Marketplace

Below is a copy of the latest Daily Wrap email from Marketplace.
Sign up for the Marketplace Daily Wrap to receive updates directly in your inbox each weekday evening.

We hope you enjoy today's briefing from Marketplace. Subscribe to more Marketplace newsletters here.

The new Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (or JOLTS) came out this morning, and the job market is … stable? Kind of? At least layoffs aren’t going up. That’s something!

Keep reading for stories on climate, energy, and the potential second coming of Twitter.

Plus: The global bond markets … they’re screaming … 🐑

— Rachel Kahn, temp newsletter writer

Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images

For every job seeker, there are 1.05 jobs available.

It’s a sliver of good news, but, as Sabri Ben-Achour explains, masks a lot of variation in the market.

The number of job openings in the U.S. didn’t change a whole lot last month, according to the fresh Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The JOLTS data also showed that while people are still pretty reticent to quit their jobs, layoffs aren’t up.

There was even a sliver of good-ish news: For every person out there looking for a job, there are 1.05 jobs available — at least on paper.

“The ratio of job openings relative to unemployed individuals — that’s a metric of how tight the labor market might be — actually continues to rise, and it’s at its highest level since January 2025,” said Deutsche Bank Chief Economist Matt Luzzetti.

The Federal Reserve could take that as a sign that it can go ahead and raise interest rates, since the job market looks strong enough to withstand an increase. (Remember, the Fed is considering raising rates to fight stubborn inflation.)

“So the labor market is not a reason to not raise rates at this point in time,” Luzzetti said.

Still, though the job market may be stable — the unemployment rate has come down, layoffs are down slightly — it’s not exactly a great job market.

Especially if you’re not working in an industry like, say, durable goods manufacturing.

News you should know

Let’s do the numbers

It’s a weak start to September’s stock market : S&P down 0.7%, Dow Jones down 0.8%, and the Nasdaq down 1%. The market is slipping for the third day in a row.

Bond buyers around the world are demanding some of the highest rates in a generation: Japan’s 10-year bond is the highest it's been since the ’90s, at 3%, and Germany’s 10-year government bonds are at their highest in over a decade. As interest rates rise around the world, they’ll rise in the U.S., too.

Climate

If you saw a football-field sized mound in the Utah mountains this summer, you probably wouldn’t have guessed what was hidden underneath: snow. As winters get hotter and drier, more ski mountains in the U.S. have been storing snow over the summer as insurance for the winter season.

Denver Water is turning to an unconventional method to try to conserve water during one of its hottest and driest summers on record: tattling.

As insurers pull back on coverage for areas vulnerable to climate disasters, more Americans have been forced to turn to surplus line plans — a last-resort insurance policy that’s often more expensive, and has fewer consumer protections.

Energy

U.S. oil refineries have been operating at 97% capacity to compensate for war damage across the globe. But soon, they’ll need to shut down for maintenance season, putting even more pressure on an already squeezed market.
Energy storage — think big batteries that store up solar power to use overnight — has nearly doubled since President Donald Trump took office. Bit weird, since Trump is certainly not as big a fan of renewables as President Biden was, right? But analysts say it makes perfect sense.

Jade Gao/AFP via Getty Images

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The consumer will see higher prices. What they may not see is the social-environmental impact of this business model, which is really powerful commercially, but it also causes enormous social and environmental challenges.”

— Ken Pucker, professor and former COO at fashion retailer and manufacturer Timberland

Ultra-fast fashion retailer Shein makes companies like Zara and H&M look slow: Where Zara and H&M pioneered the model of delivering product to stores two or three times a year, Shein churns out around 5,000 new styles daily — and at half the price. It’s no surprise that this is … not great for the environment.

Now, Shein’s gone public, putting even more distance between the consumer and how the sausage gets made.

HEAR MORE

Constanza Hevia/AFP via Getty Images

Final note

Will the real Twitter please stand up?

When Elon Musk turned Twitter, a social media platform where posting came with its own verb, into X (verbless), many thought that he was abandoning Twitter’s illustrious brand.

Some of those people founded a startup called Operation Bluebird to bring the old Twitter back. Obviously, Musk doesn’t love that — his X corporation sued Operation Bluebird in 2025 to stop the new company from launching its own site.

But in April, a U.S. district court judge tentatively ruled that X gave up intellectual property claims to the word “tweet,” the Twitter bird logo, and maybe even the word “Twitter” itself.

And as of yesterday, twitter.now is live. (Though at the time of writing, currently experiencing technical difficulties.)

Take the Marketplace news quiz!

Listen to “Marketplace,” test your knowledge, brag to your friends.

LET'S GO

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this newsletter, forward it to a friend. If this newsletter was forwarded to you, subscribe to Marketplace newsletters here.

Got feedback for us? Just reply to this email. We can't get back to everyone, but we read it all.