliability because the wind doesn't blow all the time, and the sun doesn't shine all the time," Richmond said.

Do you have a story to share about your utility bills? Contact these reporters at [email protected] and [email protected].

• A Gen X woman is on track to earn nearly $300,000 this year across two full-time remote jobs.
• However, one of her managers asked her to move from Arizona to Texas and work from the office.
• She's looking for a new remote role to maintain her high earnings and overemployment.

Working two remote jobs simultaneously helped Kelly buy a home and support her children. But one employer's return-to-office push is threatening her "overemployed" lifestyle.

In 2020, Kelly was working remotely as an engineer for a NASA contractor but felt her salary was insufficient to afford a home she desired in the Los Angeles area. To boost her income, she took on a part-time remote job with another NASA contractor — and didn't tell either employer she was juggling two jobs. When the part-time role ended six months later, she'd grown used to having the additional income, so she started another remote role.

"Having two remote jobs that were nearly full-time was a lifestyle that I missed," said Kelly, whose identity was verified by Business Insider but who asked to use a pseudonym, citing a fear of professional repercussions.

This year, Kelly is on track to earn nearly $300,000 secretly working two full-time remote jobs, roughly doubling her income from when she worked one job. The additional income helped her buy a home in Arizona — where she relocated to in 2021 — and, as a single mom, it's helped her financially support her adult children. What's more, she said she generally works no more than 40 hours a week across the two roles.

But one of her managers has asked her to relocate to Texas and work from the office a few days a week. If she quits, her income will be cut in half. She said she'll do whatever she can to continue juggling two jobs.

"I've been in a situation where I'm tight on money, and I just don't want to be in that situation again," said Kelly, who's in her late 40s.

Kelly is among the Americans who have secretly juggled multiple remote jobs recently to boost their earnings. Over the past two years, BI has interviewed more than two dozen overemployed workers who've used their extra income to afford expensive vacations and weight-loss drugs. To be sure, holding multiple jobs without employer approval could have professional repercussions and lead to burnout. However, many job jugglers have told BI that the financial benefits have generally outweighed the downsides and risks.

Looking for a job while delaying RTO

Even before her employer asked her to move to Texas, Kelly faced some obstacles in her overemployed journey.

In 2023, a couple of years after her part-time role ended, Kelly accepted a new full-time contract position that she worked in addition to her full-time, remote job. However, the new role required her to work in the office a few days a week. She said it was very difficult to juggle both roles, particularly when she worked from the office.

"Every time I had a NASA meeting, I would get in my car, sit in the scorching Arizona sun, use my NASA laptop, and connect to my personal hot spot on my phone," she said. "After I got home from my local job, I would stay up late to complete my NASA work."

After six months, Kelly said she left the hybrid job and began looking for a second remote role. In late 2023, she connected with a company that she thought was hiring for positions in Arizona. However, she learned the company was based in Texas and wanted employees who could work from a Texas office a couple of days a week. When the company offered her the job, she declined the offer.

A couple of weeks later, Kelly said the manager for the position she declined called her and said she'd be allowed to work remotely. The manager pushed her to commit to relocating after a year but Kelly said she never agreed to those conditions. She accepted the updated offer and, for the first time, began juggling two full-time remote jobs.

However, over the past year, Kelly has been moved to a different contract within the company and reports to a different manager. She said this manager wants her to move to Texas, using a relocation package that expires in a few months. She said some coworkers have also been asked to move.

Kelly has been traveling to Texas occasionally for the job, but she said she doesn't want to move there. She likes Arizona, prefers being remote, and can't juggle two full-time jobs from an office.

"It just limits me when I'm sitting in an office, someone's over my shoulder," she said.

For now, Kelly said her plan is to look for a new remote role — or a hybrid position based in her area — and not tell her manager that she won't be moving. She said she's interviewing for a few roles.

However, remote roles can be hard to get. Some companies have called workers back to the office at least a few days a week, and the share of hybrid and remote job postings has fallen in recent years from pandemic-era highs.

Kelly said she's not sure what will happen if she continues to delay her move. If she loses the job, she said she'd be able to rely on the income from her other role — which pays more than $100,000 annually — while she continues her job search.

While balancing two jobs can be stressful, she said she's learned how to make it work. She records meetings she doesn't have time to focus on and takes vacations from one job on the rare occasion she has to travel for the other.

"My friends and family always think I'm crazy for doing all of this, but it's kind of like an adrenaline rush and it makes me stay busy," she said.

Do you have a story to share about secretly working multiple jobs or discovering an employee is doing so? Contact this reporter at [email protected] or Signal at jzinkula.29.

• It's a tough job market out there, and experienced workers are not exempt.
• Some older Americans just want a few more years of work to boost retirement savings or stay busy.
• The jobs that are available don't pay enough to make them worthwhile, job seekers said.

Gino Marconi is struggling to secure full-time work, and it's messing with his retirement plans.

Marconi, who's 64 and lives in Plantation, Florida, earned $60,000 annually as a sales representative for an outdoor supply company until two years ago, when he resigned due to the stress of working long days on the road. Marconi previously held engineering jobs that paid more.

Since then, he said he's applied to over 600 remote and in-person roles across various industries and skill levels. He suspects many positions have rejected him because he's overqualified, and he's removed the years he's completed some degrees and certifications from some applications.

Marconi said he hopes to retire in a few years and rely on Social Security income, but his plans could change if he's unable to find higher-paying work.

"My home is paid off, my cars are paid off," Marconi said. "But I need to keep going until I get back to work."

Are you an older American who is still working or looking for work? Please fill out this quick Google Form.

As many Americans reach retirement age, they don't find themselves coasting into their golden years as easily as they may have hoped. Instead, as hundreds of older Americans told Business Insider in responses to reader surveys about work and retirement, they find themselves once again on the job market. Maybe they got laid off or quit a career due to health issues. Either way, they need just a few more years to reach a comfortable financial position — and it's tough out there for job seekers.

To be sure, the unemployment rate for Americans age 55 and older was just 3% as of January, compared to 4% for all workers. But for people of all ages who don't have jobs, the hiring landscape has become more challenging in recent years. Excluding a two-month pandemic-related dip in 2020, US businesses are hiring at nearly the lowest rate since 2013, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

In response to his job search struggles, Marconi is working part-time with a transportation company for a hotel chain and said he's taken steps to become a full-time insurance agent. He said he's grown frustrated with the application process — he recalled getting stood up at an interview — but is remaining optimistic while cutting back on unnecessary spending.

"I don't know when I'll retire because Social Security is not going to be enough," Marconi said, adding he's pickier about the roles he applies for. "My wife used to say I should do whatever increases my income, but I'm not going to work as an engineer making no money."

Working later in life for extra security

Some older Americans told BI that even though they could technically retire, they're holding out because they fear their savings and retirement income won't be sufficient if unexpected costs arise.

David F., 67, has been looking for work since last October — when he anticipated he would soon be laid off from his aerospace industry job. The layoff ultimately came in January.

Of the nearly 1,700 submitted applications he's tracked since beginning his job search, only 4% have yielded interviews, and none have amounted to a job offer yet. He said he's frequently encountered ghost jobs or positions with similar job descriptions to previous roles but significantly less pay.

"They're either looking for a unicorn and never finding it, or there's not really a position there, but they want to look like they're hiring," said David, who lives in Washington and asked to withhold his last name due to ongoing late-stage job interviews.

David doesn't have a firm retirement goal, but he hopes to retire within the next 5 to 10 years, assuming he finds a suitable position. After working in project management for nearly three decades, David briefly retired but returned to work to bolster his finances when the pandemic caused economic uncertainty. He said he's looking for work now because earning additional income would help him live more comfortably and stress less about retirement savings.

"My situation is not desperate, and although I've made mistakes in my retirement savings in the past, I'm not making those mistakes," David said.

David said he also wants to keep working to stay busy. He's among the older Americans who desire to keep working for reasons other than finances.

"There are the people that love their job, working or even volunteering," said Deb Whitman, AARP's chief public policy officer, adding, "There's sort of a social connection, a sense of purpose and meaning that people get."

Some older Americans' jobs are more crucial. While they hope to retire in the next few years, it's far from guaranteed.

In December 2022, David Schanen was laid off from his network engineer job. Over the last three years, he's struggled to find high-paying work in his industry.

"There's a lot of work for things that I'm qualified for, but people are paying like $25 an hour," said Schanen, who's 64 and based in Seattle. He said his network engineer job paid about $200,000 annually.

Schanen said he hopes to sell the two side businesses he started over the past decade and retire sometime in the next couple of years. However, he said his real estate photography and virtual concert businesses have only generated roughly $100,000 in combined revenues to date — not nearly enough to make his significant financial investments in them feel worthwhile.

Schanen's uncertain retirement outlook is why he's continued exploring other job opportunities. About six months ago, he began driving for Uber about 40 hours a week. He said he's frustrated with the gig's pay, but that it's given him the flexibility to control his own working hours and dedicate time to his businesses.

"Right now what I'm doing is just kind of keep helping me stay afloat," he said.

• A Gen Xer made $280,000 last year secretly working two full-time remote jobs in the medical field.
• He said "overemployment" helped him boost his income after he failed to land promotions.
• Juggling two jobs can be stressful, but he's learned how to manage his workload.

After spending years struggling to rise in the ranks at work, Daniel found another way to boost his earnings: secretly working a second full-time job.

In 2020, Daniel worked remotely as a training and customer support specialist in the radiation oncology field, a medical specialty involved in cancer treatments. When his company offered employees a three-month sabbatical with reduced pay, Daniel seized the opportunity. He spent those three months working in a part-time, remote role for another employer in the industry.

Daniel said this experience made him realize he might be able to juggle a remote side gig in addition to his full-time role after his sabbatical. When his part-time gig came to an end, he found another. By 2021, this part-time gig had converted to a full-time role, and for the first time, Daniel was working two remote full-time jobs simultaneously.

Last year, Daniel earned more than $280,000 across his two jobs, each of which paid more than $125,000 annually. He said the additional income has helped him grow his retirement savings, complete home renovations, and, in the coming months, will go toward buying a second investment property.

"I feel like I'm expediting my years of income-earning potential," said Daniel, whose identity was verified by Business Insider but asked to use a pseudonym due to fear of professional repercussions. "I'm doubling up, so I don't have to wait a couple of years to save up for something."

Daniel, who's in his late 40s and based in Texas, is among the Americans who have secretly worked multiple remote jobs recently to increase their incomes. Over the past two years, BI has interviewed more than two dozen "overemployed" workers who've used their earnings to pay off debt and travel the world. To be sure, having multiple jobs without the approval of one's employer could have professional repercussions and lead to burnout. But many job jugglers have told BI that the financial perks generally outweigh the downsides and risks.

Struggling to climb the "corporate ladder" led to overemployment

In the early 2000s, Daniel was working as a research technician for a biotech company. He believes he hit a pay ceiling at that employer and that he would have needed additional education to advance his career. After exploring his options, he decided to enroll in a one-year program focused on radiation oncology, which he said opened doors for higher-paying opportunities.

After graduating in 2005, Daniel worked at a new employer for about a year until he landed his landed his current remote role, which involves training hospital staff on using certain medical products and providing customer support over the phone. The job came with a lot of downtime, but it presented a familiar hurdle: He said he struggled to land promotions and increase his pay during the next 14 years. Then, he started his sabbatical.

Daniel feels frustrated that he spent so many years trying to get recognition from his employers. However, he said the demands of job juggling have forced him to accept that he can't be a "star employee" at either of his jobs. In recent years, he's shifted his focus to maximizing his earnings instead of climbing the corporate ladder.

"This is something I know how to do and I'm pretty good at it," he said of overemployment. "But climbing the corporate ladder, I don't think I was very good at it. I wanted to be much better than I really was."

Daniel said he typically works 40 to 50 hours a week across the two jobs. Even though there's the occasional 60-hour week, having no commute saves him a lot of time. He added that spreading out his work over the week has helped juggling two jobs feel more manageable. For example, he might work a few hours on the weekends or in the evenings and spend some time during the day running errands.

"I can set my own schedule, so it doesn't feel so overbearing," he said.

Daniel said each of his bosses knows he has a "side gig" but doesn't know it's full-time. While some bosses think that secretly juggling multiple jobs is unethical, James said he feels no guilt.

"The companies I work for can lay me off for no reason at any time, so there's no sort of sense of loyalty," he said.

Going forward, Daniel said he hopes to generate rental income from the second investment property he's close to purchasing. If things go well, he said he plans to eventually give up one of his jobs and rely on this passive income stream to supplement his earnings.

Juggling multiple jobs can be exhausting at times. Daniel said his wife is concerned that his work arrangement is too stressful, but she trusts him to decide whether it's feasible. In recent years, Daniel said he's learned new skills to manage this stress. For example, he said reminding himself that he can "only do one thing at a time" helps him when his workload piles up.

"I've gone through several waves where the workload is either too much, or it's impossible, or there doesn't seem like there's enough time, but it always works out as long as I don't lose it," he said.

Have you worked multiple remote jobs at the same time or discovered an employee/coworker was doing so? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected].

• A hiring slowdown has made it harder for workers to change jobs.
• Job-switching helped many Americans increase their pay in recent years.
• Asking for a raise could help some workers land a pay bump if job-switching isn't available.

Job-switching used to be a solid strategy for landing a pay bump. Now, it could be time to go back to basics and ask for a raise.

Cory Stahle, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab, previously told Business Insider that wage growth tends to be higher for workers who switch jobs than for those who stay at their employers. However, finding a new job may not be so easy: US businesses are hiring at nearly the lowest rate in the past decade, excluding a two-month pandemic-related dip, per data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

For workers who want to boost their pay before the hiring landscape improves, the next tactic is asking for a raise, researchers of organizational behavior and career development told BI. They shared the best ways workers can advocate for a raise — and what they should do if their requests are denied.

Are you struggling to find a higher-paying job? Are you comfortable sharing your story with a reporter? Please fill out this form.

Be mindful of when and how you ask for a raise

Workers shouldn't be afraid to request a raise, the researchers said.

"I would want to push people out of this mentality that asking for a raise is somehow bad or wrong," Jennifer Tosti-Kharas, a professor of organizational behavior at Babson College, told BI. She added that working hard and hoping you'll eventually be rewarded with a pay increase — but not strongly advocating for one — is a risky plan because some companies might be happy to have a high-performing employee at a modest pay level.

However, when a worker asks for a raise can be crucial to getting one. Harshal Varpe, a career trends expert at Indeed, told BI that the best times are typically when the company performs a salary review or after a big accomplishment.

Tosti-Kharas said that workers who've been asked to take on extra work following layoffs, resignations, or retirements should also consider asking for a pay bump.

"The worst case scenario is that you suddenly take on double the work for no additional title, no additional compensation," she said.

However, Tosti-Kharas said that if a worker believes they have a strong case for a raise, they don't necessarily need to wait for the perfect moment to make the request.

Ask for the right number — and be able to back it up

Both Tosti-Kharas and Varpe said it's important for workers to prepare for their conversations with their managers.

Varpe said researching industry pay standards, having a specific pay figure or range in mind, and being prepared to present your accomplishments — using data if possible — could help workers secure a pay bump.

Tosti-Kharas said having insight into how much your coworkers earn could also be helpful — particularly if they're earning more and are at a similar experience level. However, she recommended not citing a specific employee's name or pay and instead speaking more generally about trends in coworkers' pay.

If coworker pay information isn't available or helpful, Tosti-Kharas said employees could point to the compensation levels for comparable roles posted on external job platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed. They could also ask whether there is a salary range for their current role that might be placing a ceiling on their pay.

If an employer denies a raise request, both career researchers said workers should ask for specific feedback about how they can achieve a different outcome in the future.

"A good manager should not keep this secret," she said. "They should be happy to tell you because it motivates you."

Explore opportunities for career advancement

While a raise might help increase your pay in the short term, how high you rise in the ranks could determine your long-term pay trajectory.

During pay conversations with their managers, it could be helpful for workers to signal their ambition for higher-level roles by talking about their desire to take on new challenges and responsibilities, Tosti-Kharas said.

Varpe said that upskilling — or developing new skills — could also increase a worker's chances of a future pay bump. Varpe said high-demand skills related to generative AI, data analysis, and project management could be worth investing in, perhaps by taking an online course.

"Think of it as leveling up in a video game — each new skill is like an extra life," he said.

If all else fails, Varpe said workers could also try asking for non-monetary perks like additional vacation days or remote work flexibility.

"Employers may be reluctant to increase your salary but be willing to offer you other benefits," he said.

• David C. Bond earned $47,000 last year answering questions about art on the platform JustAnswer.
• He gets paid between $7.50 and $11.50 per question and aims to answer about 20 per day.
• Freelance gigs like JustAnswer have become popular as people look for additional income.

While David C. Bond develops a longer-term career project, he's doing gig work that taps his expertise in art.

Since early 2023, Bond has worked for JustAnswer, a platform that connects users with questions to experts who can try to help. Many of the questions he answers are about the value and authenticity of art and antiques. In 2023, he earned almost $43,000, and last year, he earned a little over $47,000. He said the gig is a lot of work and that it's been difficult to grow his earnings, but that it's provided a valuable income stream.

"JustAnswer is simultaneously fun and frustrating," Bond, 61, told Business Insider.

Over the last two years, Bond has been paid between $7.50 and $11.50 per question, a rate that is set by the platform. Bond said fluctuations in his pay rate — and the lack of pay rate growth over time — have been frustrating.

JustAnswer told Business Insider that payouts vary by factors including geography, field, prior success in helping customers, and supply and demand.

Bond is among the many Americans who have recently turned to freelance gigs to boost their incomes. In the last few years, rising prices have weighed on many people's wallets, and a hiring slowdown has made it difficult for many individuals to find work or switch to a higher-paying job. As a result, some people have turned to gigs like Uber and DoorDash to help pay the bills, while others found freelance work that doesn't require them to leave their homes — including reselling and taking online surveys.

Answering questions can be a full-time job

Before joining JustAnswer, Bond worked as an estate processor in the art department of the auction house Freeman's | Hindman. After that, he and his wife owned a hair salon that also sold art. They sold the business in 2015 and moved from Philadelphia to Seattle to be closer to Bond's family.

Becoming an expert on JustAnswer is a multi-step process, the company told BI. After submitting an application, a person's credentials are reviewed and submitted to a third-party verification company for authentication. Bond said he had to contact Freeman's | Hindman — where he hadn't worked in more than a decade — to confirm his prior employment there.

Once approved, a candidate is placed on a waitlist until the platform's activation team determines they are needed, based on factors including customer interest. For Bond, the entire application process took a few weeks.

Bond estimated that he spends roughly six hours a day, six days a week, answering people's questions — his goal is to answer 15 to 20 questions a day. He said most of his time is spent reviewing how much similar art or antiques have sold for, sharing these comparables with customers, and then providing an estimate of a piece's value using the comparables and his expertise.

He receives a wide range of questions about art and antiques, but he said his customers typically fit one of two categories: people who have inherited something and "treasure hunters." Both groups are looking for insight into whether they have something of value.

"I have to tell them what it is and how much I think it's worth on the secondary market and everything in between," he said.

To use JustAnswer, customers must sign up for a monthly membership, which includes a roughly $5 one-time joining fee and a fee that ranges between $30 to $125 a month, depending on the type of expert they're seeking.

To be sure, Bond said he regularly hears from customers who are surprised they were charged for their questions or enrolled in a monthly membership to the platform. What's more, there are hundreds of complaints on the Better Bureau Business website, many of which are related to the company's membership program.

JustAnswer told BI via email that customers are asked to enter their credit card information before they receive an answer to their question — and are provided clear details about the platform's monthly cost and cancellation policy.

In the age of AI tools like ChatGPT, Bond thinks his expertise still has value.

"A 17th-century Japanese plate looks the same as a 20th-century reproduction to a machine, but I can look at it and see characteristics that make one different than the other," he said.

Have you used JustAnswer or another side hustle to boost your income? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected].

• Japan has taken steps to make its buildings more resilient to seismic activity.
• Strategic planning, updating building codes, and a culture of preparedness have driven progress.
• Japan's approach could offer lessons for the US, where many communities are vulnerable to disasters.

Prone to major earthquakes that trigger fires and tsunamis, Japan has become a world leader in building disaster-resilient communities.

Three experts in public policy and urban development told Business Insider that, over many decades, strategic planning, a culture of disaster preparedness, and regularly updated building codes have helped Japan produce neighborhoods and cities that can better withstand seismic shocks and other disasters.

While Japan experiences more regular and severe seismic activity than most of the US, the country's approach to disaster resilience could offer a model for American communities prone to major fires, floods, earthquakes, and other destructive events, especially as they increase in frequency.

"Each disaster has served as a catalyst for deeper reflection and adaptation, and this continuous cycle of learning and adjusting is one key reason why Japan has been so proactive in addressing disaster risk," Christian Dimmer, an associate professor of urban studies at Waseda University in Tokyo, told Business Insider.

After major seismic events, Japan updates its national building codes based on what it learned from the earthquakes. Older buildings quickly become non-compliant and less attractive to renters and buyers, so they're often torn down and replaced with safer modern buildings. In America, the average age of a demolished building is 67 years, while in Japan, it's 32, per Jiro Yoshida, a business professor at Pennsylvania State University. This isn't just a result of building code reform: Japan lost a significant portion of its homes during World War II, and those that were rapidly built to replace them were often poor quality.

"Japan has gradually cranked up the expectations on housing," Daniel Aldrich, professor of political science and public policy at Northeastern University, told BI. "So a house built in the 2020s is much safer than one built in the early 1990s, than one built in the '70s, than one built in the '50s."

Strategic land-use planning can reduce deaths and destruction

New construction is both built to be more disaster-resistant and sometimes used to protect older, more vulnerable buildings. In one such case, a 15-building concrete Tokyo apartment complex, complete with steel shutters and a sprinkler system, was erected in a way that strategically protected a neighborhood of mostly wooden homes, creating a 1.2-kilometer-long firewall.

Additionally, Japan has developed various land-use strategies to reduce casualties and damage from earthquakes, fires, and other disasters. Officials identify neighborhoods and regions that are particularly vulnerable and create firebreaks around rivers, railroads, and roadways to prevent fires from jumping from one area to another, Dimmer said. Cities have created new greenspaces, including pocket parks featuring emergency water stores and rations, widened some of their extremely narrow streets, and phased out dead-end streets.

"What stands out in Japan's approach is the institutionalized mechanism of learning from disasters and translating those lessons into concrete, actionable policies," Dimmer said.

After the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, which also triggered massive fires and a major tsunami that devastated Tokyo and Yokohama, the country learned that green spaces are critical fire breaks and to act as evacuation zones, Dimmer said.

In the wake of Japan's 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident, the country invested in coastal infrastructure, including massive seawalls, and relocated residents out of particularly vulnerable areas.

"There are efforts to bring people closer to the city centers, reduce sprawl, and then also if you have built in a place that you shouldn't have built or is deemed unsafe, then there are subsidies to help you move," said Miho Mazereeuw, an associate professor of architecture and director of the Urban Risk Lab at MIT who's writing a book entitled "Design Before Disaster: Japan's Culture of Preparedness."

A 'culture of preparedness' braces residents

In Japan, schoolchildren are required to participate in regular earthquake, fire, typhoon, and other disaster preparedness drills. They study evacuation routes and learn how to take cover depending on the emergency. They also memorize a famous phrase: "Don't push, don't run, don't speak, and don't go back." But it's not just kids who are trained — residents of all ages are educated in disaster response. And, in 2015, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government produced a post-disaster survival manual, the Bosai book.

"There is this culture of preparedness that's been ingrained in every level of society, from what children are taught in schools, to organizations that are community-level," said Mazereeuw. Communities are asked "to really think through both the city design and then also how the community members interact with each other, support each other through these kinds of events."

Dimmer said this culture is based on the understanding that building a more disaster-resilient society requires collective action and major investments.

"Adequate financial resources, building civic structures, and empowering individuals to exercise foresight are crucial," Dimmer added. "Equally important, however, is addressing the underlying cultural mindset that views these efforts as essential for the greater good, rather than seeing them as burdensome or unnecessary."

Building more resilient structures can keep people safe

Government officials in Japan have worked to keep people safe from disasters like tsunamis and volcanoes by consistently pushing construction firms to improve resiliency. And so far, it's been working.

When a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula in the central prefecture of Ishikawa, Japan, in January 2024, at least 57 people were killed and hundreds of homes were destroyed. Robert Geller, professor emeritus of seismology at the University of Tokyo, told CNN that modern buildings fared better than older houses.

When a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Kahramanmaras, Turkey in February 2023, at least 230,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed, and more than 4,800 people died. Damage from earthquakes can vary significantly depending on where they occur, which makes it difficult to compare two events. However, experts told BI that Japan's resiliency measures have helped the country reduce building damage and save lives.

To be sure, Japan's approach to disasters isn't foolproof. Big earthquakes in recent decades have damaged or destroyed many buildings and had high death tolls. There are also high environmental costs of tearing down older structures and rebuilding as much as Japan does, such as creating significant carbon emissions and waste that can be detrimental to the environment. There are also cultural costs. Many older, often wooden buildings in Japan have been demolished in order to rebuild more disaster-resilient structures.

"Of course, I believe in human safety being the most important thing, but I lament a bit the loss of many more traditional homes," Mazereeuw said, adding that she hopes buildings can begin to be retrofitted more frequently rather than torn down.

Aldrich said the US may struggle with this strategy without first reforming its "patchwork" building codes that are different across cities and states. In comparison, he said Japan's national government has made changes to building codes that apply to the entire country, a model that he said the US should take some lessons from.

"The US should work to create updated federal standards for designing built structures — both residential and commercial — that can withstand floods and fires," he said.

• Older Americans are facing career setbacks due to caregiving for aging parents, impacting finances.
• Many quit jobs or reduced their hours, unable to afford nursing homes for their loved ones.
• Some told Business Insider they weren't able to land back on their feet after taking years off.

Many older Americans are facing a difficult choice: leave behind a career they've built for decades to care for their parents, or stay at their job and cover the high cost of care.

In the late 1990s, Maylia Tsen's parents moved from New York to live with her in Southern California. Tsen said her mother was facing several health issues and that her area offered better access to healthcare. Tsen continued to work full-time as a VP of sales and marketing, but eventually, it became too difficult to balance the role with her caregiving responsibilities. Around 2005, she left the job she'd spent years working toward, which she said paid more than $150,000 annually.

"I couldn't take full-time hours," said Tsen, 63. "I couldn't make that commitment because I never knew what was going to happen with them."

About two dozen older Americans told Business Insider in responses to reader surveys about work and retirement that they moved, quit their jobs, or switched to a part-time work schedule to care for their parents. Many made the decision because taking on caregiving themselves was the most economical option, as they couldn't afford the high costs of nursing homes or other long-term care for their parents.

They're now earning less since they reentered the labor market or are struggling to get hired in the industries they worked in before stepping away.

Are you an older American who has struggled to secure work due to caring for parents? Have you struggled in general to find a job recently? To share your story, please fill out this form.

The most recent data on unpaid caregiving from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that over the combined years of 2021 and 2022, about 9 million or 21% of 55- to 64-year-olds provided eldercare, referring to unpaid care provided by family or friends to those 65 or older. This demographic did about four hours on average of eldercare each day.

A 2021 AARP report found, based on a survey of 2,380 caregivers, that they spent on average $7,242 annually of their own money. Among the 1,415 working caregivers in the survey, 29% had to take paid time off from work in the past year because of caregiving.

"It's been a real financial challenge and burden," said Tsen. "Caregiving has taken a toll on me, financially, physically, and mentally."

Tsen's mother died 11 years ago, but she still cares for her 97-year-old father. To facilitate her caregiving, she's turned down higher-paying work in favor of lower-paying jobs that offered her the flexibility she needed. To pay the bills, she's had to draw upon her savings and retirement funds.

Struggling to land work after a pause

Some people have continued to face career obstacles after scaling back their caregiving responsibilities. D. Peterson, 65, applied for jobs unsuccessfully for a year and a half after taking three years off to care for her mother.

Peterson, who lives in Georgia and asked to obscure her first name to protect her family's privacy, often switched jobs and worked as a leasing consultant, administrative assistant, and real-estate agent throughout her career. She made enough to live comfortably but called herself a "poor money manager" and said she didn't prepare well for retirement. Because of her financial situation and her mother's health, she moved in with her in 2010.

At the start of the pandemic, she quit her job where she was earning $40,000 annually to care full time for her mom, who was in her mid-80s. Once her siblings became more involved with caretaking in 2023, Peterson looked for work — only to realize that landing a role with a three-year gap and being close to retirement age would be challenging.

She wasn't familiar with the new hiring technology like online interviews, and there weren't many administrative assistant roles remotely or in her area. The available ones had hundreds of applicants. And because she switched industries during her career, she said she couldn't prove her authority in one field as easily.

Peterson landed a job at a library a month ago, which pays $11 an hour, but she injured her ankle two weeks in and said she's applying elsewhere. She doesn't foresee herself being able to retire as she relies on her $1,600 monthly Social Security checks.

"I'm trying to save as much as I can and finally put myself on a budget, but my main concern now is my mom, who's losing her memory and eyesight but doesn't want to go into assisted living," Peterson said. "It's hard to stay motivated when you feel like you don't have the skills or face age discrimination."

The labor market has been difficult for job seekers in general, including for older Americans, some of whom have taken huge pay cuts after a layoff or voluntary departure. Additionally, even though the unemployment rate is historically low, hiring rates have slipped from more than 4% a few years ago to 3.3% and 3.4% in recent months.

Rita Choula, senior director of caregiving for AARP Public Policy Institute, told BI that more companies should aim to support caregivers. This can look like offering leave for caregivers or changes to company culture to normalize caring for an older adult.

"It's great that you have vacation leave, but we really want caregivers who are under enough stress to be able to take that time for them to rest and reset," Choula said.

Only finding limited work options

Older Americans told BI that caregiving meant sacrificing career opportunities that didn't work with their schedules, often adversely affecting their finances.

"Many employed caregivers face strain in managing both caregiving and work responsibilities simultaneously," the AARP report said. "These consequences can lead to reduced job security, fewer employment opportunities, and ultimately, lower retirement savings."

In 2017, Robin, who asked to use her first name for fear of professional repercussions, sold her condo in the DC area and moved into a nearby one-bedroom apartment with her legally blind mother. She had just been laid off from her government relations job.

Robin, 62, said caring for her mother has had lasting effects on her career and earnings. To help pay the bills, Robin said she worked various retail jobs, including as a cashier at Walgreens. She said this income wasn't sufficient, and she had to deplete much of her savings and 401(k).

"During that time, I was unable to hold anything more than a part-time job," she said.

In 2022, Robin's mother died, which allowed her to pursue full-time government relations roles. But, despite her roughly 20 years of industry experience, she said she struggled to land a job.

"Employers just see the gap on your résumé, and they don't realize that your time was spent productively, but in a very different way," she said.

In September 2022, Robin enrolled in the Senior Community Service Enrollment program, which helps unemployed older people find work. She said the program helped her land a part-time data analytics role with the National Council on Aging — which she started in October 2023 — and that she's interviewing for a full-time position with the organization.

"I'm really hoping the job comes through," she said, adding, "I definitely have to recover my finances."

• Recent MBA graduates are having a harder time finding jobs than a couple of years ago.
• A white-collar hiring slowdown has impacted MBA graduates at schools like Harvard, Yale, and Stanford.
• We asked economists whether the hiring landscape could improve in the years to come.

The white-collar job market has gotten so competitive, that even MBA graduates — once thought of as having a leg up in hiring — are struggling to land jobs. Their troubles could stick around for a while.

Since July, Joshua has worked at Starbucks while he looks for a marketing job. In the fall of 2023, his contract position at PlayStation was cut and, despite working with a recruiting agency, he still hasn't landed a job in his chosen industry.

"I'm an MBA graduate in his 30s, living paycheck to paycheck, watching what feels like the rest of my colleagues and classmates move forward with their lives," said Joshua, who earned his business degree from Santa Clara University in 2021. His last name is known to BI but is being withheld due to fear of professional repercussions.

Job acceptance rates at some of the top business schools have declined in recent years. Much of it likely has to do with a slowdown in white-collar hiring overall, but other evidence suggests companies are hiring fewer MBAs. After all, they may require a higher salary than their peers at a time when companies are pivoting to invest in technology that promises to do the job cheaper than any human — no matter their degree level.

MBA graduates' job-acceptance rates are down in a slowing job market

Business Insider looked at the job acceptance rates three months post-graduation at the top 15 business schools from US News and World Report's 2024 ranking — and focused on the nine MBA programs with publicly available data going back eight years and Harvard, with data going back six years.

At eight of the 10 schools, the class of 2024's job acceptance rate was the lowest.

Economists told BI that elevated interest rates and companies' investments in artificial intelligence are among the factors that have led to slower hiring for MBA graduates.

Gracy Sarkissian, associate dean of Columbia University's career management center, said that while the three-month post-graduation job acceptance rate for the school's MBA graduates fell in 2023, employment reached pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year.

Dartmouth, Yale, Stanford, MIT, Dartmouth, the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Virginia didn't respond to requests for comment. Duke and Harvard declined to comment.

The usual suspects for MBA hiring — consulting firms and Big Tech — are hiring fewer of them, the Wall Street Journal reported in January.

It's all part of an overall hiring slowdown. US businesses are hiring at nearly the lowest rate since 2013, per Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

While the overall US unemployment rate remains low compared to historical levels, many people who need a job are dealing with a considerably tougher market than a few years ago.

Are you an MBA graduate looking for a job? Are you comfortable sharing your story with a reporter? Please fill out this form.

Higher interest rates and economic uncertainty have slowed hiring for white-collar roles

Elevated interest rates have contributed to slower hiring in industries such as finance, tech, and consulting — sectors that attract many MBA grads, Kory Kantenga, head of economics, Americas at LinkedIn, told BI. Instead, healthcare, government, and hospitality have been dominating hiring since 2023.

In addition to higher interest rates, uncertainty about Trump administration policies and the impacts of AI have led some businesses to be more cautious about expanding their workforces, said Audrey Guo, an assistant professor of economics at Santa Clara University. She added tech companies that hired workers in droves during the pandemic — only to lay off many workers in recent years — may be looking to avoid this cycle in the current climate.

Allison Shrivastava, an economist with the Indeed Hiring Lab, said some companies could be slowing hiring because they're waiting to see if the economy can stick a "soft landing" — in which inflation comes down, the unemployment rate doesn't spike, and a recession is avoided. She said job openings for finance and tech roles on Indeed have fallen considerably from their peaks in 2022, to below levels seen in February 2020.

"If I were looking for a job in banking and finance or software development, I would expect it to definitely take longer than it did in 2022," Shrivastava said.

Finding work can be challenging even in sectors with more job openings. This includes management roles, where openings listed on Indeed are roughly 9% higher than they were in February 2020.

Dan Trujillo is trying to find one of those management roles. He was laid off in January from his role as a director of customer experience at a manufacturing company. He earned his Executive MBA from the University of Colorado a year earlier and said he struggled to land his previous job. "I applied to somewhere between 25 and 30 positions without ever hearing anything back other than a rejection email," said Trujillo, who's in his mid-40s and based in the Denver area.

Guo said some employers could be slowing hiring as they monitor the potential of AI tools in the workplace. Additionally, some companies' significant investments in AI could also be leaving them with less money to put toward hiring workers.

"I think the roles where we're seeing the biggest declines in demand now tend to be the ones that have really high returns to using AI," said Lisa Simon, chief economist at the workforce analytics company Revelio Labs. She cited software engineers and data analysts as two examples.

Rate cuts and an uptick in retirements could help job seekers

Looking ahead, Kantenga said that future Federal Reserve interest rate cuts could help improve labor market conditions for MBA graduates. CME FedWatch, which projects interest-rate changes based on market activity, forecasts a nearly 84% chance rates will be lower by the end of the year. However, Kantenga said uncertainties tied to the Trump administration could lead some employers to slow hiring until they have a clearer sense of what policies will be implemented.

Additionally, some changes to the current labor market could work in the favor of MBA graduates. Satyam Panday, chief US and Canada economist at S&P Global Ratings, said that an uptick in baby boomer retirements in the coming years could create a gap in the workforce that AI likely won't be able to fill — which could make it easier for some MBA graduates to find work. While some companies may be able to get by with fewer workers, Guo said they'll still need to invest in their leaders of the future.

"Companies will need to think about how to still preserve a pipeline of new workers so that, eventually, when the senior people retire or need to be replaced, there still is some pipeline of people with that experience," she said.

• Workers who use AI to increase productivity say DeepSeek's R1 is useful.
• However, they said the new AI tool isn't as strong as its competitors like ChatGPT and Claude.
• They liked that DeepSeek's tool is open-source, but said its writing ability has some shortcomings.

Some people who use AI at work say DeepSeek's new model is useful but not as strong as other tools like ChatGPT and Claude.

Sainag Nethala, a technical account manager, was eager to try DeepSeek's R1 AI model after it was released on January 20. He's been using AI tools like Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's ChatGPT to analyze code and draft emails, which saves him time at work.

However, Nethala said R1 wasn't as helpful for less technical questions, such as random inquiries. He said ChatGPT remains his go-to tool for "random questions and brainstorming," while Claude is the best bet when he wants "more thoughtful analysis."

"DeepSeek is like that brilliant friend who's fantastic at math but not for generic questions," said Nethala, 33, who's based in Illinois. "I find myself switching between tools based on what I'm doing, kind of like picking the right screwdriver for the job."

Five workers told BI that DeepSeek's tool generally performs well — and the fact that it's free is a major perk — but that it seems to trail behind its AI competitors in some areas. These individuals regularly use other AI tools to draft emails, summarize documents, improve code, and write content in an effort to boost their productivity and make their jobs easier.

To be sure, ChatGPT, Claude, and some of the other AI tools on the market have free and paid versions, which offer different access options. For example, ChatGPT's paid version costs $20 monthly and extends limits on file uploads, advanced data analysis, and image generation.

DeepSeek, OpenAI, and Anthropic did not respond to a request for comment.

Workers like DeepSeek's low cost and open-source nature, but are iffy on its writing skills

Robert Benson-May works full-time as an accountant and writes a newsletter about entrepreneurs in his spare time. At his accounting job, he said he uses the paid versions of ChatGPT and Claude to draft emails and summarize documents. For his newsletter, he uses the tools to help write articles, social media posts, headlines, and website code.

Benson-May said DeepSeek's R1 AI model is fairly comparable to ChatGPT but he's noticed some differences. For example, he said R1 is great at writing articles and has more of an "uncensored feel" than ChatGPT and Claude.

"It has a little more creativity and a little less rigidity than some of the other models," said Benson-May, who's 30 and based in the UK. However, Benson-May said that Claude remains his go-to tool for writing because it's the most capable of providing responses that are closest to his personal writing style.

Ankit Anchlia, 37, said the biggest benefit of R1 — in addition to being free — is that it's open-source, which means anyone can "fine-tune" the tool's code so its responses are more in line with the user's needs. OpenAI said its models aren't open-source for safety reasons.

The staff software engineer, who's based in Austin, said he uses the free versions of ChatGPT and Claude for programming-related tasks like improving his code — which he said typically saved him between a few minutes to an hour depending on the task.

However, some workers have been a bit underwhelmed by DeepSeek's R1.

James Crisp, a Realtor based in New Jersey, uses the paid version of ChatGPT to write marketing copy, real estate listings, and social media content. He said R1 hasn't compared favorably with ChatGPT, but he likes that DeekSeek's tool is free and open-source.

"It had a hard time building out a listing description for one of my properties because it doesn't use the proper Western terminology," said Crisp, 41. "It also wasn't as descriptive as ChatGPT."

Crisp said that he could probably get by with R1 if he needed to but that he doesn't plan to use it much in the near term.

"It's a good choice for someone that doesn't want to spend money monthly and doesn't mind proofreading everything," he said. "However, for professionals like me that already have their AIs tailored, DeepSeek is not adding any true value at the moment."

Tina Willis, a car accident and injury lawyer, said she uses the paid versions of ChatGPT and Claude to conduct research for her cases and draft basic documents — which then require significant editing.

When Willis, who's in her 50s and based in Orlando, asked R1, ChatGPT, and Claude to draft a sample legal document, she said ChatGPT and Claude's outputs were more accurate and detailed than R1's.

"I probably won't be back to DeepSeek anytime soon," she said.

Have you used AI tools to become more productive at work? Are you willing to share your story? If so, reach out to this reporter at [email protected].

• Return-to-office mandates have worried some Americans who want to keep working from home.
• Some have been applying for new jobs or turned down roles at prominent companies with RTO policies.
• Amazon and JPMorgan are among the firms that have called workers back to the office full-time.

Some Americans facing return-to-office mandates are doing whatever they can to keep working from home.

Take Richard, who began working for Amazon as a finance manager last year. He said that the company's three-days-a-week in-office policy wasn't ideal because his prior job was fully remote, but he accepted the role because he felt Amazon offered better growth opportunities.

However, when the company announced that in 2025, it would be ramping up its return-to-office policy to five days a week, Richard decided to try to jump ship.

"I immediately started applying for remote jobs," said Richard, whose identity was verified by Business Insider but asked to use a pseudonym due to fear of professional repercussions. "I wanted to get ahead of the rush of people that would be applying once the policy went into effect."

Richard is among the Americans reacting to their companies' return-to-office mandates. In recent months, corporate giants like Amazon, AT&T, and JPMorgan have issued timelines for when employees must return to the office five days a week. In response, some workers have begun searching for remote or hybrid jobs so they can quit and avoid returning to the office full-time.

A Pew Research survey of 2,315 US adults conducted in October found that, among Americans who work from home at least some of the time, 46% said they would be very or somewhat unlikely to stay in their current role if their employer no longer allowed them to work from home. This included 61% of respondents who work from home all the time. However, finding a new remote role isn't easy: Job seekers have encountered a challenging labor market and intense competition for roles that allow work from home.

Richard, who's in his 30s, said he hasn't had much luck in his job hunt so far and that he's expanded his search to hybrid roles. He hopes that hiring will pick up later this year.

"There are less and less fully remote roles and more people trying to fill them," he said. "It has been hard to get far in the interview process."

In a September memo to employees, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that "the advantages of being together in the office are significant." In a January memo, JPMorgan's operating committee said that it thought bringing workers back to the office was "the best way to run the company."

How employees are trying to work around RTO mandates

Some Americans managed to secure work-from-home roles before the market became more challenging.

In 2022, George was working remotely as an IT professional in the financial industry. When his employer began discussing return-to-office plans — some teams were asked to switch from remote to hybrid — he found a new remote role.

George, 39, kept his original job and juggles both roles simultaneously to help ensure he'll always have at least one remote gig. He's earning about $250,000 annually — roughly double his prior income.

"I ultimately decided to try it since I could easily just drop one if it was too much," George, whose identity was verified by Business Insider but asked to use a pseudonym due to fear of professional repercussions, previously told BI.

While some workers might be fine with hybrid working arrangements, there's no guarantee a company won't later issue a stricter return-to-office mandate. This is among the reasons Steven, an e-commerce professional based in New Jersey, prioritized a fully remote working arrangement during his job search.

After being laid off two years ago from a job that allowed him to work remotely, Steven applied for a mix of in-person and remote roles. Last February, he landed an offer from JPMorgan that would require him to work from the office three days a week in Manhattan.

As he mulled over the offer, he estimated that his commuting time would total nine hours a week — or roughly 450 hours a year. Parking at his local train stain and taking the New Jersey Transit would cost him roughly $7,200 in annual commuting costs.

Around the same time, Steven received another job offer — this one for a remote position that offered an annual salary that was around $5,000 lower than the JPMorgan role. When he compared the jobs in terms of the money he'd earn for every hour he'd have to "invest" in them — including commuting time — he said it was an easy choice to pick the remote role.

"JPMorgan just could not compete," he said, adding, "A 40-hour week plus nine commute hours is basically a 50-hour week for the salary that they were offering."

Steven said he's particularly grateful he turned down the offer because, on January 10, JPMorgan announced that most employees would be required to work from the office five days a week beginning in March.

Meanwhile, Richard is still looking for a remote role while commuting to his current job. Due to space constraints at his office, he said he doesn't have to comply with Amazon's five-day-a-week policy until April. In the meantime, he's found ways to minimize his in-office time.

Richard said he typically goes into the office three days a week but estimated that he only works from the office between nine and 12 hours a week across the three days. He thinks he can get away with this because he's the only one from his team who works at that particular office location.

"I would go into the office for a few hours, avoid rush hour, and fulfill my badging requirement," he said, adding that he plans to take a similar approach once the five-day-a-week policy takes effect.

George said his second employer appears to have permanently embraced remote work, but that he still has some concerns that his original employer will eventually require him to return to the office. He said he lives roughly 14 miles from the nearest office — an hourlong commute with traffic and about 30 minutes without.

Steven said his employer has called some workers back to the office, but that he's been told this won't impact him because he was designated as a remote worker when he was hired. He thinks his company offers workers in certain roles this perk to attract and retain talent.

"If you want to be able to find the right kind of people, you're going to be much more successful at finding people if you allow remote work," he said.

Has your employer asked you to work from the office more? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected].

• LA's wildfires put added pressure on the city's 2028 Olympic hosting gig.
• Historically, most host cities have faced costly overruns.
• LA could be in a stronger position than other cities because of its existing sports venues.

Los Angeles' wildfire rebuilding efforts could be at odds with another multibillion-dollar expense: hosting the Olympics.

The city's recovery efforts face a hard deadline ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics. Historically, most host cities have faced costly overruns, and LA is already likely to face serious economic challenges in the wake of the fires.

However, Andrew Zimbalist, a sports economist at Smith College, told Business Insider that LA could be in a stronger position than other cities to handle Olympic costs because of the city's existing sports venues.

"I think the 2028 games will provide an opportunity for Los Angeles to show how it's rebuilt itself," Zimbalist said.

While many sports facilities were sparred from the fires, the city's economic losses could reach $275 billion, per the data platform AccuWeather. The estimate accounts for direct costs like emergency response and construction, along with indirect costs like lost employee wages, housing displacement, and hits to the local business scene and job market. Additionally, some experts estimate it could take the city years, or up to a decade, to rebuild.

Zimbalist said he thinks LA is in a good position to "break-even" economically as the Olympics host, in large part because it doesn't have to build any new sporting venues. This will significantly reduce the construction and infrastructure costs that often balloon host cities' spending.

The LA Olympics Games have an operating budget of $6.9 billion, according to the latest estimate provided by LA2028, the private committee responsible for putting on the Olympics and raising funding for the games.

The money is expected to come from International Olympic Committee funding and revenue generated from the Games — which are tied to things like international sponsorship income, ticket sales, and licensing merchandise. These funds will go toward hosting the sporting events and the opening and closing ceremonies, including investments in the city's airport and a downtown convention center.

LA2028 did not respond to BI's request for comment.

LA may be in a strong position to host 2028

If the costs of hosting the Olympics exceed the generated funds, LA has pledged to contribute $270 million to close the gap. If this isn't sufficient, the state of California has committed an additional $270 million, and if that doesn't cover it, LA would be on the hook for the rest. As of July, LA2028 was $1 billion short of its sponsorship goal.

Zimbalist said this insurance policy to cover some of its exposure in the case of a budget overrun is standard for every host city. As things stand, he doesn't expect the Games to go over budget, though he said it's "far from a sure thing."

"I don't see there being a public deficit here overall because there's so little building to be done," Zimbalist said.

While LA might be able to avoid drawing upon public funds, the Olympics are likely to cost US taxpayers. Zimbalist said LA is counting on the federal government to help provide as much as $5 billion in funds for transportation and security costs ahead of the Games. In comparison, the federal government's contribution to the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics was about $2 billion when adjusted for inflation.

In 1984, the last time LA hosted the Olympics, Zimbalist said LA generally avoided negative economic impacts, which he said was driven by the availability of existing venues, significant IOC funding, and solid financial management from the city's Olympic committee. He said that LA could benefit from the same factors this time.

Host cities often lose money on the Olympics

Many Olympic host cities spend beyond their budget due to unforeseen expenses, construction costs, or an inability to produce enough tourism revenue, per the 2024 Oxford Olympics Study. And, with a higher number of events and athletes, the study reported that the Summer Games are especially expensive.

The Oxford Olympics Study — which analyzed the cost of past Olympics in 2022 US dollars — found that the Summer Games held between 1960 and 2024 went over budget by an average of 195%. In the past two decades, the most expensive Games was Rio 2016, costing $23.6 billion with a cost overrun of 352%, some of which was shouldered by taxpayers.

"When you add it all up, most cities end up with a deficit that could be on the order of $10 or $20 billion, sometimes more than that," Zimbalist said.

In December, Paris announced that it closed the 2024 events under budget, but this only included the operating costs of the Olympics during the 17 days they were held. When operating costs, capital costs related to the Games (like building sporting venues), and indirect capital costs (like investments in Paris's rail system) are all accounted for, Zimbalist estimated that the total spending approached $20 billion.

To be sure, Zimbalist said there are benefits to hosting the Olympics that economic indicators can't measure. While LA will likely still be recovering from the wildfires, he said the Olympics could provide the city with the opportunity to show its progress.

Have you experienced financial challenges due to a natural disaster? Are you open to sharing your experience with a reporter? If so, reach out to [email protected].

• The lowest-income households have experienced the highest level of inflation in recent years.
• Lower-income people spend much of their income on items like food and housing, for which costs have spiked.
• Moderating rental rates and steady wage growth could help these households feel relief.

Rising prices across the US economy have impacted every American over the past few years, but the lowest-income households have faced the greatest burden.

The dynamic is reflected in the chart below, which shows low-income inflation increases outpacing those for the other four quintiles since 2006, and over a nearer-term timeframe.

From the end of 2005 through June 2024 — the latest available data — the lowest-income cohort saw prices increase 64%, outpacing the roughly 57% seen by the highest-earning Americans, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The same discrepancy exists on a nearer-term basis, with low-income inflation growth exceeding that of top earners by nearly two percentage points since 2020.

This is largely explained by the fact that lower-income people spend the highest percentage of their earnings on consumer goods that have seen some of the biggest price increases over time, most notably food and housing.

"Lower-income households spend more of their money on necessities, so if categories like food, housing, and utilities are experiencing faster price growth, these households will be hardest hit," Elizabeth Renter, senior economist at NerdWallet, told Business Insider.

What the future holds

One economist says lower-income Americans could struggle to see relief due to a lack of spending-habit flexibility.

Jeff Horwich, senior economics writer for the Minneapolis Fed, said lower-income individuals are more hamstrung in their ability to pivot to lower-priced goods. While higher-income people might shop more at a dollar store when prices rise, their lower-income counterparts who already frequent these stores have limited alternatives.

"When times get tight, they have less wiggle room to change their spending," Horwich said of lower-income individuals.

Persistently high food prices also present a continued headwind. They're expected to keep rising, albeit at a slower rate than they did last year, according to Department of Agriculture data from December.

Another issue facing lower-income people is the Trump administration's plans to implement widespread tariffs on many or all imported goods. Renter said any related price increases could have the biggest impact on the lowest-income Americans, although she's skeptical that Trump will be as aggressive as some expect.

Despite these forces working against low-income people, moderating rent increases could provide some relief. Lowell Ricketts — a data scientist at the St. Louis Fed — said the moderating rent growth can be a positive, at least relative to higher-earning households, since lower-income Americans are more likely to rent.

"If some of that pressure in rents mitigate a bit, then that would be very helpful for low-income Americans to have more purchasing power," Ricketts said.

Still, Ricketts acknowledged that this rent-growth slowdown could be complicated by housing-supply constraints that reduce inventory and keep pushing prices higher.

Beyond that, wage growth could also play a role in offering relief — as long as it continues to exceed inflation, which it has over the past year as consumer-price expansion has moderated. Adding support to the possibility of more wage growth is the fact that layoffs across the US are low compared to historical levels.

Have you adjusted your spending habits to avoid high prices of certain goods or services? Are you willing to share your story? If so, reach out to this reporter at [email protected].

• A millennial began looking for a remote job in response to his company's return-to-office plans.
• He's juggling two remote roles, earning $250,000 annually, and is considering retiring by age 50.
• He said working two remote jobs can be stressful at times, but it is worth it.

George was worried his employer would demand he return to the office, so he executed a backup plan: start secretly working a second remote job.

In 2022, George was working remotely in an IT role in the finance industry. When his company began discussing return-to-office plans, he balked and reached out to an IT recruiting firm in the hopes it could help him find a new remote role. Shortly after, he landed an offer for a remote position that was similar to his current job.

But with the specifics of his original employer's return-to-office policy unclear, he said he was on the fence about leaving his current role. George said the recruiter he'd been working with convinced him to take an unconventional path — and juggle both roles simultaneously.

"I ultimately decided to try it since I could easily just drop one if it was too much," said George, whose identity was verified by Business Insider but asked to use a pseudonym due to fear of professional repercussions.

It's been more than two years since George started his second remote gig. He's earning about $250,000 a year — roughly double his prior income — and said he typically doesn't work more than 45 hours a week. George said the extra income from "overemployment" has allowed him and his wife to make extra mortgage payments and build a multimillion-dollar nest egg, adding that he's considering retiring at age 50.

He said his wife sometimes wishes he would scale back to one job temporarily to reduce his stress, but that he has no current plans to do so.

"Despite the extra stress, I can't imagine going back to single employment permanently out of choice," he said.

George, who's 39 and based in the southeast, is among the Americans who have worked multiple remote jobs on the sly to supplement their incomes. Over the past two years, BI has interviewed more than two dozen overemployed workers who've used their extra earnings to travel the world and pay off debt. To be sure, holding multiple jobs without employer approval could have professional repercussions and lead to burnout. But many current and former job jugglers have told BI the financial perks outweigh the downsides and risks.

Job juggling can require lowering your expectations

At his original job, George said his team was classified as remote, but that over the past few years, some teams have been required to come into the office three days a week.

He still has some concerns that he could be required to return to the office, in part because he's heard about other companies rolling out stricter RTO policies in recent months. George said he lives roughly 14 miles from the nearest office — an hourlong commute with traffic and about half an hour without. He's less concerned about an in-office push from his second employer — which no longer has an office in his state — because he said its messaging to employees suggests it has permanently embraced remote work.

George said his overemployment situation is far from ideal because his jobs require a fair amount of work and meetings. This has made it difficult for him to excel at both roles, which is something he said he's had to grapple with.

"Accepting that when you're splitting your time you're not always going to stand out as an overachiever at one place," he said. "The goal goes from being great and climbing the ladder at one job to being good or decent in multiple roles."

George added that consistent communication with his colleagues and bosses has been key, particularly when meetings are double-booked or he has to delay work for one job due to commitments at another.

"As long as the quality of work is good, timelines are reasonable, you're honest about timeline delays, and people don't mind working with you, people don't really have a reason to go digging," he said.

Looking ahead, George said he hopes to remain overemployed until he retires so he can boost his savings and protect himself in case of a potential layoff. He said he hopes to retire, travel, and eventually move abroad to reduce living expenses and help ensure that his retirement funds last.

George said he's lucky enough to work in a field where the demand for workers exceeds supply — which has made it easier to land remote roles. But he said he knows these favorable conditions aren't guaranteed.

"Who knows how long that will last so I'd rather take advantage while it's available than wish I had later," he said.

Are you working multiple remote jobs at the same time and willing to provide details about your pay and schedule? If so, reach out to this reporter at [email protected].

• Torrey Grant commutes eight hours each week for a teaching job at Syracuse University.
• That job is in addition to his account executive role at a PR agency where he works full time.
• The share of supercommutes in the 10 largest US cities has grown from four years ago.

Torrey Grant said his roughly eight-hour weekly commute for his part-time gig is worth the time because he enjoys the job and it supplements his income.

In June 2022, Grant and his wife moved from Syracuse, New York to New York City so they could be closer to her family. Grant landed a Manhattan-based account executive role at a public relations agency that specializes in the food, wine, and spirits industries. He was also able to retain his part-time gig of more than five years: teaching a wine and beer appreciation course at Syracuse University, his alma mater.

During typical weeks when school is in session, he wakes up at 4:30 a.m. on Tuesdays in his Manhattan residence, drives roughly four hours to Syracuse, and is at his desk by 9 a.m. During the day, he works remotely for his public relations job. He then teaches two courses in the evening, stays overnight at a hotel, works remotely for his PR job the next day, teaches two more classes in the evening, and then drives home Wednesday evening.

"It's well worth it to keep a great job and it keeps my wife and I close to her family," said Grant, 50, when referring to his teaching position.

Grant is among the supercommuters who are defined by traveling more than 75 miles to work. The share of supercommutes in the 10 largest US cities was 32% greater between November 2023 and February 2024 than between the same time period four years prior, per a study from Stanford University that was published in June.

The researchers said this increase was likely driven by the uptick in remote working arrangements. For example, some Americans who moved away from their offices — in part for lower housing costs — decided they could stomach a long commute when their employers rolled out return-to-office policies after the pandemic.

Driving several hours is worth it for the job and pay

Grant said he earns between $80,000 and $100,000 annually from teaching, depending on the number of courses he teaches — which can vary based on student interest, among other factors. Grant estimated that he dedicates about 30 hours a week to his teaching job, which includes 12 hours of lecturing and additional time spent in meetings, conducting office hours, preparing for classes, and grading.

Grant said that his round-trip commuting costs typically include between $40 and $50 for a full tank of gas, roughly $80 for one night at a hotel, about $25 in tolls, and $36 to park at the school — a total of about $200 per round-trip.

Before he committed to driving as his preferred mode of transportation, Grant said he tried taking the train and flying. However, he said the train can take up to six hours if there are delays, and that flying — which can also come with delays — typically doesn't save any time.

Looking ahead, Grant said he plans to keep supercommuting for the foreseeable future. He said the biggest downside of the commute is that he has to be away from his wife two days a week. However, he said he enjoys teaching and that working with students helps him stay up to date on what's popular with younger wine and beer consumers — which can also give him a leg up at his public relations job. He said he's considered looking for teaching jobs closer to home, but only a few schools offer similar courses.

Ultimately, he said the teaching job's pay — and the limited travel costs — are what's made his commute sustainable. In the future, he said the job could bring about another financial benefit: discounted college tuition for his children.

"Financially it still makes sense," he said of the commute. "I'd love to say I would do it even if it wasn't but that's not realistic."

Do you have a long commute to work? Are you willing to share your story with a reporter? Reach out to [email protected].

• Laid-off workers are taking lower-paying jobs amid a tough job market for white-collar roles.
• Many workers struggle to regain previous salary levels post-layoff.
• More than 800 people who experienced long periods of unemployment shared their frustrations with BI.

Some Americans who were laid off from high-paying jobs are responding to a tougher job market for white-collar workers by accepting a much lower-paying or lower-level role than they previously had.

Bill Rees, 65, said he earned about $130,000 annually as a hotel general manager, but after a layoff last year, he's struggled to secure anything in that pay range.

Rees now earns about $25 an hour at a property management company in Wisconsin, where he moved to care for his mother. He said bills are tight, and his high Medicare insurance premium is straining his finances. He said he doesn't spend much time looking for other jobs after hundreds of applications, though he's continuing to work hard to make ends meet.

"I just can't afford anything anymore," Rees said. "I anticipate having to work until at least 20 years after I'm dead to make it all come out even."

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Rees is one of many Americans who have had difficulty finding work recently. Since October, more than 800 recent job seekers between ages 18 and 76 responded to Business Insider's informal, nonrepresentative surveys on job hunting and shared their stories with reporters through emails.

Struggling to make ends meet

Jamie Jewell, 58, worked in public relations and administrative assistant roles and made about $50,000 at the peak of her career with a company car and benefits. Between layoffs, she held temporary jobs as a radio producer and defensive driving instructor, though she's struggled over the past few years to find stable employment that pays her bills.

Jewell faced a divorce in 2016 that set her back financially, and she moved in with her uncle six years ago when finances got tight.

Jewell, who's based in the Dallas area, makes about $1,000 monthly answering phones for a generator company and cares for her dad and uncle. She said she has no money to retire or financially assist her children, and she plans to continue working. Despite hundreds of unsuccessful applications, she said she's holding onto hope that she'll land something better-paying.

"In a corporate restaurant interview, a bunch of people in their 20s and early 30s came into the room and immediately looked at me, starting to grow gray hair, and their faces fell because even though I was perfect for the position, they wanted somebody younger," Jewell said.

BI previously reported that older Americans often had regrets about their careers, such as not prioritizing education and switching jobs too often. Statistics show it's often harder for older Americans to return to a comparable role after a layoff. Contributing to that is what some see as age discrimination. In a 2022 survey conducted by AARP, 64% of people over 50 say they'd either experienced or witnessed workplace age discrimination.

The struggles of those laid off and seeking work have been partly driven by a hiring slowdown in the US. Excluding a two-month pandemic-related dip in 2020, US businesses are hiring at the lowest rate since 2013, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Per the BLS, about 1.6 million people had been looking for work for at least six months as of December, up from 1.3 million a year prior.

To be sure, the unemployment rate remains low compared with historical levels, and the layoff rate remains low, according to BLS data.

How to navigate a tough job market

Cam, 60, worked as a graphic designer and tech manager, making in the mid-$200,000 range before a layoff in June 2023, followed by a rescinded offer. After 18 months, he took a vice president of marketing position for a plumbing company in November — an upgrade in title but with a salary in the high five figures, less than half his previous role.

"I regret allowing myself to get pigeonholed within a single industry, as I think that has made my time getting re-employed particularly difficult because I was entirely in the technology industry," Cam said.

Cam, who asked to use his first name due to ongoing salary negotiations, said he may not have struggled as much with applications if he diversified his résumé. He's struggled to find work in the six figures, and finances are tighter than he anticipated. Still, he said he's hopeful he will land a position meeting his salary expectations and has enough to stay afloat.

In a challenging labor market, accepting a lower-paying or lower-level job can serve as a "career stepping stone rather than a step back," Jennifer Herrity, a career expert at Indeed, told BI.

Herrity said that workers who accept jobs quite different from their desired role should use the opportunity to gain experience, develop skills, and network effectively. When applying for roles, Herrity said that job seekers could consider excluding a role from their résumé if they think it's completely unrelated to their desired role.

Andrew McCaskill, a career expert at LinkedIn, said taking a "bridge job" can help people "stay connected to the workforce, gain experience, and avoid résumé gaps, which can ultimately make it easier to land your desired role when the job market improves."

However, this career decision comes with risks. McCaskill said accepting a lower-paying role could have long-term implications on earnings, as it could take a while for someone to work up to their prior salary. Additional challenges could come with taking a significantly different job "if the skills and experience gained cannot easily transfer to the roles you're pursuing," he said.

Individuals who transition to lower-level roles within their industry could have a better chance of bouncing back. Scott Fite began looking for IT roles when he was laid off from his systems analyst job last April. He said he spent a couple of hours every day applying for jobs but had little luck.

"I applied to everything that I could be considered qualified for, even if it might have been an inconvenient commute," Fite, who's in his 60s and based in Pennsylvania, told Business Insider.

When Fite's severance payments ended in October, he was still unemployed. It wasn't until late November that Fite said he received his first job offer: a programmer position that was fairly similar to his prior role. The downside was that the pay was $68,000 annually, roughly $21,000 less than he made at his last job. He decided to accept the offer.

Fite said his lower income has led him and his wife to eat out less, cut a few subscriptions, and pay for repairs for their two vehicles rather than buy new ones. Looking forward, Fite is optimistic that he'll be able to catch up to his prior compensation level.

"I think in three or four years, I'll be back where I was salary-wise," he said. "If I receive another offer for more money, I can always accept that one. I just needed to get going again."

• Hospitals are using gig work apps to fill nursing shifts.
• While lucrative, many of the shifts can be difficult and stressful for nurses.
• Three nurses who have used the apps explain how much they've earned — and what they've experienced.

Nurses are using gig apps to make money. Doing so often involves working some of the most stressful jobs in nursing.

Some hospitals have trouble retaining full-time staff because they have a stressful work environment. That could be a trauma center, for instance, or a facility with many homeless patients who aren't getting support for chronic conditions, one nurse who picks up shifts for CareRev in Southern California, told Business Insider.

The problem has been compounded in the years since the pandemic, with many nurses feeling overwhelmed and considering a career change. Private-equity-owned facilities looking to reduce costs have also driven the rise of these apps, a report summary from the Roosevelt Institute released last month says.

One solution that hospitals are using is apps that allow nurses to pick up shifts — similar to the way that Uber drivers claim gigs driving people to the airport. Apps like CareRev, ShiftMed, and Clipboard Health pitch themselves to medical facilities, including those with staffing problems.

"We are that emergency help that they need to keep their hospital going," the nurse in Southern California said. The nurses who spoke to BI asked that their full names not be published for fear of retaliation from the apps, but BI has verified their identity and work.

CareRev, Clipboard, Medely, and ShiftMed did not respond to requests for comment from BI.

Nurses often find themselves 'thrown into' gigs

One nurse in California who has used the apps CareRev, Clipboard Health, and Medely said that many hospitals in her area that offer work through the apps don't appear to have the resources to hire as many full-time nurses as they need.

"Well-known hospitals like the Mayo Clinic are probably not going to be using ShiftMed," the nurse said. "It tends to be kind of smaller facilities and less-funded facilities."

At some facilities that use gig apps, nurses working through the apps can outnumber employees. At one intensive care unit where she has worked, the nurse in Southern California said, "There were eight of us, and seven didn't actually work there."

"When I go to these hospitals, especially some of them, you'll see only the app people and some travel nurses, and that's it," she said.

What orientation those hospitals provide to nurses who work there through the apps can affect the kind of care patients get.

"Every hospital has policies and procedures when they do things and we don't get training," the nurse in Southern California said. "We can read the booklet real fast in the morning, but we don't always know we're doing our best."

"There are instances where you get thrown into something and you do the best that you can, and care can unfortunately suffer because of that," the nurse on three apps in California told BI.

Sarah, a nurse in Wisconsin, said that most hospitals she's worked in have required workers hired through the apps to have at least one year of nursing experience. However, she said stepping into a new hospital with limited training can be challenging — and that this level of experience might be insufficient.

"You have to have a solid foundation — this is not the environment to build your skills," she said. "You really have to be solid."

Challenging nursing gigs often come with higher pay

Despite the challenges that come with these gigs, Sarah said the pay motivates many nurses to give them a shot.

"Everybody wants to chase the money," she said.

While the hourly rates for these gigs vary by hospital, the nursing role, and other factors, nurses told BI that they often pay roughly double what they make in their regular nursing jobs — as much as $115 an hour.

Sarah said that $75 an hour is a fairly standard rate in her experience — which would earn her $900 over a twelve-hour shift.

"What I'm making in CareRev is about double what I would be paid as a staff nurse for the hospitals in this area," she said.

The nurse in Southern California said that she considers roughly $90 an hour to be a typical hourly rate. That's compared to the roughly $80 an hour she estimated that a very experienced nurse would make at a large hospital in her area.

"I've seen it get to $114 on a holiday like Christmas," she said.

The nurse on three apps in California said she earns between $30 and $40 an hour at her main nursing job but often makes between $50 and $70 an hour through gig apps.

"If you're just picking up shifts on your own through these apps, it's more profitable to do it that way," she said.

Are you a nurse who works as an independent contractor and has a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected]

• An uptick in retirements and a decrease in immigration could help some job seekers.
• US businesses are hiring at the lowest rate since 2013, excluding a two-month dip in 2020.
• A smaller workforce could aid some job seekers but poses risks to the economy.

An uptick in retirements and a decrease in immigration could make it easier for some Americans to find work this year.

Cory Stahle, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab, told Business Insider that these factors are likely to make it "slightly easier" for some people to find work in 2025 — particularly those looking for "in-person, skilled-labor" jobs where hiring is the strongest on Indeed's job platform.

"Backfills for retiring employees, paired with fewer workers coming from abroad, are likely to mean less competition for many roles," he said, referring to government projections of lower net immigration levels this year and next, along with the potential for stricter immigration policies under the incoming Trump administration. "But it's probably still going to feel harder to find a job than it did during the hiring surge we saw in 2021 and early 2022."

There are some signs that the hiring landscape could improve, and economists told BI that the ongoing retirement wave and the potential for lower immigration levels could favor job seekers this year.

This could be the break many people wanted. While the unemployment rate remains low compared to historical levels, US businesses are hiring at the lowest rate since 2013 — excluding a two-month pandemic-related dip in 2020. This has made it harder for some people to find work. As of December, roughly 1.6 million people had been looking for work for at least six months — up from 1.3 million a year prior.

Stahle said that 2025 could mark an "important inflection point" when demographic factors begin to lead to a decline in the labor force participation rate — which he added has been roughly flat over the last year.

"Once that process starts, it is unlikely to reverse course without a massive surge in immigration or growth in labor market involvement from older workers above all-time highs," he said.

A gap in the workforce could be on the horizon

About 1.1 million baby boomers retired in 2024, and an estimated 2 million will do so this year, Adam Schickling, a senior economist at Vanguard, told Business Insider.

Schickling said there are roughly 8 million working Americans between the ages of 63 and 67 — a common age range for retirement. While there were a similar number of people in this group last year, Schickling said a larger share of this year's cohort is older — between the ages of 65 and 67 — which is among the reasons Vanguard expects an uptick in retirements.

Schickling added that some older workers postponed their retirements because the strong labor market made it easier to secure work. But he said many of these workers will likely choose to retire before they turn 70.

"2025 is shaping up to be one the biggest years for baby boomer retirements," he said. That, coupled with a smaller-than-usual cohort of people between the ages of 20 and 24, suggests there will be a very low labor supply growth this year, he added.

Stahle said workers over 55 are spread across the labor market but are particularly common in business, management, healthcare, and education roles.

Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office projected last year that net immigration levels — and overall population growth — would begin declining in 2025. Additionally, on the campaign trail, President-elect Donald Trump said he would carry out the "largest domestic deportation in American history," though the extent of his plans is unknown.

"If the incoming administration follows through on promises of limiting immigration and implementing mass deportations, it is likely that we see the demographics impact the labor supply sooner rather than later," Stahle said.

Leisure and hospitality, construction, and agriculture are the industries with the highest share of immigrant workers who are not US citizens as of 2022, per the most recent Census Bureau data available.

When reached for comment, Karoline Leavitt, spokeswoman for the Trump-Vance transition team, said that as president, Trump "will enlist every federal power and coordinate with state authorities to institute the largest deportation operation of illegal criminals, drug dealers, and human traffickers in American history while simultaneously lowering costs for families and strengthening our workforce."

A smaller workforce could ultimately hurt the economy

To be sure, it's uncertain how much retirements and changes to immigration levels will impact the US labor supply in 2025. Kory Kantenga, head of economics, Americas, at LinkedIn's Economic Graph Research Institute, told BI that retirement levels have been relatively stable over the past year, per LinkedIn data. Additionally, the specifics of the Trump administration's immigration policies haven't been announced.

While a lower labor supply might help some Americans find work, it could also come with significant economic downsides.

"Declining labor supply can improve prospects for job-searchers, but too few workers can also result in inflationary wage growth and supply disruptions that perpetuate inflation," Schickling said. For example, labor supply issues in the construction industry — which has long relied on immigrant labor — could make it more difficult for the US to increase its housing supply, he added.

Kantenga said that in the long run, having an economy with fewer workers could lead to lower consumer spending and slower economic growth.

"Slower growth means fewer opportunities for everyone," he said, adding, "And so it's not necessarily clear that it's going to make workers better off just because it may be easier for them to find a job."

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• Some companies are calling employees back to the office and hiring for in-person roles.
• But many Americans continue to work at least part of the week from home.
• Some workers could retain their flexible work arrangements but struggle to find a new remote role.

Americans who want to keep their work-from-home arrangements may need to cling to their current jobs.

Corporate giants like Amazon, AT&T, and JPMorgan have notified employees they must return to the office five days a week this year. This comes as the share of remote and hybrid postings on job platforms has ticked down in recent years — which has made landing one of these roles more difficult.

As of November, the share of remote and hybrid job postings on Indeed had declined to 7.8% from over 10% in 2022. On LinkedIn, the share of remote or hybrid postings had declined to roughly 21% as of December, down from 26% two years prior.

But remote and hybrid work hasn't faded away. In December, roughly 23% of US workers worked from home at least part of the time, up from about 19% two years prior, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Meanwhile, about 10% worked completely from home.

"We keep hearing stories that 'work-from-home is over,' and while yes it is true for some firms, others must be doing the reverse," Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford University economist and cofounder of the remote work research website WFH Research, told Business Insider. Bloom's research shows that the share of paid full days worked from home in the US has been fairly steady over the past two years — fluctuating between roughly 25% and 30%.

Bloom and other economists told BI that the divide between remote/hybrid job postings and work-from-home rates suggests that some employers could be prioritizing in-person hires while letting some of their existing employees continue working more flexibly. They said this strategy could allow companies to boost their in-office attendance without drawing the ire of employees who've grown used to a remote or hybrid arrangement.

"We know that companies frequently make exceptions to return-to-office mandates for employees to avoid losing them, so policy changes might affect new hires more than incumbent employees," Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, told BI.

This approach would allow workers to retain their flexible work arrangements — but make it more difficult for them to snag a remote or hybrid role at another company, Kory Kantenga, head of economics, Americas, at LinkedIn's Economic Graph Research Institute told BI.

"If you already have a job and you are grandfathered into this flexible work, you're maintaining it in a lot of cases," Kantenga said. "Companies are using those new positions to roll that flexible work back a little bit, but they're not necessarily rolling it back for the workers who already have it."

Why remote work could stick around

Even if more businesses prioritize in-person hiring, it could take a while for work-from-home rates to fall significantly, said Lisa Simon, chief economist at Revelio Labs. That's because hiring, layoffs, and quits have slowed, which means that "very few people have actually changed jobs in the last two years" and businesses haven't added many new workers who would be subject to recent RTO mandates, Simon told BI.

However, the modest share of available remote/hybrid jobs could be somewhat misleading. Simon said that a slowdown in hiring for white-collar roles — where flexible working arrangements are more common — could be pushing down remote/hybrid job postings.

Additionally, Bloom said some companies might not want to commit to a flexible working arrangement in the job posting, but could ultimately allow the employee to work from home at least some of the time.

"They don't want to repeat the 2021 mistake of promising generous work-from-home only to have to painfully reverse this later," he said. Bloom added that for some roles — like university professors — working from home on days when they don't have classes is a norm of the job. However, a job posting might not classify this position as remote or hybrid.

Pollak said remote/hybrid roles are generally underrepresented in job postings because they tend to have lower turnover than the typical in-person job.

"A hotel may replace its entire staff of janitors three times a year, but only replace its remote customer support staff every two years," she said.

Has your employer asked you to work from the office more days a week? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected].