As we head into the final weeks of 2024, there are cer­tain­ly shades of guid­ance in this week’s news to help dri­ve our 2025 Be on The Look Out (BOLO) for list.

Organ­i­sa­tion for Eco­nom­ic Co-oper­a­tion and Devel­op­ment Expects Con­tin­ued Eco­nom­ic Sta­bil­i­ty in 2025 and 2026

The OECD’s lat­est Eco­nom­ic Out­look high­lights the resilience of the glob­al econ­o­my despite ongo­ing chal­lenges. Glob­al GDP growth is fore­cast to reach 3.3% in 2025 and 2026, up from 3.2% in 2024. Infla­tion in OECD coun­tries is pro­ject­ed to decline fur­ther, reach­ing 3.0% by 2026, sup­port­ed by restric­tive mon­e­tary poli­cies. Labour mar­kets have eased, with unem­ploy­ment remain­ing his­tor­i­cal­ly low, while real house­hold incomes are ris­ing due to dis­in­fla­tion and wage growth. How­ev­er, weak con­sumer con­fi­dence lim­its pri­vate con­sump­tion growth. Glob­al trade vol­umes are expect­ed to grow by 3.6% in 2024.

Region­al growth prospects vary. U.S. growth will slow to 2.4% by 2026, while the euro area will see mod­est improve­ments to 1.5%. Japan’s growth will decline sharply, and Chi­na’s econ­o­my will slow to 4.4% by 2026. Key risks include geopo­lit­i­cal ten­sions, ener­gy mar­ket dis­rup­tions, and trade dis­putes, which could desta­bi­lize con­fi­dence and growth. Con­verse­ly, improve­ments in con­sumer con­fi­dence or con­flict res­o­lu­tions could bol­ster eco­nom­ic out­comes.

To address these chal­lenges, the OECD urges tar­get­ed mon­e­tary eas­ing, fis­cal dis­ci­pline, and struc­tur­al reforms to enhance pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, reduce labour short­ages, and sus­tain pub­lic finances. Strength­en­ing edu­ca­tion, skills devel­op­ment, and labour par­tic­i­pa­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly for women and old­er work­ers, is vital for fos­ter­ing long-term growth and eco­nom­ic sta­bil­i­ty.

The Job Board Doc­tor team will be watch­ing for fur­ther insta­bil­i­ty in the U.S., French, and Ger­man economies in the first half of 2025 for signs of cracking—or in Ger­many’s case, signs of con­tin­ued crack­ing fol­low­ing anoth­er mas­sive lay­off announce­ment from Ger­man-based Bosch this week of more than 8,000 jobs glob­al­ly.

UK-Based WhatJobs Taps Indus­try Vet­er­an Ang­ie Brooks for U.S. Expan­sion
Accord­ing to an announce­ment this week, WhatJobs is set to launch in the U.S. in Jan­u­ary 2025, appoint­ing Ang­ie Brooks, a sea­soned expert with 25 years of indus­try expe­ri­ence, as its first senior hire. Known for her suc­cess in launch­ing Adzu­na in the U.S., Brooks will lead WhatJobs’ ambi­tious entry into the mar­ket. The plat­form aims to rev­o­lu­tion­ize job search with advanced AI tools that match job seek­ers to six high­ly rel­e­vant oppor­tu­ni­ties, enhanc­ing effi­cien­cy for users and recruiters. Com­mit­ted to long-term growth, WhatJobs plans addi­tion­al lead­er­ship hires, posi­tion­ing itself to become a top-ten U.S. job search plat­form focused on inno­va­tion and val­ue deliv­ery.

Brooks cer­tain­ly has her work cut out for her. How­ev­er, if any­one can bring it home, she is the per­son to do it. WhatJobs has offi­cial­ly made the Job Board Doc­tor 2025 watch list.

AI “Com­pan­ion” Chat­bot, Character.AI, Sued by Texas Par­ents
Giv­en the rapid adop­tion of AI in TA tech, I always find it rel­e­vant to share how AI, even with con­tent guardrails, can, in this case, go WAY off the rails.

A fed­er­al law­suit has been filed against Character.AI, alleg­ing its chat­bots exposed two Texas minors to harm­ful inter­ac­tions, includ­ing hyper­sex­u­al­ized and self-harm con­tent. The suit claims a 9‑year-old girl devel­oped pre­ma­ture sex­u­al­ized behav­iors and a 17-year-old engaged in self-harm after the bot encour­aged him and expressed sym­pa­thy for extreme actions like child-par­ent vio­lence. Character.AI is accused of fos­ter­ing addic­tive and emo­tion­al­ly abu­sive inter­ac­tions, wors­en­ing anx­i­ety and depres­sion in vul­ner­a­ble teens.

Despite intro­duc­ing safe­ty mea­sures like con­tent guardrails and dis­claimers, crit­ics argue the plat­form inad­e­quate­ly pro­tects minors. The law­suit high­lights the risks posed by AI-pow­ered “com­pan­ion chat­bots” that sim­u­late human inter­ac­tions. Advo­cates empha­size the need for stricter reg­u­la­tion, not­ing the men­tal health cri­sis among youth, which could be exac­er­bat­ed by iso­lat­ing tech­nolo­gies like these bots. Google, named as a defen­dant due to its finan­cial ties to Character.AI, denies own­er­ship while express­ing a com­mit­ment to user safe­ty.

Google’s $150 mil­lion dol­lar invest­ment and con­tin­ued finan­cial sup­port of Character.AI, and whether they are found to be legal­ly cul­pa­ble, will be one to watch in 2025.

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