Axios PM

March 24, 2026
😎 Happy Tuesday! Today's newsletter, edited by Avery Lotz, is 769 words, a 3-min. read. Thanks to Sheryl Miller for copy editing.
🚨Breaking: The U.S. and a group of regional mediators are discussing the possibility of holding high-level peace talks with Iran as soon as Thursday, but they're still waiting for a response from Tehran, Axios' Barak Ravid reports.
- 🪖 The command element of the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division has been directed by the Pentagon to deploy to the Middle East with an infantry brigade of several thousand troops, a U.S. official tells Barak. Keep reading.
1 big thing: Job market gloom


College graduates are much more worried about the job market than workers who didn't go to college, Axios' Emily Peck writes from a Gallup analysis out today.
- The unemployment rate is relatively low. But hiring has slowed. And slipping worker sentiment signals things could get worse.
🧮 By the numbers: Gallup found in a separate January polling of U.S. adults that just 27% of college grads said now is a good time to find a quality job, according to data shared with Axios. But 44% of those who didn't graduate from college think it's a promising time to job hunt — a 17-point gap.
- That's the widest gap on record, going back to 2001.
- Today's report finds a similar chasm: Only 19% of college-educated employees say it's a good time to find a quality job, compared with 35% of employees without a college degree.
College-educated workers are as down on the job market as they were in 2013, when the U.S. was still climbing back from a recession.
- The unemployment rate was higher in 2013. But the hiring rate is as low now as it was then.
- Cory Stahle, an economist at Indeed, tells Axios that hiring is even worse for white-collar industries.
Go deeper ... Read the report.
2. 🤖 AI literacy for free

The Labor Department is launching a free AI literacy course aimed at skeptical Americans, Axios' Maria Curi reports exclusively.
- 🦾 The "Make America AI Ready" course covers AI's core capabilities and how to create clear prompts, among other basics.
- The material is "intentionally designed for Americans who may be a little fearful of or unsure about AI," the department says.
👩💻 Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said the initiative "is designed to ensure every American worker has the chance to learn foundational skills so they can benefit from the opportunities that the AI economy presents."
- Go deeper ... How to sign up.
3. ⚡️ Catch me up
- ⚡ Markwayne is moving in: Outgoing Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) was sworn in as the next Homeland Security secretary today after being confirmed last night in a mostly party-line vote. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) tapped energy executive Alan Armstrong to fill Mullin's Senate seat. What to know about Mullin.
- 🌐 Afghanistan's Taliban released American academic Dennis Coyle today after holding him for over a year. Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated Afghanistan as a state sponsor of wrongful detention earlier this month. Gift link.
- 🫏 New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill is launching a PAC to donate to Democratic candidates in the upcoming midterms. A breakout star of last year's elections, Sherrill is aiming to take her momentum national, Axios' Holly Otterbein reports.
- 🚀 NASA plans to commit $20 billion over the next seven years to develop a lunar base with the goal of achieving an "enduring human presence on the Moon." Check out the plans.
- 📊 The first "Where You Work Matters" list rates 1,750 U.S. employers on how they promote, pay and retain workers, Axios' Mike Allen reports. The database is a project of the Schultz Family Foundation and the Burning Glass Institute, in partnership with Harvard Business School's Managing the Future of Work Project. Explore the data.
4. 🤝 1 for the road: America's "dignity gap"

Nearly 8 in 10 Americans say they usually or always treat others with dignity, even when they disagree with them.
- 💔 But less than half say they're treated the same way, Alex Fitzpatrick writes from new "Dignity Barometer" polling from the nonprofit group Dignity Index.
The "dignity gap," as the group calls it, "suggests it might be hard to see our own contempt."
- Tim Shriver, chair of Special Olympics International, co-created The Dignity Index and founded UNITE, an initiative to ease national divisions.
Other findings: A majority of Americans are exhausted by the level of division in our society — and about 65% say we're too divided to solve our biggest problems.
- But there's consensus on how we should act: Nearly everyone says we should treat one another with dignity.
How it works: The Dignity Barometer data comes from a Hart Research online survey of 1,503 U.S. adults conducted Feb. 10–14.
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