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 midday brief for Tuesday, December 23rd. I'm Alex Oslo for the Wall Street Journal.

The U.S. economy grew at an unexpectedly robust pace in the third quarter. In a report that was delayed by the government shutdown and came out today, the Commerce Department said gross domestic

product for the July through September quarter rose at a 4.3% annual rate. It was the highest growth rate in two years and beat

economists forecasts. Consumer spending on services like health care and recreational vehicles

help drive the growth. A Baltimore jury has ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay more than

$1.5 billion to a woman who says the company's talc-based baby powder caused her cancer. Lawyers for the Maryland woman say this verdict is the largest ever returned against Johnson and Johnson for a single plaintiff. Johnson & Johnson says it will appeal the decision, calling the award unconstitutional and maintaining that its products are safe.

Thousands of lawsuits have been filed against the company over Talc Baby Powder and courts have rejected its attempts to settle cases through bankruptcy.

And rising car prices in the U.S. mean bigger monthly car payments.

In November, they came to an average of $760 a month for a new car.

That's according to J.D. Power. So consumers are turning to longer term loans. Industry officials

say the typical 48 to 60 month car loan term has become a 72 month term and longer. Some loans now

reach 100 months, or more than eight years. While these

longer loans can lower a monthly bill, they significantly increase total interest costs.

Heads up, an artificial intelligence tool helped us make this episode by creating summaries

that were based on WSJ reporting and then reviewed and adapted by an editor.

We'll have more coverage of the day's news on the WSJ's What's News podcast.

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