The disappearing act of administrative assistant jobs
Jobs such as bookkeeping, secretarial work and data entry have historically been a path for elevation to the middle class. But those jobs are disappearing.
Since 2000, the United States has shed more than 2.1 million administrative and office support jobs. “The vast, vast majority of those jobs are held by women,” says economics correspondent Heather Long.
“The Labor Department has made forecasts about which jobs are going to see the most losses in the next decade,” she says, “and number one on that list is secretaries and administrative assistants.”
More on this topic:
- Administrative assistant jobs helped propel many women into the middle class. Now they’re disappearing.
- From $22 an hour to $11: GM job cuts in Ohio show a hot economy is still leaving parts of America behind
- For the first time, most new working-age hires in the U.S. are people of color
Vetting random chat apps
Apple markets its App Store as a “safe and trusted place” for children, but according to a Washington Post investigation, some of the most popular social networking apps in the App Store are rampant with complaints of unwanted sexual approaches, many targeting children.
Tech reporter Reed Albergotti and senior data scientist Al Johri used a machine learning algorithm to examine the reviews of “random chat apps,” which instantly connect strangers in video conversations. They examined the App Store reviews for reports of unwanted sexual content, racism and bullying. And they found more than 1,500 “digital cries for help.”
“It raised a really important question,” Albergotti says. “If Apple is saying they police the App Store for anything that could negatively affect kids, why aren’t they reading these reviews? And if they are reading these reviews … are they doing something to try to stop this?”
More on this topic:
- Apple says its App Store is ‘a safe and trusted place.’ We found 1,500 reports of unwanted sexual behavior on six apps, some targeting minors.
- Watch how The Post used machine learning to find reports of sexual harassment in App Store reviews
- Facebook rebuffs Justice Department request to abandon plans to encrypt chats
Anti-Semitism on college campuses
On Wednesday, President Trump signed an executive order directing the federal government to punish universities for allowing anti-Semitism on its campus.
But the order agitated the long-running disagreement over how colleges should handle activism around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on campus.
It all comes down to the order’s definition of “Jewish” and “anti-Semitism,” says religion reporter Julie Zauzmer. While there is widespread agreement that anti-Semitism is on the rise in the country, she says that “what there’s not widespread agreement about is how to handle it.”
More on this topic:
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The disappearing act of administrative assistant jobs
Jobs such as bookkeeping, secretarial work and data entry have historically been a path for elevation to the middle class. But those jobs are disappearing.
Since 2000, the United States has shed more than 2.1 million administrative and office support jobs. “The vast, vast majority of those jobs are held by women,” says economics correspondent Heather Long.
“The Labor Department has made forecasts about which jobs are going to see the most losses in the next decade,” she says, “and number one on that list is secretaries and administrative assistants.”
More on this topic:
- Administrative assistant jobs helped propel many women into the middle class. Now they’re disappearing.
- From $22 an hour to $11: GM job cuts in Ohio show a hot economy is still leaving parts of America behind
- For the first time, most new working-age hires in the U.S. are people of color
Vetting random chat apps
Apple markets its App Store as a “safe and trusted place” for children, but according to a Washington Post investigation, some of the most popular social networking apps in the App Store are rampant with complaints of unwanted sexual approaches, many targeting children.
Tech reporter Reed Albergotti and senior data scientist Al Johri used a machine learning algorithm to examine the reviews of “random chat apps,” which instantly connect strangers in video conversations. They examined the App Store reviews for reports of unwanted sexual content, racism and bullying. And they found more than 1,500 “digital cries for help.”
“It raised a really important question,” Albergotti says. “If Apple is saying they police the App Store for anything that could negatively affect kids, why aren’t they reading these reviews? And if they are reading these reviews … are they doing something to try to stop this?”
More on this topic:
- Apple says its App Store is ‘a safe and trusted place.’ We found 1,500 reports of unwanted sexual behavior on six apps, some targeting minors.
- Watch how The Post used machine learning to find reports of sexual harassment in App Store reviews
- Facebook rebuffs Justice Department request to abandon plans to encrypt chats
Anti-Semitism on college campuses
On Wednesday, President Trump signed an executive order directing the federal government to punish universities for allowing anti-Semitism on its campus.
But the order agitated the long-running disagreement over how colleges should handle activism around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on campus.
It all comes down to the order’s definition of “Jewish” and “anti-Semitism,” says religion reporter Julie Zauzmer. While there is widespread agreement that anti-Semitism is on the rise in the country, she says that “what there’s not widespread agreement about is how to handle it.”
More on this topic:
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