After receiving $2.5 billion in subsidies (US $2.44 billion) over the last ten years from the Australian government, Ford has decided to close its manufacturing plants. Ford has been losing money for years, despite the subsidies. Loss estimates are upwards of $600 million (US $585 million) in the last five years alone. Ford has been manufacturing vehicles in Australia for the last 85 years, but by the end of 2016 all the manufacturing operations in Australia will be closed.

Currently the Geelong engine factory in Victoria employs 510 people, while the Broadmeadows car assembly line has 650 employees. Ford has given a number of reasons why they have faired so badly, such as the strong Australian dollar, high production costs, and importing expensive parts. Despite these claims, other auto makers, such as Holden and Toyota, have no plans to shutter their manufacturing plants, although Holden did announce that it would lay off 500 workers due to higher exchange rates and slower demand.

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High street electronics retailer Best Buy says it is making significant savings by addressing one area that it has up to now ignored - returns. During the earnings call, where the company addressed the $81 million loss for the first fiscal quarter, the CFO, Sharon McCollam, said they will continue to cut costs and improve supply chain efficiencies. So far, these have generated over $325 million in savings.

One area that was highlighted was that of reverse logistics, commonly known as returns. Many companies do not deal efficiently with returns and as such can miss significant benefits. Best Buy management indicated that due to their outdated processes, over $400 million is lost by the company each year. Other supply chain efficiencies such as vendor rationalization and consolidating freight are also seen as ways in which the company can become more efficient and return to profitability.

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Careerbuilder, a global leader in human capital solutions, have released a study that gives an insight into hiring trends this summer. A survey of over 2000 human resources managers has found that 29 percent of employers report they plan to hire seasonal workers over the summer. Employers in leisure and hospitality (47 percent), manufacturing (34 percent), information technology (34 percent) and retail (33 percent) are the most likely to hire seasonal help this summer.

The majority of jobs will have hourly wages between $10 and $16, but nine percent will be over $20 per hour. This ties into the types of employment that will be available; 27 percent will be office support, 22 percent in customer service, 20 percent in information technology, and 18 percent in engineering.

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Today, in Silver Spring, Maryland, activists from the consumer watchdog organization, SumOfUs.org will be joined by concerned citizens to distribute chocolate milk to employees as they come in to work at the headquarters of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). They will also be delivering a petition of 116,000 signatures urging the FDA reject unlabeled aspartame in milk.

In April, the FDA decided to move forward with a petition from the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) that seeks to drop the FDA requirement to label milk and other dairy products as "artificially sweetened" when they contain sweeteners, such as aspartame. Food labeling is very important for consumers, and this request by the IDFA and NMPF does appear to be counter to the progress that has been made on informing the American consumer on what is exactly in their food.

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