If you’ve ever gotten car sick during a long drive, you know the relief of finally getting to your destination. In some ways, the latest jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is offering similar relief.

Friday’s unexpectedly positive report, encompassing employment data for December, marked a cautiously optimistic end to a tumultuous year for the labor market. At the same time, as plenty of uncertainty awaits employers and their hiring strategies in 2025, this latest data may be more like pulling into a rest stop than arriving at the end of a bumpy ride.

Finishing strong. Despite slowing job growth, the labor market managed to evade recession fears last year. “The strong jobs growth we saw today, along with the drop in the unemployment rate, affirm that the job market is cooling gradually rather than slowing more dramatically,” Daniel Zhao, Glassdoor’s senior economist, told HR Brew.

Looking ahead. Despite a cautiously optimistic end to 2024, the labor market continues to face uncertainty in the year ahead, particularly with the change in administrations and potential policy changes.

Keep reading here.—PM

Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t kidding when he said, “move fast and break things,” and it appears that this January, the company he founded is breaking its own things.

After a tumultuous week, during which Meta upended its fact-checking system and loosened its content moderation policies, angering some employees (more on that below), the company is breaking its DE&I initiatives.

What’s changing? In a Jan. 10 memo, Janelle Gale, Meta’s VP of HR, told employees that the company would be dissolving its DE&I department, and ending several related initiatives, Axios reported. The company did not say if the department’s employees will be let go or moved into new roles, but Maxine Williams, who previously served as Meta’s chief diversity officer, has transitioned to a role in accessibility and engagement. While Williams has a nearly 20-year career in DE&I, it’s unclear if she has a background in accessibility.

Why now? The memo cited the 2022 Supreme Court decision on affirmative action as a driver of the latest decisions. However, the changes were announced shortly after CEO Mark Zuckerberg added Dana White, head of the UFC and a supporter of President-elect Trump, to the company’s board of directors. Meta also hired Joel Kaplan, a Republican lobbyist and George W. Bush’s former chief of staff, as its new global policy chief.

Keep reading here.—KP

Meta has made a number of controversial moves recently, and while employees have voiced concerns, their concerns are disappearing, according to reports.

It all started on Jan. 7, when Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced major changes at the company. First, it would be sunsetting its third-party fact-checking system, opting instead for a community notes system akin to the one Elon Musk instituted at X. Meta also changed its content moderation guidelines, without which members of the LGBTQ+ community may be referred to as having “mental illness” and women as being property, CNN reported. Zuckerberg also brought on the former chief of staff for former President George W. Bush, Joel Kaplan, as the company’s new chief global affairs officer, as well as Trump loyalist and UFC head Dana White.

Some employees shared their discontent over the changes on Workplace, the company’s in-house server, expressing concern that the new changes would reflect “unintended or unwanted” company values, CNBC reported.

However, some of those comments, including some about White’s alleged domestic abuse, were removed from Workplace, according to CNBC.

Keep reading here.—KP