Investment & Pensions Europe (September Edition)
“Continental Europe appears to have largely escaped the trend known in the US as the ‘Great Retirement Boom’, where an economically comfortable cohort of 50 to 64-year-olds has retreated from work in the post-COVID period.” In contrast, labour market participation in the EU is increasing among the over-55s and “the EU expects the proportion of economically active over-55s to continue increasing, reaching around 72% by 2040.”
Tags: 2040, Cohort, Comfortable, Economically active, EU, Europe, Great Retirement Boom, Labour market participation, Over-55s, Post-Covid, Trend, U.S., Work
WARC (July 24)
“Around the world, AI is developing and it is quickly reaching a point where it is speeding up human work to the point of replacing humans. This is a point in time for brands and agencies to really think about the technology and work out what ethical, responsible uses look like.” The rise of virtual influencers in China marks “one of the first instances of true competition between humans and machines for work and will be an important test case for the technology and the labour questions it raises.”
Tags: AI, Brands, China, Competition, Developing, Ethical, Humans, Replacing, Responsible, Technology, Uses, Virtual influencers, Work
Wall Street Journal (May 12)
“Job satisfaction hit a 36-year high in 2022, reflecting two effects of the tight pandemic labor market: The quality of jobs improved as wages and work flexibility increased, and workers moved into positions that were a better fit.” The Conference Board found that worker satisfaction increased from 56.8% in 2020 to 62.3% in 2022.”
Tags: 2022, Conference Board, Flexibility, Job satisfaction, Labor market, Pandemic, Quality, Wages, Work
New York Times (August 13)
“For many, work is a collection of tasks, not a collection of hours in a certain place…. Taking time for yourself during the work day doesn’t make you lazy, and working a bit on vacation doesn’t make you a workaholic. Dispensing with strict time boundaries should also mean ditching the guilt you might feel for either.”
Foreign Affairs (July 11)
“Today, globalization has stalled, and the new vogue for stockpiling strategic commodities and “friend-shoring” supplies will be inflationary. Add in the aging of populations and the possibility that young workers will insist on a flexible approach to work, and the Fed may have to run tighter policy than in the past quarter of a century.”
Tags: Aging, Commodities, Flexible, Friend-shoring, Globalization, Inflationary, Populations, Stalled, Stockpiling, Strategic, Supplies, Work, Young workers
New York Times (February 13)
“Covid has made us reconsider everything, the meaning of home and work, the value of public space, the magnitude and immediacy of death, what it truly means to be a member of a society. We are still finding the answers to those questions, but the America we knew ended in 2019.”
Tags: 2019, Answers, Covid, Death, Home, Immediacy, Magnitude, Meaning, Public, Questions, Reconsider, Society, Space, U.S., Value, Work
San Francisco Chronicle (January 25)
“The start of the new year brought a familiar wave of distress for many Bay Area parents: Omicron infections were accelerating; preschools and child care centers were shutting their doors; adults saw their work regimens upended, their children cloistered and irritable.” But there is now a new worry. It’s hitting children harder. “The pervasive threat of omicron to children too young to be vaccinated has added a layer of anguish.”
Tags: Accelerating, Adults, Anguish, Children, Distress, Familiar, Infections, Omicron, Parents, Preschools, Threat, Upended, Vaccinated, Wave, Work
LA Times (June 14)
“The chances of getting COVID-19 will not be zero anytime soon—even for vaccinated people. So, for all of us to comfortably return to in-person work, send our kids to school and abandon our masks, we will have to rely on multiple lines of trust…. Unfortunately, Americans’ willingness to trust one another was already in decline before the pandemic began.”
Tags: COVID-19, Decline, In-person, Kids, Masks, Pandemic, Return, School, Trust, Vaccinated, Willingness, Work
Fortune (June 13)
“Before the pandemic, Japan’s workforce faced longstanding problems, like chronic overwork, low productivity, and too few women. Letting employees work from home may have helped ease all three, in addition to preventing the spread of COVID. But Japan’s failure to more fully adapt means it will likely miss out on the carry-on benefits of remote work that some corporations elsewhere are warming to.”
Tags: Adapt, Benefits, Covid, Employees, Failure, Home, Japan, Longstanding, Overwork, Pandemic, Productivity, Remote work, Women, Work, Workforce
Wall Street Journal (April 13)
“The great car-chip shortage is bad for the auto industry, but only temporarily. The real losers are consumers who need wheels to get back to work.” Investors remain unfazed. “Investors can afford to remain relaxed about the chip shortage… there is an offset for manufacturers: Those cars they do ship this year could carry unusually high margins.”
Tags: Auto industry, Cars, Chip shortage, Consumers, Investors, Losers, Manufacturers, Relaxed, Work
