2022-04-01 14:45
Four weeks ago, I predicted this morning’s Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Summary would again be especially strong. Was it? We added 431,000 net new nonfarm payr… Read More
Blog Directory > Business Blogs > Careers & Industries Blogs > Work's New Age careers-and-industries Blog >
2022-03-25 07:21
While the pandemic has influenced almost everything businesses have been doing in the past year, it has not been the only source of change. Stories about how companies have been operat… Read More
2022-03-18 07:23
On Wednesday, the solid Federal Reserve news finally hit. Per “Fed raises rates and projects six more increases in 2002” (The New York Times, March 16th), the federal funds… Read More
2022-03-11 08:20
There’s no lack of employees, any more than there are not enough $10 diamond rings. More and more businesses are proving it. That’s what I think. What about oth… Read More
2022-03-04 15:02
We left January’s Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Summary by calling it a muddled mess, made that way by peaking Omicron cases and annual adjustments. This mornin… Read More
2022-02-25 08:21
“Lord, it was an awful time, and then the war started” – Bill James In some ways, what this modern American thinker wrote about the decade ending in 1919 fit yesterday.&nbs&hell…Read More
2022-02-18 08:15
Ukraine, the Super Bowl, and the Winter Olympics have all been larger news stories, but the financial pages have focused on another topic. In February 9th’s “Peak inflation and v… Read More
2022-02-11 08:34
On American jobs, what can we expect for the rest of 2022? Most of it we don’t know, but there are considerations that will help us. We start with the oldest article, on a… Read More
2022-02-04 14:52
This morning’s Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Summary was expected to be “strange” – and it was. There was ostensible good news in several plac… Read More
2022-01-28 08:19
Once in a while I accumulate a little pile of articles worth sharing, but which don’t fit with others. Here is the latest. The oldest is from over a year ago, but still pertinent… Read More
2022-01-21 08:28
What I, along with many others, thought would be the massive technical improvement of the 2020s seems to have failed. Four years ago, there were so many articles about that effort that… Read More
2022-01-14 08:24
It’s strange to realize that most people in this country have never experienced price increases of more than 4% annually, but that’s correct. We have not seen inflation as… Read More
2022-01-07 14:52
Not too often have I seen back-to-back Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Summaries this similar. We start with the current marquee number, that of net new nonfarm payroll… Read More
2021-12-31 08:18
We’ve heard a lot about people not only refusing work but leaving their positions. How can we understand it better? Per Paul Davidson, updated December 9th in USA Today, “J… Read More
2021-12-24 08:19
It’s strange, or maybe it isn’t, that on a topic with so many high-quality facts regularly issued, viewpoints and conclusions should differ so much. Maybe that’s a re… Read More
2021-12-17 08:18
The issue of businesses not being able to fill positions has been getting press since at least May. How accurate and complete, though, is what has been published about it? Before the b… Read More
2021-12-10 08:13
This is a highly jobs-related area which has had less press than I might have thought, probably due to emphasis on the pay demands, quitting, workspace-setting, and vaccination tendencies of… Read More
2021-12-03 15:02
That outcome may not seem possible, but it’s what happened with this morning’s Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Summary. The number of net new nonfarm positi… Read More
2021-11-27 00:00
To start with the same publication and date we finished with last week, in the September 28thHarvard Business ReviewTsedal Neeley offered “12 Questions About Hybrid Work, Answered.&rdq&hell…Read More
2021-11-19 08:16
We start this week’s installment with one piece having a headline with an unexpected meaning. John Zavitsanos’s July 26thNew York Times “We’re Kidding Ourselves… Read More
2021-11-12 08:16
One of the steadiest press topics this year has been what used to be called telecommuting, or employees doing their duties from where they live. That was an old interest of mine, from… Read More
2021-11-05 13:52
With the peculiar Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Summary results we have been getting, capped by the previous one, it was reassuring to see a report showing that we improved… Read More
2021-10-29 07:25
Changes in outlooks from both employers and employees have, outside the direct effect of the Covid-19 virus, been the largest feature of working in in America this year. What do I mean… Read More
2021-10-22 07:48
In June, per “Prices Pop Again, and Fed and White House Seek to Ease Inflation Fears” (Jeanna Smialek and Jim Tankersley, The New York Times, July 13th), “a key measure of… Read More
2021-10-15 07:24
On my copy of the first article on this topic I saw, Cindy Wang and Enda Curran’s “The World Economy’s Supply Chain Problem Keeps Getting Worse” (Bloomberg.com, Augus… Read More
2021-10-08 14:03
Another Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Summary, another fall in unemployment, another disappointing count of net new nonfarm payroll positions. That came in at 194,000… Read More
2021-10-01 07:44
In these times of unfilled jobs and higher pay, we’re getting a flurry of articles suggesting we cut back from five days a week, 40 hours a week, or both. The oldest I saw was a… Read More
2021-09-24 07:26
It’s bad enough that the United States has had, per the New York Times, 42.6 million coronavirus cases and 680,000 deaths. How we have handled Covid-19 has precipitated real conc… Read More
2021-09-17 07:21
Especially if you have been reading this blog, you know what on this subject is happening. Positions, ever more plentiful, are staying open, and numerous companies continue resisting r… Read More
2021-09-10 07:29
With Covid-19 as the root cause, over the past couple of months there has been at least a decade’s worth of developments in how employers and employees get together. For a summary, see… Read More
2021-09-03 14:04
This time, nearly all the numbers in the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Summary decreased. Starting with net new nonfarm payroll positions, which at 235,000 hit neithe… Read More
2021-08-27 07:21
Back in February 2021 – that was a long time ago, wasn’t it? – the largest national issue we faced was the rapidly growing capability of people, companies, institutio… Read More
2021-08-20 07:23
In my 2012 Work’s New Age, I wrote extensively about the coming of machines and expected them soon to take over tens of millions of jobs. That hasn’t happened – yet… Read More
2021-08-13 07:15
Before the pandemic struck, I called the use of artificial intelligence, after but related to electronic surveillance, the second most important current American issue. The problem is… Read More
2021-08-06 14:06
There were high expectations for this morning’s Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Summary, and it exceeded them. The 943,000 net new nonfarm positions were about 10… Read More
2021-07-30 07:18
It’s been an eventful Covid-19 week. To clear up two spreading misconceptions, per Apoorva Mandavilli’s “As Infections Rise, C.D.C. Urges Some Vaccinated Americans to Wear… Read More
2021-07-23 07:22
We have reached yet another new pandemic stage. Wednesday’s 7-day average of new American cases, according to The New York Times, was 41,310, more than any day before June 30th o… Read More
2021-07-16 07:51
Is it true that great masses of people are refusing to take jobs, when they worked before the pandemic started? I’ll give that partial credit, as millions still fit that category… Read More
2021-07-09 07:18
Why are more advertised positions going unfilled? First, that “more” is accurate. Per “U.S. job openings, quits hit record highs in April” (Lucia Mutikani, Reut… Read More
2021-07-02 13:59
The number of advertised jobs keeps rising to new highs, but the seekers are there too, and they’re not all connecting. That’s one of the findings from this morning’s Burea… Read More
2021-06-25 07:54
Cash compensation is the most common and basic reason for working. It has recently changed in some ways and may do that more soon. What have we seen and considered over the past… Read More
2021-06-18 07:18
Thank you for most likely being among the 1,700-plus people who read my March 12th post, “Eleven Brutal Truths on Office Design and Working from Home”! I’m back to th… Read More
2021-06-11 15:54
Per last week’s post, the May jobless numbers were favorable, but mainly because our Covid-19 progress was so good. How are we doing otherwise, and where might we be going? Befor… Read More
2021-06-04 14:05
With last month’s issue causing concern about the intensity of the expected recovery, this morning’s Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Summary was a particularly im… Read More
2021-05-28 07:19
While Americans patronizing the country’s two largest unregulated cab companies may not have noticed much difference, the firms have dramatically shifted in three ways. The first… Read More
2021-05-21 07:18
Beyond the coronavirus case, hospitalization, and death statistics, all steadily improving, related things are happening in America. One is a failure to understand how small the risks are on… Read More
2021-05-14 09:34
Not only is it a strange time for unemployment, with work coming back but weekly unemployment applications still way high, but there has been a lot of discussion. Going back to The New… Read More
2021-05-07 13:59
A confusing title perhaps, but this morning’s Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Summary was as well. It started with 266,000 net new nonfarm payroll jobs, about 700… Read More
2021-04-30 07:21
On this topic, my objectivity is limited by the milestone I reached yesterday. It’s now two weeks since my last coronavirus vaccination, so the chance of my getting infected is m… Read More
2021-04-23 07:33
A year’s worth of Covid-19 has given us at least a year’s worth of proposals. What are they and how good would they be? In the August 11thNew York Times, per Lauren F… Read More
2021-04-16 07:26
We can’t accuse our president of not trying to do enough. His first 100 days were barely two-thirds over when he proposed what Peter W. Stevenson called in The Washington Post&rs&hell…Read More
2021-04-09 07:42
It’s time to take a look at what might be called the large factors and institutions in our economy. Here are a series of articles which may, or may not, give you insight. One, &l&hell…Read More
2021-04-02 13:42
This morning’s Employment Situation Summary from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was easy to assess. We did far better than the forecasted 650,000 net new nonfarm payroll position… Read More
2021-03-25 07:40
Due to a serious family problem, I will not be posting this week. Expect me back with the AJSN on April 2nd Read More
2021-03-19 07:29
This topic does not allow articles, updates, and blog posts a long life. I posted with accuracy on it on February 26th, but most of that is now obsolete. Why? The first reason is… Read More
2021-03-12 08:26
Our pandemic, which has cut back workers’ on-site hours in amounts varying with time and organization, has caused differing reactions from employees and their management. Three a… Read More
2021-03-05 14:49
I didn’t know what to expect in this morning’s Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Summary. The only estimate I saw on net new nonfarm positions was 182,000, an… Read More
2021-02-26 08:21
It’s been an eventful three weeks. To start with the good, according to the New York Timestracker, although the ski slope of Covid-19 infections has leveled off, on Wednesday we… Read More
2021-02-19 08:22
If you look at the Covid-19 statistics, this has been a fine month. Per the February 18thnytimes.com, the graph of new daily cases has been zooming down like a black-diamond ski slope… Read More
2021-02-12 08:20
Over the past month, what has come out about employment? First, in the January 12thNew York Times, Tiffany May and Amy Chang Chien warned us that “Slouch or Slack Off, This ‘Smar… Read More
2021-02-05 14:38
This time, the net-new-nonfarm-jobs predictions went well. I saw one projecting 50,000 in this morning’s Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Summary, and another 100… Read More
2021-01-29 08:29
Two weeks ago yesterday the not-yet president proposed a $1.9 trillion effort aimed to help the American economy, and the people in it, recover from the pandemic’s effects. A good sti… Read More
2021-01-22 08:46
As much as I want to focus on other issues, the pandemic has more effect on jobs and the economy than anything else. It continues to change, so here we go again. The leading ind… Read More
2021-01-15 08:18
With the Capitol insurrection and consequent second impeachment, it may seem like political stability will be the most important long-term American problem as Covid-19 infections, deaths, an… Read More
2021-01-08 15:08
The only projection I saw for the number of net new nonfarm payroll positions in this morning’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Employment Situation Summary was plus 71,000, and it mi… Read More
2021-01-01 08:40
“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future” – Yogi Berra Last week I looked at some of the many 2021 jobs-and-economy forecasts and semi-forecasts… Read More
2020-12-24 08:15
A worthy topic is what our country will be like once this pandemic has greatly faded, which it will do over the next two years from some combination of deaths, people immune from vaccines, a… Read More
2020-12-18 08:17
To start with the worst news, here is yesterday’s New York Times world map of coronavirus infection rates, with purple the highest: Our country comes in at 64 new daily cases per… Read More
2020-12-11 08:25
It’s been sad to see Congressional Republicans putting large firms at the top of their pandemic stimulus bills. Of all the people and organizations suffering, they probably need… Read More
2020-12-04 15:11
We’re not doing well, folks. This morning’s Employment Situation Summary had exactly five favorable things. The seasonally adjusted and unadjusted unemployment rates each i… Read More
2020-11-27 08:12
Now that Thanksgiving is over, if you did not behave yourself with masks and, most important, social distancing, I hope at least you were fortunate. The near-certainty that we can get… Read More
2020-11-20 08:17
Despite the pandemic, we’ve had a going-places-quickly news flurry. But will our overall problem stop these worthy efforts in their metaphorical tracks? We start with space touri… Read More
2020-11-13 08:21
The American Covid-19 situation was more than ready to take over the headlines from the same country’s presidential election. Lost in the stories of slow week-ago vote counting w… Read More
2020-11-06 15:05
Kudos once again to the economists who, collectively, estimated we would gain 580,000 net new nonfarm positions last month. Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Summ… Read More
2020-10-30 07:03
We’re over seven months past the first Covid-19 business closures, and our ride and place sharing concerns are still going on just fine. Or are they? Per Greg Bensinger in the Au… Read More
2020-10-23 07:11
In some of the 11 times I have been franchised to contribute, my decision of who to support for the next elected President of the United States has been close. I have chosen two from s… Read More
2020-10-16 07:18
We start with a grim milestone, per Richard Perez-Pena in the September 28thNew York Times: “Coronavirus Deaths Pass One Million Worldwide.” It’s “still g… Read More
2020-10-09 07:41
We are still completely into the pandemic. Here is yesterday morning’s New York Timesview of how new cases are concentrated in the US, with the brightest red areas having o… Read More
2020-10-02 13:45
In some ways, today’s Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Summary may seem disappointing. The number of net new nonfarm positions, at 661,000, missed its 850,000 publ… Read More
2020-09-25 07:14
This month, we have seen a lot of updates on how business and personal prosperity are doing, along with their immediate prospects. How does it look? “A Top Fed Official Warns Tha… Read More
2020-09-18 07:28
Aah, for the old days, when the future seemed so bright. I’m not talking about just before the pandemic started, though that would qualify too. I’m talking abou… Read More
2020-09-11 07:25
It’s been three weeks since I wrote a post dedicated to Covid-19. The United States has reached a relatively stable point, with the number of cases slowly declining, to a Septemb… Read More
2020-09-04 13:43
Two things happened with this morning’s Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Summary which haven’t for a bit. First, both the 7-day average Covid-19 cases and th… Read More
2020-08-28 07:24
For the first time since March, I am writing a post not centering on the Covid-19 pandemic. There, we have reached a stable position that may last for months: new American cases… Read More
2020-08-21 07:33
By the pandemic’s standards, it’s been a peaceful United States and world week. The chart for the latter changed little, but the role-model countries of New Zealand and Sou… Read More
2020-08-14 07:23
With the monthly employment report and AJSN issue, I did not post last week on other aspects of our situation. The largest jobs news since the previous one was on weekly unemployment c… Read More
2020-08-07 13:57
I was the predictor this time, and fell flat on my face. Because of new unemployment compensation applications camping out at over one million per week, I thought we would see the seas… Read More
2020-07-31 07:21
Another seven days of frightful news. Here are its headlines and subheads:“Eighteen states set daily case records in the past week, and 40 have had 14-day increases in cases per… Read More
2020-07-24 07:08
The beat goes on…The United States has a new peer group of countries, which is Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil, South Africa, Kyrgyzstan, and Oman. They were the only others with a ra… Read More
2020-07-17 07:32
Not a lot to like this time. As with the old dictum that people who give up freedom for security deserve neither, Americans have tried to trade public health for improving the economy… Read More
2020-07-10 07:14
What is the United States doing now?Four months after first acting, having more new Covid-19 cases than ever – up to 62,751 on Wednesday, including 9,979 in one state (Texas).Getting o… Read More
2020-07-02 13:30
After last time, I didn’t even try to guess what this morning’s Employment Situation Summary would say, and not many others seemed to either. The only projection I saw was… Read More
2020-06-26 07:10
Though at least this past Friday, it had seemed the United States was on the way to getting out of the coronavirus pandemic. Now it doesn’t look that way at all. I’m… Read More
2020-06-19 07:14
The most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Summary was as controversial as any I have seen. It showed a solid improvement, including 2.5 million more jobs and an u… Read More
2020-06-12 07:19
United States response to the COVID-19 pandemic is now solidly in a new phase. We’re past the time when mandated closings dictated what we could or could not do, and are moving o… Read More
2020-06-05 13:39
When the paragraph introducing this morning’s Employment Situation Summary popped up at its usual 8:30 on the Bureau of Labor Statistics site, I thought I was reading the wrong thing… Read More
2020-05-29 07:27
We’re going through odds and ends this week. Here we are, with interpretations to favor the pro-Trump and anti-Trump sides. I’m not calling them Democratic or Republi… Read More
2020-05-22 07:18
We have had a lot of recent news about reopening pieces of American life. Per last week’s post, we have shifted from waiting for a vaccine, which could take anywhere from several… Read More
2020-05-15 07:24
What is America’s true pandemic status? Senators reflected major issues in questions they asked national disease expert of sorts Anthony S. Fauci on May 12th, put forth in Amber… Read More
2020-05-08 13:45
This morning’s Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Summary should surprise no one, with the only suspense the exact length of the drop. We’re worse now, which i… Read More
Subscribe to Work's New Age
Get updates delivered right to your inbox!