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Imagine a game of musical chairs. Except there are 12 chairs and 100 people.

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That’s what the job market is like right now, says Mandi Woodruff-Santos, a career coach and host of the “Brown Ambition” podcast.

“There’s not a lot of meat on the bone,” she says.

That’s why right now, many people who do have jobs are holding on to them for dear life, a concept that management consulting firm Korn Ferry called “job hugging” last month.

So many people are talking and writing about the term that “job hugging” is trending on Google.

It resonates. Are you hugging your current job right now? Maybe you feel stuck. Maybe you’re not able to gain the skills you want. Maybe you’d like a new position with new challenges or more money, but …

The job struggle is real

In July, the number of job openings (7.2 million), the number of new hires (5.3 million) and the number of people quitting jobs (3.2 million) were all pretty much unchanged, according to the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In August, the economy added just 22,000 jobs, down from 79,000 in July.

Insert melting emoji.

“Unlike a few years ago, during the ‘Great Reshuffling,’ you just can’t leave your current job and effortlessly land in a better one,” says Elizabeth Renter, NerdWallet’s senior economist.

Uncertainty about the economy, largely driven by changing policy, is causing employers to hold back on hiring, she says.

“Investing in new workers takes some confidence that business will be good in the near future, and when you’re unsure about pricing due to tariffs, interest rates and consumer demand, it’s hard to have confidence,” she says.

Fear? Also real

“For workers, staying put feels much safer than joining the ranks of those seeking a better job among few job openings,” Renter says.

Jesse Wideman, a certified financial planner based in Charlotte, NC, says a few years ago he had a lot of clients, particularly in the tech industry, who job-hopped to get more money. Now though?

“There’s a lot more fear around job security,” says Wideman, who works for Zenith Wealth Partners.

He gets it. He says he’s gone through job loss, and he’s had both friends and clients go through job losses, too.

“They were out of work much longer than they thought,” he says. “Then, once they get in a new job, they don’t say, ‘I plan to be here a year or two.’”

They stay parked right where they are. Why? Because people are afraid to go through another job loss and think, “let me make sure I don’t have another five or six months where I don’t have enough money for it to be feasible to feed me and/or my family,” he says.

Job hugging does have benefits. Literally.

If your job provides your health care and you have people relying on you, that’s a strong case for staying put, says Woodruff-Santos, who has the nickname, “the Queen of Quitting” because she’s quit jobs to get more money and coached women of color to do the same.

Staying in your role means you and your financial planner, if you have one, have an idea of what your projected income and retirement look like, Wideman says. You know what’s in your 401(k) and what your company will match.

Believe it or not, some companies still have pensions, he says. If you leave, that’s money you may be leaving on the table.

But still, have a Plan B

Wideman says he’s seen emergency funds getting beefier. Instead of the traditional amount — enough money to cover three to six months’ worth of living expenses — he’s seeing more people want a reserve of six months or more.

Either they’ve been laid off before, or they want a cushion in case life starts life-ing and that job they’re hugging cuts them loose.

He recommends his clients put this cash in a high-yield savings account, primarily because of the liquidity that many of them offer.

There are tradeoffs, of course. If you’re putting more money in your emergency fund, that means less money for other things — a down payment on a house, a wedding, your retirement or your brokerage fund.

It just depends on your priorities. Also, how strong your fear is.

And when opportunity knocks, bet on yourself

If clients aren’t happy in their role and something better does come along, Wideman says he works with them to help them evaluate where they are and what their financial plan looks like if they stay or if they go.

Those discussions definitely come up less these days, Wideman says. But they still do come up.

Woodruff-Santos says if you’re hanging onto a job that seems secure and you get a rare opportunity to jump ship, but you’re scared of moving because of a possible last-in, first-out layoff, what does that mean for future you?

“It’s very comfortable to think ‘stay put.’ It’s the safe route,” says Woodruff-Santos. “But at the same time, what are y’all hugging? It ain’t hugging you back.”

How much more could you have saved, gotten ahead, paid off debt, or socked into your 401(k) if you quit and took that leap?

“There’s that risk, but also that reward,” she says. “What if things do work out? Because a lot of times, they do.”

Woodruff-Santos, who works with women of color, says they’ve long known that a job is just one source of income. She encourages her clients to keep their resumes and networks up to date and not count on that one job to be around forever.

“If you are job hugging naively, that is the worst mistake of all,” she says.

“Finding additional income streams is always the move.”

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Pamela de la Fuente writes for NerdWallet. Email: pdelafuente@nerdwallet.com.

The article Job Hugging: What It Is and What It Means for Your Money originally appeared on NerdWallet.

By JACK BROOK, Associated Press/Report for America

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell is scheduled to appear in federal court Wednesday for the first time since the Democrat was indicted on corruption charges stemming from an alleged romantic relationship with her bodyguard.

She is expected to enter a plea in response to conspiracy, fraud and obstruction charges in what prosecutors described as a yearslong scheme to conceal an affair with her bodyguard as the two traveled, wined and dined together on taxpayers’ dime.

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Cantrell’s bodyguard, Jeffrey Vappie, has already pleaded not guilty to charges of wire fraud and making false statements after he was indicted in July 2024. He is scheduled to appear in court Friday for the additional charges.

Cantrell, the first female mayor in New Orleans’ 300-year history, was elected twice but now becomes the city’s first mayor to be charged while in office in a state with a reputation for public corruption. She has only four months before she leaves office under term limits.

The mayor once known for her outspoken persona has kept quiet about the charges in the weeks since the 18-count indictment against her and Vappie was announced in mid-August. She did not acknowledge the indictment during public appearances to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina late last month.

Cantrell was already receding into the background of city affairs over the past year and offered no apparent resistance to President Donald Trump’s suggestion earlier this month to send the National Guard and federal agents to New Orleans even as other Democrats bristled.

She’s also been cast as a pariah by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, who announced on Sept. 3 that Cantrell was suspended from involvements in federal transactions with HUD. The City Council issued a statement last week saying it had reassured the Housing Authority of New Orleans and the Office of Community Development that other city officials could sign federal contracts instead.

At times, she and her allies have said the blowback she is experiencing is tinged by double standards she faces as a Black woman. Cantrell said earlier this year, before to the indictment, that she has faced “very disrespectful, insulting, in some cases kind of unimaginable” treatment.

Cantrell and Vappie used WhatsApp for more than 15,000 messages, where they professed their love and plotted to harass a citizen who helped expose their relationship, delete evidence, make false statements to FBI agents “and ultimately to commit perjury before a federal grand jury,” acting U.S. Attorney Michael Simpson said. Vappie’s 14 trips with Cantrell cost taxpayers $70,000, not including Cantrell’s own travel costs, according to the indictment.

In a WhatsApp exchange, the indictment says, Vappie recalled accompanying Cantrell to Scotland in October 2021 on a dreamy trip “where it all started.”

Cantrell, whose husband died in 2023, has denied having anything more than a professional relationship with Vappie. She lashed out at associates who raised questions about the amount of time she spent with her bodyguard, including on wine-tasting trips and in a city-owned apartment, court records show.

Cantrell joins the ranks of more than 100 people brought up on corruption charges in Louisiana in the past two decades, said Rafael Goyeneche, a former prosecutor who is president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a watchdog group.

Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

“These failures disproportionately impact Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Bengali, and Arabic-speaking communities, with Spanish-speaking students representing 67 percent of all ELLs,” said the Comptroller’s office. New York City Public Schools disputes the findings.

A scene from the first day of school in New York City last week. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

The office of New York City Comptroller Brad Lander found “profound failures” in English Language Learners’ ability to access services and programs designed for them at the city’s public schools. 

An audit released Monday found that a “a significant percentage” of the school system’s English Language Learners (ELLs) hadn’t received the services they’re legally entitled to, such as required courses or a minimum number of instructional minutes.

They have also been denied other legally mandated services, the audit found, such as being identified as ELLs through the Home Language Identification Survey, being tested and placed through the New York State Identification Test for English Language Learners, and receiving a bilingual education or access to an English as a New Language program.

“These failures disproportionately impact Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Bengali, and Arabic-speaking communities, with Spanish-speaking students representing 67 percent of all ELLs,” the Comptroller’s office said in a press release.

Since Spring of 2022, over 237,000 migrants have come to New York City, many from Latin America, and their kids have been filling the classrooms of the city’s public schools, which saw 25,081 new ELL students, a 16.8 percent jump. ELL students represent 19 percent of total student enrollment, according to the Comptroller’s office. 

Many migrant students are also living, or have lived, in the city’s shelter system, which was home to 8,496 migrant families with children as of July (though not all those families have school-aged kids). 

After a student is first enrolled or re-enrolled, schools should identify English Language Learners and test their English skills. If students score below “commanding” on the state’s English Language Learners (NYSITELL) test, they are considered ELLs and are entitled to receive services under these regulations.

A New York State Education Department Commissioner’s Regulation, CR Part 154, was created to ensure ELLs are not left behind and achieve the same educational goals and standards as non-ELLs. It means parents or guardians should be informed about their child’s English language skills and the program options available to them. 

Additionally, CR Part 154 mandates that every school district provide ELLs with either a Bilingual Education or English as a New Language (ENL) Program. A bilingual program teaches students in two languages—their native language and English—to achieve proficiency in both, while ENL programs prioritize English language acquisition, with support in the student’s first language. 

The audit found that NYCPS did not provide the required courses, the minimum number of minutes of ENL instruction, or the minimum number of minutes of bilingual instruction to almost half (48 percent) of the students in the audit surveyed (145 out of 301). 

When asked, New York City Public Schools (NYCPS, formerly the Department of Education) refuted the findings, stating that the report included students who were enrolled for less than 10 days, meaning they couldn’t be identified as ELLs or take the exam to assess their skills.

The Comptroller’s Office emphasized, in response to NYCPS objections, that the audit results were shared with the department on several occasions and that education officials did not criticize the figures and methodology or ask for revisions during that process.

Education advocates declined to comment on whether the data is accurate or not, or whether the comptroller’s office did a good job reviewing it.

“All I can speak about is our experience on the ground,” said Rita Rodriguez-Engberg, director of the Immigrant Students’ Rights Project at the nonprofit Advocates for Children. “We see families that we serve who are not provided services on time, students who are not identified on time, parents who have never been invited to the mandated parent meeting that they’re supposed to have.” 

A scene from the first day of school in September 2022. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

NYCPS said it has many ways to ensure that ELLs are identified and placed on time: training by each borough’s ELL policy support staff; daily and monthly updates on eligible students sent to superintendents and district staff; and extra help and visits to schools that don’t follow the rules.

The department said it is already complying with one of the report’s recommendations, which is to keep important records on ELL students, and is looking into new ways to collect digital records in a new student information system that’s being developed. Those records include the Home Language Identification Survey, which determines whether a language other than English is spoken at home, as well as parent surveys and program agreement forms.

Advocates were surprised to learn that 40 percent of students sampled by the comptroller’s audit were taught by teachers who do not have the full qualifications to teach ELL. 

“I was most shocked that teachers were not qualified because that’s just something that we, as advocates, and on the side, parent advocacy, we don’t have access to that information,” said Rodriguez-Engberg.

When asked, NYCPS disagreed, saying that English as a New Language courses are often taught by an ENL teacher and a teacher of the subject being studied. In the last school year, 93 percent of ELLs received either bilingual education or ENL instruction from a teacher who was certified, the department said.

School districts must meet certain requirements in offering bilingual education programs, but can also request a waiver if they’re unable to do so. According to the audit, during the last school year, NYCPS requested 150 Bilingual Education Program Waivers.

“It doesn’t come as a surprise to me that schools fill out a waiver to not create a bilingual program, because that requires organization, it requires a budget, it requires hiring a bilingual teacher to be able to teach the class. And I’m just not sure that there are enough teachers in New York City to be able to cover the need,” Rodriguez-Engberg said.

Between the 2022 and 2024 school years, the city opened 103 new bilingual education programs and with an additional 27 new programs anticipated for the current school year, officials said.

NYCPS didn’t specify, but said it’s also developing new programs to help teachers who work with students who speak “low-incidence languages,” which are languages spoken by fewer than 5 percent of the statewide English Language Learner (ELL) population (excluding Spanish and Chinese). 

NYCPS said they’re offering over 566 programs in various languages, including Arabic, Bengali, Albanian, and other low-incidence languages, and assured that every child, regardless of language background, will receive their required instruction and support to succeed in the classroom.

“Well before the release of the auditor’s report, we had already implemented strategic, systemwide initiatives to strengthen language instruction, compliance indicators, and ensure equity in access to higher quality education,” a NYCPS spokesperson said in a statement.

“By expanding hiring for English as a New Language and Bilingual Education teachers and continuing growth of our bilingual education programs, we have taken action to meet the linguistic and academic needs of every student,” the spokesperson added. 

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Daniel@citylimits.org. To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

Want to republish this story? Find City Limits’ reprint policy here.

The post Comptroller Finds ‘Profound Failures’ in City Services for English Language Learners appeared first on City Limits.

A man was charged with threatening to kill a federal judge after already being convicted once of the same crime, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Tuesday in Minneapolis.

Robert Phillip Ivers, 72, was charged with threatening to assault and murder a federal judge, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson. Ivers was federally convicted in 2018 of threatening to kill a U.S. district judge. At the time, Ivers was living in West Fargo, N.D., but he had previously run for mayor in Hopkins.

“At a time when Minnesota is reeling from acts of violence, the last thing we need is someone spreading fear into our churches, libraries, and courts,” Thompson said in a statement. “Ivers’s threats are bone chilling.  After the past few months, we are not taking chances.  When someone threatens our community, we believe them, and we will act swiftly to protect Minnesotans.”

The criminal complaint gave the following details of what led up to the latest charge:

On Sept. 3, Ivers was allegedly caught printing copies of a manifesto called “How To Kill a Federal Judge” at the Wayzata Public Library and showing them to library staff, including a page that talked about killing children and had a picture of a gun on it. He also gave library staff a three-page flyer that advertised his manifesto and said that the document was “designed to teach extremists on how to plan, train, hunt, stalk and kill anyone including judges, their family members, politicians and more!”

The flyer said that the “harsh reality is that judges are going to die.”

After library staff reported the encounter to police, investigators discovered that Ivers had been reported for “concerning behavior” while at an Episcopal church in Minnetonka on Aug. 28, which was a day after the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis.

He allegedly attended multiple church services and told parishioners he would be attending future church events, such as a family picnic and potluck, a blessing for children going back to school that had state lawmakers scheduled to attend, and an annual baptism service.

After searching his name online, church staff saw that he had a history of threats of violence, a felony conviction and racist commentary so they contacted law enforcement.

While he was on the way to jail after his arrest on the evening of Sept. 3, Ivers told Wayzata officers he was having a heart attack, so they brought him to the hospital from the jail. He was later released from the hospital and rearrested on Sept. 5.

During a search of his vehicle they found numerous items, including a photo of the former pope with cross hairs centered on his head; 20 copies of a 236-page spiral-bound book called “How to Kill a Federal Judge” by Robert Ivers; several flyers advertising the book; a list of federal judges; a copy of the “Anarchist Cookbook”; a white foam box with a toy replica firearm; a box of Co2 cartridges and pellets; and a box of fireworks.

During an interview with detectives, Ivers admitted showing his manifesto to library staff. When asked if he thought his book might have scared anybody, Ivers allegedly shouted, “It was supposed to!”

In the manifesto, Ivers wrote about perceived wrongs he believed had been done to him by the judicial system. He discussed them — and his anticipated revenge — at length, authorities said in the criminal complaint.

The manifesto also had disturbing sketches Ivers had allegedly drawn and handwritten threats to kill judges, their children and pets, the complaint said.

“Ivers made clear his purpose was to instill fear. He wrote, ‘If this book doesn’t instill fear in you then your (sic) already dead.’”

The manifesto contained names of federal judges and it appeared that Ivers was “fixated” on the judge who had ruled against him in his lawsuit against an insurance company, leading to his 2018 conviction.

“These actions will not be tolerated,” said Special Agent in Charge Alvin M. Winston Sr. of the FBI in Minneapolis.  “As this chilling case confirms, we are fully committed to protecting judges who devote themselves to our communities and legal system.”

Ivers made his first court appearance Tuesday.

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