The number of Americans filing for unemployment for the first time dropped slightly last week -- from 1.566 million to 1.508 million -- but overall unemployment levels remain elevated, a factor that has labor experts worried. "The longer the downturn lasts, the greater the potential for longer-term damage from permanent job loss and business closures," says Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

As companies revamp their corporate policies and mission statements to support diversity and inclusion, they should pay attention to the role that microaggressions play in defining workplace culture, writes SmartBrief's Paula Kiger. Quorum executive Melissa Theiss says Quorum defines microaggressions as "subtle acts of exclusion," and Derald Smith Sue says these can include microassaults, microinsults and microinvalidations.

Employers including Postmates, Nike, JCPenney, Levi Strauss & Co., Namely and Twitter are giving employees a paid day off on June 19, the day commemorating the end of slavery in the US. Other companies such as Target are paying hourly team members time and half on Juneteenth or are closing early.

Billionaire Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post, could -- and should -- use his financial wealth to improve pay equity in his news organization, writes Hamilton Nolan, Columbia Journalism Review's public editor for the Post. Nolan suggests it would cost about $2 million annually to close the pay gap between journalists of color and their white peers and about $9 million annually to close the gap between men and women in the newsroom.

A viral TikTok video with more than 4 million views teaches users that there's a right and wrong way to make ice. The video shows water hitting an ice cube tray on the specially designed flat spots to perfectly fill its chambers with no splashes.