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National

Data: Bureau of Labor Statistics; Note: data includes lockouts; Chart: Axios Visuals

The number of major worker strikes in the U.S. rose to its second highest level in two decades in 2022, per a government report out Wednesday. 

Why it matters: The strength of the labor market and the rise in popularity of unions drove up the numbers. COVID-era issues, like short-staffing, burnout and pay that didn't keep up with inflation, also pushed workers to the picket lines. 

By the numbers: These aren't the blue-collar factory strikes of yore. There were 23 major work stoppages last year, involving a total of 120,600 workers, and 98% of the folks work in the service sector, specifically healthcare and education.

The biggest strike of 2022 was the 40-day walkout of 48,000 graduate students at the University of California, followed by 15,000 nurses who walked out in Minnesota. 

Context: The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which published the report, only tracks work stoppages that involve more than 1,000 workers — and that leaves out a lot of strikes. 

Per Cornell's ILR Labor Action Tracker, which examines the whole universe of work stoppages, 224,000 workers walked out in 2022 across 417 strikes and seven lockouts — an increase of more than 50% from 2021.

The smaller strikes involved more people in food services. 131 work stoppages involved Starbucks workers or fast-food workers organizing with the Fight for $15 campaign, Cornell reports.

Zoom out: Common demands from striking workers included higher pay, followed by health care, health and safety issues and staffing, according to Cornell's database.

The nurses in Minnesota reached an agreement that gives them an 18% wage increase over three years, and a say in staffing levels. 

The University of California academics who went on strike won pay increases, including some as high as 55%, as well as better childcare and health benefits.

Yes, but: The numbers are small compared to strike activity in the last century. 

More than 1 million workers went on strike in 1979. But after that, President Ronald Reagan took the White House and famously proceeded to deliver a major blow to the labor movement when he fired striking air traffic controllers in 1981.

Major worker strikes increased nearly 50% last year as union popularity grew

These aren't the blue-collar factory strikes of yore.

Labor

Economy

After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

Economy & Business

Former Israeli national security adviser Eyal Hulata, who was deeply involved in mediation efforts between Kyiv and Moscow last year, recently told Axios he doesn’t see any chance there will be a deal to end the war in Ukraine anytime soon. 

What he's saying: If both sides think time is on their side, a deal won't be possible, Hulata said in his first time speaking about Israeli policy toward the war since leaving the Prime Minister's Office in early January. "It was true in the beginning of the war, and it is still true today."

The big picture: Israel over the course of the year has taken a relatively cautious approach to Russia's invasion, wary of upsetting the Kremlin and harming Israel's security interests in Syria. 

But as the war grinds on and Iranian aid to Russia becomes clearer, the Israeli government is facing pressure at home and abroad to reconsider its policy of not sending military aid to Ukraine. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said in recent weeks that he will consider renewing Israeli mediation if he is asked to do so.

But Hulata thinks it won’t be possible after everything he's learned from Israel's past failed mediation efforts. "Israel doesn’t have the ability to go back into this. It was the case since the mediation died last April, and it is still true today."

Flashback: Hulata was one of the closest advisers to former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who on the second day of the Russian invasion was asked by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to mediate between him and Russian leader Vladimir Putin. 

Bennett, who had no experience in international diplomacy, decided to try.

The former prime minister’s dramatic March 5, 2022, meeting with Putin in Moscow was the key part of the mediation initiative.

Behind the scenes: Hulata said the idea of traveling to Moscow to meet with Putin was a result of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's trip to Jerusalem on March 2.

"We needed to make sure we are operating under a clear mandate from the U.S. and the E3 — France, Germany and the U.K. Bennett was serious about it. We didn’t want this to be a PR stunt," he stressed.

Bennett said he spoke in advance with the leaders of the U.K., France, Canada and the U.S. According to Bennett, Canada and the U.K. weren't enthusiastic. France was on board, and the U.S. was somewhere in the middle. 

The Biden administration was "not against it, but they were skeptical about the chances of success. And in hindsight, they were right," Bennett said.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told Bennett at the time that he didn't think Putin was ready to stop and roll back the invasion, but that he should go to Moscow and see what he says, Hulata recalled.

“At the time, there weren’t too many people who could speak to Putin," Hulata said.

Scenes from Bucha, Ukraine, after Russian troops retreated. Photo: Anastasia Vlasova/Getty Images

Hulata and Bennett both agreed that after the meeting with Putin, there was a feeling that the gaps were not as wide as people thought and that a deal was possible.

"In the next month, the mediation efforts were almost the only thing we did," Hulata told Axios. He said Israel was deeply involved in the negotiations that were taking place in March in Belarus between Russian and Ukrainian diplomats.

The Ukrainian side sent the draft proposals to Jerusalem and we gave our input, Hulata said. Some 18 proposals were exchanged during these weeks, according to Hulata and two other sources directly involved.

But by late March, it became clear "the penny [had] dropped" and the mediation efforts were not going anywhere, Hulata said.

“They finally died when Bucha happened," he added, referring to the atrocities committed against civilians that were revealed after Russian forces withdrew from the city at the end of March.

What they're saying: "We saw that each party thought it was winning. Zelensky was not open to any concession, Putin thought he was winning, and the Western countries saw the Russians bleeding and saw it as an opportunity to strengthen NATO," Hulata told Axios. "What we realized at the time is that the real issues between Russia and Ukraine are unbridgeable."

Nevertheless, he doesn’t regret the mediation effort.

“From day one, we felt that we can’t stand idly by and let this war continue without trying to stop it. The choice was between being careful and doing nothing and trying, failing and taking the risk that we will be criticized," he said. "It’s true, we failed, but I was proud we tried."

Inside Israel's failed Ukraine-Russia mediation efforts

A year after the invasion began, the Israeli leaders who tried to bring an end to the war reflect on why their efforts failed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett during a meeting in Sochi, on Oct. 22, 2021. Photo: Yevgeny Biyatov/Sputnik/AFP

Russian invasion of Ukraine

Russia

Ukraine

Israel

Conflicts, policies and powers are intersecting and shaping the world. Breaking news and analysis of national security, foreign policy and global crises.

World

JPMorgan Chase is restricting its staff's use of OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to Axios.

Why it matters: ChatGPT has generated buzz over its potential for countless applications, but it's also raising concerns about its capability to fuel online misinformation. 

Generative AI programs do not have a clear distinction of the separation between fact and fiction. 

Driving the news: JPMorgan's decision to restrict usage of the chatbot was not made in response to a specific event, but is part of standard controls for third-party software usage, according to the Telegraph, which first reported on the move.

The big picture: OpenAI's free public test of ChatGPT opened on Nov. 30.

Microsoft earlier this month detailed its plans to add a more powerful version of the AI engine behind ChatGPT to both Bing and the Edge web browser, Axios' Ina Fried reports. 

Zoom out: Several school districts have also banned ChatGPT from their systems, with some professors fearing a "flood" of cheating. 

Others in education see the platform as having the potential to modernize how writing is taught in schools, Axios' Jennifer Kingson reports. 

Our thought bubble: From Axios tech managing editor Scott Rosenberg: "Big companies see risk in ChatGPT use from two directions: They worry that employees might use the tool to communicate with customers and the public, who might object. They also want to make sure that employees aren’t sharing confidential or proprietary info with ChatGPT and its operators."

Editor's note: This story was corrected to reflect the restrictions were first reported by the U.K.'s Telegraph.

Go deeper... How ChatGPT became the next big thing 

JPMorgan restricts staff from using ChatGPT

The decision was not made in response to a specific event.

photo illustration of the American multinational investment bank and financial services company J.P. Morgan logo

Photo illustration of the J.P. Morgan logo. Photo: Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

JP Morgan Chase

 Generative AI could change many industries, but it still requires an actual person to interact with it. Enter the prompt engineers — people and firms setting themselves up as experts at getting what you want from ChatGPT and similar tools.

Why it matters: Fulfilling AI’s promise of effective automation and productive brainstorming, many experts believe, will require skilled human operators.

“Writing a really great prompt for a chatbot persona is an amazingly high-leverage skill and an early example of programming in a little bit of natural language,” Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT creator OpenAI, said on Twitter Monday.

When prompted to define “prompt engineering,” ChatGPT itself told Axios that “effective prompt engineering is critical for generating high-quality outputs from generative AI models, as it can help ensure that the model generates content that is relevant, coherent, and consistent with the desired output.”

What they're saying: “It’s kind of like selling jeans during the gold rush,” Stephen Fraga, founder of the new chatbot-training business Prompt Yes!, told Axios, referring to the ecosystem of ventures that spring up in a boom. “It's not actually going out and digging up gold.”

State of play: Many different businesses have already jumped in, some dating back to last summer's image-generating AI craze around Dall-E 2, Stable Diffusion and Midjourney.

Platforms like PromptHero, Promptist and Krea serve as prompt search engines or inspiration for those looking for the right words to use.

Marketplaces like PromptBase allow users to buy different prompts and sell their own.

Trainers and educators are fanning out to help industries train workers on how best to use the new technologies, with video lecture sites like Udemy already offering many courses on them.

Meanwhile, a host of new “prompt engineer” jobs have opened and many job seekers are adding those two words to their resumés.

A variety of locations have openings for the role, like a children’s hospital in Boston and a law firm in London.

Freelancer marketplaces like Fiverr and Upwork are already filled with people offering their AI prompt skills.

And of course there are books. David Boyle, director of brand agency Audience Strategies and author of the new book “Prompt: A Practical Guide to Brand Growth Using ChatGPT," tells Axios he and his co-author Richard Bowman have spent 20 years "trying to help people understand audiences and build brands off the back of them.... This technology changes everything about how we do that."

Fraga, of Prompt Yes!, started a software training business in the early 2000s, and compares the new AI wave to that environment. “I was like, 'Oh, this is a new boom.' Only everything's much faster.”

“Any white collar worker could benefit from the productivity boost from ChatGPT,” Fraga says. “And then the other direction is productivity for specific occupations, like ChatGPT and prompt engineering for lawyers, ChatGPT and prompt engineering for CPAs.”

The big picture: Proponents of the new tech believe that prompt engineering will become a valuable skill for all internet users, just like learning how to Google something was in the 2000s.

“If you think or if you write, you should stop what you're doing and look at how this can help you, because it will make you quicker, better and clearer,” Boyle says.

The other side: Some experts believe that AI is evolving so quickly that the prompt engineering  boom will burn out fast.

“I have a strong suspicion that ‘prompt engineering’ is not going to be a big deal in the long-term & prompt engineer is not the job of the future,” Ethan Mollick, an associate professor at the Wharton School who has rolled ChatGPT into his classes, said on Twitter.

What to watch: While most prompt engineering has so far focused on text or 2D art, AI-generated video tech isn’t far away —  and you can bet that specialized businesses and entrepreneurs will be right behind it.

Go deeper: Read more in Axios' AI Revolution series —

Chatbots trigger next misinformation nightmare

How generative AI is upending the cybersecurity world

Game makers put generative AI to imaginative work

AI's rise generates new job title: Prompt engineer

To fulfill AI's promise will require that users get better at telling generative programs what to do.

Illustration of a collage featuring a light bulb and several triangles. 

Artificial intelligence

Artificial Intelligence

From the Valley to D.C., Big Tech players like Facebook, Google and Amazon are under more scrutiny than ever as new technology develops and privacy and antitrust concerns grow in lockstep with companies’ ambitions.

Technology

Data: Payscale’s 2023 Compensation Best Practices Report; Chart: Axios Visuals

Looks like a lot of folks may be getting raises this year, according to a Payscale survey out Wednesday morning. 

Why it matters: Who doesn't love a salary increase? These numbers look big, but more employers are unsure about their plans in 2023 than last year. And with inflation running at around 6% in the U.S. year over year, some workers are barely keeping pace.

Bigger picture, wage growth helps drive up inflation. And the broad goal of the Federal Reserve right now is to cool that off.

By the numbers: 80% of employers said they plan on raising workers' base pay in 2023 — that's down considerably from 92% last year, but still, way more than in pre-pandemic times, says Amy Stewart, associate director of content and editorial at Payscale and author of the compensation report.

15% of employers said they were unsure whether they’d offer raises — up from just 3% in 2022.

More striking: 56% of the compensation professionals surveyed said those raises would be greater than 3%. 

Payscale surveyed close to 5,000 compensation professionals — 69% at companies headquartered in the U.S., 8% in Canada, and 17% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

What's happening: Employers are still having a hard time attracting talent, Stewart says. Turnover has fallen, but it's still too high for most employers' comfort.

Most workers are getting raises this year, survey finds

Inflation woes are upping the pressure for wage bumps.

Axios

Wednesday's top stories

Major worker strikes increased nearly 50% last year as union popularity grew

Inside Israel's failed Ukraine-Russia mediation efforts

JPMorgan restricts staff from using ChatGPT

AI's rise generates new job title: Prompt engineer

Most workers are getting raises this year, survey finds

Sneaker resale prices are falling to earth

Grocery prices remain stubbornly high

Putin's war: A year of miscalculations

Scoop: White House's lunchroom back in business

"Woke, Inc." author launches GOP presidential campaign

Georgia grand jury foreperson says indictments were recommended

Top congressional Democrats rip McCarthy for giving Jan. 6 footage access to Fox News