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Tag: workforce

  • Why Workplace Injury Rates Rise When It Gets Hot

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    If you’ve been suffering an unseasonably warm October, wondering when autumn will arrive and all this darn sunshine will go away so you can get into the proper chilly Halloween spirit, then here’s another concern for you: a new study found a correlation between hot weather and workplace injuries. 

    The data, published in a report at the journal BioMed Central, found that just over 1 percent of all reported workplace injuries in the U.S. in the period studied (2023) were directly attributable to “heat exposure on days exceeding a heat index of 70°F.” Though the researchers admitted that most of the injuries were associated with “high-hazard” industries, not all of the injuries are related to direct exposure to extreme heat, as you may imagine, say, an outdoor-based worker may be under climate change conditions. The report notes that the results were “consistent across nearly all industry sectors, including those that are predominantly indoors,” and that “heat exposure has been associated with subtler impairments in physiological and cognitive performance.” 

    In other words, heat makes you clumsy and inattentive, and you might be more likely to, say, trip over an office chair you hadn’t noticed and injure yourself in much the same way as an outdoor worker may be more likely to drop a tool from a height onto a coworker when it was hot outside. 

    Speaking to NPR, the lead author of the study, Barrak Alamahad, a research scientist in environmental health at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, underlined this fact. He noted that when heat rises, even in the “safe” environment of an office, there are indeed notable “cognitive effects — hand-eye coordination, your attention, your memory, and even judgment or risk-taking or irritation.”

    Interestingly, the team found that there was a link to government anti-heat efforts in the data. When it was hotter than 105°F, the odds of injury compared to the odds on a typical 80°F day increased by 16 percent in states without heat-related safety rules. Rates rose just 8 percent in states with regulations designed to protect workers from heat issues. When the temperature hit 110°F and higher, the odds of an injury increased 22 percent — that’s a significant amount — in states without occupational heat rules, compared to just 9 percent in states with rules. This suggests a “protective effect,” the report notes, while pointing out the data isn’t 100 percent accurate for this prediction. 

    The study also noted that some 28,000 injuries in 2023 were related to heat, according to OSHA data correlated with historic, geolocated weather data near the site of each injury. Overall the report suggests that there may be mechanisms for preventing heat-related issues, which could reduce the figures for injuries per year. That’s significant, because injuries do more than harm a worker’s health—they may take them out of commission for a while, directly impacting company productivity, or they may result in expensive medical bills, insurance fees or litigation against their employer.

    What can you take away from this investigation for your own workforce’s safety?

    Heat may be a much bigger problem for your workers than you realize. The report notes that even “moderate daily heat can subtly increase the risk of workplace injuries that are not thought of nor classified as ‘heat-related’.” 

    To prevent your workers from being injured, you can try technical solutions, like air conditioning for indoor facilities. But the researchers also note that you should carry out “occupational safety training” and that your company’s safety education process should “explicitly warn about the role of heat” in potential injuries. You can also plan for allowing workers rest, water and shade, and given them written heat plans—all of which could be “critical for safeguarding worker health, and reducing the ‘hidden’ economic costs of heat-related injuries.” 

    The other thing to note is that extreme heat events are on the rise, and climate change isn’t going away — so these sorts of injuries will likely be a growing factor in future workplace risks.

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    Kit Eaton

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  • Romania’s Top Court Delays Ruling on Two Fiscal Measures

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    BUCHAREST (Reuters) -Romania’s top court on Wednesday rejected two challenges brought against measures to lower the budget deficit but said it would postpone a decision on two others, prolonging uncertainty over the stability of the broad coalition government.

    The measures, which the government fast-tracked through parliament, are part of wider efforts aimed at bringing down the fiscal shortfall towards 6% of economic output next year from more than 9% last year.

    The measures, with an overall budget impact of roughly 10.6 billion lei ($2.42 billion), were broken down into five bills to avoid having the court strike all of them down. The court initially met on September 24 before postponing a ruling on four of the five bills to October 8.

    COURT POSTPONES RULINGS ON JUDGES’ PENSIONS, OTHER MEASURES

    On Wednesday, the court rejected challenges to bills on corporate governance of public enterprises and on healthcare, saying they were in line with the constitution. It again postponed ruling on two of the bills until October 20.

    These include the most eagerly awaited ruling on judges’ pensions. The government wants to gradually raise the retirement age for judges and prosecutors to the standard 65 from an average now of 48-49, while capping their pension at no more than 70% of their final salary.

    The top court has struck down previous attempts to change judicial pensions.

    Other measures include job cuts and remuneration caps for state companies, as well as higher property and vehicle taxes, among other increases.

    Liberal Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan has said his government would lack legitimacy should the top court strike down the measures, although he later said he was focused on governing rather than considering his resignation.

    Centrist President Nicusor Dan has dismissed concerns over a potential strikedown of measures capping pensions for judges and magistrates, saying the government could draft a new law taking the top court’s arguments into account.

    (Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk and Luiza IlieEditing by Gareth Jones)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

    Photos You Should See – Sept. 2025

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  • Many Leaders Say They’d Drop Their Titles to Be More Engaged at Work, Here’s Why

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    In late 2024 experts predicted that in early 2025, employee engagement would be a key driver for success in a period when many expected rapid business growth. Engagement is an important measure of how “bought in” workers are to the company they’re working for: more engaged workers just go that little bit further, which ultimately contributes to driving up revenues and profits.

    But by April a Gallup survey was showing that employee engagement scores had dropped globally, to the point that U.S. and Canadian engagement had declined to levels more typical of Latin America. The study found disaffection was starting at the top, noting that the “primary cause for the global decline in engagement,” was a “drop in managers’ engagement,” and pointing out that “no other worker category experienced as significant a decline in engagement as the world’s managers.” 

    Now a new survey adds a fascinating wrinkle, showing that nearly half of leaders (46 percent) would actually quit their top-tier roles if it meant that they would actually feel more engaged at work. In other words, they’d give up their title in order to feel more valued, productive, or perhaps more part of a team. Does this mean the allure of management-grade perks is fading? And what does it mean for your company?

    That data, from Norwegian learning platform Kahoot!, is startling. Just 47 percent of UK and U.S. company leaders surveyed said they were “fully engaged,” and this is a dramatic contrast to the views of their teams, with 79 percent of the leaders believing their teams would see them as “energized.” Worse, the report notes that 34 percent of leaders said they felt burned out on a daily basis, or at least several times a week, and 22 percent — over one in five — said they felt “emotionally disconnected” from their teams “often” or “always” during the previous six months, HCAMag reported. This will likely play into the way they interact with their teams, since workers inevitably can pick up on the subtle emotional undercurrents behind managers’ actions, and this could easily demotivate front-line workers.

    The study found, somewhat bleakly, that the leading causes of managerial burnout included “emotional exhaustion from trying to motivate disengaged employees,” along with having to cope with “nonstop change” and the persistent old saw, “economic uncertainty.” Mainly middle managers said they had concerns about “feeling invisible or undervalued by executive leadership.” The major culprits behind leadership burnout included “juggling engagement with too many other priorities,” with 48 percent of those surveyed agreeing with this, even as 48 percent highlighted pressures of responding to employee apathy, and 28 percent cited problems with continuously trying to get Gen-Z workers engaged. 

    The new survey also found possible causes of this sagging sense of connection, noting that 57 percent of the leaders surveyed hadn’t received “extensive” training on how to reengage disengaged teams, and just 17 percent said their company always backed them up by providing effective team motivation tools.

    More interestingly, and offering a potential insight into some of the ill-advised pushes to get workers to return to the office, the study also found one in four leaders said they’re not “confident” about leading hybrid or remote teams, so that many “improvise at a time when alignment mattered most.” This confidence gap is, of course, going to add to leadership stress — particularly as data show that hybrid and remote working models really are here to stay, and can even be more productive under some circumstances. 

    As to what would turn things around for leaders, the survey showed 58 percent of leaders looking for more energy, creativity or fun in daily tasks. Meanwhile 52 percent wanted to grow their own skills, resonating with a recent report that showed managers feel simply too busy in day-to-day tasks, such as arranging training for their subordinates, to do their own training or seek mentorship. 

    All told, the report paints a picture of sort of workplace spiral. where employee engagement is suffering, leading to stressed-out, overburdened management and leadership who are losing touch with the joy of work. The top-down disaffection then fuels wider employee disengagement, reducing team effectiveness.

    What can you take away from this for your company? You may, after all, be feeling in good spirits about your leadership duties, and of the opinion your workers are cheery and as engaged as they can be with their jobs.

    Engagement is a somewhat abstract measure of your workplace culture and employees’ emotional states. Thus it’s possible that everything seems to be ticking along happily on the surface, but key managers and even others on your leadership team are quietly “cracking” under stresses they’re not voicing aloud. Savvy leaders would know to seek help if they’re feeling overburdened or disengaged with their job, and also to check in regularly with their managers and workers to see how they’re feeling — under a no-blame banner.

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    Kit Eaton

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  • 1 in 7 Jobs Are at Risk of AI Automation, SHRM Says

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    As AI insinuates itself more deeply into our everyday and work lives, a new report underlines the paradigm-breaking impact the technology may have on the job market. A huge proportion of all U.S. workers are at a high risk of being replaced by automated AI systems. This represents a threat that could drive unemployment up and rattling the economy. But a separate report by the World Economic Forum suggests that one way to mitigate against this outcome is a dramatic reskilling and job redesigning effort. All of this news could feed into your plans for deploying AI tools in your company.

    The new report, from the world’s largest HR association, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), warns that 15 percent of all American jobs (just above one in seven, and affecting 23.2 million people in total) are at risk of being displaced by automatic processes, HRDive notes. 

    The types of job that most likely to be affected is one where at least half of the task list can be automated. This includes all forms of automation, including physical tools like robotics as well as artificial intelligence. This means the threat is nuanced, and, as many reports before have shown, some types of job are more at risk than others. For example, SHRM’s report estimates 39.7 percent of software development work is highly automated and at risk from AI, as is a similar share in “mathematical” occupations (financial analysis, perhaps). But just 7.3 percent of the work in the “education and library” professions is automated. 

    The report also suggests that 7.8 percent of U.S. work product — about 12 million jobs — is already at least 50 percent completed using generative AI tech.

    This might raise the specter of mass unemployment, with images not far removed from Great Depression-era poverty and unrest swirling in your head. But SHRM also notes that a “significant majority of employment faces nontechnical barriers to automation displacement.”

    This means that many types of work include processes, preferences, physical issues and so on that prevent the job being automated, and thus protects them from AI—at least for now. These types of work have emphasize “interpersonal skills and/or relatively low-tech tools,” such as “many education and health care occupations.” SHRM says “client preferences are the most common” reason for not worrying about AI encroaching on these jobs: people still prefer dealing with people.

    Another perspective on the AI threat was expressed in a new report from the World Economic Forum, addressing the new AI “dual workforce challenge, of “balancing overcapacity and talent shortages.” The report cites a global survey of C-suite executives, of which 92 percent said they had up to 20 percent “workforce overcapacity,” meaning they have more workers than they need . By 2028 that figure is expected to rise to 30 percent overcapacity by about half of the leaders surveyed. At the same time, 94 percent of the leaders say they face “critical” AI talent shortages.

    The WEF report suggests the issue affects many workplaces already, and the shift is only going to get more pronounced as AI technology improves and becomes more capable and widely used. What was once AI “experimentation” is now “structural disruption,” the report says. 

    The answer to the issue, the WEF says, is “reskilling at scale,” combined with “redesigning roles for human-AI collaboration,” and “embedding workforce planning into core strategy.” The report basically calls for using HR departments to smooth the transition between the “legacy” way of working (without AI) into the modern way, as companies integrate AI. Agentic AI has the promise of “workforce empowerment,” and  can “boost efficiency, resilience and competitiveness,” the WEF thinks while companies “stuck in pilot mode risk falling behind.”

    The WEF thinks it’s time for a dramatic upheaval in the workplace, pivoting around the skills needed to operate AI tools. Think of it as the equivalent of the arrival of PCs and printers in the office: typewriters were no longer necessary, and a whole new skillset among workers of all types was needed, The adjustment required rethinking jobs and also reskilling workers on the new tech en masse.

    What’s the takeaway for you and your company?

    Simply that if you’re deploying AI tools across your company — without the intent of outright replacing any of your workers — you need to make your plans very clear, and communicate the goals you’re aiming for by using AI. Your HR team may also need extra budget, time and direction in order to plan a large-scale ongoing, education program to teach workers how to use AI tools to boost their efficiency. You could also consider upskilling talented workers who’ve had their time freed-up by AI, by giving them expanded roles — an option that could help grow your business.

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    Kit Eaton

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  • Furloughed Federal Workers Are Not Guaranteed Compensation, Axios Reports

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    (Reuters) -The White House is not guaranteeing compensation for hundreds of thousands of federal workers who are on forced time off during the government shutdown, Axios reported on Tuesday, citing a White House memo.

    The Republican-led Senate rejected dueling measures to fund federal agencies for a fifth time on Monday, with insufficient support for both a Republican proposal to fund operations through November 21 and a Democratic version that would also extend healthcare subsidies.

    The standoff has frozen about $1.7 trillion in funds for agency operations, which amounts to roughly one-quarter of annual federal spending. Much of the remainder goes to health and retirement programs and interest payments on the growing $37.88 trillion debt.

    The White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

    (Reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh Editing by David Goodman, Aidan Lewis)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • US Visa No Longer a Passport to Love for Indians After Trump H-1B Squeeze

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    By Abinaya V, Rishika Sadam and Urvi Dugar

    BENGALURU/HYDERABAD (Reuters) -Sidhi Sharma wanted to marry an Indian citizen with a high-flying job in the United States.

    But the 19-year-old medical student from India’s northern Haryana state dropped the idea after seeing recent headlines about U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

    “I had always dreamed of settling in the U.S. after marriage,” she said, without elaborating on her reasons. “Trump has shut the door for me.”

    Tighter U.S. immigration policies, particularly for the H-1B skilled-worker visa, are making families in India less inclined to marry their children to Indian citizens based in the United States for fear the potential partners might lose their job or immigration status, according to matchmakers, academics and prospective brides and grooms.

    There is no official government data on marriages between Indian citizens living at home and overseas.

    “Immigration policies may be written in Washington, but its ripple effects are seen at dinner tables of Indian families when they’re talking about marriages,” said Anuradha Gupta, the founder of bespoke matchmaking service ‘Vows For Eternity’.

    Traditionally, marriages in India are family-driven decisions, with relatives and matchmaking agencies facilitating “arranged” matches. While marriages for love are gaining ground, especially in the cities, families often still play supportive roles.

    FROM PRIZED PROSPECTS TO UNCERTAIN MATCHES

    The U.S. has the world’s largest Indian diaspora, according to Indian government data, including around 2.1 million Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), some of the most sought-after marriage prospects.

    Since returning to office in January, Trump has launched a broad immigration crackdown, including efforts to limit legal pathways to residency. His overhaul of the H-1B visa marks the most prominent effort to reshape temporary work visas and hit Indians, who accounted for 71% of those visas last year, particularly hard.

    For many Indians, marrying a compatriot living in the U.S. was a ticket to financial security, and a better quality of life, while families welcomed the tradition of them sending money home and providing support to extended families.

    About 75% of the H-1B visas issued to Indian citizens in 2024 were awarded to men, according to data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

    “Up until last year, there was a lot of demand and craze for NRI suitors and men settled abroad,” said Vanaja Rao, the managing director of the Vanaja Rao group of companies, popularly known as Vanaja Rao quick marriages.

    “We’ve started to see a slowdown ever since Trump took over, and it intensified in the last six months. And of course, after the recent chaos and curbs on H-1B, there’s more panic,” said Rao, who has been in the business for nearly five decades.

    In some cases, families are delaying weddings.

    “There is a lot of uncertainty in terms of immigration in general and not just H-1B, it has only escalated in the past year,” said a 26-year-old Indian based in Atlanta, Georgia on condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity.

    He is aware of three weddings that have been delayed as a result of Trump’s policy changes, he said.

    “Every time there has been speculation about stopping or tightening the restrictions around H-1B visas and skilled-worker migration, there has always been a corresponding impact on the marriage market,” said Harshita Yalamarty, an assistant professor at Toronto Metropolitan University.

    She pointed to Trump’s first administration when he also targeted H-1B visas and proposed spouses not be allowed to work. His successor, Joe Biden, later withdrew the policy.

    Trump’s visa overhaul has also prompted many Indian students to rethink the ‘American Dream’. There were some 422,335 Indian students in the U.S. in 2024, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data.

    VISA STATUS IS OFTEN A DEAL MAKER OR BREAKER

    Some matchmakers are adapting to the new reality.

    Premium matchmaking platform Knot.dating introduced a ‘U.S. visa filter’ on its app as it expanded into India’s south. The company’s cofounder and CEO Jasveer Singh said many families there were particularly keen on NRIs.

    “Families want to see the visa status of the suitor or match from abroad before proceeding further,” Singh said.

    Since the feature launched in September, about 1,000 NRIs have signed up, with 60% on H-1B visas and the rest on green cards or other visas, Knot.dating’s Singh said. Of the 1,000 who signed up, 81% were men.

    Knot.dating requires male users to earn at least 5 million rupees ($56,332.32) a year but has no income criteria for women.

    That figure is “astronomically higher than what a fresh graduate or professional typically earns in India, that’s equivalent to many years’ worth of income here,” said KP Singh of overseas education consultancy IMFS.

    “This U.S. salary offers a level of financial security many here can only dream of.”

    With the American Dream slipping out of reach, some Indian clients are looking more towards Canada, the UK, Europe, and the Middle East for potential matches, said Nikita Anand, founder of matchmaking agency Wedding Tales Matrimony.

    “When families consider marriage, factors like mobility and security are deeply embedded in their decision-making. It’s about long-term stability, not just for themselves but for future generations as well,” Vows For Eternity’s Gupta said.

    ($1 = 88.7590 Indian rupees)

    (Reporting by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan and Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru, Rishika Sadam in Hyderabad and Manoj Kumar in New Delhi; Editing by Dhanya Skariachan and Kate Mayberry)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

    Photos You Should See – Sept. 2025

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  • Remote Employees Remain Highly Productive, a New Survey Says

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    Here’s one in the eye for managers who insist on strict return-to-office mandates, despite sometimes ferocious staff pushback. A new study found very high levels of productivity at by companies with remote-friendly working policies. This shines an interesting spotlight on highly publicized RTO rules from companies like Amazon, whose CEO Andy Jassy insisted the policy was all about boosting workplace culture and teamwork. It may also give you pause if you’re thinking of shifting your company to more of an in-person in-office model, because other studies suggest that work-life balance “perks” like flexible working or hybrid work modes are a great way to attract talented staff.

    The data from Institute for Corporate Productivity and cybersecurity company Akamai Technologies shows that an astonishing 83 percent of companies with remote-friendly work policies report high staff productivity. Breaking that figure down, fully 21 percent of the companies in the survey said that productivity remains “very high,” and 62 percent said “high.” 

    Interestingly, many of these companies demonstrate their faith in their employees’ honesty and dedication while working remotely by not surveilling their online activities. In fact 62 percent of remote-friendly companies don’t deploy tools like VPN usage logs or key-press tracking software, industry news site HRDive noted. The report suggests that this statistic means there’s a “strong culture of mutual trust” between workers and staff about the productivity and honesty of working remotely.

    The study also found that remote work is now the new norm: 52 percent of companies surveyed said remote-first models were their default, and only 7 percent said they had plans to revert to more traditional in-office working models. To keep team work ticking over, the companies in the report also indicated they have annual or semiannual in-person meetings for reasons like strategy sessions (86 percent did this), team-building exercises (76 percent) and social gatherings designed to foster a sense of camaraderie. 

    As to why remote-first work models were chosen by these companies, the study found that finding talented workers is the key driver. Fully 72 percent said that offering remote-first policies gave them access to a wider talent pool. Meanwhile 31 percent said they wanted to retain staff for the long term. And, interestingly, 62 percent said it was a deliberate effort to boost work-life balance for workers. This resonates with the workplace desires of Gen-Z staff, the age cohort now entering the workforce in ever-increasing numbers, and bringing with them a focus on lifestyle over work. Perhaps savvy to these changing attitudes, the new study also found that over 50 percent of remote-first workplaces offer reimbursement for home office costs, and 79 percent offer mental health benefits (because it’s hard to deny that remote work can be a lonely occupation).

    In the report Akamai explained the benefits of its own remote working policy, which include higher employee performance ratings, and a 7.3 percent worker attrition rate — which HRDive notes is far below the global tech industry average of 13.2 percent.

    The report backs up numerous other studies into remote work, including a September study by polling and analytics outfit Gallup which showed that hybrid working models are indeed the new normal, and a July report saying that even though some companies and leadership are pushing for RTO rules, and greater in-office work, many workers are simply ignoring the pressure and keeping their hybrid schedules. This latter situation may be enabled by overtired, stressed out middle managers, with the duty of enforcing RTO rules being the least of their worries, another report suggests. 

    What lessons are there in this data for your company?

    Simply, if you’re seeking higher productivity from your workers via forcing them back to the office, you may not get the results you’re looking for. If Akamai and the Institute for Corporate Productivity’s data are to be believed, high productivity is very possible for remote-first workers. This suggests that if you’re pushing for an RTO because your remote workers aren’t delivering, then a different aspect of your corporate culture may be to blame for efficiency failings.

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    Kit Eaton

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  • 6 In-Demand Skills That Lead to Higher Salaries

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    It’s a seller’s market for skills that mesh with an increasingly AI driven environment, and a handful of them are at the top of hiring managers’ lists. While the broader job market has stalled since summer, small business hiring remains steady, and AI is having an impact on entry-level hiring for Gen-Z workers. But of course that also means that if you’ve got skills in working with and programming AI systems then you’re in demand. 

    A recent report from recruitment services outfit Robert Half provides estimated starting salaries for key roles across different professional fields, and the big take-away from the data is that 84 percent of the hiring managers surveyed said they’d offer higher salaries for job candidates who have the most sought-after skills.

    The top of the list of skills hiring managers identified as being in-demand, and subject to higher salaries includes:

    • AI, machine learning and data science
    • Public accounting tax and auditing
    • Content strategy, digital project management and marketing analytics
    • Customer support and healthcare administration
    • Legal contract management
    • Compensation and benefits

    It’s no surprise to see AI and supporting subjects like machine learning and data science here. Designing, coding, deploying, and using AI are all specialized skills, needed in specific workplace sectors. They’re so much in demand at some big tech companies that a bizarre billion dollar-scale “war” arose this summer as companies vied for the top talent and even poached key staff from each other. The same tussle for talented workers in this area is clearly filtering down to smaller tech-focused firms, and likely also to non-technology companies who want to deploy AI tools across their organizations in search of the efficiencies and productivity hikes AI evangelists promise.

    Some other specialized skills on the Robert Half list may be surprising, largely because many experts suggest AI is already capable of all but replacing humans working in customer support roles, and certain analytical and financial jobs are also expected to become AI-first work sooner rather than later. It’s possible that the list is a sampling, of sorts of a skills gap evolving between the subjects that students are studying in college and the demands of the real-life economy. 

    Nevertheless, the gap is a problem for hiring managers, as Dawn Fay, the operational president of Robert Half wrote in a press release about the news. “Specialized skills are the currency of today’s job market, Fay noted, adding that to tempt top talent that have the most highly sought-after skills employers will have to step up and provide “competitive pay along with meaningful benefits and perks or risk losing top candidates if their offers don’t measure up.” 

    The report also dug into the kind of perks hiring managers should be offer these skilled job candidates, with 50 percent saying they expect to actually add new benefits to help attract the right talent. Perhaps unsurprisingly, 53 percent of workers said financial incentives were the top perk that would induce them to switch employers, 51 percent said the same for work-life balance perks (flexible or hybrid working schedules, for example) while 42 percent said the same for retirement planning and 39 percent for health and wellness offerings. This tallies with several recent reports that suggest meaningful perks like paid overtime or food catering in the office are top asks for workers nowadays. 

    What can you take away from this report for your company?

    If you’re looking to hire talented workers with skills on the Robert Half list, your HR team may it more difficult than in the past, as there appears to be a scarcity of these skills in the job marketplace. To attract the top talent you may also have to offer higher salaries than you may have planned when deciding to fill a position — talented job candidates with skills like AI or auditing know their worth, and they may be offered higher pay by rival companies vying to hire them.

    Refreshing your benefits and perks offerings is also likely a good idea. Savvy managers may think of tailoring company perks to appeal to the desires of Gen-Z, the generation currently entering the workforce and bringing with them a very different set of expectations—including a focus on mental health, wellness and work-life balance. 

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    Kit Eaton

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  • As Shutdown Drags On, US Voters See Blame Game Threatening Democrats and Republicans

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    VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia (Reuters) -Betty Snellenberg and Grace Cook stood on opposite sides of the walkway into the early voting center in Virginia Beach – one promoting the Democratic ticket for the November 4 statewide election, the other distributing pamphlets for the Republican nominees.

    Flanking the entrance, the two women embodied the country’s partisan split as a days-old government shutdown threatened to cleave the political left and right further apart, with each side blaming the other for the paralysis in Washington.

    Yet Snellenberg and Cook shared a common concern: their parties risk losing the messaging war if the shutdown goes on for weeks or months, especially in an area of their state so dependent on civil service and military jobs. Tens of thousands of workers have been furloughed or are working without pay.

    A long shutdown could severely damage the economy of the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, home to multiple military installations, including the world’s largest naval base in Norfolk and a base for fighter jets in Virginia Beach.

    Snellenberg, an 84-year-old Democrat, said she was worried that in a prolonged shutdown voters would eventually come to care more about the broader economic toll than the extension of healthcare subsidies that are at the core of Democrats’ demands.

    “I don’t want the Dems to back down because it shows weakness,” said Snellenberg, who worked at a nearby naval intelligence center prior to retirement. “But it’s going to come back and bite us if it goes on longer than a month.”

    Cook, Snellenberg’s Republican counterpart, said she was unsure if the shutdown would prove to be a critical factor in the off-year election’s headline race for governor between Democratic former Representative Abigail Spanberger and Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears.

    But she worried a protracted shutdown could boomerang on Republicans heading into the 2026 midterm elections. Democrats are seeking to oust the Republican incumbent in a competitive congressional seat that includes the city of Virginia Beach in their bid to retake control of the House of Representatives. 

    “It might hurt us in the midterms,” said Cook, 61, a former Department of Defense employee who was wearing a T-shirt bearing the word “Freedom” in a tribute to slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk. “In this area – only because we’re a lot of Navy and a lot of DOD and federal jobs.”

    About 335,000 civilian employees at the Defense Department – nearly half its workforce – were slated for furlough under its shutdown plan.

    Public opinion surveys echo Snellenberg and Cook’s shared anxieties: that both parties stand to lose support, though more people seem ready, at least for now, to fault President Donald Trump and his Republican Party, which controls both chambers of Congress.

    A poll by Marist, PBS News and NPR conducted in late September prior to the shutdown found that 31% of respondents would blame both sides equally, while 38% said they would hold Republicans culpable and 27% said they’d blame Democrats.

    The shutdown is already factoring into a key state-level November 4 race, with incumbent Democrat Michael Feggans last week releasing a 30-second ad highlighting the potential economic damage to his lower house district in Virginia Beach.

    “Someone who’s always spoken about the art of the deal is going on another shutdown,” Feggans, referring to Trump and his self-branding as a deal-maker, said in an interview. “We didn’t have any government shutdowns during the Biden administration.”

    Tim Anderson, his Republican opponent, said he believes Democrats, who have the votes to block a stopgap funding bill in the U.S. Senate, will be seen by most Americans as the intransigent party at the outset of the shutdown.

    “But if this continues for a while, voters will start looking at the president as the responsible entity in the shutdown,” Anderson told Reuters, adding that he could see an ongoing shutdown hurting his chances on November 4. “The longer this goes, the worse it’s going to hurt Republicans.”

    The shutdown, which entered its fifth day on Sunday, has suspended scientific research, financial oversight, economic data reports, and a wide range of other activities. With some exceptions, most federal employees will not be paid until a deal to reopen the government is made.

    Nearly 60,000 people in the Hampton Roads area work for the federal government, while another 85,000 in the area are active duty military, according to Bob McNab, chair of the economics department at Old Dominion University. Because of a pullback in their spending, the region could lose $1 billion a month in economic activity during a sustained shutdown, McNab said.

    In interviews with more than two dozen voters, federal employees and elected officials in Virginia Beach and the nearby city of Chesapeake on Thursday, nearly all expressed worries about the financial impact on themselves or their loved ones.

    But several Republicans told Reuters that they wanted Trump to hold his ground, even if it meant economic pain for the region, arguing that Democrats were wrong as a matter of principle for using their leverage to block the proposed short-term spending bill.

    Democrats say they do not trust Republicans to honor any agreement that would first reopen the government and then tackle the healthcare subsidies, which were passed as part of a 2021 Democratic COVID relief package and now help 24 million Americans pay for coverage.

    Jan Callaway, a Republican poll watcher, said depending on how Trump went about it she could support him using the shutdown to fire more civil servants, as he has threatened to do, even with 300,000 already set to be pushed out by the end of 2025.

    “I’m concerned if it goes on for a long time, but I think the Democrats are shooting themselves in the foot,” Callaway, 69, said. “I trust Trump … he’s the king of making deals.”

    Two Democratic-leaning independents told Reuters that they were worried that Republicans were winning the messaging battle, gaining traction by repeatedly making the false claim that the Democratic spending proposal would extend health coverage to people who are in the country illegally.

    “They have not done a very good job in selling the truth,” said Stuart, who would only give her first name, referring to leaders of the Democratic Party. “It seems to me, unfortunately, that the Republicans have the larger megaphone.”

    Much like their parties, Snellenberg and Cook have not crossed the aisle, or in their case the walkway, to discuss the shutdown. Volunteers for both parties were mostly keeping to themselves, when Reuters visited this week.

    (Reporting by Nathan Layne in Virginia Beach, editing by Ross Colvin and Diane Craft)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Trump Says There Could Be Firings and Project Cuts if Shutdown Continues

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    WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said firings of federal workers and cuts to projects could occur if a government shutdown that began Wednesday continues.

    “There could be firings, and that’s their fault,” Trump said of Democrats in Congress, when asked during an interview with OAN television network about a recent memo from the Office of Management and Budget that raised prospects of firings.

    “We could cut projects that they wanted, favorite projects, and they’d be permanently cut,” he said, adding “I am allowed to cut things that should have never been approved in the first place and I will probably do that.”

    (Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Andrea Shalal, Editing by Franklin Paul)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • US Court Suspends Trump Layoff of Hundreds at Voice of America

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    By Blake Brittain and Jan Wolfe

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A federal judge in Washington ordered the Trump administration on Monday to pause the layoffs of hundreds of employees from the agency that owns the U.S. news service Voice of America, adding that government officials had shown “concerning disrespect” for the court’s directives.

    U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth halted the plan while he determines whether the U.S. Agency for Global Media complied with an injunction he issued in April that it “fulfills its statutory mandate that VOA serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news.”

    The layoffs would affect 532 jobs for full-time staff, representing most of the agency’s remaining employees. VOA broadcasts were abruptly shut down in March under an executive order from U.S. President Donald Trump.

    Lamberth said in his written order that he “no longer harbors any doubt” that the defendants, which include the agency and its acting CEO Kari Lake, “lack a plan to comply with the preliminary injunction”.

    Instead, they have “been running out the clock on the fiscal year while remaining in violation of even the most meager reading of USAGM and Voice of America’s statutory obligations,” he said.

    Representatives for the White House and the agency, as well as attorneys for the employees who filed the litigation did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the decision.

    Trump, who clashed with VOA during his first term, picked Lake, a former news anchor, to be its director for his second. Lake, a staunch ally of the president, has often accused mainstream media of harboring anti-Trump bias.

    Founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda, VOA reached 360 million people a week in 2024, according to a USAGM report to Congress. 

    Lamberth, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, has been hearing a batch of lawsuits challenging the legality of Trump’s March executive order. The cases include one filed by Michael Abramowitz, VOA’s director.     

    (Reporting by Blake Brittain and Jan Wolfe in Washington; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Trump Can Slash Education Department’s Civil Rights Staff, Court Rules

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    (Reuters) -A federal appeals court on Monday allowed the U.S. Department of Education to proceed with plans to lay off civil rights staff as it paused an injunction that the Trump administration said should have been removed after a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

    A three-judge panel of the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put on hold an injunction that President Donald Trump’s administration opposed. The injunction by U.S. District Judge Myong Joun ordered the Education Department to reinstate staff in its Office for Civil Rights.

    Joun declined in mid-August to lift the injunction. But the Trump administration argued that decision defied a Supreme Court ruling in July that allowed the government to fire 1,300 Education Department employees.

    The Department of Justice asked the 1st Circuit to intervene so it did not have to go back to the Supreme Court.

    The Education Department and lawyers for the plaintiffs challenging the cuts did not respond to requests for comment.

    Both cases followed a March announcement by Secretary of Education Linda McMahon of a mass layoff that would cut in half the staff of a department that Trump has called for shuttering, which only Congress could ultimately authorize.

    Joun, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden, in May blocked the department-wide job cuts at the behest of a group of Democratic-led states, school districts and teachers’ unions. But on appeal, the 6-3 conservative majority U.S. Supreme Court on July 14 lifted Joun’s injunction.

    That decision, though, did not address a narrower injunction Joun later issued covering just the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, which enforces federal civil rights laws in schools and was facing a loss of half of its 550 employees.

    Those cuts were challenged by two students and the Victim Rights Law Center, which represents sexual assault victims. Citing the Supreme Court’s order, the Justice Department said the injunction those plaintiffs won could no longer stand.

    In declining to lift it, Joun called the Supreme Court’s brief July order “unreasoned,” echoing a critique by other lower-court judges of the short orders emanating from the high court’s emergency docket, also called the “shadow docket.”

    The Justice Department said Joun’s “disregard of the Supreme Court’s ruling represents an affront to the Supreme Court’s authority.”

    The 1st Circuit panel, comprised entirely of Biden appointees, on Monday paused the injunction, calling the cases similar.

    U.S. Circuit Judge Seth Aframe concurred but warned that the “unreasoned” Supreme Court order’s “import will be limited as this case moves ahead,” as the courts weigh whether the layoffs unlawfully impeded the office’s functions.

    (Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Cynthia Osterman)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Starmer to Call for Unity to Win ‘Fight for the Soul’ of Britain

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    LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) -British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will call on his Labour Party to unite on Tuesday, saying it was engaged in a “fight for the soul of our country” that would be long, difficult and not always comfortable.

    At his party’s second annual conference in the northern English city of Liverpool since winning power at a landslide election last year, Starmer needs to re-establish his authority over a party that is increasingly restive after falling far behind the populist Reform UK in opinion polls.

    The British leader will try to flesh out his strategy to deal with the growing popularity of Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage’s Reform, after some in Labour said he was tacking too far to the right on immigration to match the populist party.

    DIFFICULT DECISIONS AHEAD ON TAX

    In a nod to the difficulties he has faced in the first year of his premiership, Starmer will again commit to raising living standards and putting money in the pockets of voters, which lawmakers say are essential to win back the party’s traditional electoral base – the working classes.

    “No matter how many people tell me it can’t be done, I believe Britain can come together,” Starmer will say in his conference speech, according to advance excerpts.

    “We can all see our country faces a choice, a defining choice. Britain stands at a fork in the road. We can choose decency, or we can choose division. Renewal or decline.”

    He faces some difficult decisions. After saying that last year’s tax rises – the biggest in more than 30 years – were a one-off in terms of scale, the government might be forced to again raise tens of billions of pounds in taxes to cover a forecast fiscal shortfall.

    Finance minister Rachel Reeves used her speech at conference to warn those in the party who want her to ease her fiscal rules to spend more on the nation’s ailing economy that they were “wrong, dangerously so”, keeping the door open to tax rises.

    Starmer will also make clear that some decisions might be difficult for Labour, which has long argued its return to power after 14 years of opposition had been made almost impossible by a Conservative administration that failed to balance the books.

    “It is a test. A fight for the soul of our country, every bit as big as rebuilding Britain after the war, and we must all rise to this challenge,” Starmer is expected to say.

    “And yet we need to be clear that our path, the path of renewal, it’s long, it’s difficult, it requires decisions that are not cost-free or easy. Decisions – that will not always be comfortable for our party.”

    (Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Alex Richardson)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

    Photos You Should See – Sept. 2025

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  • Walmart’s CEO Just Gave a Sobering Prediction About AI. The Time to Prepare Is Now

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    Doug McMillon, as the CEO of Walmart, runs the largest private employer in the United States. When he talks about the future of work, it isn’t theory—it’s the lived reality of millions of families. In fact, more than 2.1 million people around the world get a paycheck from Walmart. That’s why it matters that, speaking at a workforce conference in Bentonville last week, Walmart’s CEO didn’t mince words about artificial intelligence.

    “It’s very clear that AI is going to change literally every job,” McMillon said, according to The Wall Street Journal. “Maybe there’s a job in the world that AI won’t change, but I haven’t thought of it.”

    Look, a lot of people have predicted that AI will change the way we work in the future. For that matter, people are predicting that AI will change the way we do pretty much everything. It’s already changing the way we look for and process information. And it’s having a real impact on creative work, from generating ideas to editing photos.

    But this is different. This isn’t some kind of edge case where AI is doing something that benefits niche work. This is a sober assessment from someone who thinks about the livelihoods of millions of people, from truck drivers to warehouse workers and store managers.

    So far, much of the AI conversation around work has been about replacing humans with robots or computers capable of doing everything from menial tasks to coding. The pitch is that companies will save extraordinary costs as humans are replaced with AI that can do more work, faster, and cheaper.

    The fear among many employees is that automation will come for knowledge work the same way robots came for manufacturing. McMillon’s warning is different: AI isn’t confined to Silicon Valley jobs. It’s coming for the retail floor, the supply chain, the back office, and the call center.

    For example, AI can already predict what items a store will sell and when, automatically adjusting orders. That doesn’t eliminate the need for employees—but it will definitely change what their job looks like.

    McMillon also made another point: Walmart’s overall headcount will likely stay flat, even as its revenue grows. That—if you think about it—isn’t just surprising, it’s incredibly revealing. The assumption is that AI equals fewer jobs. Instead, Walmart expects them to be different.

    To make that happen, the company is mapping which roles will shrink, which will grow, and which will stay stable. The strategy is to invest in reskilling so workers can move into the new jobs AI creates. “We’ve got to create the opportunity for everybody to make it to the other side,” McMillon said.

    This is the part of the warning many leaders ignore. Pretending AI won’t affect your workforce is irresponsible. Pretending AI only means job cuts is short-sighted. The challenge is to figure out what your workforce looks like and what you need to do to make the transition.

    There are a few reasons that Walmart’s perspective matters. The obvious one is because it’s the largest private employer in the world. It is the company that, single-handedly, affects the greatest number of people when it makes a change to its workforce. That’s why AI isn’t just a technology problem; it’s a leadership problem.

    It’s one thing for McMillon to say “AI will change every job.” It’s another thing to commit that Walmart will still employ millions of people, even if the jobs look different. He’s saying the responsibility to guide workers through change rests squarely on leaders’ shoulders. That’s a message worth hearing far beyond the company’s Bentonville headquarters.

    AI is often pitched as a productivity story. That’s true, but the bigger story is about people. Technology that changes “literally every job” also changes lives, families, and communities. The ripple effect is enormous when you’re a company the size of Walmart.

    By the way, Walmart isn’t perfect, but its approach offers a model. Instead of framing AI as cost-cutting, it’s framing AI as a transformation challenge. That may seem like semantics, but reframing the conversation makes all the difference between a fearful workforce and a resilient one.

    McMillon’s prediction is sobering precisely because it’s credible. He isn’t selling software or trying to impress investors. He’s planning for how millions of his own employees will navigate the AI future.

    If you’re leading a business—whether that’s 20 people or 20,000—the message is pretty clear. AI is going to change every job. Your job is to be thinking hard about what that means for your company. It means thinking about how it will impact your people and come up with a plan.

    It seems like almost everyone agrees that AI will change almost everything about the way we all work. The only question is whether you’ll help your people prepare or leave them to figure it out on their own. By then, it will be too late. That’s why every leader should start now.

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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    Jason Aten

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  • Net Training Institute Secures $1 Million State Funding to Expand Florida Recovery Friendly Workplace Initiative

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    TALLAHASSEE, Fla., July 30, 2025 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Net Training Institute, the administrative agency behind the Florida Recovery Friendly Workplace (FLRFW) initiative, has been awarded a $1 million appropriation in the 2025-2026 Florida state budget. This funding will support the creation of a Center of Excellence in partnership with the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) to train and certify employers statewide as Recovery Friendly Workplaces.

    The new Center of Excellence will serve as a dedicated hub to expand the reach and impact of the FLRFW initiative, which aims to promote supportive and inclusive workplace environments for employees in recovery from substance use disorders. By providing specialized training and certification programs, the center will equip employers with the tools and resources needed to foster recovery-friendly policies, reduce stigma, and enhance employee well-being.

    “This significant investment reflects Florida’s commitment to supporting recovery and creating healthier workplaces,” said Cheryl Brown-Merriwether, Executive Director of Net Training Institute. “Through our collaboration with the Department of Children and Families, we will empower employers across the state to become leaders in recovery-friendly practices, ultimately benefiting individuals, families, and communities.”

    The expansion of the FLRFW initiative aligns with Florida’s broader public health goals and workforce development efforts. Employers certified under the program will demonstrate their dedication to supporting employees in recovery, which research shows can lead to higher retention rates, improved productivity, and a more positive workplace culture. The Center of Excellence will also facilitate ongoing research, best practices sharing, and community engagement to continuously improve the initiative.

    Net Training Institute looks forward to working closely with the Department of Children and Families and other stakeholders to implement this critical program and help Florida build a stronger, healthier workforce.

    About Net Training Institute

    Net Training Institute is a leading organization dedicated to workforce development and recovery support initiatives in Florida. As the administrative agency for the Florida Recovery Friendly Workplace initiative, Net Training Institute works to create inclusive environments that help individuals in recovery succeed in the workplace. For more information, visit www.netinstitute.org.

    Contact:

    Candace Alley
    Marketing Administrator
    Florida Recovery Friendly Workplace Initiative
    Email: candace@flrfw.org
    Website: www.flrfw.org

    Source: Net Institute

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  • New Report Shows Chef Ann Foundation’s Healthy School Food Pathway Program is Strengthening California’s School Food Workforce

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    Evaluation Reveals Strong Participant Satisfaction, Career Advancement and Improved District Meal Operations as California’s Bold School Food Vision Gains Momentum


    SACRAMENTO, Calif., April 29, 2025 (Newswire.com)
    –
    The Chef Ann Foundation, in partnership with Food Insight Group (FIG), has released a Midpoint Evaluation Report for the Healthy School Food Pathway (HSFP) program – a groundbreaking workforce development initiative designed to support aspiring and existing school food professionals in gaining the skills they need to create and manage successful K-12 scratch-cook meal operations. The report highlights the program’s growing impact on California’s school food workforce, demonstrating how strategic investment in training and career development is helping schools serve healthier meals while advancing the state’s broader goals in public health, agriculture, and workforce readiness.

    Launched in 2022, HSFP was designed to address longstanding challenges across public school nutrition departments-particularly underinvestment in the workforce – by providing structured, sequential career development opportunities. The three-tiered program includes a paid, seven-week Pre-Apprenticeship focused on foundational skills; a paid, nine-month Apprenticeship offering hands-on culinary experience; and a 13-month Fellowship emphasizing leadership development and advanced, scratch cooking-focused school food operations.

    The Midpoint Evaluation Report set out to understand what supports or hinders participation in the HSFP program, track changes in participants’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward school food careers, follow career trajectories of participants, and assess the program’s impact on host districts.

    Drawing on feedback from over 230 participants, alumni, and district leaders from 2022-2024, the evaluation noted strong, positive results:

    • 77% of Pre-Apprentices, 71% of Apprentices, and 93% of Fellows reported using the knowledge and skills they learned regularly in their school kitchens.

    • 93% of Pre-Apprentices, 100% of Apprentices, and 100% of Fellows reported HSFP had substantial impacts on their careers, with 100% of Apprentices and Fellows continuing to work in the district where they completed the program.

    Participating districts also noted positive program results:

    • 94% reported improved leadership development

    • 90% reported improved culinary skills

    • 89% reported improved technical skills and knowledge

    • 85% reported improved morale and engagement

    • 74% reported improved staff capacity

    • 43% reported an increase of new hiring or promotion of staff

    “This report confirms what we’ve long believed – when you invest in the people behind school meals, you transform entire systems,” said Mara Fleishman, CEO of Chef Ann Foundation. “School food service is uniquely complex. It operates under strict federal nutrition standards, local regulations, and often without stable funding, yet we’ve historically overlooked the professionals running it. The Healthy School Food Pathway program is addressing that gap head-on, building a workforce with the training and skills needed to deliver on California’s bold future vision.”

    The Healthy School Food Pathway program is aligned with California’s historic $2.2 billion investment to transform school food into a driver of public health, economic vitality, and educational equity. With more than 800 participants and 99 California host districts engaged to date, HSFP is proving to be a powerful strategy for building and sustaining a skilled, mission-driven school food workforce across the state.

    Read the full report HERE.

    Source: Chef Ann Foundation

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  • Announcing the “Understanding the School Food Workforce Subgrants” Awardees

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    Press Release
    •

    Apr 24, 2025

    Four research projects have been funded to better understand the current state of the K-12 school food workforce and how developing this workforce could improve the quality of school meals


    BOULDER, Colo., April 24, 2025 (Newswire.com)
    –
    The University of Wisconsin-Madison, Food Insight Group, and the Chef Ann Foundation have collectively awarded $800,000 across four research projects to study the U.S. school food workforce, which is responsible for feeding and nourishing approximately 30 million K-12 students on an average school day. The funding for this research has been provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

    “For years, school districts across the country have reported ongoing challenges with hiring, training, and retaining school food workers, resulting in pervasive labor and skill shortages that can impact the quality of meals served to students,” said project lead Dr. Jennifer Gaddis. “These worker-centered research projects will examine the common challenges schools and school food workers face, recommend solutions for strengthening the school food workforce and, in turn, improve and protect children’s health while fostering more resilient community-based food systems.”

    The funded research projects are:

    • Eliciting Perspectives of the U.S. School Food Workforce Using a Worker-Centered, Mixed Methods Approach (Hannah Lane, Duke University) – $249,999
      Researchers will collaborate with the School Nutrition Association to field a national survey of U.S. school food workers to evaluate associations between working conditions, burnout, and perceived capacity for best practices. They will then conduct focus groups to explore strategies for improving working conditions, job satisfaction, and the quality of K-12 school meals.

    • Exploring Structural Factors Associated With Turnover Among the School Food Service Workforce (Bonnie Solomon, Child Trends) – $150,870
      Researchers will collaborate with the School Nutrition Association to field a national survey of U.S. school food directors to examine the extent of turnover among school food workers and the structural factors influencing it, as well as promising strategies school food authorities are using to reduce turnover.

    • Labor Market Well-Being of School Food Service Workers and the Return on Investment of their Workforce(Eunice Han, University of Utah) – $150,870
      Researchers will generate a comprehensive assessment of the K-12 school food labor market using nationally representative data combined with school district financial information, as well as students’ educational outcomes, to conduct nationwide, state-, district-, and individual-level analyses of the school food workforce.

    • Fair Employment and Economic Dignity (FEED): A Study of School Food Labor Practices in Los Angeles and New York City (Nevin Cohen, CUNY) – $248,261
      Researchers will use participatory methods to assess school food labor practices and different approaches to school meal programs (like scratch cooking and farm-to-school initiatives) in America’s two largest school districts – Los Angeles Unified School District and New York City Department of Education – which together employ 10,900 food service workers serving 2.23 million students.

    Learn more about these projects here.

    Source: Chef Ann Foundation

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  • Home Depot orders corporate staff to take 8-hour retail shifts

    Home Depot orders corporate staff to take 8-hour retail shifts

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    Home Depot Inc. will begin requiring corporate employees to work a full day at one of its stores every quarter, a move the company said is aimed at supporting its retail staff.

    Employees, including senior management and remote workers, will have to complete an eight-hour shift beginning in the fourth quarter of this year, according to a memo seen by Bloomberg News.

    “We need to stay connected to the core of our business, so we can truly understand the challenges and opportunities our store associates face every day,” Chief Executive Officer Ted Decker said in the memo introducing the program. 

    A company spokesperson said it’s been the company’s longstanding practice to ask staff to spend time in stores, with this new program being its latest initiative. 

    Home Depot, one of the largest US retailers with more than $150 billion in annual revenue and 450,000 employees, has been enduring a rough stretch. After splurging on their homes during the pandemic, Americans shifted spending to other sectors and caused a sales slump at the chain. 

    The move by Decker to require everyone at the company to take a shift is unusual in the sector and comes amid rising activism in the labor force. That includes both Home Depot, which faced a small unionization effort in 2022, and other retailers. 

    Sporadic schedules, physical labor and low pay have historically made working in stores tough. The job has become harder in recent years due to store theft and unruly customer behavior, and operators are introducing new benefits and raising pay to improve retention.

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    Curtis Heinzl, Jaewon Kang, Bloomberg

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  • Report: Rising costs threaten state’s economic growth

    Report: Rising costs threaten state’s economic growth

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    BOSTON — Rising labor costs and a stagnant workforce are threatening Massachusetts’ status as a leader in innovation and economic growth, according to a new report from an independent tax watchdog group.

    The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation new Competitiveness Index, released earlier in the week, found that while the state benefits from the “symbiotic relationship” between a highly educated workforce and key economic sectors such as health care and higher education, it also faces significant challenges related to cost and demographic shifts.

    Those include the state’s high cost of energy, housing, and childcare, as well as a declining labor force, aging population, and increasing rates of outmigration, the report’s authors said.

    “Massachusetts has long been a leader in innovation and economic productivity, but our ability to maintain this status is under threat,” said Doug Howgate, the foundation’s president.

    The foundation ranked the state’s competitiveness standing on a broad set of 26 key metrics, ranging from economic health, population and labor force trends to business, employment, and investment factors as well as resident’s quality of life.

    Among the key findings: Massachusetts’ talent and innovation are its biggest strength, with the state ranked first nationally in terms of adult residents with a bachelor’s degree, and first and second in performance among public school students in reading and math, respectively.

    But the state’s high cost of living and cost of doing business is a “major competitive disadvantage,” according to the report, with energy, unemployment insurance and taxes near the bottom of national rankings, the report authors said.

    Child care and housing costs, as well as commute times, also make Massachusetts a challenging place to raise a family, according to the report.

    The authors said the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated preexisting demographic challenges and pointed out the state has seen a 2.4% decrease in its labor force since 2018, a trend they said is a “serious risk” to the state’s long-term economic growth.

    The state also ranks 45th in the nation for domestic outmigration, with many residents relocating to lower-cost states such as New Hampshire, the report noted.

    Gov. Maura Healey and legislative leaders have focused on boosting the state’s competitiveness in response to previous reports showing an exodus of people from the state in recent years. Healey argues that a lack of housing, among other factors, is impacting the state’s ability to attract and maintain businesses and families.

    But an economic development bill that would set aside hundreds of millions of dollars in bonding and tax credits and reauthorize the state’s life sciences initiative to boost competitiveness has been stuck in a six-member committee since the July 31 end of formal legislative sessions.

    The bill, a key plank of Healey’s first term agenda, was approved by the House and Senate but differences between the two bills still need to be worked out.

    The MTA’s new index, created with the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Donahue Institute, will be updated yearly to give policymakers, business leaders, and the public “a clear, data-driven understanding of how Massachusetts measures up against other states.”

    “If Massachusetts is going to be serious about improving our competitiveness and enhancing what our state offers to residents and employers, we need to start with shared understanding of where we stand and where we want to go,” Howgate said.

    Jay Ash, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership, said the MTA report “provides a roadmap for the policies and strategies that can help us reverse these trends and build a stronger, more resilient economy.”

    “Massachusetts is a great state, but to maintain our competitive edge, we need to address the fundamental issues driving up costs and driving out talent,” he said.

    Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com

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    By Christian M. Wade | Statehouse Reporter

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  • Electronic Arts cuts jobs for more than 670 workers

    Electronic Arts cuts jobs for more than 670 workers

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    Electronic Arts is laying off 5% of its workforce, or around 670 of the company’s workers. EA employed around 13,400 people by the end of last March, according to a regulatory filing. Sixty-five percent of those employees are located outside the U.S., it said at the time. Notifying impacted employees “has already begun and will be largely completed by early next quarter,” EA CEO Andrew Wilson wrote in a note to staff published Wednesday.

    Wilson also said EA is “moving away from development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry.” Instead, it’ll focus on “owned IP, sports, and massive online communities.”

    “We are also leading through an accelerating industry transformation where player needs and motivations have changed significantly,” Wilson wrote. “Fans are increasingly engaging with the largest IP, and looking to us for broader experiences where they can play, watch, create content, and forge deeper connections. Our industry exists at the cutting edge of entertainment, and in today’s dynamic environment, we are advancing the way we work and continuing to evolve our business.”

    No specific games were mentioned in Wilson’s note, although EA is currently developing several games based on licensed properties, like a reported third Star Wars Jedi game, along with Marvel’s Black Panther and Iron Man. EA announced in 2022 that Respawn was developing three separate Star Wars games, one of which was Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. The two others were unannounced; one of those games, a first-person action game, has been canceled, according to Video Games Chronicle. “As we’ve looked at Respawn’s portfolio over the last few months, what’s clear is the games our players are most excited about are Jedi and Respawn’s rich library of owned brands,” EA entertainment and technology present Laura Miele said in a statement to the publication.

    The cuts come almost one year after EA laid off around 700 people, or 6% of its staff, in March 2023. Earlier in February of this year, The company also laid off “a small number of staff” earlier this week as it ceased operations on EA Sports MLB Tap Sports and F1 Mobile Racing. (These layoffs may be included in the 670 number announced Wednesday.) Those games are presumably part of the company’s plan to “sunset” several games, as Wilson noted in the letter to staff.

    EA expects to spend $125 million to $165 million on these layoffs and other cost-cutting measures. Office space reductions will cost roughly $50 million to $60 million, while $35 million to $45 million is expected to go toward “costs associated with licensor commitments,” according to a securities document filed Wednesday. EA said it’ll spend $40 to $55 million on employee severance, which is on top of the $170 million to $200 million EA spent last year on its reorganization cost-cutting plan. (EA, at that time last year, expected to finish the actions related to those costs by Sept. 30, 2023. This time around, it expects to be finished by Dec. 31, 2024.)

    Image: Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts via Polygon

    In late January, EA released its recent financial results where it reported earning $7.6 billion in the past 12 months before Dec. 31, 2023. Of that, EA made $5.8 billion in gross profit. EA reported that its net bookings are up by 1% year-over-year — part of that is related to its live service success, where it earned a “record $1.712 billion,” 3% more than last year. “On a trailing twelve-month basis, live services were 73% of our business,” EA wrote. In particular, EA called out EA Sports FC for “outperforming expectations.”

    “I understand this will create uncertainty and be challenging for many who have worked with such dedication and passion and have made important contributions to our company,” Wilson said in the letter, adding that the company will do its best to help affected workers find “new roles or paths to transition to other projects.” “While not every team will be impacted, this is the hardest part of these changes, and we have deeply considered every option to try and limit impacts to our teams.”

    EA is, unfortunately, not alone in the worrying trend of increasing video game industry layoffs. On Tuesday, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced it was laying off 900 people, or 8% of staff. Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla Games, and Sony’s Technology, Creative, and Support divisions were all impacted. This week alone, people have been laid off from studios like Deck Nine Games, Supermassive Games, and esports company ESL; there was also a production halt at Die Gute Fabrik as funding ran dry.

    Roughly 8,000 people have been laid off in the first two months of the year in a worrying trend that’s quickly outpacing 2023, where around 11,000 people were laid off, per industry trackers. Why are these layoffs happening? A comedown after the pandemic is part of it, but not the whole story that includes increasing interest rates on loans, how expensive it is to make games, and a shift in video game industry business models. One important failure to consider is that executive leadership expected the engagement built during the pandemic to continue and grow; executives expanded their companies recklessly without a realistic long-term plan.

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    Nicole Carpenter

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