Warnings you could get stuck in queues on EU borders

**Bisi Adebayo** (0:01)
It's the US jobs market starting to lose momentum. It's World Business Express from the BBC World Service, I am Bisi Adebayo. Also, why Europe's new border system is leading to long queues at some airports this summer, and why India has told Meta to delay a new WhatsApp feature over fraud concerns.
The latest figures on the US jobs market are out, and they've come in weaker than expected. And that's because the US economy added 57,000 jobs in June well below forecast, while the unemployment rate dipped slightly to 4.2%. Now, the monthly jobs report is one of the most closely watched indicators of the health of the world's biggest economy and is likely to be closely scrutinized for clues about the Federal Reserve's next move on interest rates. Daniel Jow is a lead economist at Glassdoor from New York.

**Daniel Zhao** (1:01)
Well, it is interesting because this is slower than recent months, but it is still a fairly solid number. When we look at jobs growth compared to the end of 2025, we do see that jobs growth has accelerated, but we are seeing some volatility on a month-to-month basis. So I think overall the trend is still a modest uptick over the long term.

**Bisi Adebayo** (1:23)
The Federal Reserve has been looking for signs that the economy is slowing before cutting interest rates. So does today's report make a rate cut more likely?

**Daniel Zhao** (1:32)
I think it makes it slightly more likely, but at the same time, the report today does still show a solid steady job market. It doesn't really show signs that we should be worried about a sudden deterioration in the job market. So even if it makes it slightly more likely, I don't think it necessarily signals that a rate cut is necessary imminently.

**Bisi Adebayo** (1:53)
For people who are watching from outside the US, I guess the question would be, why do these job figures matter? What impact would it have on the overall global financial economy?

**Daniel Zhao** (2:05)
Well, these numbers are important because they really talk about how the US economy overall is doing. As we look at jobs growth, they are both a signal for how consumers are doing, how they're spending, and also downstream, it also impacts how much money that American households and workers have to spend themselves, whether on domestic goods and services, or even imports from other parts of the world. So overall, the jobs report is a great indicator for really evaluating the health of the US economy.

**Bisi Adebayo** (2:35)
Daniel Zhao from New York there. Well, time now to bring in Nicholas Hyatt, who is lead alternatives analyst for Hargreaves Lansdown. Well, we've been talking about jobs data, but another issue is the fact that the US says its trade deal with Canada and Mexico will have to be renegotiated. So how much uncertainty does that create for companies that rely on cross-border trade?

**Nicholas Hyatt** (2:59)
So not agreeing an extension to the old agreement means that changes in terms of trade now have to be agreed on a one-year rolling basis, and the whole framework is up for debate in 10 years. That's a lot of uncertainty, particularly for sectors like automated manufacturing, where supply chains are extremely complicated.
That's a big barrier to investment, and given the hundreds of thousands of people that are employed in automated supply chains across North America, could represent a major economic headwind.

**Bisi Adebayo** (3:27)
Nick, we've had our eyes on oil prices lately, but tell us what's the latest.

**Nicholas Hyatt** (3:33)
So oil prices are back down below $71 a barrel. The simplest reading of that is that traders are pretty confident that the ceasefire will hold, but I think there's a little bit more to it. We've seen some demand destruction, some supply that was built up north of Hormuz back in the global market, and together, put those two together, and it's not surprising that prices have declined a bit.

**Bisi Adebayo** (3:55)
Nicholas Hyatt of Hargrove's Lansdowne, thank you. Now, if you're traveling to Europe this summer, you may want to allow a little extra time, just like Jeff Reilly, a tourist from Aberdeen.

**Jeff Reilly** (4:07)
When we arrived and disembarked, we were kettled in the holding space upstairs above the arrivals hall. Obviously, we were being told we needed to do the EES scanning system. So that took about two hours of queuing. And then when we got to the scanners, my passport scanned fine. Then my wife did it and it kept failing. It just wouldn't work. And eventually it said, you need to go to the old traditional passport exit queue. So basically, what should have been probably 45 minutes tops to get through passport control ended up taking over three hours.