Happy St. Patrick’s Day! You’re probably going to have to spend that pot of gold on gas.

 

The price at the pump keeps rising, so in today’s newsletter we’ll look at why high gas prices make consumers feel especially powerless. Later, we’ll explain how businesses are using AI and explore which jobs are at risk of being replaced. But first, airlines are struggling this spring break, and not just because of fuel costs. My colleague Samantha Fields has got the list of woes weighing them down. — Carrie Barber, newsletter writer

Tuesday marked Day 18 of the war in Iran.

Oil prices are fluctuating, but high — around $95 a barrel on Tuesday. Commercial air space in much of the Middle East remains closed. And at airports in the U.S., lines keep getting longer as the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security stretches into a second month and more TSA agents call off. All of this is adding up for airlines.

Just a few weeks ago, airlines were paying about $2.50 a gallon for jet fuel. On Tuesday, it was closer to $4 a gallon.

“That is putting extreme financial pressure on airlines,” said Charles Duncan, a partner at AltitudeX Aviation Group.

Duncan said no one has any idea how long those high fuel prices will last.

“Which makes it nearly impossible to plan for,” he said. “So I think everyone is taking it day to day, week to week.” 

Check out this nifty, if dark, interactive chart that plots which jobs are most and least vulnerable to artificial intelligence disruption. If you look up your profession (gift link), The Washington Post has these caveats: Researchers are terrible at predicting this stuff, there’s no evidence of large-scale AI replacement yet, and workers most at risk of replacement tend to be in the best position to find new jobs.