News Briefs

The Wall Street Journal reports that American businesses are seeking an increase in the number of H2-B visas due to an acute shortage in available labor. Requests for H2-B visas are set to surpass any previous year’s total, as a multi-decade low unemployment rate and an improving economy have seen the pool of available labor shrink notably. WSJ

Sharon Nunn of the Wall Street Journal writes that lower-income Americans were responsible for the improvement in consumer sentiment this month. The University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index rose in March, driven entirely by the improving outlook of households in the bottom third of the income distribution, while households in the upper end of the income distribution expressed concerns with recent tariffs. WSJ