Aspiring mall santas might want to work on honing their ho-ho-hos, because this year’s holiday job market is looking a lot more cutthroat.

Indeed searches for seasonal holiday positions jumped 27% from last year and were 50% above 2023 levels as of late September, according to a report the job site released yesterday. Meanwhile, openings grew only modestly:

• Holiday job listings for roles like cashier and seasonal associate rose just 2.7% from 2024, suggesting that competition might be more intense than in years past.
• While holiday openings are up from 2024, they are below their 2023 levels and lower than what was typical pre-pandemic.

Analysts say job seekers applying for holiday work earlier in the fall is likely due to a slowing hiring market. There might be more people looking to get paid directing customers to the ugly sweater aisle, with the US losing 32,000 private sector jobs last month, per ADP’s payroll data.

There’s even grimmer projections

The outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas expects retail holiday hiring to fall 8% from last year, possibly hitting its lowest level since 2009, when the global financial crisis made the season not so merry. The company said that looming tariffs, inflation, and an embrace of automation might be making employers less inclined to hire during the holidays.

Holiday employment heavyweights UPS and FedEx have yet to release hiring goals for this season, while Target emphasized its plans to rely on existing workers. Amazon said it plans to onboard 250,000 additional workers to help with the holiday rush, matching its hiring spree from last year.

Big picture: Gift sellers might be more reluctant to splurge on hiring this year, as they’re not optimistic about their cash haul during the festive weeks. The National Retail Federation expects an average holiday shopper to spend 1.3% less than last year.—SK

Trump says he’ll meet with Putin in Hungary. Following what he described as a “lengthy” and “very productive” phone call with Vladimir Putin, President Trump said he plans to meet with the Russian leader soon in Budapest to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. The phone call came ahead of today’s meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, where the two are expected to discuss sending long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine. The missiles would allow Ukraine to reach much farther into Russia, including to Moscow, which experts say could force Putin to negotiate. Trump said Putin “didn’t like that idea” when he brought it up during their phone call.

Furniture tariffs prompt IKEA to raise prices. The Swedish home furnishings giant, known for its low prices, is particularly vulnerable to tariffs because it sources only 15% of the products it sells in the US regionally. “We have to adapt and pass on parts of the cost increase to the customers,” Tolga Öncü, retail manager at Ingka (which operates most IKEA stores), told the Wall Street Journal. Total retail sales at the company fell for the second year in a row as inflation keeps US shoppers from making some big purchases. President Trump’s 25% tariff on upholstered wooden furniture, kitchen cabinets, and vanities went into effect this week.

Nestle is cutting 16,000 jobs as part of turnaround effort. The biggest food company in the world is slashing the roles to “simplify our organization” and “automate our processes,” CEO Philipp Navratil wrote in a LinkedIn post. The maker of everything from Kit Kat candy bars to Nespresso coffee pods, Nestle has faced investor pressure over falling demand in China and internal drama, including the ouster of its previous CEO, Laurent Freixe, over an undisclosed romantic relationship with an employee. Nestle’s stock spiked more than 9% yesterday following the news of the layoffs.—AE

If the wait time for an Uber seems longer than usual, perhaps your driver is in a parking lot uploading a Spanish-language menu as part of the new “digital tasks” program the ride-share giant announced yesterday, which pays drivers to train its AI models.

As part of a pilot program, US-based drivers who opt in will be able to earn extra money (the amount depends on the complexity) on their phones between trips by:

• Recording audio in certain languages or accents.
• Entering documents in different languages (The Verge reports uploading a menu is worth as much as $1).
• Submitting specific photos.

Are drivers training their replacements? This new program is in support of Uber AI Solutions, which recently expanded its data-labeling business by purchasing Segments.ai, a Belgian startup that uses information gathered from cameras and sensors to enable autonomous driving. However, an Uber spokesperson said the data obtained from driver tasks will not be used to develop driverless vehicles.

AI data race: This move could allow Uber to become a bigger AI player and compete with companies like Scale AI, which offers similar data-collection services and received a $14 billion investment from Meta in June.—DL

RIP Smeagol, you would’ve hated the idea of precious treasures that no one can physically grasp. And hello to Erebor, a new crypto-focused US bank that received initial federal approval this week, teeing it up to fill a financing gap left by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and other tech lenders in 2023.

Erebor—named after a mountain from JRR Tolkien’s universe where a dragon guarded immeasurable riches—was co-founded earlier this year by Palmer Luckey:

• That’s the guy with a soul patch and mullet who runs the weapons manufacturer Anduril, which is also the name of Aragorn’s sword from The Lord of the Rings.
• Erebor investors include Joe Lonsdale and Peter Thiel, co-founders of Palantir, the oft-protested software company that…also gets its name from the Tolkien franchise.

Luckey’s new venture will offer traditional and crypto-oriented banking to upstart tech companies and the ultrawealthy, according to its charter application and approval letter. It needs another stamp of approval from more federal officials before operations can commence, but road bumps are unlikely under President Trump’s crypto-friendly administration.

“Palmer’s political network will get this done,” an Erebor fundraising memo promised earlier this year. Luckey, Lonsdale, and Thiel are longtime Trump backers, and an attorney who helped them draft Erebor’s charter application is now chief counsel to the federal official who just granted the bank’s preliminary approval.—ML

The US passport hasn’t dropped off this hard since your little brother’s fell under the refrigerator right before you were supposed to leave for the airport.

For the first time in the 20-year history of the Henley Passport Index, the US is no longer among the 10 most powerful passports in the world, falling to 12th:

• The index measures the number of countries a traveler can visit without needing a visa.
• Singapore is 1st with 193, followed by South Korea and Japan. Afghanistan is last.

In 2014, the US passport ranked No. 1 but has fallen steadily since. The report attributes the tumble in part to the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Brazil also removed US travelers from its visa-free list this year due to a lack of reciprocity.—AE

The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew’s Weekly News Quiz has been compared to when the delivery fries are still crispy.

It’s that satisfying. Ace the quiz.