As companies seek to close growing gaps in skills and talent,

Deloitte US CEO Jason Garzatus believes it's important for organizations to understand their baseline of skills.

There's so many organizations that can't ask and answer the fundamental questions about how much computer science or data management skills do I have or AI development skills in a given domain? By performing a

skills inventory, leaders can truly understand where their efforts should be focused. Being blind

to those gaps is the real miss. Visit Deloitte.com to learn how your enterprise can help successfully

cultivate talent. Here's your afternoon TNB Tech Minute for Tuesday, December 16th. I'm Julie Chang for the Wall Street Journal.

The U.S. is threatening new trade actions against the European Union, including a hike and tariffs.

That's according to a post today on social media platform X by U.S. trade representative Jameson Greer.

The post comes days after EU regulators levied a

$140 million fine against X for breaching content rules. Greer said that European firms like

Spotify and Siemens enjoy expansive market access in the U.S. The governments have long been

at loggerheads over EU tech regulations, which were left

unresolved in a trade pact they secured this July in Scotland.

The data center boom is helping prop up the labor market. Contractors closely linked to

America's AI buildout provided some of the few bright spots in today's jobs report.

Construction companies added more than 28,000 new jobs last

month out of 64,000 total. Nearly 19,000 of those construction hires were non-residential specialty

trade contractors. The chief economist for the trade group Associated Builders and Contractors said in a note

that that trend is at least partially due to the surging need for

electricians caused by the data center construction boom. On the flip side, bonds tied to the

AI boom are facing another tough session with pressure on debt issued by companies like

Corweave and Oracle in recent weeks. The weakness is driven by investor concerns that the

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