Monday’s business headlines

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Here’s a look at Monday’s business headlines.

Restaurants

Indiana was one of three states to add jobs last year in the restaurant industry.

Mississippi and Oklahoma were the other two.

That’s according to Restaurant.org, which used labor department data.

The U.S. lost hundreds of thousands of restaurant and bar jobs last year.

Blue collar jobs

Strength in housing and e-commerce during the pandemic has helped propel hiring in blue collar occupations.

Job openings in many blue collar occupations broke above pre-virus levels last summer and remain significantly elevated, figures from the online job site Indeed show.

Economists also expect service-industry jobs, such as retail and restaurants, to see particularly big gains as the pandemic fades.

New TSA screeners

The U.S. government wants to hire 6,000 new airport security screeners by the summer as progress in vaccinating people for COVID-19 is projected to lead to an increase in travel.

The Transportation Security Administration on Friday announced a nationwide recruitment effort, even as the coronavirus continues to significantly depress airline passenger levels.

Carnival cruises

Carnival’s CEO predicts “most, if not all” of cruise fleet will return to seas this year.

Two Carnival-owned cruise lines are set to resume operations in March.

CEO Arnold Donald pointed to the increasing availability of COVID-19 tests, vaccines and treatments for his optimistic outlook.