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Side hustles are becoming increasingly popular. Nearly half, 40% of Americans currently have one, according to a May 2022 Zapier survey of 2,032 U.S. adults. That's up from 34% of Americans in December 2020. And while making some extra cash may be the most obvious reason to pick one up, there are other reasons to consider doing so as well. Depending on what you choose to do, your side gig could actually help you sharpen the skills you need for your nine-to-five. Picking up outside work teaches you "how to actually manage your workload without someone else micromanaging you," says Daniella Flores, founder of side hustle blog I Like To Dabble, as an example of one advantage. Here are three side hustles to consider that could make you better at your job. Tutoring One skill it's always good ...

WASHINGTON: China's war games around Taiwan have led Biden administration officials to recalibrate their thinking on whether to scrap some tariffs or potentially impose others on Beijing, setting those options aside for now, according to sources familiar with the deliberations. President Joe Biden has not made a decision on the issue, officials said. His team has been wrestling for months with various ways to ease the costs of duties imposed on Chinese imports during predecessor Donald Trump's tenure, as it tries to tamp down skyrocketing inflation. It has considered a combination of eliminating some tariffs, launching a new "Section 301" investigation into potential areas for additional tariffs, and expanding a list of tariff exclusions to aid US companies that can only get certain supp...

MANILA: The volatile geopolitical situation and fallout from US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan underline the importance of the US-Philippine relationship, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said on Saturday (Aug 6). Marcos, meeting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the presidential palace in Manila, said his visit was timely, but he believed Pelosi's trip "did not raise the intensity" of a situation that was already volatile. Blinken is the highest-ranking US official to travel to the Philippines since the inauguration of Marcos, the son of the late strongman who Washington helped flee into exile in Hawaii after a 1986 "people power" uprising. He assured Marcos the United States would honour its commitments to their decades-old joint defence pact. "The allianc...

Westend61 | Westend61 | Getty Images Despite increasing fears about a recession, many job seekers still plan to quit their current positions, a survey from The Conference Board found. Some 31% said they were actively looking for a new job, and another 28% were unsure if they'd leave their company in the next six months. Only 38% said they'd like to stick with their current employer. The organization polled more than 1,100 U.S. adults, predominantly professional/office workers, from June 21 to 28. Yet, a separate survey by staffing-services company Insight Global found that 78% of employees are worried about losing their jobs if there is a recession. In addition, 87% of managers indicated they would likely lay off employees if there was a recession, according to the survey, which was condu...

NEW YORK :The U.S. dollar shrugged off early weakness to edge higher against a basket of currencies on Friday, after data showed U.S. business activity shrank for the first time in nearly two years in July as a services slowdown outweighed manufacturing growth. S&P Global on Friday said its preliminary - or "flash" - U.S. Composite PMI Output Index had tumbled far more than expected to 47.5 this month from a final reading of 52.3 in June. With a reading below 50 indicating business activity had contracted, it is a development likely to feed into a vocal debate over whether the U.S. economy is back in - or near - a recession after rebounding sharply from the downturn in early 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The dollar found some support from safe-haven flows late on Friday, a...

Coinbase reported a 27% decline in revenues in the first quarter as usage of the platform dipped. Coinbase said it had no counterparty exposure to several collapsed crypto firms, seeking to allay fears about the impact of a liquidity crisis in the industry on its business. Coinbase "had no financing exposure" to Celsius, Three Arrows Capital and Voyager Digital, the company said in a blog post Wednesday. Each firm filed for bankruptcy protection after a plunge in digital token prices set off a cascade of liquidations in highly leveraged positions. Shares of the company closed up more than 14% on Wednesday. "Many of these firms were overleveraged with short-term liabilities mismatched against longer duration illiquid assets," the company said. "We have not engaged in these types of ris...

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ENGAGING WITH THE NUG Progress in negotiations will also "in some way" pave the way for Cambodia to open a dialogue with the NUG, Mr Sokhonn said. "But I have to say that we have heard many voices calling for engagement with the NUG. Not only from outside, but also among colleagues, ASEAN ministers, ASEAN foreign ministers. I have (especially) a very vocal voice from our colleague from Malaysia," Mr Sokhonn said, referring to Malaysia's foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah. "He has openly stated that he has engaged with the NUG. We have to recognise that countries are sovereign. They have their sovereign rights to engage with whomever they want. Whomever they consider for their best interests, for their own national interests," he added. The NUG's foreign minister, Zin Mar Aung, met wit...

TOKYO :U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki agreed on Tuesday to work together to tackle rising prices of food and energy, as well as volatility in currency markets, exacerbated by Russia's war in Ukraine. They said the war had raised exchange rate volatility, which could pose adverse implications for economic and financial stability, and pledged to cooperate "as appropriate" on currency issues. "We will continue to consult closely on exchange markets and cooperate as appropriate on currency issues, in line with our G7 and G20 commitments," the two sides said in a joint statement after the meeting, referring to the Group of Seven and Group of 20 economies. Later on Tuesday, Yellen acknowledged the yen's substantial depreciation in recent wee...

SINGAPORE : Having bucked a global dash to tighten monetary policy for a year, Asian central banks find themselves scrambling to catch up in order to tackle rising inflation and defend weakening currencies. Market analysts suspect Indonesia, the last remaining dove in emerging Asia, may be the next to move by pushing interest rates higher on Thursday, as policymakers rush to convince investors they are tackling rising prices. Singapore and the Philippines surprised markets with unscheduled tightening announcements last week, underlining the growing urgency among policymakers to act. Asia has lagged as the rest of the world, including emerging markets, began lifting rates as early as last June, after the U.S. Federal Reserve kicked off an accelerated timeline for its policy tightening. ...