COVID precautions: The mayor’s office announced Thursday that East Baton Rouge will require face coverings in city-parish offices starting today. According to the statement from Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome’s office, the requirement will be in place at all parish offices. Gov. John Bel Edwards will hold a news conference at 3 p.m. as the state continues to experience rising cases and hospitalizations from a fourth surge of COVID-19. WBRZ-TV has more information.
Healthy pace: Wages and salaries rose at a healthy pace in the three months ended in June as employers competed to find enough workers to fill millions of available jobs. Pay increased 1% in the second quarter for workers in the private sector, the Labor Department said this morning. That’s down slightly from 1.1% in the first three months of the year but still the second-highest reading in more than a decade. Read the full story.
Shopping sprees: American consumers increased their spending by 1% in June—a dose of energy for an economy that is quickly rebounding from the pandemic recession but is facing new risks led by the delta variant of the coronavirus. At the same time, a key inflation barometer that is closely followed by the Federal Reserve surged 3.5% last month from a year earlier. That was the fastest such 12-month surge since 1991. Read the full story.
