As the nation marks Black History Month, a look back at the history of globalization reveals economic and racial inequities that still reverberate.

Why it matters: Black Americans have been disproportionately affected by the manufacturing sector’s contraction, Nathan writes.

• Among median-wage, non-college-educated employees, Black workers earn $5,000 more per year in manufacturing jobs than in other roles.

Driving the news: Black workers lost 646,500 manufacturing jobs from 1998 to 2020, wiping out more than 30% of their employment in the sector, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute.

• Black Americans went from 10.6% of the industry’s positions at their peak to 10.2% in 2020.

Many of those higher-paying jobs have disappeared as production shifted overseas.

• “The loss of jobs offering good wages and superior benefits in manufacturing has narrowed a once viable pathway to the middle class, particularly for workers of color — who represent a disproportionate share of those without a college degree,” according to the EPI report.

Ripple effects: The job losses have had a “spiral effect” on communities with a high percentage of people of color by undermining their tax bases, report co-author Valerie Wilson tells Axios.

• “The jobs that were growing and newly available were not the same quality of jobs that were lost,” Wilson says, noting that low-paying service-sector positions have proliferated.

What’s next: EPI is calling for an investment in infrastructure and climate-change-related programs to boost U.S. exports and pair it with policies that “help ensure that workers of color and women can access these jobs.”

ExxonMobil’s got its groove back, Nathan writes.

What’s happening: The oil giant's stock is trading at its highest point since early 2019.

• Exxon swung from a $22 billion loss in 2020 to a $23 billion profit in 2021, its best performance since 2014.

Between the lines: The company committed to net-zero emissions on its operations by 2050 after years of criticism for its handling of climate change.

What we’re watching: Whether that commitment is serious and how it affects the company's bottom line.

👷‍♂️ Total job openings were little changed in December from the prior month. The quits rate stayed around 2.9%, declining in health care. (WSJ)

🏈 Seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady "officially" retired from the NFL. (Axios)

🍿 Theater chain AMC expects around $1.2 billion in revenue for the last three months of 2021, more than 7x a year earlier. (Deadline)

Companies talk openly these days about ways to improve workers’ lives, but employers in the service sector may be ignoring a critical issue, writes Axios Markets author Emily Peck.

• Workers in the service industries — think retail and restaurants — continue to face unpredictable work schedules, seeing little change from what they experienced in 2017, according to a new study from the Shift Project, a national survey of more than 100,000 workers at the nation's biggest retailers.

Why it matters: Unstable schedules harm workers' health and well-being, and the well-being of their children — especially during a time of uncertainty around schools and child care.

By the numbers: About two-thirds of workers received less than two weeks’ notice of their work schedule.

• 21% performed “on-call” assignments, requiring them to be available if needed, but without paying them for their time.
• 57% experienced last-minute changes to scheduled shifts.

The bottom line: Flexibility is the new buzzword for a certain class of professionals, but for those earning low pay, more structure is desperately needed.

Self-driving cars will be rule followers on the road, Nathan writes.

Driving the news: Tesla is recalling more than 53,000 vehicles after federal regulators balked at the company’s Autopilot system allowing its vehicles to come to a rolling stop at intersections.

• The company had released a software update allowing rolling stops when no moving cars, pedestrians or bicyclists are nearby.
• The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was not amused.

Tesla has agreed to remove the feature with an over-the-air software update.

The bottom line: You don’t have to follow the law, but your car does.

"All I wanted was some steak."