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The Conference Board released survey results showing that only 28 percent of all workers expect they'll be working in person by the time 2021 rolls around, The Hill reported. The survey found that 8 percent of the workers surveyed had remained at their workplace through the pandemic, 11 percent had already returned and 9 percent expected they would be back in the last quarter of the year, accounting for 28 percent. Another 30 percent anticipated they would return to work by March, and 7 percent said they would be back between April and September. The survey was conducted online with 1,135 U.S. workers across a range of industries, taken from Sept. 16-25, and sheds light on how the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect the economy. Only 17 percent of workers said they would be very comfortable returning to their workplace. Nearly a third said they weren't comfortable at all.

U.S. airlines were again holding out hope for another $25 billion in payroll aid after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin yesterday discussed the possibility of standalone legislation for the struggling sector, Reuters reported. Their conversation was the latest in a series of turbulent developments on relief prospects in recent weeks for airlines, which last week began the furlough of tens of thousands of employees. Airline shares jumped on Wednesday after sinking abruptly a day earlier on remarks by President Donald Trump that his administration would abandon talks with congressional Democrats over a major stimulus package until after the Nov. 3 election. Airlines’ relief request enjoys wide bipartisan backing, but House of Representatives Transportation Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio failed last week to win approval of a standalone bipartisan measure for airlines by unanimous consent after some Republicans objected. Pelosi asked Mnuchin by phone on Wednesday to review DeFazio’s bill “so that they could have an informed conversation,” her spokesman, Drew Hammill, wrote on Twitter. They spoke again yesterday evening for 20 minutes and agreed to continue discussions today, Hammill said. A separate Republican-led attempt to pass standalone legislation in the Senate also failed after opposition from three Republican senators, including Rick Scott of Florida. The Republican bill proposes taking unspent money from a first COVID-19 relief package, while the House Democrats’ proposal does not include any cuts to existing spending to fund the program.

Bankruptcy Judge David Jones is urging a group of JCPenney Co. creditors, including Aurelius Capital Management, to submit a competing bid to buy the ailing retailer, Bloomberg News reported. The push comes as JCPenney, its biggest landlords and holders of most of its senior debt work to execute a bid that would rescue the company by October 16. The deal -- which would see Simon Property Group Inc. and Brookfield Property Partners buy the retailer’s operations and keep stores open -- was announced nearly a month ago, but no definitive agreements have been signed. A group of creditors, including Aurelius, that hold $162 million of term loans and other JCPenney debt attacked the proposed deal this week, calling it overly generous to other creditors. They said that they’re pulling together their own bid. Josh Sussberg, a Kirkland & Ellis attorney representing JCPenney, said any competing bid would have to top $2.47 billion to repay the retailer’s bankruptcy loan and first-lien debt, which would be forgiven as part of the existing offer. An attorney for the Aurelius group disagreed, arguing they could offer to buy a swath of JCPenney stores and still let Simon and Brookfield take over the operations.

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. dropped its plan to hand out as much as $5.4 million in executive incentive bonuses this year after the judge overseeing the company’s bankruptcy called the idea “offensive,” Bloomberg News reported. Instead, Hertz will push forward with an $8.2 million bonus program for less-senior managers, designed to motivate them while the company reorganizes in bankruptcy, the car renter said in a court filing yesterday. Hertz may try again to give the executives a bonus next year, the company said. “In the face of the court’s strong statements, the debtors seriously considered abandoning the incentive plans altogether,” Hertz said in the court filing aimed at persuading U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath to allow bonuses for lower-ranking executives. Last month, Judge Walrath sided with opponents, who argued that the bonus program came too soon after $16.2 million in retention money Hertz agreed to hand out to about 340 employees just days before it filed for bankruptcy in May. Judge Walrath’s decision nixed a plan to split as much as $5.4 million in bonuses among 14 top executives and allowed another 295 lower-ranking managers to share up to $9.2 million. As part of the original deal, employees agreed to forgo their 2020 bonuses, Bloomberg Law previously reported. The new bonuses were “in reality the 2020 bonuses under a different name,” according to the U.S. Trustee, the Department of Justice’s bankruptcy watchdog. Hertz argued in today’s filing that the retention bonuses were different from the proposed incentive payments.

No qualified buyers showed up to participate in a court-supervised sale process for California Pizza Kitchen Inc., the dining chain that filed for bankruptcy in July, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. CPK on Tuesday canceled a court-supervised auction, the company said in a court filing. The sale process was part of a two-prong plan the company has been pursuing, seeking buyers while also negotiating a proposed deal to hand over most of its shares to its top-ranking lenders. The Playa Vista, Calif.-based restaurant chain filed for bankruptcy in July after a months-long search for buyers. The company hired Guggenheim Securities LLC and Kirkland & Ellis LLP last year to find buyers or sell selected assets, as well as to advise on a restructuring, court filings show. Under the restructuring proposal, CPK had planned to cut roughly $400 million in debt to $174 million and exit bankruptcy within three months. The company’s first-lien lenders are entitled to more than 96 percent of the company’s shares under the proposed plan.

U.S. consumer borrowing unexpectedly fell in August as credit-card balances declined for a sixth consecutive month, with the coronavirus pandemic continuing to limit some purchases amid elevated unemployment, Bloomberg News reported. Total credit decreased $7.2 billion from the prior month after an upwardly revised $14.7 billion July gain, Federal Reserve figures showed yesterday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a $14 billion increase in August. The drop in revolving credit to a three-year low indicates that the pace of consumer spending growth is moderating after outsize gains immediately following the gradual lifting of restrictions on businesses and individuals. The expiration of a $600 weekly supplemental benefit for the unemployed may have also played a role in the drop in consumer charges. The absence of additional government financial support to the millions of unemployed Americans is seen as limiting the consumer expenditures that make up the largest share of gross domestic product. Revolving credit fell $9.4 billion, the most in three months. The decrease left outstanding revolving credit at $985.3 billion, the lowest since June 2017. Non-revolving debt, which includes auto and school loans, rose $2.2 billion, though the increase was the smallest since a decrease in April. Lending by the federal government, which is mainly for student loans, increased almost $15 billion before seasonal adjustment. Total consumer credit for the month fell an annualized 2.1 percent after growing 4.3 precent in July. The Fed’s report doesn’t track debt secured by real estate, such as home mortgages.

U.S. central bankers look poised to discuss the future of the Federal Reserve’s asset-purchase program when they meet again in November, potentially heralding a shift in what they buy, or an increase in how much they purchase, Bloomberg News reported. Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s Sept. 15-16 meeting released yesterday showed that “some participants also noted that in future meetings it would be appropriate to further assess and communicate how the committee’s asset-purchase program could best support” the Fed’s dual-mandate objectives. The readiness of some officials to examine the bond-buying program signals that they’d be open to altering or increasing the purchases -- perhaps before the end of the year -- as a way to further bolster the economy’s slowing recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Officials would be unlikely to consider cutting purchases. They next meet Nov. 4-5, a day after the U.S. presidential election. Policymakers agreed at the September meeting to hold rates near zero until the labor market reached maximum employment and inflation reached 2 percent -- and was on track to moderately exceed that goal for some time. Forecasts also released on Sept. 16 showed officials didn’t expect the economy to reach those targets until 2023 or 2024.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is asking large U.S. banks to disclose how they performed under a recent Federal Reserve exam of their finances during the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reported. In a letter sent to 14 large firms yesterday, Warren asked that each provide its results from a confidential Fed test, arguing the central bank’s “limited transparency” on whether banks could weather a severe economic downturn is insufficient. “The safety and soundness of the banking sector cannot be taken for granted, and the American people deserve full transparency regarding the health of the financial system,” the Democratic senator wrote in a letter seen by Reuters. Warren added that the recent collapse of negotiations for further economic stimulus makes the matter more pressing, as the Fed previously noted that some banks’ capital forecasts were “strongly dependent” on additional economic support. In June, the Fed announced that large banks could suffer as much as $700 billion in losses under a severe pandemic-driven recession. But the central bank only released those results in the aggregate, citing the fact that the recent onset of the pandemic prevented it from conducting a full-blown stress test of each bank.

Millions of U.S. workers have lost their jobs to the pandemic, but in the auto industry, suppliers are scrambling to find enough people to staff production lines, resorting to such approaches as rewards for good attendance and at-work teachers to lure job-seekers, Reuters reported. At auto parts maker Mobex Global, Chief Executive Joe Perkins said he is boosting pay and offering bonuses to help fill 80 job openings. His engineering and machining company is running more overtime to meet rising demand. "It is the most critical issue in our company," said Perkins, whose firm has 12 U.S. plants and counts General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. among its customers. The U.S. auto industry usually is the first in and the last out of an economic slump. The coronavirus crisis is different. Demand for new vehicles has rebounded. But fears of catching COVID-19 and problems caring for school-age children are keeping many workers at home, compelling employers to raise pay despite the high national jobless rate, industry executives said. Many suppliers are dealing with absenteeism rates of 10-15 percent, said Brian Collie, head of Boston Consulting Group’s global auto practice. That has led the United Auto Workers to give the Detroit automakers more latitude on using temporary workers to cover for absent full-time employees, union President Rory Gamble told Reuters.