The global oil crisis is boosting renewable energy power producers like Pivot Energy, but not in the ways you’d expect, CFO Bret Labadie told CFO Brew.

“I do think, although there’s not a direct impact there, there’s clearly…a more thematic transition that’s happening on a global level around energy security and domestic production of energy…and that’s not as much, what is displacing what in the energy system?” Labadie said. “It’s just wanting more security to buffer your economy from geopolitical risks that you have no control over.”

But this transition, sandwiched between “some pretty challenging regulatory requirements” and the rising demand for electricity, means Pivot’s had to make some adjustments to meet the moment, Labadie said. At the same time, Pivot is growing to accommodate a shift in its business model.

“One of the things I’m passionate about is helping solve big, complex problems, and the transition of our energy system, as a macro thing, toward something that’s more sustainable on a go-forward basis, is the definition of a really complex problem that needs solving,” Labadie said.

How Pivot Energy shifted away from a “develop and flip” model.—DL

The ongoing conflict in Iran has prompted organizations to reduce their economic growth forecasts for the year. Fitch Ratings piled on Thursday, announcing it had lowered its 2026 global growth forecast by 0.2 percentage points, to 2.4%.

Fitch cited “the oil crisis prompted by the US-Iran war” as its chief reason behind the reduced forecast. It also cited higher inflation, which is eating into real wages, lowering consumption, and increasing firms’ input costs.

The ratings agency also noted, though, that strong AI investment has softened the economic blow of the oil crisis.

The war in Iran created a bottleneck in global trade after the Iranian military blocked shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Fitch doesn’t expect the strait to reopen until July. Therefore, it revised its forecast for this year’s average price for Brent crude to $87 a barrel, up from $70 in March.

“The oil price shock is hitting world growth prospects and increasing downside risks,” Brian Coulton, Fitch’s chief economist, said in a statement. “But we are also amid a very pronounced boom in global spending on IT and that is cushioning the impact on activity in the near term, particularly in Asia.”

Check out the numbers in Fitch’s adverse scenario.—AZ

May marked another month this year when the labor market was stronger than expected, the latest jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed.

Job gains were well above expectations, with some industries reporting stronger growth than healthcare—the backbone of US job growth in recent years—while the unemployment rate stayed the same. That said, the majority of industries are still experiencing sluggishness, and a rethinking of talent acquisition and retention strategy may be due, experts told HR Brew.

Diving into the data. Employers added 172,000 jobs in May, a much stronger showing than the 80,000 jobs expected by analysts polled by the Wall Street Journal ahead of the data’s release (final revised numbers will be available at a later date). Job gains in March and April were revised upward, from 185,000 to 214,000 job gains in the former, and 115,000 to 179,000 in the latter. The unemployment rate remained steady at 4.3%, and has hovered between that and 4.5% since July 2025.

By industry, leisure and hospitality led job growth in May, adding 70,000 jobs primarily concentrated in food services and drinking places, which increased by 48,000. Local government employment followed, adding 55,000 jobs. Healthcare added 35,000 jobs in May, slightly below its average monthly gains of 38,000 over the past year, and around 11,000 of which were in home health care services. Similarly, social assistance added 12,000 jobs last month, primarily in individual and family services.

Keep reading on HR Brew for the full picture.—PM

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