Axios

The U.S. job market is brushing up against its best performance in a half-century, but certain occupations are in greater demand than most — those involving new or particularly human-led skills that seem least subject to automation.

In its latest quarterly index, provided first to Axios, Cognizant reports that “jobs of the future” — occupations like cyber calamity forecaster, career counselor and solar engineer — jumped 68% in 2018, vastly outperforming the market as a whole.

Viacom announced Tuesday that it has agreed to buy Pluto TV — one of the fastest-growing free, ad-supported TV streaming services in the U.S. — for $340 million in cash.

Why it matters: It's the latest digital technology company that Viacom has acquired over the past year to bring its brand, which consists mostly of legacy TV networks, into the digital future.

The NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations division has signed a multi-year contract with Comscore to provide measurement for the 40 local broadcast networks owned and operated by NBC and Telemundo.

Why it matters: It's the latest local broadcast deal to close with Comscore amid pressure to explore new types of TV measurement that extends beyond linear TV consumption that has been traditionally measured by Nielsen. Gray, Nexstar and Scripps have all also signed with Comscore in the past few months.

Vox Media is acquiring The Coral Project, an open-source publishing platform that is housed within the Mozilla Foundation. Deal terms have not been disclosed.

Why it matters: The deal underscores Vox Media's push to sell software as a service (SaaS) technology as a standalone revenue stream. It will also help The Coral Project grow faster by selling its technology to more newsrooms through Vox's sales team.

Truck shipments' year-over-year growth fell in December for the first time since 2016, data from the Cass Freight Index showed.

Why it matters: Truck shipments are thought to be a leading indicator as they're very sensitive to market fears. When things are good, suppliers load up, but in hard times the oversupply of trucks and weak demand from shippers can lead to quickly declining rates and a prolonged downturn for the industry, often coupled with more widespread economic malaise.

An urgent desire for societal change and a chaotic media environment is driving a renewed interest in fact-finding, according to Edelman's 2019 Trust Barometer. That effort is leading to a rise in the consumption and sharing of information from traditional news media outlets.

Why it matters: This is a huge difference from the same survey's results from one year ago, when most people said they were turning away from traditional media because they thought it was biased and driven by clickbait.

A loss of trust in traditional leaders, like government officials and journalists, is pushing people to develop more trusted relationships at work and with their employers, according to Edelman's 2019 Trust Barometer survey.

Why it matters: This crucial shift in the employee-employer relationship creates new opportunities for CEOs and corporate executives to rebuild societal trust, but it also puts an enormous responsibility on them to address complicated issues, from civic inequality to gun control.

China’s full-year economic growth in 2018 came in at 6.6% — slower than the 6.8% rate in 2017 — marking the slowest pace since 1990, as forecast by economists. Growth in the final quarter of the year rose to 6.4%, compared to the 6.5% in the prior quarter.

Why it matters: Tariffs have taken a toll on the Chinese economy, but there were signs of a slowdown before the U.S.-China trade war began, as the government cracked down on high debt levels. The weak GDP number solidifies clues we’ve seen in recent months, including weak factory activity and trade data, plus a rare warning from Apple CEO Tim Cook. Still, per the retail sales report released on Sunday that topped expectations, the Chinese consumer is still holding up for now.