Department of Labor

The U.S. Federal Reserve left its key lending rate unchanged on Wednesday and penciled in just one rate cut this year, down from the three expected in March after inflation stalled in the first quarter.

The promise of self-checkout was alluring: Customers could avoid long lines by scanning and bagging their own items, workers could be freed of doing those monotonous tasks themselves and retailers could save on labor costs.

A US central bank official has said that more interest rate hikes "will likely be needed" to bring inflation down further, shortly after policymakers lifted rates to the highest level since 2001.

U.S. consumer prices barely rose in May and the annual increase in inflation was the smallest in more than two years, though underlying price pressures remained strong.

Rail companies and their workers reached a tentative agreement on Sept. 15 to avert a nationwide strike that could have shut down the nation's freight trains and devastated the economy less than two months before the midterm elections.

Freight railroads and their unions are facing increasing pressure from business groups and the White House to settle their contract dispute before Sept. 16's looming strike deadline.

Red-hot U.S. inflation is showing few signs of cooling, putting the Federal Reserve on track to continue its aggressive interest rate increases to help cool high prices that are challenging Joe Biden's presidency.    

In the 50 largest U.S. metro areas, median rent rose an astounding 19.3 percent from December 2020 to December 2021, according to a Realtor.com analysis of properties with two or fewer bedrooms.

The coronavirus pandemic has hit the lower-wage service jobs disproportionately in the U.S. and labor market recovery could persist through 2022, according to Fitch Ratings.

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"Employment recovery is far from complete and largely unequal," the global rating agency said in a statement on Wednesday.

Fewer than expected Americans filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week as an improving public health environment allows more segments of the economy to reopen, putting the labor market recovery back on track.