Employers added more jobs than expected in March, adding 178,000 jobs. That’s a marked improvement from the previous month, when employment declined by 133,000 roles.

But the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s latest jobs report painted a less than rosy picture for worker wages, as average hourly earnings rose just 0.2% between February and March, the slowest rate in nearly five years.

This slowdown could leave workers more exposed as rising oil prices and other inflationary pressures threaten to erode already modest pay gains, economists said. It also signals workers are likely to stay put in their current jobs, as they’re not well positioned to see a salary bump from switching.

For more on the implications of inflation for HR teams, keep reading here.—CV

Meta is changing the way CEOs communicate with employees.

The tech company is creating AI-powered, 3D avatars capable of holding a conversation, the Financial Times reported. And it’s starting with a characterization of CEO Mark Zuckerberg that can mimic his personality and mannerisms, and share his perspectives with Meta employees.

“What is the intent here? What is the ‘why’? If you think he’s doing this to improve HR, then you’re fooling yourself. Mark Zuckerberg is doing this because he’s got to demonstrate that Meta is making inroads into the AI world,” Patrick Riccards, crisis communications expert and CEO of the Driving Force Institute, told HR Brew.

For more on the risks of such a communications strategy for HR professionals, keep reading here.—MC

Imagine if NASA built a rocket ship, laid out a plan to go to the moon, but didn’t train the astronauts on how to crew the new vessel.

NASA would never. In fact, the Artemis II crew trained for three years in a replica Orion capsule practicing real-world (pun intended) scenarios in order to master the tech they’d be using away from Earth. The crew sometimes spent more than 30 hours at a time training ahead of its mission, which safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Apr. 10.

Compare that to your department’s last AI training session. A gap in AI readiness is impacting AI’s potential gains across industries, according to a new report from study.com on the state of AI jobs and skills. The report follows two complementary surveys, each of 1,000 employed US adults, done in March. It found companies and enterprise orgs are rapidly deploying AI tools across their businesses, but their human employees are falling behind and need more job-specific training.

For more on the AI readiness gap, and its effect on productivity, keep reading here.—AD