School districts across the country continue to struggle to recruit and retain enough school bus drivers, forcing them to compete with other employers for a limited pool of qualified workers despite higher wages.

School bus driver employment remained 9.5% below 2019 levels in August 2025, even as inflation-adjusted hourly wages rose 4.2% over the previous year, according to an Economic Policy Institute analysis. The employment figures are based on 12-month rolling averages of federal survey data.

“The wages are simply too low,” Hilary Wething, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute told FOX Business, identifying pay as the primary reason the workforce has not returned to pre-pandemic levels.

The job can also present scheduling challenges. School bus drivers often work split shifts, with an early-morning route followed by several hours off before an afternoon route, making the position less attractive than trucking, delivery, transit or other jobs offering higher pay or more predictable hours.

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School buses are lined up in the bus yard after the first day of school on August 12, 2026. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Wething also cautioned against assuming that people classified as outside the labor force are available to fill those positions. The category can include retirees, students, caregivers and people with disabilities.

The East Greenbush Central School District in New York experienced those staffing pressures firsthand during the 2025-2026 school year.

East Greenbush Central School District Superintendent Kurtis Kotes sits in the driver’s seat of a school bus after completing training for his commercial driver’s license. (East Greenbush Central School District)

When Superintendent Kurtis Kotes took over in July 2025, the district was short nearly 14 bus runs. Mechanics, dispatchers and other employees with the required licenses had to help cover routes.

“We had to consolidate runs,” Kotes told FOX Business. “It meant students were late being picked up from home. Sometimes it meant they were late getting back home again, and it would impact instructional time.”

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The district responded with a “bus rodeo” recruitment event that allowed prospective drivers to try operating a school bus with trainers, even if they did not yet have a commercial driver’s license. Kotes said the event resulted in approximately five to eight hires.

East Greenbush Central School District Superintendent Kurtis Kotes helps students aboard a school bus during a route after earning his commercial driver’s license. (East Greenbush Central School District)

East Greenbush pays drivers approximately $28 an hour and offers health benefits, which Kotes said can be an important recruiting and retention tool as the district competes with an Amazon warehouse, other public-sector employers and seasonal work such as snowplowing.

“The issue becomes… health benefits behind that for people that are looking at this as a primary source of income,” he said.

The district also tries to provide drivers with opportunities for additional hours during the middle of the day, including field trips and custodial or cleaning assignments. Some drivers take other part-time jobs to supplement their income.

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The district has also sought to give administrators a better understanding of the job. Kotes and the district’s interim human resources director obtained their own licenses to support the transportation department and better understand the work.

Kotes spent five weeks training before earning a Class B CDL with school bus and passenger endorsements. His training covered defensive driving, student management, safety procedures, emergency response and vehicle inspections before he completed a road test. He drove his first student route in December 2025.

East Greenbush Central School District Superintendent Kurtis Kotes, who earned his commercial driver’s license, stands with school transportation staff in front of a school bus. (East Greenbush Central School District)

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Kotes does not drive a daily route but helps cover sports and after-school runs when needed. He said the district is now in a better staffing position, though competition for workers remains.

Wething said the expiration of federal pandemic-relief funding has put additional pressure on school systems. The funding helped districts hire support staff, including bus drivers, but districts now must maintain transportation services with tighter budgets.

For families, a shortage of drivers can mean late pickups, longer rides, consolidated routes and other transportation disruptions. For districts, filling the gap may require more than higher hourly wages, with benefits, additional hours, training support and retention efforts all playing a role in competing for workers.

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Kotes said compensation is only part of the equation, with workplace culture also playing a role in keeping drivers on staff.

“When people feel like they’re valued, they’re going to want to work here,” he said.

Business News has expanded its political coverage with the appointment of experienced journalist Adrian Rollins as its first reporter based at Parliament House in Canberra.

Rollins started with Business News today and will cover federal politics with a particular focus on decisions in Canberra that affect Western Australian businesses and the state’s economy.

He will also play a key role in expanding Business News’ coverage of defence, an industry expected to become increasingly important to WA as spending associated with AUKUS and the federal government’s broader defence strategy flows through the economy.

That coverage will extend beyond defence policy to the companies, contracts, investment, infrastructure and supply chains associated with the sector, as well as the opportunities for WA businesses seeking to participate in it.

Rollins brings extensive experience covering federal politics and economics, including two stints at The Canberra Times and six years as economics correspondent for The Australian Financial Review. At the AFR he covered federal politics, Treasury, the Reserve Bank, federal budgets and the economic and political response to the Global Financial Crisis.

Earlier in his career, Rollins spent several years in The Age’s Canberra bureau, including as a federal political reporter and later chief of staff, where he managed the newspaper’s 11-person federal politics bureau.

More recently, he returned to The Canberra Times as economics correspondent, covering economics, politics, monetary and fiscal policy, Treasury, the Reserve Bank and federal budgets.

His experience outside journalism includes a stint last year as a speechwriter in government. He has also worked on Australian government programs in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.

Business News executive editor Sean Cowan said establishing a permanent reporting presence in Canberra was a significant step in the publication’s continued growth.

“Western Australia is enormously exposed to decisions made in Canberra, whether they relate to resources, tax, energy, infrastructure, trade or defence,” he said.

“We want to be much closer to those decisions and the people making them, rather than looking at federal politics solely through a Perth lens.

“Adrian has spent much of his career covering politics and economics in Canberra and understands how government policy translates into consequences for businesses and the economy.

“Defence will be a particularly important part of his brief. The scale of investment planned through AUKUS and the broader build-up of Australia’s defence capability has the potential to create substantial opportunities for WA businesses.

“We will be following that investment closely; who is winning the contracts, where the money is being spent, what infrastructure is being built and which Australian businesses are positioning themselves to participate.”

Rollins holds a PhD in politics, trade and public policy from the Australian National University’s Crawford School of Public Policy, as well as a Master of International Business from the University of Melbourne.

His appointment continues a period of significant investment in Business News’ journalism, data and intelligence capabilities.

Veteran journalists Gary Adshead and Neale Prior joined the newsroom last year, adding to a reporting team that includes former editors Mark Beyer and Mark Pownall, deputy editor Jack McGinn and senior journalists Claire Tyrrell and Tom Zaunmayr.

The expansion has occurred at a time when many commercial media organisations have reduced editorial staffing, with Business News continuing to invest in journalism and data as its subscription business has grown.

The publication has also increasingly expanded its coverage beyond traditional WA business sectors, including greater reporting on defence, technology, local government, property and federal policy.

Business News was this year recognised with three Alliance of Area Business Publishers awards in the United States, including being named the best website among more than 60 business publishers across Australia, Canada and the US.

The renewed buying spree comes after the capital markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), issued a circular last week on the newly implemented Closing Auction Session (CAS).

On Thursday, Sebi said it would review the methodology used to determine settlement prices for derivative contracts on expiry, following feedback from market participants after the rollout of the new CAS in the equity cash market.

Also read: CAS effect: Pre-open session rules to change from today. What changes for investors?

“Having considered the experience of the initial period of CAS implementation and the feedback received from various stakeholders, Sebi may be proposing certain changes in the methodology for determining settlement prices of derivative contracts, for which a consultation paper will be issued in about a week,” Sebi said in a statement.

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Among the issues raised, Sebi said, a significant area of feedback relates to the determination of settlement prices for derivative contracts on expiry, based on the closing price determined through CAS. CAS is a call auction mechanism used to determine the closing price of stocks in the cash segment with derivative contracts available on them.

Why this matters

The development gains significance as stock exchanges acknowledged that the newly introduced Closing Auction Session (CAS) had resulted in lower trading volumes.According to an ET report, equity derivatives turnover on the NSE and BSE fell to multi-month lows in August, with analysts attributing the decline to heightened volatility under the new CAS mechanism. The volatility prompted several market participants to scale back derivatives activity, particularly during the final half-hour of trading.

Last month, NSE’s total monthly equity derivative turnover stood at Rs 34.48 lakh crore, the lowest since November 2023. BSE’s August turnover stood at Rs 32.2 lakh crore, the lowest since June 2025.

Wall Street brokerage Jefferies, in a report earlier this week, said the key challenge with CAS has been the uncertainty on expiry day, forcing option writers to stay away from the market. This has reduced the profitability of proprietary traders. Jefferies said Sebi could address the challenges with CAS through three measures: delinking options expiry from the CAS window, improving the stock lending and borrowing mechanism, and deepening the auction pool.

BSE to feel the pinch in Q2?

Domestic brokerage firm ICICI Securities suggests that BSE’s premium ADTV stood at Rs 18,700 crore in August, down 26.5% from Rs 25,400 crore in July. For the second quarter, premium ADTV stood at Rs 22,000 crore, down 25.7% from Rs 29,700 crore in the first quarter.

Read more: One month of CAS: How 4 expiry days turned into a 6,000-point Sensex scare for investors

BSE’s average daily option contracts traded stood at 98 million in August, down 34.5% from 150 million in July. BSE’s average daily option contracts traded in the second quarter stood at 124 million, down 20.2% from the Q1FY27 average of 156 million.

The systemic average daily option contracts traded across BSE and NSE stood at 223 million in August, down 22.9% from 289 million in July. For the second quarter, the metric stood at 256 million, down 20% from the Q1FY27 average of 320 million.

The regulator did not specify what changes may be proposed. The consultation paper expected to be issued next week will be watched closely by brokers, proprietary desks, institutional investors and active derivatives traders.

Any change in methodology could be important for expiry-day risk management. If the settlement price is less directly linked to short-term CAS movements, it may reduce the chance of sudden option price spikes in the final minutes.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

LONDON — Nearly two weeks after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle relocated to the United Kingdom with their two children, the Duchess of Sussex has yet to make a public appearance in Britain, even as her husband prepares to step into the spotlight for a longstanding charity commitment.

Harry is set to attend the WellChild Awards in London in the coming days, continuing a patronage he has held since 2007. The annual ceremony celebrates the achievements of seriously ill children and honors the caregivers and medical professionals who support them, and Harry has attended nearly every year of the event’s run, typically delivering a speech and presenting an award to a young honoree.

While Harry’s appearance at the charity event has become something of an annual fixture, reports indicate it could be some time before Meghan is seen in public in Britain. According to reporting from Express UK, the Duchess is currently focused on helping the couple’s children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, settle into their new life in the country, following the family’s move from their home in Montecito, California.

That reasoning has not stopped speculation from building over the broader purpose and direction of the family’s relocation. With Meghan keeping a low public profile since the family’s return, questions have persisted over why the couple chose to move back to Britain in the first place, and what their longer-term plans might look like now that they are settled on British soil.

Harry’s connection to the country runs deep, having spent nearly his entire life there before stepping back from royal duties and relocating to the United States in 2020. He retains family ties, longstanding charitable commitments and, as supporters of the move have noted, a fundamental sense of belonging in Britain that predates his marriage to Meghan by decades.

Meghan’s own ties to the country are considerably less established. Her personal and professional life, including her mother and much of her broader social circle, remains rooted in the United States, raising questions among royal watchers over what specific role or activities she intends to pursue now that the family has relocated across the Atlantic.

Some charitable organizations in Britain have publicly welcomed the prospect of Meghan’s renewed presence in the country. She has previously served as patron of charities including Smart Works, a group that helps women prepare for job interviews, and Mayhew, an animal welfare organization operating in London and internationally. Both organizations have expressed enthusiasm about the possibility of deeper engagement with Meghan now that she and her family are based in the U.K.

Even so, questions remain over whether renewed charitable involvement alone will be sufficient to explain the scope of the family’s relocation, or whether Meghan has a more defined plan for her public role in Britain that has not yet been disclosed. It remains unclear whether her current absence from public view reflects a temporary period of settling in, or a longer-term pattern that could persist well beyond the family’s initial adjustment period.

What does appear clear, according to those following the family’s move, is that the relocation was driven primarily by a desire to keep the family unit together and to give Archie and Lilibet an opportunity to spend more time in their father’s home country, connecting them more directly with Harry’s British roots and extended family. That consideration, observers note, is consistent with the priority both parents have consistently placed on their children throughout their public statements since stepping back from royal life.

Beyond that underlying rationale, however, much of the broader commentary surrounding the family’s return has remained speculative, with various theories about the couple’s motivations and plans circulating without clear confirmation from Harry, Meghan or their representatives. Some reports have suggested tensions or disagreements behind different explanations for the move, with various royal-watching outlets offering competing, and at times contradictory, accounts that have subsequently been challenged or walked back by other sources close to the couple.

Harry’s upcoming WellChild Awards appearance continues a pattern he has maintained for nearly two decades, having become one of the few official patronages he retained following the family’s 2020 departure from senior royal duties. In past years, Harry has typically attended the ceremony without Meghan, delivering remarks reflecting on the resilience of the children and families the charity supports, and reflecting on his own experience as a parent in relating to the challenges those families face.

The timing of Harry’s appearance, coming so soon after the family’s broader relocation to Britain, is likely to draw continued attention from royal commentators and media outlets, both for what it reveals about Harry’s individual public engagements going forward and for what it does not yet reveal about Meghan’s own plans. With Meghan remaining out of the public eye for now, her first public appearance in Britain since the family’s return remains an open question, one that royal watchers are likely to continue speculating about until she reemerges publicly, whether through a charity engagement, a social media announcement, or some other means of reintroducing herself to British public life.

For now, the family’s return to the United Kingdom appears to be unfolding gradually, with Harry resuming familiar public commitments while Meghan continues working behind the scenes to settle the family into its new home. Whether that pattern continues, or whether Meghan steps into a more visible public role in the weeks ahead, remains to be seen, leaving much of the broader narrative around the family’s relocation still very much in progress.

Mr Mullen’s departure comes as the bank announces a rise in income and profits in its latest accounts

Newcastle challenger bank Atom Bank has announced the departure of its chief executive Mark Mullen. Mr Mullen, who co-founded the bank in Durham ahead of its move to Tyneside this year, has stepped down after a period of speculation around possible takeover bids for the digital-only bank.

Current chief financial officer Andrew Marshall will become interim CEO as Atom starts the search for a permanent successor to Mr Mullen. The announcement came as accounts for Atom for the year ending March 31 showed a growth in net operating income to £99.8m, while profit before taxation increased significantly from £5.1m a year earlier to £9.4m.

In the accounts, Mr Mullen said the company’s performance had been “positive”, though he stressed the need to find a “better balance in the composition of our earnings”.

He added: “We delivered these results despite considerable macroeconomic volatility, maintaining exceptionally low levels of both arrears and forbearance at just 0.9% across the loan portfolio. In the final quarter of the financial year, the impact of the potential economic fallout from the war in Iran played through into higher modelled Expected Credit Losses (ECLs) for the year at £9.4m against £7.1m in FY25.

“In the course of the year, we further expanded and established new deposit platform partnerships. We grew retail deposit balances to more than £8.3bn and launched our first Cash ISA.

“We have invested in our behaviouralisation and price elasticity modelling and continued to leverage our Elvet Securitisation programme. Growing our retail deposit capabilities will remain a key strategic focus. We continue to work toward increasing our maximum aggregate balance, driven by the upcoming launch of our latest savings variants.”

In this morning’s announcement of his decision to step down, Mr Mullen said: “After 12 years as CEO, I have decided to hand over the leadership of Atom. It has been a privilege to build this business and I am immensely proud of what we have achieved together, growing Atom into a leading UK bank that successfully competes with the High Street banks.

“Atom is a fantastic company with a bright future. I wish Andrew and my permanent successor well.”

Atom chair Lee Rochford said: “On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Mark for his leadership, dedication and significant contributions since he founded the business 12 years ago. Under his leadership, Atom pioneered digital banking in the UK.

“His vision of an online bank devoted to customer service has been adopted across the industry and helped make Atom one of the UK’s most trusted banks for customers. That is a legacy to be proud of.”

Mr Marshall said: “I am pleased to take on the role of Interim CEO and to lead Atom after 10 years with the business. Mark leaves us with a strong foundation and an excellent team, and I look forward to working with the board and leadership team to maintain our momentum.”

Richard Holden has written to transport secretary Heidi Alexander asking for action to be taken on the A303 traffic problems

A senior politician has called for urgent action on the A303 following a fact-finding visit to villages surrounding Stonehenge. Richard Holden, the shadow transport secretary, wrote to his government counterpart, Swindon South MP and Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander, urging action in the wake of the scrapped £2bn Stonehenge Tunnel project.

Mr Holden visited communities in the Stonehenge area at the invitation of Dr Monica Devendran, the Wiltshire Councillor for Amesbury West.

During his visit, Mr Holden said there was “a clear and consistent concern that the underlying transport problems affecting communities along the A303 corridor have not gone away”.

In his letter, he wrote: “Residents are particularly concerned that, despite the cancellation of the scheme, there appears to have been little consideration given to mitigating the continuing impact of congestion and the increasing volume of diversion traffic through surrounding villages.”

He highlighted a recurring issue of “the routine rerouting of traffic by satellite navigation services through villages such as Shrewton, Berwick St James and other nearby communities whenever congestion or incidents occur on the A303”.

Locals, he said, “described the resulting rat-running as causing severe congestion, speeding, noise, pedestrian safety risks and disruption to local businesses.

“In many cases, these roads are simply not designed to accommodate such volumes of through traffic,” he added. Mr Holden called on the Department for Transport to engage with Google Maps and other mapping services “to reduce unnecessary routing of strategic traffic through unsuitable villages wherever practicable”.

He said: “It is clear that local communities feel current navigation algorithms are exacerbating an already difficult situation, particularly following the cancellation of the improvement scheme.”

He also voiced concern that “no credible alternative has yet been put forward to address congestion, improve resilience along the A303 corridor, or reduce the impact of diversion traffic on neighbouring villages when issues do occur”.

He also called for “secure, sensible and low-cost mitigations, such as screening” to “stop people dangerously slowing down, pulling over, hanging out of windows, or standing up through sunroofs, often with children, to take photographs of Stonehenge”.

The A303 Amesbury-to-Berwick Down highway scheme, which included proposals to divert the arterial route through a tunnel past Stonehenge, was scrapped by the incoming Labour Government in July 2024 as part of a review of unfunded or unaffordable transport commitments.

The Government subsequently brought the project to a formal close when Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander revoked its Development Consent Order, citing “exceptional circumstances”, a substantial change in deliverability, and the scheme’s failure to align with current strategic policy objectives.

At the point the scheme was halted, the estimated cost stood at between £1.4bn and £1.7bn, with £179.2m already spent on planning, design and development by the time the project was abandoned.

In May, a motion put forward to Wiltshire Council by Cllr Devendran was passed by 91 votes to one, compelling council leader Ian Thorn to write to Ms Alexander regarding A303 traffic concerns.

Cllr Thorn said he would “drive to Swindon and talk to her myself” about the issue.

This week, Cllr Devendran told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I will continue pressing the Government, National Highways and relevant stakeholders to ensure local communities are heard and kept informed as this work progresses.

“I thank Richard Holden for visiting Stonehenge, listening directly to residents, and taking the concerns of local communities to the Secretary of State for Transport.”

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is to cut 4,000 jobs as the carmaker struggles with Chinese competition, US tariffs, and the transition to electric vehicles.

The cuts will happen over the next two years and will mostly affect the head office, which is based in the UK.

JLR’s long-term issues were made worse after a cyber-attack last year caused the firm, which employs 43,000 people globally, to shut down production for more than a month.

Chief executive PB Balaji said the firm was “committed to supporting everyone with care, fairness and respect” through the redundancy process.

JLR is hoping to achieve the cuts through voluntary redundancy, with a window open until 4 October, but said it would make compulsory redundancies with less generous terms if necessary.

The company is making the redundancies in an attempt to save £1.7bn over the next two years.

The carmaker has been losing sales to rivals from China, a country which JLR initially saw as a market for growth rather than a source of competition.