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Jeep and Ram maker Stellantis says it will offer buyout packages to many of its U.S. white-collar workers just five days after the company’s CEO said the auto industry is in the middle of a significant storm. The company told salaried workers that eligible employees will get individual offers in mid-August. The offers will be limited to certain job functions that Stellantis not identify. It also wouldn’t say by how much it wants to cut the salaried workforce. The company has about 11,000 salaried workers in the U.S. It wasn’t clear whether similar offers would be made in other countries. In a statement Tuesday, Stellantis said it faces inflationary pressures at the same time as it tries to make affordable vehicles for its customers.

U.S. job openings fell slightly last month, a sign that the American labor market continues to cool in the face of high interest rates. The Labor Department reported Tuesday that that vacancies were down to 8.18 million from 8.23 million in May. The U.S. economy and job market have proven remarkably resilient despite the Federal Reserve’s aggressive campaign to tame inflation by raising its benchmark interest rate to a 23-year high. But higher borrowing costs have taken a toll: Job openings peaked in 12.2 million and have come down more or less steadily ever since.

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares pledged action to tackle problems in North America and elsewhere after reporting a plunge in first-half earnings. Net profits at the U.S.-European automaker were down by half in the first six months of the year, due largely to lower sales and restructuring costs. The carmaker, which was created in 2021 from the merger of Fiat-Chrysler with PSA Peugeot, reported net profits of just over 6 billion dollars in the period, compared with slightly under 12 billion dollars in the same period last year. Tavares singled out North America as a place where there is “significant work to do,” citing issues with inventory management and sliding market share.

The new chair of Hong Kong’s leading media professional group says she lost her job at The Wall Street Journal after she refused her supervisor’s request to withdraw from the election for the leadership post. Reporter Selina Cheng says her supervisor told her that her job was eliminated due to restructuring, but she believes her association role is the real reason. Dow Jones publishes the newspaper and confirms it made “some personnel changes” but refused to comment on individuals. Hong Kong journalists work in a narrowing space after drastic political changes in the city once seen as a bastion of media freedom.

Loretta Mester, having worked in the Federal Reserve system her entire career, rose to become president of the Cleveland Fed for a decade until her retirement on June 30. During most of her years on the Fed’s interest-rate-setting committee, Mester was likely to favor relatively higher interest rates to contain inflation. This stance earned her the label of “hawk,” which describes officials who typically worry most about controlling inflation. Yet in a recent interview Mester reiterated that should inflation keep cooling, as she and other Fed officials expect, the central bank should cut rates this year.

The Federal Reserve is highlighting the importance of its political independence at a time when Donald Trump, who frequently attacked the Fed’s policymaking in the past, edges closer to formally becoming the Republican nominee for president. On Friday, the Fed released its twice-yearly report on its interest-rate policies, a typically dry document that primarily includes its analysis of job growth, inflation, interest rates and other economic trends. This time, the Fed used the report to stress the vital need for the central bank to operate independent of political pressures.

America’s employers delivered another healthy month of hiring in June, adding 206,000 jobs and once again displaying the U.S. economy’s ability to withstand continually high interest rates. Last month’s job growth did mark a pullback from 218,000 in May. But it was still a strong gain, reflecting the resilience of America’s consumer-driven economy, which is slowing but still growing steadily. Still, Friday’s report contained some signs of a slowing job market. The unemployment rate ticked up from 4% to 4.1%, a still-low number but the highest rate since November 2021. The government also sharply revised down its estimate of job growth for April and May by a combined 111,000.