MORRISTOWN, N.J. & MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 24, 2025--
Third Partners, a boutique management consultancy specializing in data management and business performance improvement, designed a simplified process for U.S. companies to comply with the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) ahead of the December 30 deadline. The niche: domestic companies exporting wood, beef, soy, packaging and other covered products.
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Third Partners’ solution adapts to the specific capabilities of each company to solve data gaps, leveraging the latest EUDR policy revisions. Using personalized supply chain data acquisition, GIS mapping, satellite data, and AI-powered analytics capability, their process condenses an otherwise lengthy supply chain traceability and reporting process into a few easy steps.
Mid-sized U.S. companies selling covered products to the EU market face stark legal and financial consequences by year-end.
“Companies hoping the EU will further ease these regulations are perilously close to running out of time,” said Adam Freedgood, co-founder of Third Partners. “The vast majority of U.S. companies can avoid turning EUDR into a trade barrier, and even gain a competitive economic advantage, by tackling supply chain data challenges in-house,” said Freedgood.
“We tailored our EUDR solution to middle market companies telling us they ‘just need it done.’ If you’re large enough to be caught up in EUDR requirements, but don’t ship thousands of container loads to the EU there was no right-sized solution until now,” said Freedgood.
Third Partners’ EUDR compliance process is collaborative and meets each company where they are with supplier relationships, geodata processing expertise, and knowledge of the regulation.
“We run a preliminary risk assessment report in week one, a targeted due diligence plan in week two, and then take it from there,” said Freedgood. Companies achieve confidence that they can generate Due Diligence Statements (DDS) by December 30 and have a clear ongoing process to stay compliant.
EUDR is not the first regulation and certainly not the last to require sub-tier supply chain mapping and risk assessment. “From over a decade of consulting experience we know mid-sized companies get the best results when they strengthen in-house capabilities. Developing environmental risk management tools and processes internally helps firms compete globally with larger peers while reducing the costs of unmitigated risks,” said Freedgood.
"EUDR policy uncertainty has led to a market flooded with inflated compliance products that rarely deliver on promises of easy implementation,” Freedgood noted, “With EUDR companies cannot simply send a last minute survey to suppliers and hope for the best.” Third Partners offers step-by-step support to digitally map forests and farms, fix gaps in supplier data, and prepare the hundreds of geoJSON (GIS files) for a company to generate the Due Diligence Statements required to export to the EU market.
Companies that work with Third Partners on EUDR, or any environmental risk data challenge, get the same thing every time — a lightweight but rigorous solution leveraging existing business data, people, and systems.
About Third Partners
Third Partners is a full-service sustainability management consulting firm in business since 2013. We support C-suite executives and managers at global brands, middle market leaders, and high growth startups to build more valuable and resilient companies. We achieve results by offering strategic advisory, data management, and tailored solutions backed by training and technology advisory. Our clients seek to eliminate risks to brand, product, and mission, ensuring they meet evolving expectations of buyers, investors, and customers.
About the EU Deforestation Regulation
EUDR is global trade policy that reflects the urgency of reversing commodity-linked deforestation. It covers a massive number of U.S. companies, including those that use, produce, or trade commodities linked to deforestation, including cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soy, rubber and wood. Consequences of non-compliance include fines, confiscation of revenues, and temporary prohibitions from operating in the EU.
Third Partners' EUDR Compliance Risk Dashboard is part of the tailored deforestation risk assessment solution for mid-sized U.S. companies. Clients get a rapid report based on known sourcing data, which is then used to inform the due diligence and compliance process. "Know your risk, before you ship" is essential for U.S. exporters of wood products, beef, packaging and other covered materials to avoid costly container holds, seizures and fines. Third Partners can run the risk assessment using any level of existing supply chain data that companies have, including supplier lists. The report indicates likely risk hotspots based on the EU definition of deforestation. While it takes some effort to comply, EUDR can create comparative advantages for "Made in the USA" products by proving products do not contribute to deforestation. The U.S. has been designated "low risk" and has a vibrant and sustainable forestry industry, strong legal protections, and consumers who value biodiversity.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sluggish December hiring concluded a year of weak employment gains that have frustrated job seekers even though layoffs and unemployment have remained low.
Employers added just 50,000 jobs last month, nearly unchanged from a downwardly revised figure of 56,000 in November, the Labor Department said Friday. The unemployment rate slipped to 4.4%, its first decline since June, from 4.5% in November, a figure also revised lower.
The data suggests that businesses are reluctant to add workers even as economic growth has picked up. Many companies hired aggressively after the pandemic and no longer need to fill more jobs. Others have held back due to widespread uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s shifting tariff policies, elevated inflation, and the spread of artificial intelligence, which could alter or even replace some jobs.
Still, economists were encouraged by the drop in the unemployment rate, which had risen in the previous four straight reports. It had also alarmed officials at the Federal Reserve, prompting three cuts to the central bank's key interest rate last year. The decline lowered the odds of another rate reduction in January, economists said.
“The labor market looks to have stabilized, but at a slower pace of employment growth,” Blerina Uruci, chief economist at T. Rowe Price, said. There is no urgency for the Fed to cut rates further, for now."
Some Federal Reserve officials are concerned that inflation remains above their target of 2% annual growth, and hasn't improved since 2024. They support keeping rates where they are to combat inflation. Others, however, are more worried that hiring has nearly ground to a halt and have supported lowering borrowing costs to spur spending and growth.
November's job gain was revised slightly lower, from 64,000 to 56,000, while October's now shows a much steeper drop, with a loss of 173,000 positions, down from previous estimates of a 105,000 decline. The government revises the jobs figures as it receives more survey responses from businesses.
The economy has now lost an average of 22,000 jobs a month in the past three months, the government said. A year ago, in December 2024, it had gained 209,000 a month. Most of those losses reflect the purge of government workers by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.
Nearly all the jobs added in December were in the health care and restaurant and hotel industries. Health care added 38,500 jobs, while restaurants and hotels gained 47,000. Governments — mostly at the state and local level — added 13,000.
Manufacturing, construction and retail companies all shed jobs. Retailers cut 25,000 positions, a sign that holiday hiring has been weaker than previous years. Manufacturers have shed jobs every month since April, when Trump announced sweeping tariffs intended to boost manufacturing.
Wall Street and Washington are looking closely at Friday's report as it's the first clean reading on the labor market in three months. The government didn’t issue a report in October because of the six-week government shutdown, and November’s data was distorted by the closure, which lasted until Nov. 12.
The hiring slowdown reflects more than just a reluctance by companies to add jobs. With an aging population and a sharp drop in immigration, the economy doesn't need to create as many jobs as it has in the past to keep the unemployment rate steady. As a result, a gain of 50,000 jobs is not as clear a sign of weakness as it would have been in previous years.
And layoffs are still low, a sign firms aren't rapidly cutting jobs, as typically happens in a recession. The “low-hire, low-fire” job market does mean current workers have some job security, though those without jobs can have a tougher time.
Ernesto Castro, 44, has applied for hundreds of jobs since leaving his last in May. Yet the Los Angeles resident has gotten just three initial interviews, and only one follow-up, after which he heard nothing.
With nearly a decade of experience providing customer support for software companies, Castro expected to find a new job pretty quickly as he did in 2024.
“I should be in a good position,” Castro said. “It’s been awful.”
He worries that more companies are turning to artificial intelligence to help clients learn to use new software. He hears ads from tech companies that urge companies to slash workers that provide the kind of services he has in his previous jobs. His contacts in the industry say that employees are increasingly reluctant to switch jobs amid all the uncertainty, which leaves fewer open jobs for others.
He is now looking into starting his own software company, and is also exploring project management roles.
December’s report caps a year of sluggish hiring, particularly after April's “liberation day” tariff announcement by Trump. The economy generated an average of 111,000 jobs a month in the first three months of 2025. But that pace dropped to just 11,000 in the three months ended in August, before rebounding slightly to 22,000 in November.
Last year, the economy gained just 584,000 jobs, sharply lower than that more than 2 million added in 2024. It's the smallest annual gain since the COVID-19 pandemic decimated the job market in 2020.
Subdued hiring underscores a key conundrum surrounding the economy as it enters 2026: Growth has picked up to healthy levels, yet hiring has weakened noticeably and the unemployment rate has increased in the last four jobs reports.
Most economists expect hiring will accelerate this year as growth remains solid, and Trump's tax cut legislation is expected to produce large tax refunds this spring. Yet economists acknowledge there are other possibilities: Weak job gains could drag down future growth. Or the economy could keep expanding at a healthy clip, while automation and the spread of artificial intelligence reduces the need for more jobs.
Productivity, or output per hour worked, a measure of worker efficiency, has improved in the past three years and jumped nearly 5% in the July-September quarter. That means companies can produce more without adding jobs. Over time, it should also boost worker pay.
Even with such sluggish job gains, the economy has continued to expand, with growth reaching a 4.3% annual rate in last year's July-September quarter, the best in two years. Strong consumer spending helped drive the gain. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta forecasts that growth could slow to a still-solid 2.7% in the final three months of last year.
FILE - A hiring sign is displayed at a grocery store in Northbrook, Ill., Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
