U.S. hiring rebounded in October, with 531,000 jobs added

America’s employers stepped up their hiring in October, adding a solid 531,000 jobs, the most since July and a sign that the recovery from the pandemic recession may be overcoming a virus-induced slowdown.

Friday’s report from the Labor Department also showed that the unemployment rate fell to 4.6 percent last month, from 4.8 percent in September. That is a comparatively low level but still well above the pre-pandemic jobless rate of 3.5 percent.

The economy’s emergence from the pandemic, by most measures, remains on course. Services companies in such areas as retail, banks and warehousing have reported a sharp jump in sales. More Americans bought new homes last month. And consumer confidence rose in October.

Still, the recovery would gain strength from a sustained acceleration in hiring. The economy grew at a healthy 6.5 percent annual rate in the first half of the year as vaccinations spread and Americans showed themselves more willing to travel, shop, eat out and attend entertainment events. Yet the delta variant held economic growth in the July-September quarter to just a 2 percent annual rate and sharply slowed hiring.

Recent economic gauges have cast a hopeful picture. After several rounds of stimulus checks and other government support payments, Americans as a whole have amassed about $2.5 trillion more in savings than they had before the pandemic. As that money is spent, it will likely fuel further economic activity.

The Conference Board, a business research group, said that in its October consumer confidence survey, the proportion of Americans who said they planned to buy cars, homes or major appliances all rose. And nearly half the survey respondents said they planned to vacation in the next six months — the highest such proportion since February 2020, before COVID-19 ripped through the economy.

Yet some companies say they still can’t find enough workers to fill jobs. Many parents, particularly mothers, haven’t returned to the workforce after having left jobs during the pandemic to care for children or other relatives. Defying the predictions of some, the expiration of a $300-a-week federal unemployment supplement hasn’t caused more people to look for work. Roughly 5 million fewer people have jobs now than did before the pandemic.

Most economists say they’re hopeful that with vaccinations helping to suppress the delta wave, more people will seek and find jobs because they’re no longer sick or caring for someone who is or because they no longer fear becoming infected. Those health issues had sidelined more people in September than in previous months.

America’s workers, who now enjoy greater leverage in the job market than they have in decades, are receiving solid pay increases. The draw of higher income could entice more people to come off the sidelines and look for work again. Wages and salaries in the July-September quarter, compared with a year earlier, jumped by the most in 20 years. Most of that gain, though, went to already employed people who left their jobs: The number of people who quit, mostly to take new positions, has reached a record high.

Rising inflation, though, has eroded much of the value of those pay increases and has become the most serious headwind for the U.S. economy. Higher costs for food, heating oil, rents and furniture have burdened millions of families. Prices rose 4.4 percent in September compared with 12 months earlier, the sharpest such increase in three decades.

That inflation surge was a key reason why the Federal Reserve announced this week that it would begin winding down the stimulus it has given the economy since the pandemic recession struck last year. The Fed will do so by reducing its monthly bond purchases, which have been intended to hold down long-term interest rates to spur borrowing and spending.

Chair Jerome Powell suggested that it won’t be possible to gain a clear picture of the job market’s health until the impact of COVID-19 declines further, which could take months.

Yet in the meantime, there are plenty of signs that the economy is healing: The number of people applying for first-time unemployment benefits fell for a fifth straight week, to a level nearly as low as the pace of jobless claims before the pandemic struck 20 months ago.

And while hiring has slowed for now, consumers as a whole have solid financial cushions. After several rounds of stimulus checks and other government support payments, Americans overall have amassed about $2.5 trillion more in savings than they had before the pandemic. As that money is spent, it will likely fuel further economic activity.

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/05/hiring-october-rebound-519678
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New York City aiding taxi drivers after hunger strike

After New York City taxi taxi drivers staged a hunger strike demanding the city gaurantee their loans, officials announced an expanded deal Wednesday to help drivers crippled by debt.The deal involved the Taxi Work…

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/580013-new-york-city-aiding-taxi-drivers-after-hunger-strike
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U.S. unemployment claims fall to lowest level since pandemic

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to its lowest level since the pandemic began, a sign the job market is still improving even as hiring has slowed in the past two months.

Unemployment claims dropped 36,000 to 293,000 last week, the second straight drop, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s the smallest number of people to apply for benefits since the week of March 14, 2020, when the pandemic intensified, and the first time claims have dipped below 300,000. Applications for jobless aid, which generally track the pace of layoffs, have fallen steadily since last spring as many businesses, struggling to fill jobs, have held onto their workers.

The decline in layoffs comes amid an otherwise unusual job market. Hiring has slowed in the past two months, even as companies and other employers have posted a near-record number of open jobs. Businesses are struggling to find workers as about three million people who lost jobs and stopped looking for work since the pandemic have yet to resume their job searches. Economists hoped more people would find work in September as schools reopened, easing child care constraints, and enhanced unemployment aid ended nationwide.

But the pickup didn’t happen, with employers adding just 194,000 jobs last month. In a bright spot, the unemployment rate fell to 4.8 percent from 5.2 percent, though some of that decline occurred because many of those out of work stopped searching for jobs, and were no longer counted as unemployed. The proportion of women working or looking for work fell in September, likely because of difficulties finding child care or because of schools disrupted by Covid-19 outbreaks.

At the same time, Americans are quitting their jobs in record numbers, with about 3 percent of workers doing so in August. Workers have been particularly likely to leave their jobs at restaurants, bars, and hotels, possibly spurred by fear of the delta variant of Covid-19, which was still spreading rapidly in August.

Other workers likely quit to take advantage of higher wages offered by businesses with open positions. Average hourly pay rose at a healthy 4.6 percent in September from a year earlier, and for restaurant workers wage gains in the past year have topped 10 percent.

The number of people continuing to receive unemployment aid has also fallen sharply, mostly as two emergency jobless aid programs have ended. In the week ending Sept. 25, the latest data available, 3.6 million people received some sort of jobless aid, down sharply from 4.2 million in the previous week. A year ago, nearly 25 million people were receiving benefits.

The emergency programs provided unemployment payments for the first time to the self-employed and gig workers, and those who were out of work for more than six months. More than 7 million Americans lost weekly financial support when those two programs expired Sept. 6. An extra $300 in federal jobless aid also expired that week.

Many business executives and Republican politicians said the extra $300 was discouraging those out of work from taking jobs. Yet in about half the states, the additional checks were cutoff as early as mid-June, and those states have not seen faster job growth than states that kept the benefits.

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/14/unemployment-claims-lowest-level-515984
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Allstate selling headquarters as more employees telecommute

Allstate announced it will sell its longtime headquarters near Chicago as 95 percent of its employees continue to work from home during the pandemic.After 54 years in the Northbrook, Ill. building, the insurance co…

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/news/576184-allstate-selling-headquarters-as-more-employees-telecommute
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U.S. employers add a weak 194,000 jobs as Delta maintains hold

U.S. employers added just 194,000 jobs in September, a second straight tepid gain and evidence that the pandemic still has a grip on the economy with many companies struggling to fill millions of open jobs.

Friday’s report from the Labor Department also showed that the unemployment rate fell sharply to 4.8 percent from 5.2 percent in August.

The economy is showing some signs of emerging from the drag of the Delta variant of the coronavirus, with confirmed new Covid-19 infections declining, restaurant traffic picking up slightly and consumers eager to spend.

But new infections remained high as September began, and employers are still struggling to find workers because many people who lost jobs in the pandemic have yet to start looking again. Supply chain bottlenecks have also worsened, slowing factories, restraining homebuilders and emptying some store shelves.

Many economists still think that most of the roughly 3 million people who lost jobs and stopped looking for work since the pandemic struck will resume their searches as Covid wanes. It took years after the 2008-2009 recession, they note, for the proportion of people working or seeking work to return to pre-recession levels. The government doesn’t count people as unemployed unless they’re actively looking for jobs.

Some of the factors that have kept many jobless people on the sidelines may be starting to ease. According to a survey by the Census Bureau, for example, the number of people who aren’t working because they must stay home to care for a child declined by half in September compared with June. That figure had barely dropped last fall, when many schools remained closed and conducted virtual learning. The new census figures suggest that more parents, particularly mothers, might have rejoined the workforce last month as the school year began and their children returned to school.

In addition, an August survey by the job listings website Indeed found that the proportion of unemployed Americans who said they’d like to find a job once the school year began had more than doubled from just two months earlier.

Yet there are also signs that it might be too soon to expect a flood of parents to have rejoined the labor market. Lael Brainard, a member of the Fed’s Board of Governors, noted in a recent speech that Covid-19 outbreaks in late September caused 2,000 schools to close for an average of six days in 39 states.

Several enhanced unemployment benefits ended in early September, including a $300-a-week federal supplement as well as programs that, for the first time, covered gig workers and people who were jobless for six months or more. So far, the ending of those programs appears to have had only a small effect on the number of people seeking work.

Governors in about 25 states ended the $300 benefit before the nationwide expiration in September. Research by economists at Goldman Sachs found that unemployed people who were looking for work were much more likely to take jobs when their benefits ended. But the early cut-offs did not cause people on the sidelines to start searching again, Goldman concluded.

Another reason workers are scarce is a surge in retirements among older, more affluent workers whose home equity and stock portfolios have surged since the pandemic struck and who have managed to build up savings. Goldman Sachs estimates that about 1.5 million people have retired who wouldn’t have before the pandemic upended the economy. Many of these people will likely stay retired, economists expect.

In the meantime, fear of Covid continues to keep some would-be job seekers on the sidelines, notably those who previously worked in public-facing service jobs at restaurants, bars, hotels and retailers.

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/08/september-jobs-report-gains-515662
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American, Alaska Airlines and JetBlue the latest carriers to mandate COVID vaccines for workers

American Airlines, JetBlue and Alaska Airlines have joined United Airlines in mandating that employees must be vaccinated against COVID-19, per the Wall Street Journal.

Why it matters: The Biden administration has been pressing businesses to require workers to be vaccinated against the virus as vaccination rates flatten across the U.S.

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• The airlines provide government services including cargo hauling and special flights, which they say makes them contractors to the government so they fall under President Biden’s mandatory vaccination directive, AP reports.

The big picture: American Airlines told staff on Friday that it would require all employees based in the U.S. and “certain international crew members” to be vaccinated, per a memo obtained by Reuters.

• The American memo gave no timeline. But JetBlue Airways and Alaska Airlines said Friday they’d implement a vaccine mandate as early as Dec. 8, AP notes. That’s the deadline the White House has given for federal contractors to be inoculated, with limited exceptions.
• Delta said it’s “still evaluating Biden’s order,” according to AP.

Source: https://www.axios.com/american-alaska-airlines-jetblue-employee-vaccine-mandates-33ba1e4b-3662-4331-a58f-fabdc19aa23d.html
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Behind the teacher shortage, an unexpected culprit: Covid relief money

“I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like this,” one expert said. “There’s a lot of money flowing.”

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/education/behind-teacher-shortage-unexpected-culprit-covid-relief-money-n1280491
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U.S. jobless claims reach a pandemic low as economy recovers

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell last week to 310,000, a pandemic low and a sign that the surge in Covid-19 cases caused by the delta variant has yet to lead to widespread layoffs.

Thursday’s report from the Labor Department showed that jobless claims dropped from a revised total of 345,000 the week before. The number of applications has fallen steadily since topping 900,000 in early January, reflecting the steady reopening of the economy after the pandemic recession.

But the spread of the delta variant this summer has put renewed pressure on the economy and the job market. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve reported that U.S. economic activity “downshifted” in July and August, in part because of a pullback in dining out, travel and tourism related to concerns about the delta variant.

Still, the ongoing drop in applications for unemployment aid — six declines in the past seven weeks — makes clear that most companies are holding onto their workers despite the slowdown. That trend should help sustain the economic rebound through the current wave of infections.

The pace of hiring, though, has weakened — at least for now. Last week, the government reported that hiring slowed dramatically in August, with employers adding just 235,000 jobs after having added roughly a million in both June and July. Hiring plummeted in industries that require face-to-face contact with the public, notably restaurants, hotels and retail. Still, some jobs were added in other areas, and the unemployment rate actually dropped to 5.2% from 5.4%.

The steady fall in weekly applications for unemployment benefits coincides with a scaling-back of aid for jobless Americans. This week, more than 8 million people lost all their unemployment benefits with the expiration of two federal programs that covered gig workers and people who have been jobless for more than six months. Those emergency programs were created in March 2020, when the pandemic first tore through the economy.

That cutoff isn’t yet reflected in the weekly jobless claims report. The report’s data on the emergency programs is delayed by two weeks. As of Aug. 21, 8.8 million people were receiving benefits from these two programs.

An additional 2.6 million people were receiving regular state unemployment aid. These recipients have just lost a $300-a-week federal unemployment supplement, which also expired this week.

Some business owners had complained that the federal supplement made it harder to fill open jobs. Those pleas led governors in about 25 states to cancel the $300 payment early and to shut off the two emergency programs in most of those states as well. But academic research has found that so far, the early cut-offs in jobless benefits have led to only a small increase in hiring in those states.

Many economists express concern that the cut-off will lead to financial hardship because the resurgence of the pandemic will make it harder for some of the unemployed to find work. After previous recessions, emergency expansions of jobless aid ended at a time when far fewer people were still receiving benefits.

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/09/jobless-claims-reach-low-510831
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California judge: gig-worker exemption from labor law was unconstitutional

In November, California voters approved Prop 22, which gave Uber, Lyft and other companies exemptions from labor law—and imposed those exemptions on gig workers. A judge has ruled that these exemptions are unconstitutional. [Gizmodo via BBS]

Created by a cadre of gig companies including Uber, Lyft, and Doordash, Prop 22 rolled back California worker protections that would have required these companies to classify independent contractors, such as drivers and delivery workers, as employees, thus guaranteeing them basic worker protections like paid sick days, minimum wage, and unemployment benefits (all of which would have been extremely useful during a deadly pandemic).

— Read the rest

Source: https://boingboing.net/2021/08/23/california-judge-gig-worker-exemption-from-labor-law-was-unconstitutional.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=california-judge-gig-worker-exemption-from-labor-law-was-unconstitutional
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California judge finds Prop 22 gig worker measure unconstitutional

A California judge has ruled that Proposition 22, the measure that allows companies like Uber and Lyft to keep classifying app-based drivers in the state as independent contractors, is unenforceable and unconstitutional. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Alameda County Superior Court judge Frank Roesch found that Prop 22 illegally “limits the power of a future legislature to define app-based drivers as workers subject to workers’ compensation law.”

Proposition 22 passed by a wide margin in the state when most people voted in favor of it in last year’s November elections. Companies were legally obligated to classify gig workers as full-time employees under Assembly Bill 5 A (AB5), which was passed in 2019, but some (like the aforementioned ride-sharing firms) continued to treat them as contractors. Uber, Lyft, Instacart and DoorDash poured over $220 million into campaigning for Prop 22 in order to overturn AB5, and the move clearly worked. 

The measure requires gig companies to provide their contractors with healthcare subsidies and a wage floor, but it also exempts them from having to classify their workers as employees with appropriate benefits and protections. While those in favor of the proposition argue that it would allow workers to keep their independence while enjoying benefits they didn’t have before, not everyone’s happy with the development. A group that includes the Service Employees International Union and the SEIU California State Council sued California earlier this year to overturn the proposition. 

In his ruling, Roesch specifically singled out Section 7451 of the measure, which states that any future law related to collective bargaining for app drivers must comply with the rest of the proposition. “It appears only to protect the economic interest of the network companies in having a divided, ununionized workforce, which is not a stated goal of the legislation,” he wrote in his decision. He also found it unconstitutional that any amendment to the measure requires a seven-eighths vote of approval to pass in the state Legislature.

If the ruling stands, gig companies like Uber and Lyft may have to spend hundreds of millions paying for healthcare and other additional benefits for their drivers. At the moment, though, Prop 22 is still in effect, and gig companies are already planning to appeal. An Uber spokesperson told The Chronicle:

“This ruling ignores the will of the overwhelming majority of California voters and defies both logic and the law. We will appeal and we expect to win. Meanwhile, Prop. 22 remains in effect, including all of the protections and benefits it provides independent workers across the state.”

Source: https://www.engadget.com/california-judge-finds-prop-22-unconstitutional-043822868.html?src=rss
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The unvaccinated need not apply: Mandates sweep Corporate America

Companies are acting where government is not and pushing workers to get the jab to get the job.

Driving the news: The share of job postings on Indeed requiring vaccination has jumped 90% in just the last month.

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The big picture: Vaccination rates in the U.S. are climbing, but hesitancy remains high in certain places. And the Delta variant is foiling companies’ return-to-work plans.

• Now, it’s not just front-line jobs at restaurants and shops requiring vaccination. Postings for jobs in software development, marketing and sales are mandating that applicants have the shot too.

What’s happening: At the beginning of the year, there were basically zero office jobs asking workers to get the vaccine. But even if workers are 100% remote, they’ll have to come on-site at some point to meet with colleagues — and firms don’t want to take risks.

And even though the overall number of job postings requiring vaccination is still quite small — just about 1,200 per 1 million postings — they’re increasing at a rapid clip. “This is incredible growth,” says Indeed economist AnnElizabeth Konkel.

• The share of software development jobs postings requiring vaccination has skyrocketed 12,400%, from a minuscule 3.5 per million to 438 per million.
• Marketing jobs have seen an 11,100% jump to 1,110 per million, and sales a 4,100% increase to 374 per million.
• Big companies that are now requiring proof of vaccination — at least to come into the office — include Google, Facebook, Netflix, Disney, Morgan Stanley, Lyft and The Washington Post.

Even jobs that already tended to require vaccination — like those in education, retail and hospitality — are doing so at even higher rates.

The bottom line: This is yet another example of companies acting like governments.

• Even if cities, states or the federal government choose not to mandate vaccination, firms can throw their weight around and effectively set policy by requiring it for their employees or customers — or both.

Source: https://www.axios.com/vaccine-mandates-job-postings-7dc04eff-ee71-4e9c-a12b-f20ca9598add.html
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Argentinians protest for more jobs, food amid economic crisis

About 42 percent of people in Argentina live below the poverty line amid an economic downturn worsened by COVID-19.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/7/argentinians-protest-for-more-jobs-food-amid-economic-crisis
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United Airlines will require all 67,000 U.S. employees to get vaccinated — or risk termination

United’s requirement is one of the strictest vaccine mandates from a U.S. company.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/united-airlines-will-require-all-67-000-u-s-employees-n1276156
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Unemployment rate hits new pandemic-era low as U.S. adds 943,000 jobs in July

The U.S. economy added 943,000 jobs in July, while the unemployment rate fell from 5.9% to a new pandemic-era low of 5.4%.

Why it matters: It’s the biggest hiring spree in almost a year as the labor market makes strides to a full recovery.

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Data: Bureau of Labor Statistics; Chart: Axios Visuals

Context: Economists expected the economy to add around 850,000 jobs, though estimates varied widely from as low as 350,000 to as high as 1.2 million.

• The government’s jobs survey occurred in mid-July — and therefore doesn’t fully reflect possible effects from the recent surge in COVID-19 infections from the Delta variant. But it shows how quickly the U.S. employment picture can improve.
• Next month’s report will show whether Delta can derail that momentum.

By the numbers:

• The U.S. economy added 943,000 jobs. Hiring hasn’t been this furious since August 2020.
• The unemployment rate fell a half-point to a new post-pandemic low of 5.4%.
• Total employment is now 5.7 million jobs below its pre-pandemic level, while unemployment is still quite far from the pre-pandemic rate of 3.5%.

Zoom in: Pay continued to jump, with wages rising 4% from this time last year.

• The leisure and hospitality sector continued to recover. Its 380,000 new jobs accounted for the biggest bulk of job gains — despite concerns about labor shortages.

In a nutshell: “I’ve never before seen such [a] wonderful set of economic data,” tweets Jason Furman, who served as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama.

Source: https://www.axios.com/july-jobs-report-b62a8202-6d09-4041-804a-edd91e1bed6e.html
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CVS will raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour

CVS upping its base pay to $15 an hour is a milestone because it employs 300,000 people and puts pressure on other small-store retailers (such as Walgreens-Boots) to follow suit. A scan of the top 10 retailers suggests that among big-box employers, only Home Depot and Lowes have failed to promise at least $15 an hour to workers, though Walmart’s promise seems to have a big asterisk by it. — Read the rest

Source: https://boingboing.net/2021/08/05/cvs-will-raise-minimum-wage-to-15.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=cvs-will-raise-minimum-wage-to-15
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U.S. jobless claims down 14,000 to 385,000 as economy rebounds

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week by 14,000 to 385,000, more evidence that the economy and the job market are rebounding briskly from the coronavirus recession.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that unemployment claims — a proxy for layoffs — dropped last week from a revised 399,000 the week before. The applications have more or less fallen steadily since topping 900,000 in early January. Still, they remain high by historic levels: Before the pandemic slammed the United States in March 2020, they were coming in at around 220,000 a week.

Since cratering in the spring of 2020, the U.S. economy has bounded back as the rollout of vaccines encourages businesses to reopen or return to normal operating hours and consumers to return to shops, restaurants and bars. The United States has been adding more than 540,000 jobs a month this year, and the Labor Department’s July jobs report out Friday is expected to show it tacked on nearly 863,000 more last month, according to a survey of economists by the data firm FactSet.

The U.S. economy is still 6.8 million jobs short of where it stood in February 2020.

Companies are posting job openings — a record 9.2 million in May — faster than applicants are showing up to fill them. Many states have responded to business complaints of a labor shortage by ending expanded federal unemployment benefits meant to ease financial strains from the health crisis, including an extra $300 a week on top of traditional state benefits. The federal benefits are scheduled to expire nationwide Sept. 6.

Altogether, 13 million Americans were receiving some type of unemployment aid the week of July 17, down from 13.2 million the previous week and 32 million a year earlier.

The health crisis isn’t over. COVID-19 cases are rising as the highly contagious delta variant spreads, largely among the unvaccinated. The United States is reporting an average of more than 70,000 new cases a day, up from fewer than 12,000 a day in late June.

So far, the uptick in cases hasn’t had noticeable economic consequences. “The surge in Covid cases related to the delta variant is unlikely to cause a renewed spike in joblessness as there have been few shutdowns so far,” Contingent Macro Advisors said in a research note.

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/05/jobless-claims-drop-economy-rebounds-502535
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Why companies aren’t paying more amid labor shortages

If companies raised pay high enough, then maybe they wouldn’t complain about labor shortages that have forced them to forgo sales. But there seems to be a limit to how much a company is willing to pay, despite what seems like a clear opportunity to maximize the top line.

Why it matters: Companies have been scrambling to staff up amid a rapid economic recovery. Employers across industries have been raising wages in their efforts to be competitive.

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• And yet, there are still a record 9.2 million job openings, and employers are getting more desperate to fill jobs. But for many, raising pay further isn’t very palatable.

What they’re saying: Increasing wages is essentially a wager that today’s demand will persist and justify higher labor costs in the years to come. And companies don’t want to be in a position to have to reverse that decision.

• “Companies are hesitant to lower wages,” ADP chief economist Nela Richardson explains to Axios. “What generally happens is that companies don’t decrease pay during a recession, but they are hesitant to increase pay after that recession ends.”
• Much of the labor shortages are occurring in industries where profit margins are already thin, Richardson notes. These include the leisure and hospitality industry, where the risk of profits turning into losses is already high.

And employers can’t offer higher pay to just the new people.

• “Especially in thin margin businesses, if you pay to attract newer workers, you also have to pay to keep and retain your tenured staff,” Richardson says.

Zoom out: There’s a wide array of logistical reasons a company may have job openings that it’s putting off filling, Wells Fargo economist Shannon Seery tells Axios.

• “Perhaps severe supply constraints of inputs mean firms may not be paying more aggressively to recruit because they lack the inputs to produce even if they had the labor,” Seery says.

The bottom line: While there appears to be a disconnect between companies complaining about labor shortages and what they’re doing about pay, the bias in the labor market continues to favor workers and their wages.

• “Wages are on the rise across a number of industries, making the hiring environment all the more competitive and leaving job seekers with the upper hand to be ‘picky’ in terms of job prospects,” Seery says. “Firms will either pay up for inputs and labor today or their competitors will.”

Source: https://www.axios.com/wages-labor-shortages-why-b928f21b-f20a-4fbc-b556-05323504fb99.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Sam Ro

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40 Burger King Locations Fined for Denying Workers Sick Leave During Pandemic

Tri City Foods, the owner of dozens of Burger King restaurants in the Midwest, has been ordered to pay $458,931 in restitution to workers and $100,000 to the city of Chicago after the company denied employees paid sick leave during the covid-19 pandemic, according to a press release from Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

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Source: https://gizmodo.com/40-burger-king-locations-fined-for-denying-workers-sick-1847391878
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Matt Novak

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The Delta variant doesn’t want you back in the office

Resurgent outbreaks — including breakthrough infections among vaccinated people — could throw a wrench in plans to bring workers fully back to offices in September.

The big picture: A number of companies and the federal government have targeted the end of summer as the time to bring in-person offices fully online. But rising numbers of COVID-19 cases from the Delta variant could render that goal unrealistic.

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Driving the news: The daily average of confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. has roughly quadrupled during July, rising from about 13,000 per day to over 43,000 now.

• New projections released Wednesday by the COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub, a consortium of researchers working in consultation with the CDC, predict that the current coronavirus surge will accelerate through the summer and fall.
• The surge is predicted to peak in mid-October, with daily deaths triple the level they are now.

Why it matters: Those projections directly clash with both school reopenings and corporate plans to staff up offices in September.

• A recent survey of 1,000 HR professionals by the Society for Human Resource Management and Lucid found that half of U.S. organizations are worried about the more contagious Delta variant and will encourage employees to get a booster shot when one is available.
• “There’s a renewed anxiety that maybe started to dissipate in the spring — but it’s back,” Joseph Allen, an associate professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told The New York Times.

What’s happening: The rising case counts and breakthrough infections are already beginning to set back private and public reopening plans.

• Apple is reportedly delaying its planned September return to the office by at least a month, according to Bloomberg News and the Wall Street Journal.
• The Los Angeles-based talent management agency WME closed down its office for at least a week, just after reopening for the first time in more than a year on July 12, even as LA officials reinstituted indoor mask rules as cases rose in the city.
• The Delta surge is interfering with the government’s plans to bring hundreds of thousands of federal workers back to the office after Labor Day, according to the Washington Post, while news of breakthrough infections among vaccinated staffers has seen some in Congress move to bring back masks and limit in-person meetings.

Yes, but: The percentage of Americans returning to the office kept ticking upward during July, hitting 34.5% as of July 14, according to the Kastle Back to Work Barometer, which measures office occupancy in 10 major cities.

• Despite breakthrough infections, the vaccines remain extremely effective, and the surge is worst in states with low vaccination rates — which also happen to be the states that have been most resistant to instituting restrictions.
• Scott Gottlieb, former head of the FDA, predicted on CNBC that the Delta surge would peak faster, by late August — though he also noted that October rather than September would be a more “prudent” time to bring employees back to the office.

What to watch: Whether the Delta variant complicates in-person school reopenings in the fall.

• Children under 12 still aren’t eligible to be vaccinated, and growing reports of outbreaks at summer camps point to the challenge of keeping young children in schools safe in the midst of a more contagious variant.
• If schools can’t reopen as planned in September, working parents may not be able to return to offices even if they are opened.

The bottom line: Flexibility has been the corporate watchword throughout the pandemic, and Delta means companies will need to remain flexible for the foreseeable future.

Source: https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-delta-office-reopening-788aa0ae-da89-4eac-a337-ef6b59d38267.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Bryan Walsh

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Reform unemployment, US workers say, as Covid reveals chaotic systems

Millions thrown out of work by the pandemic faced months-long backlogs in receiving benefits, if they arrived at all

Unemployed workers are pushing for reforms and changes to America’s unemployment insurance system after millions of workers experienced severe problems in receiving benefits throughout the pandemic.

Workers across America faced long delays in receiving unemployment benefits as state systems were quickly overwhelmed with the mass influx of applications that caused months-long backlogs. Meanwhile, workers who made errors on their applications, had missing records or had their claims flagged had their benefits stopped – and often had difficulty restarting them once problems were resolved.

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Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/22/unemployment-systems-reform-pandemic
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Michael Sainato

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