San Jose Mercury News (October 4)
“Throughout the Bay Area, companies both large and small are struggling to refill their ranks after last year’s business shutdowns drove laid-off workers to seek pandemic unemployment assistance to find new jobs in other industries. But as bigger companies offer increasingly generous rewards, smaller companies with leaner budgets are struggling to compete in a worker-driven market.”
Tags: Bay Area, Bigger, Budgets, Companies, Generous, Laid-off, Pandemic, Refill, Rewards, Shutdowns, Smaller, Struggling, Unemployment, Workers
Chicago Tribune (July 26)
“As companies across the Chicago area welcome workers back to offices, they’re often labeling them as either vaccinated or unvaccinated, with different treatment for each group.” Vaccinated workers may not be “required to wear masks or social distance” while unvaccinated workers may be “told to undergo weekly on-site COVID-19 testing, wear maks and social distance.”
Tags: Chicago, Companies, COVID-19, Masks, Offices, Social distance, Testing, Unvaccinated, Vaccinated, Workers
Atlanta Journal Constitution (June 23)
“American leisure air travel is bouncing back quickly after plunging last year. But it could take months or years for business travel to return to normal—if ever—even as more companies prepare to bring workers back to offices.” For metro Atlanta’s economy and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, “that spells uncertainty.”
Tags: Air travel, Atlanta, Bouncing back, Business travel, Companies, Economy, Leisure, Normal, Offices, Plunging, U.S., Workers
The Detroit News (June 22)
“Suddenly, in just a matter of a few months, the vast dealmaking machinery that caters to wealthy entrepreneurs has started buzzing with a level of activity that some industry veterans say they haven’t seen before, potentially setting up a cascade of sales for later this year. A combination of high valuations on companies and potentially higher taxes in the future is proving to be a potent motivator.”
Tags: Cascade, Companies, Dealmaking, Entrepreneurs, Future, High valuations, Higher taxes, Sales, Wealthy
Bloomberg (May 21)
“The world’s biggest businesses were doing fine until Covid-19 arrived. Now they’re doing even better. The top 50 companies by value added $4.5 trillion of stock market capitalization in 2020, taking their combined worth to about 28% of global gross domestic product. Three decades ago the equivalent figure was less than 5%.”
Tags: 2020, Businesses, Capitalization, Companies, COVID-19, Stock market, Top 50, World's biggest
Mercury News (May 3)
“Of the many problems confronting Bay Area companies as they move out of pandemic lockdowns and into the workplaces of the future, one issue is proving especially thorny: Do they make their workers get COVID shots?” Legally, they can require vaccinations “as a condition of employment. But just because they can mandate injections doesn’t mean they should.”
Tags: Bay Area, Companies, COVID shots, Employment, Lockdowns, Pandemic, U.S., Vaccinations, Workers, Workplaces
Atlanta Journal Constitution (March 25)
“Far more workers are becoming eligible for vaccines now. Gov. Brian Kemp announced Tuesday that all Georgians over the age of 16 will qualify for access starting today. An array of Georgia-based companies…said they are strongly encouraging employees to get shots that could curb the pandemic, protect the public and help open workplaces more quickly.”
Tags: Access, Companies, Eligible, Employees, Encouraging, Georgia, Kemp, Pandemic, Protect, Public, Shots, Vaccines, Workers, Workplaces
Institutional Investor (March 9)
“Shareholder activists pulled in their horns in 2020, targeting 10 percent fewer companies than in 2019 and winning 16 percent fewer board seats.”
Tags: 2019, 2020, Activists, Board seats, Companies, Fewer, Shareholders, Targeting
Boston Globe (February 2)
“More than 10 months into a pandemic that has all but emptied downtown towers, the long-term future of offices in Boston remains unclear. Vacancy rates downtown are the highest they’ve been in a decade. There’s more than 3.5 million square feet available for sublease from companies holding long-term leases on space they’ve decided they no longer need. Rents, after climbing steadily for years, are starting to fall.”
Tags: Boston, Companies, Downtown, Emptied, Future, Leases, Long term, Offices, Pandemic, Rents, Sublease, Towers, Vacancy
The Economist (November 28)
“Investors are turning one eye away from the immediate struggle of coping with the pandemic and looking instead at the longer-term competitive picture. Who has won and who has lost? Like viruses, recessions usually come for the weakest first. Companies with sickly balance-sheets or frail margins quickly succumb. As promising startups become crushed closedowns, it is often the incumbents that have the resources to wait it out.”
Tags: Balance sheets, Companies, Crushed closedowns, Incumbents, Investors, Margins, Pandemic, Promising, Recessions, Resources, Startups, Succumb, Weakest
