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☆ Bank of America forecasts exactly how many jobs will be lost as the US economy takes a downturn — and how quickly
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Bank of America is projecting that the US economy will lose over 500,000 jobs in 2023. The bank expects the unemployment rate to reach 5.5%. If this does come to pass, the US economy could have thousands of fewer jobs, Bank of America told clients in a report last Friday. In March and April of 2020, the US lost 1,500 and 20,000 jobs, leading to an unemployment rate of nearly 15% — nearly three-times as high as what Bank of America is projecting this go-round. But perhaps counterintuitively, today's strong job market could actually be a bad sign for its health in the future, some experts say.

☆ 'Quiet quitters' coasting through work could be a prime target for layoffs as recession fears loom, labor experts say
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Hannah Towey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The job market is slowly shifting back in favor of employers, labor experts told Insider. During an economic downturn, workers may not be able to get away with just doing the bare minimum. That means "quiet quitters" could be the first to be laid off during a recession, experts say. And in the same survey, nearly nine out of 10 managers (87%) said they would "likely" have to lay off employees during a recession. So it's not necessarily whether you're quiet quitting or not.

I know I'll need passive income to support myself if I want to retire early. I asked financial planners who work with millionaires which passive income streams are most lucrative. That's why financial planner Darren Colananni says it's one of the most common passive income streams among millionaires. "You can get a tax deduction on the rental income by depreciating the property," which means deducting the cost of buying or improving a rental property, says Colananni. Social Security, collected strategicallyA passive income stream that most American workers get when they retire, Social Security, is one that millionaires also bank on, according to financial planner Scott Sturgeon.

☆ Amazon confirms it is raising pay for warehouse staff and delivery drivers by $1 per hour
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Isobel Asher Hamilton | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Amazon announced Wednesday it's upping pay for warehouse workers and drivers by roughly $1 per hour. Insider's Katherine Long reported Amazon was planning broad pay raises of between $0.50 and $1 on Wednesday before Amazon's announcement. Amazon did not say specifically why it had chosen now to up pay for its warehouse workers and drivers. This year saw the creation of the first US Amazon warehouse workers' union at a facility in Staten Island, New York. Amazon warehouse workers in the UK protested in August after being awarded a pay rise of 35p (38 cents).

☆ Bill Clinton's Secretary of Labor blames soaring corporate profits for inflation and says the US government should consider directly controlling prices
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Corporate greed, not wages, is fueling inflation, says former President Bill Clinton's Secretary of Labor. Some experts say government antitrust enforcement and even price controls deserve consideration. "Profit-price inflation" — caused by companies "raising their prices above their increasing costs" — is the key factor fueling inflation, Reich wrote in a Guardian op-ed Sunday. Still others, like Reich, believe cracking down on record-high corporate profits is the best way to cool prices in the US. "This is why corporate profits are close to levels not seen in over half a century," he wrote.

☆ U.S. lawmakers want Biden to take action on outbound investment to China
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Sept 27 (Reuters) - A group of lawmakers including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican Senator John Cornyn on Tuesday called on U.S. President Joe Biden to issue an executive order on outbound investments to China and others. Congress has been considering legislation that would give the U.S. government sweeping new powers to block billions in U.S. investment into China. White House national security official Peter Harrell earlier this month said that the Biden administration has not yet made a final decision on a potential outbound investment mechanism regulating U.S. investments in China. Harrell stressed that any measure targeting such investments should be narrowly tailored to address gaps in existing U.S. authorities and specific national security risks. "When we cede our manufacturing power and technological know-how to foreign adversaries, we are hurting our economy, our global competitiveness, American workers, industry and national security.

☆ Wharton's Siegel says Jerome Powell owes 'the American people an apology' for poor Fed policy
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Jesse Pound | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

"Honestly, I think Chairman Powell should offer the American people an apology for such poor monetary policy that he has pursued, and the Fed has pursued, over the past few years," Siegel said. Projections from Fed policymakers at last week's meeting showed that the rate could jump well above 4% in coming months. Siegel said the Fed is "talking way too tough" and should be more worried about causing a recession than focusing on lagged inflation data. He also said the Fed is being inconsistent with how it uses some pieces of economic data. It's the same data," Siegel said.

☆ The Fed's fight against inflation could cost the US 1.2 million jobs
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Alicia Wallace | Cnn Business | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Assuming no change in the labor force, that would mean around 1.2 million more people will be unemployed. "And it's really, at this point, like telling the tide not to come in -- to expect the labor market to soften." As the unemployment rate rises, workers lose bargaining power for higher wages and households pull back on spending. Powell has said that prolonged and entrenched high inflation would be even worse than moderate increases in the unemployment rate. "If we want to set ourselves up, light the way to another period of a very strong labor market, we have got to get inflation behind us.

☆ The US is adding millionaires at the fastest rate this century while the 'quiet fleecing' of American workers' pay continues
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

It's a signal of the "quiet fleecing" of the American worker that's been keeping wages down for decades. "Those trends in hourly wage growth have profound consequences for American living standards and how well people in this country are able to make ends meet. "Quiet fleecing" means lower wages for Americans while the millionaires thriveFor workers, "quiet fleecing" has resulted in decades of wages that haven't kept up with the rising costs of healthcare, housing, and food. A recession could make "quiet fleecing" worseThis inequality could be among the reasons some Americans are "quiet quitting," "acting their wage," or joining the Great Resignation. The consequences could be inflicting an economic downturn of an unnecessary scale, hurting working workers, and ultimately making "quiet fleecing" and inequality worse.

☆ Prices are set to fall for homes, cars, and furniture. It's a sign the Fed may not need to risk a recession that punishes job seekers.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Some economists say that means the Federal Reserve doesn't need to squash jobs to cool inflation. Cooling prices might provide less reason for the Federal Reserve to continue its bold campaign to raise interest rates and slow the economy. It did just that on Wednesday, increasing interest rates by another 0.75% to make borrowing more expensive and squash demand. "Will raising interest rates lead to more oil, lower prices of oil, more food, lower prices of food?" "The real worry in my mind is," he added, "will they increase interest rates too high, too fast, too far?"

☆ 'Quiet fleecing' is why you're getting paid less and everyone's talking about quiet quitting and the Great Resignation
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Since the 1970s, US wage growth has stalled, with the top 1% seeing most of the gains. It's resulted in a "quiet fleecing" of the American worker, according to data analyzed by the Economic Policy Institute. Coined by the Economic Policy Institute, "quiet fleecing" describes decades of stagnant wage growth in the US despite rising productivity and costs of living. In theory, workers' wages rise in tandem with their productivity, or the output they provide to a company. It could be why more workers are getting vocal about quiet quitting, "acting their wage," or joining the Great Resignation.

☆ The powerful motivator behind workers who want more
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-16 | by ( Christine Romans | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN Business —Rail workers, teachers, nurses, baristas. There is a powerful factor motivating these American workers to demand for more. “Railroad workers are leading the way but everyone wants more.”Those are the dollars and cents behind workers’ dissatisfaction. For workers, closing that gap between wages and consumer prices could, actually, be inflationary. The things that make us middle class — housing, health care, education — these things are going up at triple that rate.

☆ Rail Shippers Brace for Potential National Strike
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-14 | by ( Paul Berger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Companies from food suppliers in the Midwest to retail importers across the U.S. are bracing for a potential national rail strike by seeking alternative transport to keep their supply chains running. Tens of thousands of American workers are on strike and thousands more are attempting to unionize. “We believe the potential for a rail work stoppage is growing,” Citi’s Christian Wetherbee wrote in a research note Wednesday. Other shippers will have to hold on to cargo if the rail network shuts down. U.S. railroads hauled more than 18,000 carloads of grains over the past week, according to the Association of American Railroads.

☆ I feel I am falling through the cracks at work. Is it time to find another job?
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-14 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

I'm a Gen Z employee at a large company and I am a little over a year into my first full-time, professional job after college. Over the past few months, two members of my team have left the company and they're not being replaced. In the current market, I feel like my team could be on the chopping block if my company conducts lay-offs. On the other hand, because I love my team and the work I do, I want to stay and try to make it better. On the other hand, though, it never hurts to start passively looking for a new job while you remain employed.

☆ How to be an empathetic boss, even when you're completely burned out
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-31 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Studies show that empathetic managers increase people's job satisfaction and cultivate loyalty. It's a human-resources cliché, but as anyone who's ever quit a horrible boss knows, there's a certain truth to it. Unfortunately for employees, research suggests that empathetic bosses are a rare breed. "Managers need to close the say-do gap by creating environments where workers feel valued and understood," he said. It goes back to the Tiny Pulse survey: empathy fatigue.

☆ How to write a résumé that gets you hired in an uncertain economy
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-09 | by ( Rebecca Knight | Catherine Henderson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

If you're job hunting in this shaky economy, your résumé needs to sparkle. Career experts shared their best advice for résumé writing in this climate. Insider spoke with career experts about their advice for résumé writing in this uncertain climate, including exercises to find the strongest adjectives and describing your qualifications. Try some writing exercisesEli Joseph, a faculty member at Columbia University and New York University, takes an unusal approach to résumé writing. Tailor your résumé to each postingPay and Joseph agreed that you should change your résumé for each job application.

☆ Scamming the boss: Some employees are outsourcing their jobs to other people. Here's how companies are spotting the fraudsters.
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-03 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

As remote work provides opportunities for fraud, some employees are outsourcing their jobs. Experts say this fraud can pose severe risks for companies, especially when the work involves confidential company and customer data. The problem for companies is when employees outsource their jobs without their organization's awareness, and pay out of their own pockets. Employers are generally powerless to do anything about these second jobs as long as they don't affect their employees' work and don't involve work for a competitor. "Every employer I talk to considers 'remote' as a location — not a work arrangement," he said, meaning remote workers must abide by the company's rules.

☆ Leaders from Walmart, AB InBev, Honeywell, Carlyle, and more share advice for getting started — and sticking to — sustainability goals
▼ + stars: | 2022-07-22 | by ( Julia Hood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +26 min

Sustainability leaders from Walmart, JUST Capital, Dow, Honeywell, Cognizant, Deloitte, Bank of America, AB InBev, and Carlyle participated. If you're just looking for a science partner, you're going to go and get the science. So then we started building debriefs for our portfolio companies, actually making them sit down and have a conversation with us. Because as long as you do it with integrity, you're going to probably get to the right place. I remember him saying when we talked about the idea, "what you're trying to achieve with that, is somewhere between really, really, really, really hard and impossible."

☆ Rising layoffs, high inflation, and the dreaded R-word have American workers nervous. Here's a guide to managing your career in an uncertain economy.
▼ + stars: | 2022-07-18 | by ( Rachel Durose | Catherine Henderson | Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

The economic news is mixed: Inflation and interest rates are high, but the job market looks solid. It's possible that the Fed manages to cool off the economy and tame inflation without causing a spike in unemployment, said Flowers. "The outlook isn't as rosy as it was," Nick Bunker, the head of economic research at the jobs platform Indeed. If the thought of an economic downturn makes you fear for your job, you're not alone. Mentor someone else in your organization — if you're relatively new on the job yourself, take a student intern under your wing.

☆ Economic policy is full of false assumptions that benefit the wealthy and undercut average Americans — just look at how CEOs are paid
▼ + stars: | 2022-03-19 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Recently, he spoke with author Tom Bergin about the problem with CEOs acting like shareholders. A 2021 study found that typical CEO compensation has risen 1,322% since 1978, while worker compensation over that same time only increased by 18%. The problem with CEOs behaving as shareholdersThe National Bureau of Economic Research reports that in 1980, stock options were rarely included in CEO compensation. When they were a part of the compensation package, average stock options rarely made up even 20% of the total direct pay for CEOs. But today, according to Lawrence Mischel from the Economic Policy Institute, "Stock-related compensation comprises around 85% of CEO compensation."

☆ Companies need to embrace an innovative path to create new employment opportunities
▼ + stars: | 2022-03-03 | by ( Ravi Kumar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

This article is part of the "Financing a Sustainable Future" series exploring how companies take steps to set and fund sustainable goals. A LinkedIn survey found just one in 67 paid jobs in the US offered remote work in 2020, and that number this year grew to one in six. The labor shortage is compelling companies to boost pay. Low-complexity jobs will inevitably be automated, given the acute labor shortage, and the real opportunity will be in training people to take on higher-order responsibilities, which will allow enterprises to scale business purposefully. Remote work means more people otherwise limited by their circumstances — like caregiving adults, students, and people with disabilities or in rural areas — can now be included in the nontraditional American workforce and gig economy.

☆ America's Overachievers Are Finally Leaning Back
▼ + stars: | 2022-03-02 | by ( Aki Ito | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Today, Justin is working the least he ever has: 40 hours a week. But what these executives are missing is that some employees don't want to pal around with their coworkers. In peak hustle culture, work was where we expected to find everything we needed to live the good life: joy, purpose, community. Then he started billing for 40 hours a week of labor that often took him only a few hours to complete. But after nine months of leaning back, a solid 40 hours is starting to look pretty attractive.

☆ Why it's crucial for lawmakers to protect and empower unions as union popularity rises across the US
▼ + stars: | 2022-02-19 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Despite growing public support for unions, Constant says union power has weakened in recent decades. Now is the time for Congress to protect union rights by passing pro-union laws at the federal level. Only about one in 10 American workers belongs to a labor union. How union power has been undermined across the countryThe past four decades have seen attacks on union power at almost every level of government. Presidents that followed Reagan — Republican and Democrat alike — either continued his push to erode union power or simply failed to shore up union power.

☆ American employees are stressed, anxious, and disengaged. Here are 3 simple strategies managers can use to boost their workers' well-being.
▼ + stars: | 2022-02-18 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Managers can use a number of research-backed interventions to foster employee happiness. Note to managers: Happiness drives business results. A study published earlier this year found that employees with high measures of self-reported happiness upon starting their jobs performed better than those with lower measures of happiness. Cultivate happinessWhen it comes to boosting an employee's emotional well-being, there is only so much a boss can do. Lester and his co-researchers have recommended managers lead team exercises geared toward improving employee well-being.

☆ Workforce at Alabama chicken plants includes migrant teens
▼ + stars: | 2022-02-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +20 min

At Amelia’s request, Reuters agreed not to identify her hometown, the chicken plant where she now works, or the exact job she performs there. She said she was determined to get here because Rosa told her she could find work quickly. Amelia provided her new credentials to a staffing firm that supplies laborers to a local chicken plant, she said. Some firms deduct as much as $40 a week from employees’ paychecks for the service, four workers told Reuters. She rarely leaves Rosa’s trailer except to head to and from the chicken plant.

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