>>Jobless Claims Are Up
(Washington, DC) -- The line at the unemployment office is getting longer. Jobless claims in the U.S. are jumping up five-thousand from the previous week. The U.S. Labor Department says initial unemployment insurance claims for the week ending April 15th is 245-thousand, which is up from 240-thousand in the previous week. The rise was bigger than expected. Experts say the rise in jobless claims indicates the strong labor market is starting to cool off.
>>Amazon Ranked Best Place To Work
(Undated) -- Amazon is the best place to work, according to an annual list out this week from LinkedIn. The list looked at a number of factors like layoffs, advancement opportunity and company culture. The next three on the list are financial institutions, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America. Google parent Alphabet, which was number two last year, fell to the fifth spot.
>>Apple Unveils New High-Yield Savings Account For Card Holders
(Cupertino, CA) -- If you have an Apple Card, you can now open a savings account with a four-point-one-five-percent interest rate. The tech giant is partnering with Goldman Sachs for the new feature, with accounts technically managed by the investment banking company, which means accounts are covered by the FDIC. Data from Bankrate puts Apple's interest rate at a competitive level for high-yield savings account. Originally, cash back earned from using Apple's credit card went to users' Apple Cash feature in their wallet, functioning like a checking account. Now, that cash back can go directly into savings.
>>Foreclosure Rates Growing
(Los Angeles, CA) -- Foreclosure rates are increasing across the country. According to real estate data analytics firm ATTOM, U.S. homeowners filed 22-percent more foreclosures this quarter, compared to the same time last year. ATTOM CEO Rob Barber says foreclosures due to the pandemic and unemployment rates are some of the reasons we're seeing more filings. The pandemic alone caused around two-million homeowners to fall behind on their mortgages. New York, Chicago and Los Angeles were the leaders in foreclosures for large cities.
>>Musk Says Tesla To Launch Full Self-Driving Technology This Year
(Fremont, CA) -- Elon Musk says Tesla will likely launch full self-driving technology this year. The CEO made the prediction on a conference call Wednesday, and said the test version of Tesla's Full Self-Driving software will be "two steps forward, one step back between releases," but that "the trend is very clearly towards full self-driving." The electric vehicle company currently sells self-driving software as an option.
