Washington Post (October 17)
“While Americans are leaving their jobs at staggering rates — a record 4.3 million quit in August alone — hundreds of thousands of workers with similar grievances about wages, benefits and quality of life are…choosing to dig in and fight.” Empowered by the Great Resignation, union action is up sharply in 2021. “Workers are now harder to replace, especially while many companies are scrambling to meet heightened demand for their products and manage hobbled supply chains. That has given unions new leverage, and made striking less risky.”
Tags: Benefits, Demand, Great Resignation, Grievances, Jobs, Leverage, Quality of life, Risky, Scrambling, Staggering, Striking, Supply chains, U.S., Unions, Wages, Workers
Boston Globe (April 15)
“For many people hired remotely over the past year, the workplace has largely been restricted to the two-dimensional confines of their computer screens. They may be performing their jobs just fine, but they haven’t been able to benefit from the in-office osmosis that comes with being in a shared space. They haven’t observed their bosses’ body language or picked up tricks that aren’t in the handbook.” As a result, “pandemic hires” are thirsty for the office. They miss “the ‘real’ workplace.”
Tags: Body language, Bosses, Jobs, Office, Osmosis, Pandemic hires, Remotely, Restricted, Shared space, Tricks, Two-dimensional, Workplace
Mercury News (February 17)
“Despite an unprecedented 2.4 million jobs lost in the spring, Californians joined fellow Americans in paying down interest-heavy debt such as credit card bills while acquiring wealth-building loans by taking out mortgages…. But looks can be deceiving.” Aggregate figures can obscure real suffering. “Millions of Californians suffering job losses have accumulated crippling debt that goes uncounted in national measures: unpaid rent, utility bills, borrowed money from loved ones and, in some cases, predatory loans.”
Tags: California, Credit card, Debt, Interest, Jobs, Loans, Mortgages, Predatory, Rent, Suffering, U.S., Uncounted, Unprecedented, Utility bills, Wealth-building
Wall Street Journal (February 17)
“Continental governments have spent trillions during the pandemic keeping firms alive and people in jobs, but that safety net could be putting off the economic deep cleaning that normally comes with recessions.” Concern is growing that “mothballing the economy for so long will leave it struggling to adapt to the seismic business and social changes the crisis is driving. That could stall an economic recovery.”
Tags: Adapt, Crisis, Economic deep cleaning, Firms, Governments, Jobs, Mothballing, Pandemic, Recessions, Recovery, Safety net, Struggling
The Times (October 19)
“The pandemic has laid waste to high streets, costing thousands of jobs in the process.” A recent PWC study starkly illustrates the observation that “shop closures soared at a record rate in the first half of the year as coronavirus lockdowns hit the high street.” During that period, “Britain lost 6,001 more chain stores than it gained in the first half, up from a loss of 3,509 in the same period last year.”
Tags: Britain, Closures, Coronavirus, High streets, Jobs, Lockdowns, Pandemic, PwC, Shops, Stores, Waste
New York Times (June 17)
“In many ways, the economic recovery from the coronavirus has defied the worst-case scenarios. Jobs, spending and markets have bounced back more quickly than expected, although they largely remain below pre-pandemic levels. This is mostly thanks to unprecedented government intervention, but many of those stimulus programs are set to expire soon. Then what?”
Tags: Coronavirus, Economic recovery, Intervention, Jobs, Markets, Pandemic, Scenarios, Spending, Stimulus, Worst-case
Wall Street Journal (May 3)
“Global brands are hoping China’s gigantic consumer market will help rekindle growth as the world tries to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. They are facing an uphill battle.” Despite “seeing a solid bounceback in China… a full return to normal, much less growth, is proving harder because so many people have lost jobs and income, or want to save more.”
Tags: Bounceback, China, Consumer market, Coronavirus pandemic, Global brands, Growth, Income, Jobs, Normal, Recover
New York Times (April 10)
“The scale of the economic damage is breathtaking. In one recent poll, more than half of all Americans under the age of 45 said that they had lost their jobs or suffered a loss of hours.” It is equally harrowing for businesses. Those that survive will “face long-term costs, too: the loss of trained and experienced workers, the uncertainties of hiring new ones.”
Tags: Breathtaking, Businesses, Costs, Economic damage, Experienced workers, Hiring, Jobs, Loss, Scale, Trained, Uncertainties
Chicago Tribune (October 4)
“The jobs figures carry more weight than usual because worries about the health of the U.S. economy are mounting. Manufacturers have essentially fallen into recession as U.S. businesses have cut spending on industrial machinery, computers and other factory goods. And overseas demand for U.S. exports has fallen sharply as President Donald Trump’s trade conflicts with China and Europe have triggered retaliatory tariffs.”
Tags: Businesses, China, Computers, Conflicts, Economy, Europe, Exports, Factory goods, Industrial machinery, Jobs, Manufacturers, Overseas demand, Recession, Retaliatory tariffs, Spending, Trump, U.S.
Bloomberg (September 17)
Global investors have “sold $4.5 billion of Indian shares since June, on course for the biggest quarterly exodus since at least 1999.” That’s roughly a tenth of their total investment during the previous six years. “India’s economic growth has decelerated for five straight quarters.” India could now experience “a structural slowdown that pummels the country’s $2 trillion stock market, throws a wrench into growth plans of international companies from Amazon.com Inc. to Netflix Inc.,” and diminishes job prospects “for the millions of young Indians who enter the workforce every year.”
Tags: Amazon, Exodus, Global, Growth, India, Investors, Jobs, Netflix, Prospects, Shares, Slowdown, Stock market
