No cream cheese? Blame a cyberattack
The cream cheese shortage wreaking havoc on bagel shops and bakeries is, in part, due to a cyberattack on the biggest U.S. cheese manufacturer.
Schreiber Foods in Wisconsin, which makes cheese slices for most of the top burger chains in America and has a cream cheese business rivaling Kraft’s, closed for days in October after hackers compromised its plants and distribution centers. While that may not sound like a long time, the company is big enough that the lost production shook U.S. markets.
Making the situation worse, the shutdown occurred at the height of cream cheese demand.
Americans are doing more holiday baking and buying more cakes, and cream cheese is a common dessert ingredient. People are still working and eating breakfast at home, so they’re buying more cream cheese from grocery stores for their morning bagels. Add to that all the labor constraints and logistics headaches caused by the pandemic, and the fact that cream cheese is fresh, so there aren’t huge reserves. There just hasn’t been enough schmear to go around.
“All this together has aggravated the cream cheese situation in the country,” said Emma Aer, chief executive officer of competing cream cheese producer Franklin Foods. “We just can’t keep up with the demand,” she said of the industry.
Two airline CEOs question the need for masks on planes
The CEOs of two of the nation’s major airlines say they don’t think wearing masks on planes does much to help limit exposure to COVID-19.
The comments from American Airlines CEO Doug Parker — the nation’s largest carrier — and Southwest CEO Gary Kelly came during a hearing about the financial support that airlines received from the federal government in 2020 and 2021. But the topic of masks arose via a question from Sen. Roger Wicker, the ranking Republican on the Senate committee holding the hearing.
“I think the case is very strong that masks don’t add much, if anything, in the air cabin environment. It is very safe and very high quality compared to any other indoor setting,” said Kelly.
Both Kelly and Parker mentioned that high-grade HEPA air filters on planes capture virtually all airborne contamination and air quality is helped by how frequently cabin air is exchanged with fresh air from outside the cabin.
However, Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants, testified at the hearing that not all aircraft are equipped with same quality of air filters. For example, some older planes do not have HEPA filters, she said.
U.S. jobless claims rise but still on the low side
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week despite signs that the U.S. labor market is rebounding from last year’s coronavirus recession.
Jobless claims rose by 18,000 to 206,000, still low by historical standards. The four-week average, which smooths out week-to-week volatility, fell by 16,000 to less than 204,000, the lowest level since mid-November 1969 when the American job market was less than half the size it is now, according to Department of Labor figures released Thursday.
Altogether, 1.8 million Americans were receiving traditional jobless benefits the week that ended Dec. 4, down by 154,000 from the previous week.
Weekly claims, which are a proxy for layoffs, have fallen steadily most of the year since topping 900,000 one week in early January. They are now below to the 220,000-a-week level typical before the coronavirus pandemic slammed the U.S. economy in March 2020; COVID-19 forced consumers to stay home as a health precaution while businesses closed or reduced hours and laid off staff. In March and April last year, employers shed 22.4 million jobs.