The Trump administration is considering new 25% tariffs on imported cars, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, ratcheting up concerns among some analysts that previously planned and pending tariffs could raise consumer prices.

President Donald Trump said this week those new tariffs could be imposed as soon as April 2 after a review now underway. Auto industry analysts said the latest planned tariffs could add thousands of dollars to car prices, though Trump said they would encourage more automakers to move operations to the United States.

The administration previously imposed a new 10% tariff on goods from China, and a new 25% tariff on all products from Canada and Mexico is slated to take effect next month. Some analysts said there could be shifts in real estate demand as companies change locations and routing for the production, storage and transportation of some goods.

Automakers including Ford previously warned of cost increases that could face manufacturers, suppliers and consumers, since much of the automaking process involves cross-border trade arrangements.

Meanwhile, members with the U.S. Federal Reserve's interest rate-setting committee said Trump’s trade policies could “hinder the disinflation process,” according to minutes of the Fed’s January meeting that were released Wednesday.

Officials said business leaders in some Federal Reserve regional districts “indicated that firms would attempt to pass on to consumers higher input costs arising from potential tariffs,” according to the minutes. The Fed decided at its January meeting to leave rates unchanged, with the next meeting scheduled for March 18-19. 

Fast-casual restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill plans to hire 20,000 as it gears up for its busy March-to-May “burrito season,” at a time when some dining companies have been cutting jobs and closing locations.

A statement from Newport Beach, California-based Chipotle said the company is boosting staffing at its 3,700 locations to handle customer traffic that traditionally peaks during the spring season. It is also looking long term to recruit store managers and future executives, after company leaders said during a recent earnings call that Chipotle remains on pace to reach its previously stated goal of having 7,000 locations operating within the next decade.

Following up on prior moves to automate kitchen functions like tortilla-making, the company said it now deploys an artificial intelligence-driven software called Ava Cado, from tech provider Paradox, to pre-interview candidates, schedule meetings with hiring personnel and send offers to candidates selected by managers.

The company said the technology has shortened the average time from application to job start from 12 days to four days. Chipotle currently employs more than 130,000 and is among the few major dining chains that owns and operates all of its restaurants in North America and Europe, though it has some franchisees in the Middle East.

The hiring spree comes as federal data showed U.S. spending at food and drinking places held up relatively well in January compared with other retail categories. That’s even after several dining chains and regional franchisees struggled in the past year with slowing sales and rising costs.

Office attendance for 10 major U.S. cities continued to slide below a peak reached in late January, averaging 51.4% of pre-pandemic levels for the week ended Feb. 12 in the latest tracking by Kastle Systems.

The weekly 10-city average has gradually declined since reaching a post-pandemic high of 54.2% for the week ended Jan. 29, but it has continued to hover around 50% for much of the past year in the security technology firm’s reporting.

Potential factors in the most recent weekly decrease included severe winter weather in Eastern regions, and federal staffing pullbacks and agency office closings in Washington, D.C. The latest Kastle data showed the nation’s capital had the second-lowest attendance among tracked regions at 39.2% of its pre-pandemic level for the week ended Feb. 12, well below its 51.5% posting in the prior two weeks.

The D.C. region topped only Philadelphia, celebrating a Super Bowl victory and registering at 37.7% in the latest Kastle report, down from about 44% in the previous two weeks. Anonymous keycard data from Kastle’s office clients showed most other regions kept about even with prior weeks, led again by Texas cities with Houston at 64.1%, Dallas at 61.9% and Austin at 61.6%.