USA Today (August 21)
“The labor market seemed to defy gravity last year, generating more than 200,000 jobs a month despite a historically low unemployment rate that made it harder for employers to find workers. Turns out job growth wasn’t as robust as it appeared.” The Labor Department just issued its “largest downward revision in a decade.” Total job gains in the year ended March 2019 were revised downward by half a million. Based on this average monthly job growth was closer to 170,000, than the initial estimates of 210,000.
Tags: Defy, Employers, Gravity, Job growth, Labor Department, Labor market, Unemployment rate, Workers
WIRED (November 1)
The walkout at Google was “just the latest sign of tech worker unrest.” Tech workers are “starting to recognize that even well-paid tech jobs are not immune to” harassment and other internal workplace issues, as well as ethical concerns over the products they sell. Thursday’s protest was just “the latest in a string of collective actions by tech workers against their employers” that has included “similar attempts inside Microsoft, Salesforce, and Amazon.”
Tags: Amazon, Employers, Ethical, Google, Harassment, Microsoft, Products, Salesforce, Tech worker, Unrest, Walkout, Well-paid, Workplace issues
LA Times (December 17)
‘’Uber built its business by challenging regulators and entrenched assumptions about how best to assure public safety. It successfully evaded the strict local rules that the taxi industry faces on fares, licenses and driver background checks by arguing that smartphone-summoned rides were different from taxis and should be regulated under new state standards. It has also avoided a variety of mandates on employers by classifying its drivers as independent contractors, not employees.” But when it comes to testing driverless vehicles on California roads, the technology company should play be the rules.
Tags: ” Driverless vehicles, Assumptions, California, Contractors, Drivers, Employees, Employers, Fares, Licenses, Mandates, Public safety, Regulators, Rules, Smartphone, Taxi industry, Uber
New York Times (February 28)
In the U.S., the “sad demise” of the summer job is continuing and must be checked. We need to “help connect young people with summer jobs that give them not just money, but also valuable work experience…. When summer jobs were plentiful, young people gained skills and experiences that made them attractive to future employers.”
Tags: Demise, Employers, Experience, Money, Skills, Summer job, U.S., Work
Washington Post (June 16)
“U.S. employers now have more job openings than ever previously recorded,” but there’s a catch. “The average time required to fill a job opening has also just reached an all-time high: 27.3 days, or almost a month,” and it’s over 2 months (64 days) at the biggest companies. Unfortunately, nobody’s sure of the reason behind this or the implications the lag may have for the employment picture or, indeed, the overall economy.” Knowing why might explain why salaries aren’t going up, when they might or if they will.
Financial Times (October 3)
“Not only does poor sleep dent productivity, it also causes impulsivity and poor decision-making, according to sleep researchers. Sleep deprivation has been indicated as a cause in 7.8 per cent of all the US Air Force’s Class A accidents, defined as costing $1m or more). Sleep-deprived US workers cost their employers $63bn in lost productivity, according to a 2011 Harvard Medical School study.”
Tags: Accidents, Decision-making, Employers, Harvard, Productivity, Researchers, Sleep deprivation, U.S., Workers
Chicago Tribune (April 1)
“In the world’s most populous nation, attending to your filial obligations is no longer entirely up to your discretion. It’s a legal obligation.” In China, “the government has enacted a law mandating that children visit their parents and that employers give the children time off to do so. And if Junior shirks his duty, Mom and Dad can sue him to force compliance.”
