Axios

Google's introducing three new ad formats for AdSense, its ad placement service that serves millions of advertisers globally. The new formats are "native" ad formats, meaning they are highly customizable to match the look and feel of a publishers' content, and are very mobile-friendly.

From a user perspective, native formats can make for a less intrusive experience, although can sometimes be confused with content if not properly labeled. From a publisher perspective, the updates will make it easier to create ads for different screen sizes.

Why it matters: Google has been aggressively pushing efforts to improve the user ad experience on its platform, including these new ad units, but some search engine optimization experts argue the changes will only further bury publishers' organic content on its platform.

Chinese search giant Baidu announced Wednesday that it is offering its Apollo self-driving car technology free, MIT Technology Review reports.

The decision to make its software open source aims to allow China's auto sector to catch up in the race to put fully autonomous cars on urban roads, which Baidu plans to accomplish by the end of 2020. Startup AutonomouStuff demonstrated Apollo's bootstrapping capabilities, presenting a Lincoln vehicle that it turned into a rudimentary self-driving car using the Apollo technology in just three days.

Why it matters: American software designers have guarded their self-driving car technology, but Baidu's open source strategy is meant — like Google did with Android — quickly amass driver data necessary to test and improve its code. The Chinese government also likes the open-source model, as it will help them better regulate the technology and use it for urban planning.

OnboardIQ, a three-year-old startup that provides an applicant tracking system for hourly workers, has raised $9.1 million in Series A funding. The company's product lets employers accept job applications, communicate with candidates, and even automates tasks like sending out paperwork and scheduling interviews.

Why it matters: As new business models and technology are changing the labor needs in a growing number of industries from retail to logistics, employers need new tools to hire hourly workers more efficiently.

Key trend: From processing more than 3.4 million job applications (yielding 400,000 hires), OnboardIQ has noticed that about one in five candidates ends up applying to work at another company. According to co-founder and COO Jeremy Cai, this is consistent with workers' two primary priorities — having flexibility and more work hours — both of which they achieve by working for multiple services.

The Trump Administration's tough stance on foreign labor has overlooked one of its largest sources: H-2A visas that permit temporary farm laborers to work in the U.S.

Public-radio consortium Fronteras reports that demand for such visas is on the rise, and with that the opportunity for firms to exploit workers who have few connections to the country beyond their employer. President Trump reportedly told agricultural industry leaders he had no plans to crack down on H-2A issuance — employers can now apply for an unlimited number of visas, as long as they meet requirements like providing transportation and housing to guest workers.

Why it matters: As the labor market tightens, farmers will increasingly turn to foreign labor, which already constitutes the majority of the U.S. agricultural workforce. Trump has himself made use of temporary foreign labor for his resorts, and his reluctance to restrict this type of immigration puts him at odds with labor activists on the left and Breitbart-style conservatives on the right.

Building supply company 84 Lumber pays entry level manager trainees $40,000 per year, with those managing top-grossing stores earning $200,000 to $1 million. But the firm is struggling to fill such positions, even as millions of college students take on debt for liberal arts degrees that won't create such opportunities, Bloomberg Businessweek reports. "The forgotten half of the high school class is suddenly valuable," Georgetown labor scholar Anthony Carnevale tells Bloomberg, "but not until they've trained up."

Why it matters: Companies like 84 Lumber are ratcheting up spending on training and workforce development as the skilled-worker shortage gets worse. College graduates make more money on average than high school graduates, but there are more opportunities today than in a generation for young workers to strategically avoid a traditional 4-year degree in favor of prospects in industries like construction.

When it comes to high-skilled immigration, the U.S.'s loss could be Canada's gain. Canada recently launched a Global Skills Strategy visa program to make it easier for its companies to bring in foreign workers with specific technology or business skills. The program allows firms to have a position pre-approved and get visas within two weeks — a stark contrast to the months-long U.S. visa process.

Why it matters: The Trump administration has moved to restrict the number of immigrants coming into the U.S. on work visas, which worries big tech and consulting firms that use the H-1B visa program to fill technical and specialized jobs. Canada's government is seizing the moment to provide an option for engineers, executives and other tech talent who may no longer qualify for an H-1B visa or who simply don't feel comfortable staying in the U.S.

Twenty-something men are working many fewer hours than they did a decade and a half ago, according to a new study, and the biggest reason is that they prefer to play video games.

Men aged 21-30 worked 12% fewer hours in 2015 than they did in 2000, according to the study, published Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research, and about half the reason is the time they spend gaming.

Why it matters: The results suggest that reduced work for prime-age men is not just or even mostly because they can't find jobs or sufficient hours. It's that, rather than accept what is out there, they choose the contemporary equivalent of hanging out at the pool hall or the race track. In fact, in 2015, roughly 15% of young men worked zero weeks over the year, nearly double the rate in 2000.