Remote and hybrid work have become defining features of the postpandemic economy.
While most employees seem to love it, the initial optimistic assessment during the pandemic that remote work was a success has given way to a more-sobering reality for many organizations: Performance, collaboration, innovation and workplace culture are taking a measurable hit.
Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The government of Australia’s most populous state ordered all public employees to work from their offices by default beginning Tuesday and urged stricter limits on remote work, after news outlets provoked a fraught debate about work-from-home habits established during the pandemic.
Chris Minns, the New South Wales premier, said in a notice to agencies Monday that jobs could be made flexible by means other than remote working, such as part-time positions and role sharing, and that “building and replenishing public institutions” required “being physically present.” His remarks were welcomed by business and real estate groups in the state’s largest city, Sydney, who have decried falling office occupancy rates since 2020, but denounced by unions, who pledged to challenge the initiative if it was invoked unnecessarily.
The instruction made the state’s government, Australia’s largest employer with more than 400,000 staff, the latest among a growing number of firms and institutions worldwide to attempt a reversal of remote working arrangements introduced as the coronavirus spread. But it defied an embrace of remote work by the governments of some other Australian states, said some analysts, who suggested lobbying by a major newspaper prompted the change.
“It seems that the Rupert Murdoch-owned Daily Telegraph in Sydney has been trying to get the New South Wales government to mandate essentially that workers go back to the office,” said Chris F. Wright, an associate professor in the discipline of work at the University of Sydney. The newspaper cited prospective economic boons for struggling businesses.
The newspaper wrote Tuesday that the premier’s decision “ending the work from home era” followed its urging, although Minns did not name it as a factor.
But the union representing public servants said there was scant evidence for the change and warned the state government could struggle to fill positions.
“Throughout the New South Wales public sector, they’re trying to retain people,” said Stewart Little, the General Secretary of the Public Service Association. “In some critical agencies like child protection we’re looking at 20% vacancy rates, you’re talking about hundreds of jobs.”
Little added that government offices have shrunk since 2020 and agencies would be unable to physically accommodate every employee on site. Minns said the state would lease more space, according to the Daily Telegraph.
The change is a “game-changer” for languishing central city businesses, said Katie Stevenson, Executive Director of the Australian Property Council’s NSW branch. “More workers mean more life, more investment, and more business for our cities.”
Individual agencies could devise their own policies, the order added, but should ensure employees “spread attendance across all days of the working week.” Requests to work from home on some occasions should be formally approved for a limited period only and reasons for the request should be supplied, the directive said.
Minns said workplace culture and opportunities for mentorship would improve, in remarks echoing other business leaders worldwide who have questioned the productivity of remote workers. Most public workers, such as teachers and nurses, could not work from home anyway, he added.
The order set New South Wales apart from other Australian states, one of which sought to capitalize on the move Tuesday. A spokesperson for Jacinta Allan, the premier of neighboring Victoria, told reporters the state’s remote work allowances would remain undisturbed and disgruntled NSW public servants should consider moving there.
Wright said the change not only overturned increased flexibility during the pandemic but also erased a decade of moves by Australia’s federal government encouraging remote working to reduce barriers to workforce participation, lower carbon emissions and reduce traffic jams.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been broadly supportive of remote working. His government will enact a “right to disconnect” law later this month that will allow employees to refuse work communications outside their agreed hours.
Walmart on Tuesday announced layoffs affecting several hundred jobs at the retail giant’s campus offices and said it will be requiring most remote workers and personnel in its Dallas, Atlanta and Toronto offices to relocate to office hubs in Bentonvill…
BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart on Tuesday announced layoffs affecting several hundred jobs at the retail giant’s campus offices.
It also said it will require most remote workers and personnel in its Dallas, Atlanta and Toronto offices to relocate to its primary offices in Bentonville, Arkansas; Hoboken, New Jersey; and the San Francisco Bay Area.
The news, conveyed via a Walmart staff memo provided to The Associated Press, said the relocations will serve the goal of “bringing more of us together more often.” The memo likewise noted that being together in person “makes us better and helps us to collaborate, innovate and move even faster.”
The memo did not give a reason for the layoffs beyond stating that “some parts of our business have made changes” that will result in job losses.
A Walmart spokesperson did not immediately reply to questions regarding the reason for the layoffs and why Walmart is working to consolidate other office jobs in Arkansas, New Jersey and California.
FILE – First lady Jill Biden looks at President Joe Biden as he holds the pen he used to sign an executive order aimed to bolster job opportunities for military and veteran spouses during a visit to Fort Liberty, N.C., June 9, 2023. President Joe Biden’s administration has announced new steps to improve a program that lets federal employees who also are military spouses telework from overseas. The steps are part of Jill Biden’s work to support military and veteran families. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, file)
LONDON — Online retailer eBay Inc. will cut about 1,000 jobs, or an estimated 9% of its full-time workforce, saying its number of employees and costs have exceeded how much the business is growing in a slowing economy. It marks the latest layoffs in the tech industry.
CEO Jamie Iannone said in a message to employees on Tuesday that the company also will reduce how many “contracts we have within our alternate workforce over the coming months.”
Those who are being laid off will be told through Zoom calls with their bosses, Iannone said, requesting that people work from home Wednesday to allow privacy for those conversations.
“We need to better organize our teams for speed — allowing us to be more nimble, bring like-work together, and help us make decisions more quickly,” he said in the note, which was posted online.
“These changes are difficult, but I’m confident that by working together we will become stronger than ever,” Iannone added.
San Jose, California-based eBay is the latest tech company to roll out a series of layoffs after quickly ramping up hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic while people spent more time and money online.
Now, companies from Google to Amazon have been making painful job cuts to reduce costs and bolster their bottom lines.
Just this month, Google said it was laying off hundreds of employees working on its hardware, voice assistance and engineering teams, while TikTok said its shedding dozens of workers in ads and sales and video game developer Riot Games, behind the popular “League of Legends” multiplayer battle game, was trimming 11% of its staff.
Meanwhile, Amazon said this month that it is cutting several hundred jobs in its Prime Video and MGM Studios unit.
The online retail giant owns two other companies that announced major layoffs in January: Audible, the online audiobook and podcast service, which is trimming about 5% of its workforce, and streaming platform Twitch that is cutting more than 500 jobs.
Other tech companies, including Spotify, Microsoft, Meta and IBM, also have recently cut jobs.
They’re running into a slowing economy following rapid interest rate hikes unleashed by central banks around the world to combat soaring inflation.
The head of eBay pointed to those concerns in the need to trim its workforce: “Despite facing external pressures, like the challenging macroeconomic environment, we know we can be better with the factors we control,” Iannone said.
The company has also faced internal problems that hurt its business. The online retailer will pay a $3 million fine to resolve U.S. criminal charges over a harassment campaign waged by employees who sent live spiders, cockroaches and other disturbing items to the home of a Massachusetts couple, according to court documents this month.
The Justice Department charged eBay with stalking, witness tampering and obstruction of justice more than three years after the employees were prosecuted in an extensive scheme to intimidate a couple who produced an online newsletter called EcommerceBytes that upset eBay executives with its coverage.
NEW YORK — Justin Ryan Horton has two jobs. When he’s not working 24-hour shifts as a firefighter, the 22-year-old is working as an administrative assistant for a local community college from his home in Colorado Springs.
Firefighting is, of course, not a work-from-home kind of job. So when the community college position gave Horton the choice to clock in remotely, he took it.
“I’m gone a lot being a firefighter,” Horton said. “Instead of coming home and then seeing my family for a few minutes before leaving to go to my other job… I feel like I have just more time with (them) when I work from home.”
The COVID-19 pandemic upended what working looks like for millions of people all around the world. While many jobs can only be done in person, swaths of employers shuttered their physical doors and moved their workplaces increasingly online.
Workers have since begun to return to the office in waves, at least for part of the week, and navigating that transition is an ongoing and significant hurdle for employers and workers alike. And many simply cannot fathom a return to the pre-COVID status quo, changing how companies approach their staffing needs.
Retaining employees who don’t want to work in person is an issue for companies, but relatively few employers (13%) have introduced new incentives that would make employees more satisfied with it, according to a newly released poll conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago.
About 3 in 4 human resources representatives say that retaining employees who don’t want to work in the office is a problem — including 19% who call it a “major problem.” Another 54% of HR representatives call it a minor problem. And only about one-third of HR professionals say employees at their workplace are “extremely” or “very” happy about returning to the workplace.
“Once workers discovered that (remote work could be) less expensive and… make their life a little easier, they just wanted to keep doing it, even once the pandemic began fading away,” Marjorie Connelly, senior fellow with NORC’s Public Affairs & Media Research department, told The Associated Press.
In both the HR survey and a separate poll of U.S. adults, researchers found that the top factors behind employees’ desire to work from home include their prioritization of flexibility and work-life balance. Other HR representatives and employees who work from home cite the length and costs of commuting as key.
Those are some of the main reasons that Megan Homis, 33, prefers remote work. As a senior account executive for an advertising and marketing firm in Southern California, Homis goes into the office once a month.
“With traffic, it’s about an hour and 45 minute drive each way into the office,” she said. “And on top of that, I have two little kids — so just wrangling childcare for them with drop off and pick up is a lot.”
Homis said that the ability to work remotely will continue to be a priority for her down the road. She would consider potentially going into the office more if an employer offered sufficient incentives and support for in-person work, but hasn’t seen opportunities that would sway her in that direction yet.
Bill Castellano, a professor in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, notes that flexibility is key — particularly in giving employees agency for scheduling their work.
“Employees really value more of when to do work vs. where to do work,” Castellano, who was not involved in the NORC surveys, said. He added that this is a key benefit for many remote workers today — and could be duplicated in physical offices with the right policy, such as having flexible start times.
There are some initiatives that could incentivize more employees to work in-person — or at least increase their satisfaction about already going into the office — the poll shows. Most hybrid workers (55%) say paying employees more for their in-office work would provide “a lot” of encouragement for them to work in-person more often.
Additional pay topped the list across respondents whether they were working in-person, remotely (44%) or in hybrid (50%) roles. However, just 4% of HR representatives whose companies have introduced new policies to get employees back to the workplace say that higher compensation is among them.
Employees who are already going into the office — either entirely or part-time — indicated that other incentives such as commuter benefits, in-office childcare, free food and social gatherings could also add at least “some” more satisfaction with returning to the office.
Those in-office perks had less sway among solely remote workers, Connelly noted — particularly social gatherings. “For example, I work hundreds of miles away from the main office, so they can have a pizza party (and) all the pizza parties they want, but I’m not going to be affected by it,” she said.
Regardless, many U.S. employees have returned to in-person work, or had never left. Most paid employees report that they work in person per NORC’s survey, and three-quarters of those in-person employees say they are required by their employer to do so. About 1 in 10 indicate that they could work remotely but prefer working from the office.
Meanwhile, about one-third of paid employees surveyed work remotely or in hybrid positions. The majority cited convenience and work-life balance, as well as a lack of in-office requirements, as reasons to do so.
The number of people working remotely has fallen significantly since the peak of COVID-19 — but is still far higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Estimates are mixed, but according to a Pew Research Center survey published in March, 35% of workers with jobs that can be completed remotely were working from home all of the time. That’s down from 43% in January 2022 and 55% in October 2020. Still, that’s much higher than the mere 7% recorded before the pandemic.
This coincides with dwindling work-from-home options from employers. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 72.5% of private-sector establishments, for example, had little to no telework in mid-2022 — up from 60.1% a year earlier.
“I would think that this trend downward will continue, but I don’t think it’s going to go down to zero… (or) where we were pre-pandemic,” Castellano said, adding that he believes the hybrid model will grow in popularity. “The question is, what kind of schedule will that be?”
When COVID-19 struck, companies had little choice but to adapt swiftly. Office spaces were replaced by living rooms and in-person meetings transitioned to virtual calls — a temporary solution, or so it was thought.
But months have turned into years, and now it’s clear this is not just a fleeting phase but a profound transformation in work dynamics.
The…
Already a subscriber?
Log In
ST. LOUIS — Thousands of information technology workers contracting with U.S. companies have for years secretly sent millions of dollars of their wages to North Korea for use in its ballistic missile program, FBI and Department of Justice officials said.
The Justice Department said Wednesday that IT workers dispatched and contracted by North Korea to work remotely with companies in St. Louis and elsewhere in the U.S. have been using false identities to get the jobs. The money they earned was funneled to the North Korean weapons program, FBI leaders said at a news conference in St. Louis.
Court documents allege that North Korea’s government dispatched thousands of skilled IT workers to live primarily in China and Russia with the goal of deceiving businesses from the U.S. and elsewhere into hiring them as freelance remote employees. The workers used various techniques to make it look like they were working in the U.S., including paying Americans to use their home Wi-Fi connections, said Jay Greenberg, special agent in charge of the St. Louis FBI office.
Greenberg said any company that hired freelance IT workers “more than likely” hired someone participating in the scheme. An FBI spokeswoman said Thursday that the North Koreans contracted with companies across the U.S. and in some other countries.
“We can tell you that there are thousands of North Korea IT workers that are part of this,” spokeswoman Rebecca Wu said.
Federal authorities announced the seizure of $1.5 million and 17 domain names as part of the investigation, which is ongoing.
FBI officials said the scheme is so prevalent that companies must be extra vigilant in verifying whom they are hiring, including requiring interviewees to at least be seen via video.
“At a minimum, the FBI recommends that employers take additional proactive steps with remote IT workers to make it harder for bad actors to hide their identities,” Greenberg said in a news release.
The IT workers generated millions of dollars a year in their wages to benefit North Korea’s weapons programs. In some instances, the North Korean workers also infiltrated computer networks and stole information from the companies that hired them, the Justice Department said. They also maintained access for future hacking and extortion schemes, the agency said.
Officials didn’t name the companies that unknowingly hired North Korean workers, say when the practice began, or elaborate on how investigators became aware of it. But federal authorities have been aware of the scheme for some time.
In May 2022, the State Department, Department of the Treasury, and the FBI issued an advisory warning of attempts by North Koreans “to obtain employment while posing as non-North Korean nationals.” The advisory noted that in recent years, the regime of Kim Jong Un “has placed increased focus on education and training” in IT-related subjects.
John Hultquist, the head of threat intelligence at the cybersecurity firm Mandiant, said North Korea’s use of IT freelancers to help fund the weapons program has been in play for more than a decade, but the effort got a boost from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think the post-COVID world has created a lot more opportunity for them because freelancing and remote hiring are a far more natural part of the business than they were in the past,” Hultquist said.
North Korea also uses workers in other fields to funnel money back for the weapons program, Hultquist said, but higher pay for tech workers provides a more lucrative resource.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are high as North Korea has test-fired more than 100 missiles since the start of 2022 and the U.S. has expanded its military exercises with its Asian allies, in tit-for-tat responses.
The Justice Department in recent years has sought to expose and disrupt a broad variety of criminal schemes aimed at bolstering the North Korean regime, including its nuclear weapons program.
In 2016, for instance, four Chinese nationals and a trading company were charged in the U.S. with using front companies to evade sanctions targeting North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistics initiatives.
Two years ago, the Justice Department charged three North Korean computer programmers and members of the government’s military intelligence agency in a broad range of global hacks that officials say were carried out at the behest of the regime. Law enforcement officials said at the time that the prosecution highlighted the profit-driven motive behind North Korea’s criminal hacking, a contrast from other adversarial nations like Russia, China and Iran that are generally more interested in espionage, intellectual property theft or even disrupting democracy.
In September, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for an exponential increase in production of nuclear weapons and for his country to play a larger role in a coalition of nations confronting the United States in a “new Cold War,” state media said.
In February, United Nations experts said that North Korean hackers working for the government stole record-breaking virtual assets last year estimated to be worth between $630 million and more than $1 billion. The panel of experts said in a report that the hackers used increasingly sophisticated techniques to gain access to digital networks involved in cyberfinance, and to steal information that could be useful in North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs from governments, individuals and companies.
—-
Eric Tucker in Washington, D.C, contributed to this report.
ALBANY, N.Y. — Help-wanted advertisements in New York will have to disclose proposed pay rates after a statewide salary transparency law goes into effect on Sunday, part of growing state and city efforts to give women and people of color a tool to advocate for equal pay for equal work.
Employers with at least four workers will be required to disclose salary ranges for any job advertised externally to the public or internally to workers interested in a promotion or transfer.
Pay transparency, supporters say, will prevent employers from offering some job candidates less or more money based on age, gender, race or other factors not related to their skills.
Advocates believe the change also could help underpaid workers realize they make less than people doing the same job.
A similar pay transparency ordinance has been in effect in New York City since 2022. Now, the rest of the state joins a handful of others with similar laws, including California and Colorado.
“There is a trend, not just in legislatures but among workers, to know how much they can expect going into a job. There’s a demand from workers to know of the pay range,” said Da Hae Kim, a state policy senior counsel at the National Women’s Law Center.
The law, signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2022, also will apply to remote employees who work outside of New York but report to a supervisor, office or worksite based in the state. The law would not apply to government agencies or temporary help firms.
Compliance will be a challenge, said Frank Kerbein, director of human resources at the New York Business Council, which has criticized the law for putting an additional administrative burden on employers.
“We have small employers who don’t even know about the law,” said Kerbein, who predicted there would be “a lot of unintentional noncompliance.”
To avoid trouble when setting a salary range, an employer should examine pay for current employees, said Allen Shoikhetbrod, who practices employment law at Tully Rinckley, a private law firm.
State Senator Jessica Ramos, a Democrat representing parts of Queens, said the law is a win for labor rights groups.
“This is something that, organically, workers are asking for,” she said. “Particularly with young people entering the workforce, they’ll have a greater understanding about how their work is valued.”
___
Maysoon Khan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Maysoon Khan on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Washington, DC
CNN
—
Housing is less affordable than it has been in about four decades. But buying or renting a home might be even less affordable now if it weren’t for the continuing impact of remote and hybrid workers that resulted from the pandemic, according to a recent study by Fannie Mae.
The study, which was an analysis of Fannie Mae’s monthly National Housing Survey, with questions asked among more than 3,000 mortgage holders, owners, and renters between January and March this year, looked at how remote and hybrid work has changed over the past few years and its impact on housing.
More people are willing to move to less expensive areas further away from offices in city centers than a few years ago, according to the report. Continuing remote and hybrid work, at levels remarkably unchanged from two years ago, is enabling people to move toward housing affordability, the study found.
The report also revealed that “affordability” is the most important factor in finding a place to live, both for renters and homeowners.
At the beginning of the year, 22% of remote and hybrid workers said they would be willing to relocate to a different region or increase their commute. Only 14% such workers were willing to do so in the third quarter of 2021, which is used as a comparison throughout the study and was when many workplaces attempted a “return to work” until the Omicron variant of Covid-19 pushed many employers’ plans back that winter.
Workers who are able to break their ties to living in an area because of its proximity to work are able to spread out, reducing the competition for a historically low number of homes for sale that could push prices even higher.
The research showed that among remote workers, all age and income groups have grown more willing to relocate or live farther away from their workplace since 2021. But younger workers — those between 18 and 34 — are significantly more willing than those older than them to live or commute a further distance from their work, with the share willing to do so jumping from 18% in 2021, to 30% in 2023.
“We believe this greater willingness to live farther from the … workplace may be an indication that some workers are feeling more secure about their remote work situation … or their ability to find another job if their current employer were to change its policies,” wrote the researchers, in a summary.
This is good news for remote workers during a time of crushingly low levels of home affordability.
Remote and hybrid work may be here to stay. Or, it’s here long enough for people to buy or rent a new home because of it, the researchers found.
Despite the demands by leaders of some prominent companies that workers need to head into the office or head out the door, the share of fully remote and hybrid workers has remained surprisingly constant in the post-pandemic era, according to the study.
In the first part of the year, 35% of respondents worked fully remote or worked a hybrid mix of some time at a workplace and some time at home. That was only slightly down from 36% in 2021.
While the share of workers going to a work site or office every day was unchanged at 49% in both 2021 and in 2023, the share of people working fully remote ticked up to 14% this year from 13% in 2021.
Homeowners continue to be slightly more likely to work from home than renters. And those with more education and higher incomes are also more likely to have a work-from-home situation, which is consistent with 2021, the study found.
Only 30% of lower-income people, earning 80% of the area median income, could work remotely or hybrid in 2021, and that dropped to 27% by this year. Meanwhile 42% of upper-income people, those making 120% of the area median income, were able to work from home in 2021 and that number did not change in 2023.
Lower-income people — who are in most need of access to lower-cost housing, found further away from a city’s core — are also those least likely to work remotely, according to the survey.
With housing affordability taking a hit over the past few years as rents rose, home prices stayed elevated and mortgage rates soared to a 22-year high, it is not surprising that “affordability” was the top factor for people when picking a new home, at 36%. This was a big jump from 2014, the last time the question was asked, when the top consideration was “neighborhood” at 49%.
Homeowners and renters both showed growth in prioritizing “affordability,” but the increase was greatest among renters, shooting up from 21% in 2014 to 46% in 2023.
“The change in preference for renters is truly remarkable, since not only did it more than double, but it represented a complete reversal of the relative importance of neighborhood cited by consumers as the top consideration in 2014,” wrote the researchers.
In addition, despite the talk about moving for more space, “home size” as a factor for picking a next home was unchanged and still outweighed by “affordability.”
“The striking shift toward affordability as the top consideration among overall survey respondents for their next move substantiates the need of households to find ways to manage around the significant rise in mortgage rates, home prices, and rents of the past few years,” the researchers wrote.
And this is impacting where people look for a home and what they prioritize when they are searching.
“Home affordability may also be a reason why we saw an increase in remote workers’ willingness to relocate or live farther away from their workplace, particularly given that, historically, a shorter commute to denser job markets was considered a premium amenity,” the researchers wrote.
The suburbs are increasingly where people want to be, the report found, which is part of an ongoing trend since 2010. And that share has grown between 2021 and 2023.
The researchers say the change to the housing market brought about by remote workers holds broader implications for the link between housing and the labor market.
The growing share of remote-working renters and homeowners willing to live farther from their work location gives employers access to a wider labor market, which could be useful if a downturn in economic activity led to greater rates of job loss.
“Having access to a larger labor market may also reduce the adverse effect on local home prices when a major employer or industry contracts,” the researchers wrote.
The U.S. Labor Day holiday will mark another milestone in the marathon to bring workers back to the office, but it won’t be a quick fix for landlords, according to Thomas LaSalvia, head of commercial real estate economics at Moody’s Analytics.
Employers from Facebook parent Meta
META,
to Goldman Sachs
GS,
recently laid out mandates for staff to return to the office more frequently, starting this fall, including the big one — the federal government.
“A lot of companies are saying that after Labor Day, ‘We expect more out of you,” LaSalvia said, referring to days in the office. Still, office attendance, he argues, likely only stages a fuller comeback if a job or promotion is on the line.
Amazon.com Inc.’s
AMZN,
Chief Executive Andy Jassy has been trying to drive home the point by warning staff to return at least three days a week, or face the consequences.
That could prove difficult, with Friday’s U.S. jobs report for August expected to show U.S. unemployment at a scant 3.5%, near the lowest levels since the late 1960s, even if hiring has been slowing. The labor market, so far, appears unfazed by the Federal Reserve’s benchmark rate reaching a 22-year high.
It has been a different story for landlords facing a roughly 19% vacancy rate nationally and piles of debt coming due, especially for owners of older Class B and C office buildings with a bleak outlook or properties in cities with wobbling business centers.
See: San Francisco’s office market erases all gains since 2017 as prices sag nationally
As with shopping malls, LaSalvia said it’s largely a problem of oversupply, with many office properties at risk of becoming obsolete as tenants flock to better buildings and locations staging a rebirth. The trend can be traced in leasing data since 2021, with Class A properties in central business districts (blue line) showing a big advantage over less desirable buildings in the heart of cities (orange line).
Moody’s Analytics
“Little by little, we are finding the office isn’t dead,” LaSalvia said, but he also sees more promise in neighborhoods with a new purpose, those catering to hybrid work and communities that bring people together.
Another way to look at the trend is through rents. Manhattan’s Penn Station submarket, with its estimated $13 billion overhaul and neighboring Hudson Yards development, has seen asking rents jump 32% to $74.87 a square foot in the second quarter since the fourth quarter of 2019, according to Moody’s Analytics. That compares with a 2% bump in asking rents in downtown New York City to $61.39 a square foot for the same period.
The push for a return to the office also doesn’t mean a repeat of prepandemic ways. Goldman Sachs analysts estimate that part-time remote work in the U.S. has stabilized around 20%-25%, in a late August report, but that’s still up from 2.6% before the 2020 lockdowns.
Furthermore, the persistence of remote work will likely add another 171 million square feet of vacant U.S. office space through 2029, a period that also will see tenants’ long-term leases expire and many companies opting for less space. The additional vacancies would roughly translate to 57% of Los Angeles roughly 300 million square feet of office space sitting empty.
“The fundamental reason why we had offices in the first place have not completely disintegrated,” LaSalvia said. “But for some of those Class B and C offices, the writing was on the wall before the pandemic.”
U.S. stocks were mixed Thursday, but headed for losses in a tough August for stocks, with the S&P 500 index
SPX
off about 1.5% for the month, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA
2.1% lower and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP
down 2% in August, according to FactSet.
A real estate agency window in Alicante, Spain.
Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
More Americans are flocking to Spain for longer, whether as so-called digital nomads working abroad or to enjoy a new life in retirement.
The number of Americans living in Spain grew by 13% from 2019 to 2021, and home sales to Americans jumped 88% from the first half of 2019 to the first half of 2022, according to a report by the General Council of Notaries in Spain.
Among expat groups buying in the sun-washed country, Americans paid the second most, after the Danes, shelling out up to 2,837 euros, or $3,119, per square meter. In addition, the home prices that grew the most in the same period were paid by Americans, according to the report.
More from Personal Finance:
Quiet luxury may be Americans’ most expensive trend ever
Companies recognize importance of ‘out of office’ time
Cash-strapped consumers tip less amid persistent inflation
Purchasing or living in a home abroad requires a certain level of wealth, given the cost not only of real estate but overseas travel, as well, said Alex Ingrim, a Florence, Italy-based private wealth manager and senior investment analyst at global financial services firm Chase Buchanan.
According to the General Council of Notaries report, American buyers are focusing on urban areas like Madrid — as with any big city, people are attracted to its job opportunities and amenities, said Ingrim.
While the southern coastal region of Andalusia has always been a popular location for Americans, there’s a “strong word of mouth” for the city of Valencia, an urban area on the beach farther north on the Mediterranean coast with a large expat community, among them many Americans, said Ingrim.
However, Americans who want a different retirement or remote work experience and an adventure by relocating to Spain should take a few factors into consideration.
Most tax on property purchased in Spain is paid up front in a stamp duty, or “AJD” in Spanish parlance, rather than in annual property tax payments like in the U.S.
“The stamp duty can run from 1% to 2.5%, and then there is [value-added tax] on new construction or transfer tax on pre-owned homes,” said certified financial planner Jude Boudreaux, partner and senior financial planner with The Planning Center in New Orleans. “It’s all substantially more than in the States.”
It must be paid by the buyer at the Treasury office of the appropriate Autonomous Region in Spain within 30 business days after the property is bought.
“You pay a lot of the taxes up front rather than on an ongoing basis, so the purchasing costs and the purchasing process are a lot different,” said Ingrim, who advises interested buyers to get in touch with local estate agents and property lawyers early on in the process.
If you are looking to retire in Spain, consider the financial and tax implications, and seek help from an advisor before setting into the idea, he added.
Additionally, make sure your taxes are in order. Although you are rarely taxed on the same income twice, look at the different streams of income and assets you may have in order to understand “who gets to tax what first, whether Spain or the U.S.,” said Ingrim.
For instance, an American citizen working in Spain will have a higher tax rate, but those taxes become a deduction when they file their federal tax return in the U.S., said Boudreaux, who is a member of CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council.
On the other hand, the U.S. taxes your global income, so if an American earns an income from rental properties in Spain, or anywhere else in the world, “the U.S. will gladly tax your income from Spain,” he added.
For his part, Ingrim noted that “while you might have a liability to both systems, you rarely pay tax on the same income stream or asset base twice.”
It’s important to remember your debts in the U.S. doesn’t just go away when you move abroad, he added. “You need to still have a plan to deal with your American liabilities while you’re living abroad.”
Some countries, like Portugal, may ask foreign residents for a credit report from their home country when they take out a mortgage or try to establish credit. Keep your debts in mind and plan to keep up with your payments.
“Keep repaying your student loans, your car payments, mortgages, whatever it may be, and try to [keep up] your U.S. credit history because it may impact your going forward in your new country [of residence],” said Ingrim.
Keep an American bank account tied to a U.S. address open before you move so you can pay your bills through automatic transfers from that account, said Boudreaux, to save on exchange rates and monthly wires.
Additionally, you may need a Spanish bank account to pay your daily living expenses in euros and avoid being regularly at the mercy of fluctuating exchange rates. The U.S. government imposes bank reporting rules to every bank that does business with U.S. citizens. Find a Spanish bank that complies with these rules, “so they can do all the proper reporting when and as necessary,” added Boudreaux.
Spain launched its digital nomad visa earlier this year, making it easier for foreigners to move to and work there. The visa is tailored for “international teleworkers,” and applicants must comply with a set of requirements, such as accreditation or professional experience of at least three years.
“Prior to having this visa, it was difficult to work in Spain because the tax rates were so high and there wasn’t a clear-cut immigration regime, other than the ‘golden visa’ that allowed you to move to Spain and work,” said Ingrim.
The golden visa, which you only obtain if you purchase a property for more than 500,000 euros — or about $550,000 — allows you to live, work and earn a larger set of rights once you’re residing in Spain, he said.
Nonlucrative visas, meanwhile, are meant for people who are no longer employed, including retirees, who can rely on a passive income. This type of visa allows you to live in a new country but prohibit you from working. “The first step would be engaging with a Spanish immigration lawyer and understanding if you meet the requirements,” said Ingrim.
However, before you make your bid on a property, consider renting first to see if the area meets your preferences and needs, added Ingrim.
Some Americans already living in other countries, namely Portugal, are conscious about how arrangements like the golden visa can exacerbate housing problems for locals. That ought to be a consideration for buyers in Spain, he said.
In Ingrim’s experience, incoming U.S. buyers express concerns around the issue, saying “We don’t want any part in contributing to that.” As a result, many prefer to initially rent, as a precaution.
Virojt Changyencham | Moment | Getty Images
That flexibility is helping drive down demand for office space. By 2030, McKinsey predicts, demand for office space will be as much as 20% lower than it was in 2019, depending on the city. While remote and hybrid work is the big reason, the trend toward more desks in less space and shifts to automation were also factored into its analysis.
Lower office space demand has companies rethinking how to make their real estate jibe with new work habits. Working in teams and increasing productivity are the top reasons office workers with flexibility give for being on-site.
Many office environments are not meeting employees’ needs. Having spaces for employees that are free from noise and distraction so they can work independently is “critical to job performance,” says Jordan Goldstein, a managing principal at architecture firm Gensler.
Creating what’s called “meeting equity” is also important, so people who are physically in the office and people who are working remotely can conduct business. “The days of a four- to six-person room with a 42-inch flat screen on the wall are over,” said Goldstein. Instead, he suggests employers should create an environment where the virtual and physical offices are brought together.
The evolution in office culture has also changed where people are choosing to live. Of the people surveyed who moved after March 2020, 20% said that their move was possible only because they could now work from home more frequently, according to McKinsey.
Researchers looked at neighborhoods in San Francisco, Houston and the borough of Manhattan in New York, and found people moved out of expensive, office-dense ZIP codes and into cheaper ones with more mixed use of real estate.
McKinsey’s comparison of the pandemic’s effect on New York’s Financial District and Lower East Side neighborhood showed that mixed-use neighborhoods, with a diverse offering of office, residential and retail space fared the best.
The Financial District, which consists of 80% office real estate, a large concentration of workers and an average home price of about $1.5 million saw people leave at more than two times the rate than the Lower East Side, where the average home price is about $500,000 lower and just 7% of real estate is dedicated to office space.
Shopping patterns were also changed by the pandemic, with remote and hybrid workers less likely to spend near the office.
“Retailers need to rethink their model,” said Jan Mischke, a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute, as foot traffic and and spending continues to be lower — especially in office-dense neighborhoods — and online shopping continues to take market share from stores. “The demand for retail floorspace in 2030 will be lower than it than it [was] in 2019,” he said.
“We feel we have a sufficient clarity now that it’s relatively clear what needs to happen,” said Mischke. At the city level, that means creating more mixed-use environments, which proved more resilient during the pandemic.
Workers in the fields of computer science, real estate, finance and insurance experienced the greatest bumps in working from home during the first years of the pandemic, while it barely budged for laborers in occupations like stockers, truck operators …
ByMIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press
A hiring sign is displayed at a restaurant in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Wednesday, May 10, 2023. On Wednesday, the Labor Department reports on job openings and labor turnover for April. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
The Associated Press
Workers in the fields of computer science, real estate, finance and insurance experienced the greatest bumps in working from home during the first years of the pandemic, while it barely budged for laborers in occupations like stockers, truck operators and order fillers, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released Tuesday.
The share of employees working on-site in computer and mathematical jobs went from 60% in 2019 to 30% in 2021, and it went from 67% to 43% for workers in insurance, finance and real estate jobs, according to figures from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP).
On the flip side, it went from 97% to 96% for workers in what are called “material moving occupations,” such as laborers, truck drivers and machine operators.
Looking at all U.S. jobs, the share of employees working on-site dropped from 84% to 74%, the survey said.
Meanwhile, the share of workers in hybrid jobs, that is those spending some days on-site and other days at home, increased from 4% in 2020 to 6% in 2021. Of those employees, the most common days to work from home were Mondays and Fridays, according to the survey.
The SIPP program conducts interviews with anywhere from 14,000 to 52,000 households over several years.
___
Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at @MikeSchneiderAP
As the fight between bosses and workers over returning to the office keeps entering new rounds, new data show how much in-office attendance ramped up last year — especially for white-collar workers with high levels of education.
But even still, the return to the office has been two different stories for men and women. From 2021 to 2022, men spent more time at the workplace while women spent the same amount of time working from home year-over-year.
Last year, 34% of workers said they worked from home at least part of the time, according to the annual Bureau of Labor Statistics survey of how Americans spend their time.
That was down from the 38% of employed people who said the same in 2021 — and a deeper look into Thursday’s data reveals an even more pronounced, but uneven, reduction in the number of people who are working remotely.
More than one quarter of men in 2022 said they spend at least some of their working time at home, while 41% of women said they had work-from-home in their job schedule. One year earlier, it was a different story for men, but not for women. Over one-third of men, 35%, said working from home was part of their routine while 42% of women said the same.
It may be a reminder of the juggle that women face between their personal and professional lives. For example, in homes with children under age 6, women spent just over an hour each day caring for their children while men in those households spent half that amount. That breakdown was unchanged between 2022 and 2021, the data showed.
Meanwhile, the return-to-office trend accelerated for more educated workers from 2021 to 2022. In 2021, 60% of people with at least a bachelor’s degree said they did some of their work from home. In 2022, the share fell to 54% doing some work from home.
When the pandemic shut down offices and other workplaces, people with higher levels of education often had greater chances of being able to stay home while they worked.
That dynamic is still at play now, although the differences between groups are becoming less stark. Last year and in 2021, the share of people with no college degree who said they worked from home at least some of the time stayed below 20%.
It’s unclear what was driving highly-educated workers to spend more time in the office between 2021 and 2022, said Stephan Meier, a Columbia Business School professor who chairs the school’s management division. Some of it could be attributed to return-to-office policies, but it might also be due to growing comfort with vaccination and public-health measures as the pandemic continued, he said.
“What I would care about is who goes to the office and who doesn’t want to go to the office,” he said.
The overall change in numbers is not “a major shift,” said Meier, who teaches students and executives about the future of work. “What those numbers show to me is that the war on remote work is not over.”
The year-over-year decline fits with the trends that Nicholas Bloom, a professor of economics at Stanford University, is seeing in his own research analyzing where people say they are working these days. Even if there’s less remote work happening, Bloom said, his research shows the “rate of decline is itself declining.”
Bloom thinks the rate of remote work may bottom out next year. “I predict longer-run, from 2025 onwards, this will start to rise again as remote-work technology — hardware, software, [virtual reality, augmented reality], etc. — gets better and continues the long-run rise of [working from home].”
Between May and December 2020, Bureau of Labor Statistics research showed, 42% of employed people said they spent least some of their time working from home as COVID-19 upended daily life.
As a whole, the BLS survey on how Americans use their time paints a picture of a slow return to the office — but not necessarily a return to the way things were before COVID-19.
Before the pandemic, 24% of workers said they spent some of their time working from home, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
This year, office foot traffic has edged higher, but the rise is incremental and uneven. Earlier in June, average weekly office occupancy surpassed 50% for the first time in three months, according to an ongoing gauge from Kastle Systems, a security-technology provider.
One week later, the company’s barometer of average occupancy across 10 major cities dropped back below 50%. In the data from early June, Tuesdays tended to be the busiest days for offices, and Fridays were the slowest.
Meier said he wouldn’t be surprised if next year’s time-use survey reveals even less time spent working from home. But this is a transitional moment in which businesses are figuring out the particular version of hybrid work duties and office setups that work for them, he said.
“Personally, I do think there is something magical about being in person,” Meier said. “Does it need to be five days a week? Absolutely not.”
See also: Salesforce is trying a ‘cute gimmick’ to get workers back to the office, but it may fall flat
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Amazon unveiled the first phase of its new headquarters complex in Virginia Thursday, a pair of gleaming, amenity-packed office towers that its leaders hope will persuade employees accustomed to working from home during the pandemic to happily return to the office.
The grand opening of the Met Park office complex in Arlington’s Crystal City neighborhood near the nation’s capital marks the biggest milestone in the headquarters project since the company announced in 2018 that it would build a second headquarters complex in northern Virginia to complement its existing headquarters in Seattle.
Initially, plans for the “HQ2” project called for Amazon to bring 25,000 jobs each to both northern Virginia and New York City. But opposition to the incentive package in New York helped derail those plans, and the Arlington complex became the sole site for HQ2.
At Thursday’s ribbon-cutting ceremonies, Amazon emphasized its efforts to ingratiate itself to the region. The company committed hundreds of millions of dollars to help preserve affordable housing in the region, and the project includes a 2.5-acre (1.01-hectare) park, fenced dog run and playground. Amazon even replicated its well-known banana stand from its Seattle headquarters, offering free fruit to workers and visitors.
Generally speaking, local leaders have welcomed Amazon and the high-paying jobs it has brought. Arlington County Board Chair Christian Dorsey praised the company’s willingness to partner with the county, particularly on affordable housing.
“We looked to Amazon to learn about our community’s values and embrace them as their own. I want to commend Amazon’s leadership for doing exactly that,” he said.
Still, the changes have not been without some aggravation. Some community activists have complained about rising rent and gentrification. During construction, piledriving occurred in the first half of 2020, during the worst of the pandemic. Neighbors stuck in their homes pleaded for relief from the noise, to no avail.
Amazon also designed its headquarters to appeal to its employees. The project launched before the pandemic disrupted office culture. Earlier this year, Amazon announced it is pausing the second phase of the HQ2 project, though state and county leaders remain confident that the delay is only temporary.
In February, Amazon said it will require all its workers to return to the office at least three days a week, prompting 30,000 workers to sign a petition asking the company to reconsider.
In a tour of the complex Thursday, John Schoettler, Amazon’s vice president of global real estate, said the company tweaked the designs to incorporate changes designed to accommodate a post-pandemic workforce. The towers feature dedicated suites to accommodate group projects and open spaces dubbed “centers of energy” designed to facilitate collaboration.
“This was designed pre-pandemic, but we were constantly gathering information from our employees” to accommodate their needs,” Schoettler said.
The finished product includes rooftop gardens, pool and foosball tables, outdoor electric grills — Amazon says the building uses no fossil fuels — high-quality dining options and a “dog wall” that shows photos of workers’ pets.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, himself a former corporate chieftain, seemed genuinely impressed by the complex as he toured it.
“I don’t want to cause any intracompany tensions,” he said, “but I wonder if this should be renamed HQ1.”
Many corporate leaders were hoping that the debate over the return to the office was over when they implemented mandates for workers, but the latest data from New York City’s key office market suggests that many employees are still setting their own terms.
While average building visits are back above their pre-pandemic baseline, at 61%, according to the latest data from The Real Estate Board of New York, the momentum has stalled. Among its key findings released earlier this month: the 61% mark is a notable increase from 51% during Q1 2022. But visitation rates have “essentially plateaued,” REBNY said, since reaching a peak of 65% in mid-2022.
A report out on Thursday from the Boston Consulting Group warns of the coming wave of “zombie” office buildings, with vacancy rates and utilization under 50% — it says many buildings across the U.S. are already at that mark. Its analysis matches the 61% plateau cited by REBNY: “Assuming these trends continue and organizations right-size to fit new levels of demand, utilization may tick up slightly from today’s depths, but still only 60% to 65% of current US office space will be needed.”
While this is all bad for municipal budgets tied to tax revenue, and ancillary businesses close to office districts, the message to employers is different: taking a sudden hard line on return-to-office policies isn’t necessarily going to work, and in fact, can be bad for talent retention and recruitment efforts.
Companies including Amazon, Disney and Starbucks have enacted strict return-to-office mandates though not the exact same number of days in each case, and many employees aren’t happy. Other companies, too, could see reverberations if they enact similar policies, especially if the mandates feel arbitrary, human resources professionals say.
“It’s dangerously risky to take a my-way-or-the-highway approach,” said Yolanda M. Owens, a career coach with The Muse, an online career platform. Flexibility is especially important when recruiting for difficult-to-fill roles and in jobs where competitors continue to offer hybrid or remote-only positions, she said.
Wall Street leadership veteran Sallie Krawcheck, co-founder and CEO of Ellevest and the former Citi CFO and head of global wealth management at Bank of America, recently told a room of leaders at a CNBC C-suite event that just thinking everything can go back to “the way it was” is a flawed mindset.
While companies can have legitimate reasons to enact stricter in-office policies, they have to be mindful that talent is their biggest asset and taking too hard a line could be a major strategic misstep.
This is true even as U.S. worker productivity fell 2.7% in the first quarter of this year, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and as employers announced plans to cut 337,411 jobs in the first four months of the year, a 322% increase from the same period in 2022, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., the global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm.
For many employers, there is still time to get it right. Here are five actionable ways companies can navigate return-to-work decisions.
Companies shouldn’t simply issue a return-to-work edict, said Janine Yancey, founder and chief executive at Emtrain, an online training platform. Rather, they should clearly explain to employees the rationale behind the moves. Say, for example, a company wants to bring its marketing department back to the office more regularly. Executives could explain that collaboration helps the company achieve its targets more efficiently, citing real examples such as the advantages of face-to-face feedback for a design or messaging campaign.
When companies don’t offer a rationale or tie the return to business objectives, there can be meaningful ramifications. She offers the example of a small technology company that took a sudden, inflexible stance on return-to-office. The company lost so many people in a short period of time that it had to backpedal, lowering its requirement for in-office days and allowing for more flexibility.
“Company executives need to take the time and energy to paint the picture for the rank and file so it doesn’t appear to be an arbitrary exercise of power,” Yancey said.
Companies should attempt to collect data on who is coming to the office now and how frequently, so they have qualitative and quantitative information to base their decisions on. It’s also advisable to seek input from various teams to understand productivity and how employees view their current work situation. A company-wide survey is also a good idea to understand more clearly whether workers find working from home productive and enjoyable and what challenges they are facing.
Businesses should also understand the barriers employees face in coming back to the office, whether that’s a long commute or taking care of children, an elderly parent or a pet. Companies should also seek to understand what incentives would help mitigate these challenges.
As Krawcheck said, going back to five days a week in the office, “worked for white men, not everyone, and certainly not women and under-represented groups.”
Many employees need incentives to come back to the office. “It needs to be more than free food and happy hours,” Owens said.
Companies could also consider perks such as helping with commuting costs or subsidizing daycare for children and adults.
A little creativity can go a long way. Massage therapy and jewelry vendors are among the occasional offerings Workhuman, a provider of human resources software, has added for employees, said Zoe Peterson-Ward, chief customer officer. The company also hosts in-office celebrations for birthdays and anniversaries. That’s in addition to other perks such as free meals and an on-site gym in its Dublin office.
It can be frustrating when employees are required to come to the office just so they can be on video calls with colleagues in other locations, human resources professionals say. That’s why companies that want to bring workers back to the office need to focus on reconfiguring workspaces to foster additional collaboration.
Sandra Moran, chief marketing and customer experience officer at WorkForce Software, a human resources software provider, offers the example of a large technology firm that has reconfigured its workspace so that teams can work in close proximity on the days they’re in the office. Additionally, they’ve made a sizable investment in technology, so whether employees are in the office or not, they appear to be in the same physical space, Moran said.
“If all you are asking people to do is come back to sit in their cubicle, that’s not really interactive,” Peterson-Ward said.
Second-rate workspaces will be the losers in the future, according to the research. REBNY finds a widening gap between Class A properties and everything else in the commercial real estate market, with the highest quality Class A+ properties outperforming Class B by more than 10 percentage points.
While it said building where tenants are mandating workers back should be “shielded” from some of the impacts, Boston Consulting Group concluded in its new report that, “Older, cubicle-based buildings catering to office workers but lacking in modern amenities will suffer the most.”
Many companies are still ironing out their return-to-office policies. JustAnswer, an online source for professional information, has seen a 49% increase in questions related to return-to-office mandates and/or policies in its Employment Law category compared with May 2022.
Before making widespread pronouncements, companies need to take a hard look at the reasons behind their decisions. Considerations include: what business imperatives require a stricter stance on in-office work? Is the decision related to productivity, collaboration or culture, or is it more arbitrary?
“There might be excellent reasons to have people come back five days a week, but in other cases, there might be no reason at all,” said Merry A. Kogut, who is a contributing attorney for JustAnswer and an employment law expert.
Companies should also evaluate whether across-the-board policies make sense, or whether in-office mandates should be implemented for certain functions only, Kogut said.
NEW YORK — From just the right book to just the right wheels, there are lots of ways to please all the mothers in your life when their special holiday rolls around.
Some ideas:
TECHNOLOGY
Give the gift of a heartbeat. Bond Heart is a smart necklace in the shape of a heart that allows the wearer to record heart beats and play them back in pulses felt when the bauble is grasped. From a company called Bond Touch, the $99 necklace pairs with iOS and Android phones via Bluetooth. Instructions on how to record heartbeats using the pulse from a finger are included. An app stores multiple heartbeats for playback in the heart.
Reach for a digital camera. There’s one that’s great for beginners if mom isn’t a pro but would like to be pro-like. It’s the Canon EOS R50 Mirrorless Camera for $799.99. It’s light, compact, and reviewers rave about how easy it is to use. Comes in black or white. Turn it on and begin. The A+ mode does the rest.
Have at it on pricier options. But in the under $1,000 range, The Strategist’s Steven John recommends the Sony Alpha A6000 Mirrorless Digital Camera for its versatility and superfast autofocus abilities, among other things.
BOOKS
“The Art of Feminism.” This collection of art, illustration, photography and graphic design spans the feminist aesthetic over two centuries. The original book, out in 2018, has been revised to add 60 pages of material. It’s an in-depth examination of the subject, from the suffragists and Judy Chicago to Zanele Muholi and Andrea Bowers. Chronicle Books. $45. Consultant editor Helena Reckitt. Written by Lucinda Gosling, Hilary Robinson and Amy Tobin.
“Head of Household: A Journal for Single Moms.” Beth Raymer, a single mom, has put together words of inspiration from famous single mothers, prompts aimed at reflection, and ways to help their lives go easier. “What are the top five things you wish people understood or acknowledged about your single-mom experience?” she asks. Some estimates put the number of children in the U.S. being raised by single mothers at 15 million. Princeton Architecture Press. $24.95.
How about a burn book? Emily Rose, host of the podcast “It’s Become a Whole Thing,” has put together “The Stuff I Hate Journal.” Among the prompts: What’s the most condescending remark you’ve ever received? Who’s the person in your life who always has to outdo everyone else? Think of the worst neighbors you’ve ever had and write the note you’d love to leave on their doorstep. Might be just the thing to help mom take the edge off. Adams Media. $15.99.
SUPPORT ADOPTION
The nonprofit Helpusadopt.org sells beaded bracelets with a gold leaf charm symbolizing the family tree. It gives 100% of its proceeds to its grant program that helps families struggling with the cost of adoption. The bracelets come in a variety of colors and materials, including marble and glass. They’re also accentuated by gold beads with the group’s “Help Us Adopt” signature. Available at Helpusadopt.org. Prices range from $50 for a single bracelet to $175 for a stack.
The nonprofit Jockey Being Family Foundation, which funds post-adoption support, benefits from the sale of a plush bear, because why shouldn’t mom have her own stuffed animal? Jockey sets aside $5 per bear for the foundation’s work. There are two bear versions dubbed Sam and Donna. They cost $10 each at Jockey.com.
FOR MOMS WHO ROLL
The folks at Oprah Daily put this bike on the O list for Mother’s Day: The Electra Loft 7D. And it’s a beaut. At $549.99, it comes in cream and seafoam green. It’s lightweight, European style and has seven speeds. Considered a commuter bike, it has an aluminum frame and painted fenders. Tires are slightly wider than traditional road tires. Available at REI.
Consider a new suitcase, either carry-on size or larger. There’s a huge selection out there so track down a sale.
Perhaps a balance ball would serve if your gift recipient is still working from home. There’s one that comes with a traditional chair, including arms. $237.99. For new moms, a ball could double as a new baby activity.
MISCELLANEOUS GOODNESS
Walking poles are abundant. Jetti Poles go a step further. They’re walking poles that add an extra pound each for fuller-body intensity on a stroll or hike. The poles come with rubber soles made of the same material as car tires to help navigate a range of terrains. From Jetti Fitness, the poles come in lengths of petite (5 feet to 5 foot, 3 inches) to extra tall (5 feet, 11 inches to 6 feet, 2 inches). They come in blue, pink and yellow. A carry bag is included.
Don’t forget about Pickleball. ProXR has on offer a paddle from Beth Bellamy. The special-edition paddle comes in a white design with a premium fiberglass face for extra pop. A cover is included. Bellamy is ranked No. 1 in senior world pro women’s singles. $179.99.
Got a crafter? Solve her storage crisis with the Dreambox. The rolling storage closet is full of adjustable shelving, rods, hooks and boxes. And, to reiterate, it’s on wheels so can be stashed when not unfurled. There’s lighting built in, along with an adjustable table, with options to add two additional side tables. Comes in two designs in white. Lots of other add-ons are available, like a white magnetic board that can be used to stick metal cutting dies onto. Making dreams come true sometimes doesn’t come cheap. The base cost is around $2,500.
___
Follow Leanne Italie on Twitter at http://twitter.com/litalie
WASHINGTON — America’s employers added a robust 253,000 jobs in April, evidence of a labor market that still shows surprising strength despite rising interest rates, chronically high inflation and a banking crisis that could weaken the economy.
The unemployment rate ticked down to 3.4%, matching a 54-year low. Last month’s hiring gain compared with 165,000 in March and 248,000 in February, and is at a level considered vigorous by historical standards.
The job market has remained strong despite the Federal Reserve’s aggressive campaign of interest rate hikes over the past year to fight inflation. Layoffs are still relatively low, job openings comparatively high. Still, the ever-higher borrowing costs the Fed has engineered have weakened some key sectors of the economy, notably the housing market.
Since hitting a four-decade high last year, inflation has steadily eased yet is still well above the Fed’s 2% target level.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell himself sounded somewhat mystified this week by the job market’s durability. The central bank has expressed concern that a robust job market exerts upward pressure on wages — and prices. It hopes to achieve a so-called soft landing – cooling the economy and the labor market just enough to tame inflation yet not so much as to trigger a recession.
One way to do that, Powell has said, is for employers to post fewer job openings. And indeed the government reported this week that job openings fell in March to 9.6 million — a still-high figure but down from a peak of 12 million in March 2022 and the fewest in nearly two years.
The Fed chair said he was optimistic that the nation could avoid a recession. Yet many economists are skeptical and have said they expect a downturn to begin sometime this year.
Another encouraging sign for the Fed is that more Americans are looking for work. The more workers who are available to employers, the less pressure employers face to raise pay.
Still, steadily rising borrowing costs have inflicted some damage. Pounded by higher mortgage rates, sales of existing homes were down a sharp 22% in March from a year earlier. Investment in housing has cratered over the past year.
America’s factories are slumping, too. An index produced by the Institute for Supply Management, an organization of purchasing managers, has signaled a contraction in manufacturing for six straight months.
Even consumers, who drive about 70% of economic activity and who have been spending healthily since the pandemic recession ended three years ago, are showing signs of exhaustion: Retail sales fell in February and March after having begun the year with a bang.
The Fed’s rate hikes are hardly the economy’s only serious threat. Congressional Republicans are threatening to let the federal government default on its debt, by refusing to raise the limit on what it can borrow, if Democrats don’t accept sharp cuts in federal spending. A first-ever default on the federal debt would shatter the market for U.S. Treasurys — the world’s biggest — and possibly cause an international financial crisis.
The global backdrop already looks gloomier. The International Monetary Fund last month downgraded its forecast for worldwide growth, citing rising interest rates around the world, financial uncertainty and chronic inflation.
Since March, America’s financial system has been rattled by three of the four biggest bank failures in U.S. history. Worried that jittery depositors will withdraw their money, banks are likely to reduce lending to conserve cash. Multiplied across the banking industry, that trend could cause a credit crunch that would hobble the economy.
At the staffing firm Robert half, executive director Ryan Sutton still sees “pent-up demand’’ for workers.
Applicants, not employers, still enjoy the advantage, he said: To attract and keep workers, he said, businesses — especially small ones — must offer flexible hours and the chance to work from home when possible.
“Giving a little bit of schedule flexibility so that somebody might finish their work late or early so that they can take care of children and family and elderly parents — these are the things that the modern employee needs,’’ Sutton said. “To not offer those and to try to still have a 2019 business model of five days a week in an office — that’s going to put you at a disadvantage” in finding and retaining talent.
WASHINGTON — Month after month, the nation’s job market has stood its ground against howling headwinds — rising interest rates, chronic inflation, major bank failures and economic uncertainties across the world.
Hiring has gradually slowed, along with pay growth and job openings. Yet by historical standards, the labor market has remained surprisingly strong, with an unemployment rate still hovering near half-century lows.
When the Labor Department issues the April jobs report Friday morning, it’s expected to show that the trend has continued: Forecasters surveyed by the data firm FactSet predict that employers added 182,000 jobs last month. Though that would be well off the whopping 472,000 jobs that were added in January, the 326,000 in February and the 236,000 in March, it would still be a respectable gain that would show that many employers still need to fill jobs.
The unemployment rate is thought to have edged up to 3.6%, only slightly above a 54-year low of 3.4% set in January.
The job market has so far withstood the Federal Reserve’s aggressive drive to stamp out high inflation, which last year hit a four-decade high and is still well above the Fed’s 2% target. On Wednesday, the Fed raised its benchmark rate for a 10th time since March 2022, a move that will likely further drive up borrowing costs for businesses and consumers.
Yet employers keep hiring.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell himself sounded somewhat mystified this week by the job market’s durability.
“We’ve raised rates by 5 percentage points in 14 months” — from a range of 0%-0.25% to a range of 5%-5.25%, Powell said at a news conference Wednesday. “And unemployment is 3 1/2 percent — pretty much where it was, even lower than where it was, when we started.’’
The Fed has expressed concern that a robust job market exerts upward pressure on wages — and prices. It hopes to achieve a so-called soft landing – cooling the economy and the labor market just enough to tame inflation yet not so much as to trigger a recession.
One way to do that, Powell has said, is for employers to post fewer job openings. So far, so good: The government reported this week that job openings fell in March to 9.6 million — a still-high figure but down from a peak of 12 million in March 2022 and the fewest in nearly two years.
“It wasn’t supposed to be possible for job openings to decline by as much as they’ve declined without unemployment going up,’’ Powell said. “It’s possible that we can continue to have a cooling in the labor market without having the big increases in unemployment’’ that usually occur.
The Fed chair said he was optimistic that the nation could avoid a recession. Yet many economists are skeptical and have said they expect a downturn to begin sometime this year.
Another encouraging sign for the Fed is that more Americans are looking for work. The labor force — defined as the number of adults who either have a job or are looking for one — has grown by 1.8 million this year. The more workers who are available to employers, the less pressure employers face to raise pay.
Still, steadily rising borrowing costs have inflicted some damage. Pounded by higher mortgage rates, sales of existing homes were down a sharp 22% in March from a year earlier. Investment in housing has cratered over the past year.
America’s factories are slumping. An index produced by the Institute for Supply Management, an organization of purchasing managers, has signaled a contraction in manufacturing for six straight months.
Even consumers, who drive about 70% of economic activity and who have been spending healthily since the pandemic recession ended three years ago, are showing signs of exhaustion: Retail sales fell in February and March after having begun the year with a bang.
The Fed’s rate hikes are hardly the economy’s only serious threat. Congressional Republicans are threatening to let the federal government default on its debt, by refusing to raise the limit on what it can borrow, if Democrats don’t accept sharp cuts in federal spending. A first-ever default on the federal debt would shatter the market for U.S. Treasurys — the world’s biggest — and possibly cause an international financial crisis.
The global backdrop already looks gloomier. The International Monetary Fund last month downgraded its forecast for worldwide growth, citing rising interest rates around the world, financial uncertainty and chronic inflation.
Since March, America’s financial system has been rattled by three of the four biggest bank failures in U.S. history. Worried that jittery depositors will withdraw their money, banks are likely to reduce lending to conserve cash. Multiplied across the banking industry, that trend could cause a credit crunch that would hobble the economy.
So was April the month when the job market finally started to crumble? Economists are betting probably not.
This week, the payroll processor ADP reported that private employers added a lofty 296,000 jobs in April. And Goldman Sachs’ economic team offered a rosy forecast: It predicted that employers added 250,000 jobs in April, well above the consensus estimate.
At the staffing firm Robert half, executive director Ryan Sutton still sees “pent-up demand’’ for workers.
Applicants, not employers, still enjoy the advantage, he said: To attract and keep workers, he said, businesses — especially small ones — must offer flexible hours and the chance to work from home when possible.
“Giving a little bit of schedule flexibility so that somebody might finish their work late or early so that they can take care of children and family and elderly parents — these are the things that the modern employee needs,’’ Sutton said. “To not offer those and to try to still have a 2019 business model of five days a week in an office — that’s going to put you at a disadvantage” in finding and retaining talent.
___
AP Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report.