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News from Worker Development, Industry, the Economy, Education, Science, and much more! |
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Tracking Documented Worker Capacity and Value Growth |
by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
It is difficult for any operations manager to justify investments in worker training to the accounting manager. Without empirical evidence, the institutionalized belief by accountants that training is a “cost“ often prevails over common sense improvements in a company‘s workforce. While only familiar with traditional “classroom learning“ with repetitive seat time costs, accounting departments are swift to challenge any attempt to spend money on classes alone, where no tangible correlation between time spent and improvement in performance is credible.
Structured on-the-job training is different. Employers invest in informal, unstructured, and undocumented one-on-one worker training all of the time; all day, every day for every employee. Once an employee is hired, including the brief training for individuals who do not end up staying past probationary period and periods of cross-training, “Bob” is paired up with “Jim” and a mysterious process begins. No training plan, no documentation, very little accounting for real hours of training or outcomes. If there were, accountants would be strong advocates for long overdue changes in worker development strategies.
Nevertheless, informal on-the-job training produces some positive results for some people or products wouldn’t get shipped nor services delivered. But it doesn’t work well, especially for many who could have been great, loyal workers. The process cannot be explained, measured, improved or accounted for – most likely the reason it is accepted as fact but avoided in process improvement discussions. Yet it is the only thing holding most operations together.
Structured on-the-job training works much better. It provides the infrastructure, the accountability, the documentability, and empirical evidence to justify increases an investment for tangible increases in worker performance. It is not difficult to set-up a structured on-the-job training system if you have the methodology; you just build an infrastructure around the informal on-the-job training that already exists, incorporate all available process, safety and quality documentation available to make training an accurate, deliberate and complete experience. Read More
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Put Yourself in a Trainee’s Shoes |
by Stacey Lett, Director of Operations - Eastern U.S. - Proactive Technologies, Inc.
It is fun to watch a popular TV show on CBS, now in syndication, called " Undercover Boss - reruns and all." Watching a CEO or executive of a major corporation slip into disguise and enter the world of their workers is interesting and entertaining. Sometimes they find the organization needs a little "tweaking," and sometimes it needs major rethinking.
The entertainment value, I suppose, comes from watching these individuals being tossed into a job classification - alien to most of them – and, while cameras are rolling, receiving a crash coarse in performing various job tasks. Some tasks are performed close to the customer. Not only do leaders get a rare look at what it is like at the lower rungs of the organization, in some cases they get a look at the sub-par performance most of their customers experience and how tenuous the corporation’s existence is - sustained only by the initiative a few loyal, but mostly self-interested, employees. These employees try to make up for the corporation’s short-comings as if their job and future depend on it…which they do. If the company fails, they lose their job, plain and simple. Some put up with the company’s shortcomings in pursuit of the next opportunity.
It is interesting to see CEO’s marvel at how difficult it is to learn the job tasks they previously thought were inconsequential and not worthy of attention. Previously known only as a word on a report, the fact that how the tasks are performed by these neglected employees are the reason the corporation exists goes unnoticed and unappreciated. Some episodes look like popular television shows of the 50’s and 60’s, "I Love Lucy."
A typical Undercover Boss episode might reveal:
- Unstructured, inconsistent and incomplete training;
- Uneven and uncertain motivation;
- Conflicting operating orders;
- Unexpectedly outdated or inoperable equipment;
- Unclear standard practices;
- Unexpected lack of leadership at the local level spawned by unexpected lack of leadership at the upper levels;
- Unvarnished displays of workers rising above these organizational inadequacies and their own personal challenges to ensure product gets out the door and services are performed with pride
Focusing on one aspect, in each case the resident expert was selected to train the covert executive. These attempts at unstructured, task-based training give a vivid picture of the limitations, risks, and failures of foregoing a deliberate training strategy. Read More
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Pairing Structured On-the-Job Training with Related Technical Instruction Just Makes Sense |
by Frank Gibson, Workforce Development Advisor, retired from The Ohio State University – Alber Enterprise Center
I have for worked with educational institutions for many years, trying to reach out to employers with the latest and best courses and seminars they had. It is what we did with good intentions, but in many cases this was a difficult sale at best. Their products were often already built…before they precisely knew the needs of the employer. If the employer engaged them for our services, when delivered it was more of an underwhelming experience for the customer than I felt comfortable with. Often it didn’t lead to follow-on work.
An employer’s operation is driven by accounting for the bottom line. Accountants are quick to dismiss core and technical instruction as a cost. That is what they were taught in college, and truthfully there is no evidence that attending a course improves work performance in most cases. Sadly, that level of "job relevance" or content validity w as considered less important than the power of the institution's name that was promoting the products or services.
When I became familiar with Structured On-The-Job Training (SOJT), I appreciated SOJT because SOJT built from the bottom up. The training delivery structure was designed around the actual tasks the employee is expected to master, for which the employer hired the individual in the first place. Structuring the best practices into training delivery so that workers can learn faster how to perform each task and to standardize the delivery between each shift's trainers and each trainee gets to the company’s bottom line. It is seen as an investment that can be defended to accountants, unlike core and technical instruction. Read More
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If Your Organization Classifies Your “Greatest Asset” as an “Expense,” You’ll Continue to Have Workforce Issues |
by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
How often have we heard by an employer that their “greatest asset is their people” or, “we need to invest in our people to continue to grow?“ These are statements affirming the importance of the worker to the overall success of the enterprise. However, actions taken by employers often hollow out these motivating themes, rendering them as repeating platitudes bordering on the disingenuous.
Actions that cast suspicion on her employers sincerity that their workers are at the greatest assets include:
- Cutting the training budget, if one was in place at all, while bragging about the companies, growth and profitability;
- Laying off workers at the first sign of trouble ahead for quarterly report to shareholders;
- Withholding increases in employee wages, cutting of benefits;
- Hiring workers from the outside, instead of training, grooming, and promoting internally.
It is often a sad mistake for employers to remind workers how important they are, while carrying out any of these types of contradictory and potentially counter-productive actions. Especially when companies have seen a steady increase in profits, these acts are self-defeating. Showing shareholders that even if they have had a slight decline in quarterly profits for investing in worker development, causing the shareholders earnings per share to be only slightly affected, might be acceptable to all if the goal is worthy and communicated effectively. And slight decreases in this year’s returns as a result in small investments in training that will lead to an expected increase in next year’s, and the year after that’s, performance seems reasonable and ripe for the asking.
Developing workers, creating opportunity paths to advancement and increases in individual wealth, are not only a good way for an employer to improve overall capacity, promote sustainability and flexibility, but it provides the employer with an empirically proven increase in return on each worker’s investment, and collectively the organization’s return on investment to the operation. Read More
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IN THIS ISSUE:
Proactive Technologies, Inc. Worker Development News
Industry News
Financial News
Economic News
International News
International Trade News
Education and Workforce Development News
Training and Organizational Development News
Quality News
Science
Cyber and IT News
Human Resources Management News
Environmental, Health & Safety News
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U.S. Department of Commerce - Bureau of Economic Analysis |
Gross Domestic Product (Second Estimate) Corporate Profits (Preliminary Estimate) Third Quarter 2023
Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 5.2 percent in the third quarter of 2023, according to the “second” estimate. In the second quarter, real GDP increased 2.1 percent. The increase in the third quarter primarily reflected increases in consumer spending and inventory investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.
Profits increased 3.3 percent at a quarterly rate in the third quarter after increasing 0.2 percent in the second quarter. Read Report
Personal Income and Outlays, October 2023
Personal income increased $57.1 billion (0.2 percent at a monthly rate) in October, according to estimates released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (tables 2 and 3). Disposable personal income (DPI), personal income less personal current taxes, increased $63.4 billion (0.3 percent) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $41.2 billion.
The PCE price index increased less than 0.1 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.2 percent (table 5). Real DPI increased 0.3 percent in October and real PCE increased 0.2 percent; goods increased 0.1 percent and services increased 0.2 percent. Read Report
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U.S. Department of Commerce - Bureau of the Census |
Advanced Report on Durable Goods Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories, and Orders
New orders for manufactured durable goods in October, down three of the last four months, decreased $16.0 billion or 5.4 percent to $279.4 billion. October 2023: -5.4° % Change; September 2023 (r): +4.0° % Change. Read Report
Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories, and Orders
New orders for manufactured goods in September, up six of the last seven months, increased $16.1 billion or 2.8 percent to $601.5 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today. This followed a 1.0 percent August increase. Shipments, up five consecutive months, increased $2.1 billion or 0.4 percent to $588.1 billion. This followed a 1.3 percent August increase. Unfilled orders, up nine of the last ten months, increased $18.4 billion or 1.4 percent to $1,353.6 billion. This followed a 0.3 percent August increase. The unfilled orders-to-shipments ratio was 6.88, up from 6.78 in August. Inventories, up three consecutive months, increased $2.0 billion or 0.2 percent to $857.3 billion. This followed a 0.3 percent August increase. The inventories-to-shipments ratio was 1.46, unchanged from August. Read Report
Manufacturing and Trade Inventory and Sales
Sales
The combined value of distributive trade sales and manufacturers’ shipments for September, adjusted for seasonal and trading day differences but not for price changes, was estimated at $1,879.3 billion, up 1.1 percent (±0.2 percent) from August 2023 and was up 1.6 percent (±0.2 percent) from September 2022.
Inventories
Manufacturers’ and trade inventories for September, adjusted for seasonal and trading day differences but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $2,559.2 billion, up 0.4 percent (±0.1 percent) from August 2023 and were up 1.3 percent (±0.4 percent) from September 2022.
Inventories/Sales Ratio
The total business inventories/sales ratio based on seasonally adjusted data at the end of September was 1.36. The September 2022 ratio was 1.37. Read Report
Household Pulse Survey
What is the Household Pulse Survey?
The U.S. Census Bureau, in collaboration with multiple federal agencies, is in a unique position to produce data on the social and economic effects of coronavirus on American households. The Household Pulse Survey is designed to deploy quickly and efficiently, collecting data to measure household experiences during the coronavirus pandemic. Data will be disseminated in near real-time to inform federal and state response and recovery planning. Read Data
Small Business Pulse Survey
The Small Business Pulse Survey (Business Pulse) measures the effect of changing business conditions during the Coronavirus pandemic on our nation's small businesses. Business Pulse complements existing U.S. Census Bureau data collections by providing high-frequency, detailed information on the challenges small businesses are facing during the Coronavirus pandemic as well as their participation in federal programs such as the Paycheck Protection Program. Read Report
Monthly State Retail Sales
The Monthly State Retail Sales (MSRS) is the Census Bureau's new experimental data product featuring modeled state-level retail sales. This is a blended data product using Monthly Retail Trade Survey data, administrative data, and third-party data. Year-over-year percent changes are available for Total Retail Sales excluding Nonstore Retailers as well as 11 retail North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) retail subsectors. These data are provided by state and NAICS codes beginning with January 2019. The Census Bureau plans to continue to improve the methodology to be able to publish more data in the future. Access Tables
Economic Indicators
A composite of many of the requested domestic facts and figures. Visit Table
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U. S. Department of Labor Statistics |
Consumer Price Index
The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) was unchanged in October on a seasonally
adjusted basis, after increasing 0.4 percent in September, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 3.2 percent before seasonal adjustment.
The index for shelter continued to rise in October, offsetting a decline in the gasoline index and resulting in the seasonally adjusted index being unchanged over the month. The energy index fell 2.5 percent over the month as a 5.0-percent decline in the gasoline index more than offset increases in other energy component indexes. The food index increased 0.3 percent in October, after rising 0.2 percent in September. The index for food at home increased 0.3 percent over the month while the index for food away from home rose 0.4 percent.
The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.2 percent in October, after rising 0.3 percent in September. Indexes which increased in October include rent, owners' equivalent rent, motor vehicle insurance, medical care, recreation, and personal care. The indexes for lodging away from home, used cars and trucks, communication, and airline fares were among those that decreased over the month. Read Report
Producer Price Index
The Producer Price Index for final demand fell 0.5 percent in October, seasonally adjusted, after advancing 0.4 percent in September, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. (See table A.) The October decline is the largest decrease in final demand prices since a 1.2-percent drop in April 2020. On an unadjusted basis, the index for final demand rose 1.3 percent for the 12 months ended in October.
In October, the index for final demand goods fell 1.4 percent. Prices for final demand services were unchanged.
The index for final demand less foods, energy, and trade services advanced 0.1 percent in October, the fifth consecutive rise. For the 12 months ended in October, prices for final demand less foods, energy, and trade services moved up 2.9 percent. Read Report
Job Openings and Labor Turnover
Job openings rates decreased in 3 states and increased in 1 state on the last business day of September, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Hires rates decreased in 1 state and increased in 1 state. Total separations rates decreased in 6 states. Nationally, the job openings, hires, and total separations rates showed little or no change in September.
This release includes estimates of the number and rate of job openings, hires, total separations, quits, and layoffs and discharges for the total nonfarm sector and for all states and the District of Columbia. Read Report
Unemployment Rate for States
Unemployment Rates for States, Seasonally Adjusted. Read Report
Civilian Labor Participation Rate
For a 20 year chart of the U.S. Civilian Labor Participation Rate. Read Report
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U.S. Private Sector Job Quality Index |
University of Buffalo - School of Management
The U.S. Private Sector Job Quality Index (JQI) assesses job quality in the United States by measuring desirable higher-wage/higher-hour jobs versus lower-wage/lower-hour jobs. The JQI results also may serve as a proxy for the overall health of the U.S. jobs market, since the index enables month-by-month tracking of the direction and degree of change in high-to-low job composition.
By tracking this information, policymakers and financial market participants can be more fully informed of past developments, current trends, and likely future developments in the absence of policy intervention. Economists and international organizations have in recent years developed other, complementary conceptions of job quality such as those addressing the emotional satisfaction employees derive from their jobs.
For the purposes of this JQI, “job quality” means the weekly dollar-income a job generates for an employee. Payment, after all, is a primary reason why people work: the income generated by a job being necessary to maintain a standard of living, to provide for the essentials of life and, hopefully, to save for retirement, among other things. Read Report
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Realtime Inequality - Who Benefits from Income and Wealth Growth in the United States? |
University of California, Berkeley - Thomas Blanchet, Emmanuel Saez, Gabriel Zucman; Department of Economics
Realtime Inequality provides the first timely statistics on how economic growth is distributed across groups. When new growth numbers come out each quarter, we show how each income and wealth group benefits.
Controlling for price inflation, average national income per adult in the United States increased at an annualized rate of 2.2% in the first quarter of 2023, and average income for the bottom 50% grew by 1.5%. National income is similar to GDP and a better indicator of income earned by US residents. Visit the Methodology page for complete methodological details. Review Data
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Amazon to Sell Cars Online, Starting with Hyundai |
Tech Crunch - Kirsten Korosec
It was inevitable. Amazon, which got its start selling books, is getting into the car business.
The e-commerce giant along with new partner Hyundai announced Thursday at the 2023 LA Auto Show that it will start selling vehicles on its website in the second half of 2024. Hyundai vehicles will be the first vehicles sold on Amazon.com’s U.S. store with other brands following later in the year.
The Amazon car sales section will allow customers to shop for vehicles in their area based on a range of preferences, including model, trim, color, and features, choose their preferred car, and then check out online with their chosen payment and financing options. Customers will be able to buy a vehicle online and then pick it up or have it delivered by their local dealership, according to Amazon. Read Article
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Manufacturers ‘Want to See the Dust Settle’ in ’24 |
IndustryWeek - Geert De Lombaerde
A panel assembled by IndustryWeek this week discussed the outlook for the industrial economy and some of the forces shaping leaders’ decisions.
Many manufacturing leaders are experiencing “an outbreak of caution” when it comes to 2024 growth plans, an economist told an IndustryWeek webinar audience Nov. 20. But, he added, they are not giving up on growth “by any stretch.”
Chris Kuehl, managing director and co-founder of consulting firm Armada CI in Kansas City, said his regular survey work with the Fabricators and Manufacturers Association reflects a broader manufacturing trend. Companies are generally maintaining their production and working down inventories but not taking big shots when it comes to growth. Read Article
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Creating a ‘Poachable’ Talent Culture: TAB Bank CFO |
CFO Dive - Grace Noto, Reporter
Making one’s own employees competitive to other organizations can help to foster a strong, loyal talent base, TAB Bank CFO Boyd Hunter says.
Organizations today are still wrestling with a tight labor market, putting pressure on finance chiefs not only to attract new employees, but to retain talented staff. Putting in the effort to make employees valuable enough to catch the attention of other businesses can help to create a strong, loyal base of workers for your own company, said Boyd Hunter, CFO of TAB Bank.
“We don’t want people to leave, but we want other people to look at TAB’s employees and say, ‘That’s somebody that I need on my staff at my organization to be successful,’” Hunter said in an interview. “Because if we’ve done that, that means that we’ve developed the right type of people to make us successful.” Read Article
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Think Outside the Box with Your Workforce Solutions |
Area Development - Dianne Jones, Managing Director, Business and Economic Incentives
Today’s employees want to maintain their quality of life, including hybrid work, well-being support, and competitive pay; employers need to creatively meet their needs in order to keep them from jumping ship.
Creative” and “Workforce” are not words that have historically gone together. Fast forward to 2023, and they go together like peanut butter and jelly!
But why are we having to be creative with the workforce? What does it mean to be creative with your workforce, and how can your creativity set you up for success within your industry? Also, while we are having a hard conversation, let’s talk about Gen Z and how they play a role in all of this. Read Article
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The Rise of Mid-Size U.S. Cities: The Industrial Development Boom |
Area Development - Emelie Hegarty, Business Strategy Manager, Quest Site Solutions
As company needs have evolved, many are gravitating to smaller urban areas that often provide them with a lower tax burden, affordable real estate, and development-ready sites.
Amidst a time of transformation characterized by changing preferences and economic shifts, numerous major urban centers have witnessed a downturn in economic activity in recent years. During this same time period, many of their mid-size counterparts have flourished. While the rise of these mid-size cities has been under way for some time, the unprecedented changes brought about by the pandemic accelerated their growth trajectory — with notable migration of both companies and new residents.
Defined by a regional Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) population spanning from 500,000 to 1,000,000 residents, there are 59 mid-size cities across the United States. About half of them have grown over the past few years and are forecasted to grow more than 2 percent over the next five years. Of those expected to grow, the vast majority are located in the Southeast. In contrast, most of the northeastern cities are forecasted to have very small growth or, in many cases, are expected to contract. Read Article
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Turned Down For a Loan, Business Owners Look to Family and Even Crowdsourcing to Get Money to Grow |
Associated Press – Mae Anderson
Among the many challenges small businesses face as they try to grow these days, getting a loan is right near the top.
Banks big and small have tightened lending standards as the Federal Reserve hiked up interest rates the past two years. The collapse of three regional banks this spring and the possibility of stricter regulations have likely made some banks more cautious as well.
So, business owners are having to make sacrifices, from turning to crowdsourcing instead of lenders, borrowing from family or friends, or simply forgoing expansion plans that would have been funded by more capital. Read Article
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Businesses are Losing Huge Chunks of Their Revenue to Cyberattacks |
Tech Radar - Sead Fadilpašić
Cyberattacks are costing firms money in more ways than one
Businesses are paying a huge price for not properly securing their digital assets, a new report from Fastly has claimed.
After surveying almost 1,500 key IT decision makers worldwide Fastly found that businesses had suffered an average of 46 attacks over the last year, resulting in the loss of 9% of their annual revenue.
But there are other ways cyberattacks are hurting these businesses - network outages (34%), data loss (29%), web apps going offline (24%), customer account compromises (22%) are also results of data breaches, and these can hurt the businesses even more. Read Article
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20% of Global CFOs Say Their Organizations Are Data-Driven |
CFO.com - Vincent Ryan, Senior Reporter-at-Large
Lack of data quality and data infrastructure and “a prevailing silo mentality” are the culprits slowing development, according to Horváth.
The transformation toward being data-driven is a high priority for many finance chiefs, but despite the resources allocated at many organizations, it is happening very slowly.
The results of the latest Horváth CFO Study found that “the standardization of processes as well as the topics of data integration and the further development of data platforms are currently among the top three strategic priorities of CFOs,” said Achim Wenning, a partner at Horváth, a global management consultancy. Read Article
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Classes alone will not close the "skills gap," but structured on-the-job training can...every time! |
Under-capacity of workers is an enormous source of untapped value and unrealized return on worker investment. In addition, standardizing expert task performance -between workers and shifts - can add to worker ROI through lower scrap and rework.
- Increased worker capacity, productivity, work quantity, work quality and compliance (specifications, ISO/AS/IATF programs and safety mandates);
- Decreased internal costs of training
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Higher return on worker investment! You would be surprised how small of an investment is needed to unlock enormous returns.
If budgets are tight, Proactive Technologies, Inc. can be an extension to your training department, with our technical implementation support - included with every project!
There's nothing to lose by taking a minute to contact us to learn more.
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If your institution is interested in becoming a Proactive Technologies, Inc. project partner, contact a representative for more information. |
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) Announced That it Has Approved the Application Submitted to the Special Financial Assistance (SFA) Program By: |
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Finance May Go Slower On Generative AI Adoption |
CFO.com - Vincent Ryan,Senior Reporter-at-Large
CFOs and controllers have to balance the need for accuracy and controls versus the potential short-term benefits of quick implementations.
Finance has in many ways spearheaded business automation in the past few years — but will that necessarily happen with artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI?
Vendors are pushing that theme, but uncertainty around AI governance, controls, output accuracy, and security means history may not repeat itself. Read Article
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37% of Employees Say Inflation Led to Tapping Into Savings: Weekly Stat |
CFO.com - Adam Zaki, Reporter
Companies are offering financial wellness tools to address the impact economic uncertainty has had on employee mental health.
High-quality talent has become increasingly hard to come by in finance, and CFOs should be aware of how employees’ personal finances are impacting their productivity.
Leadership is increasingly mindful of creating an attractive work environment with benefits, including mental health offerings and employee well-being efforts. And some organizations now offer programs and tools to set their teams up for personal financial success. Read Article
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CPA Welcomes Unanimous Decision To Exclude CCP Companies From Key Federal Retirement Index |
Coalition for a Prosperous America - Newsroom
WASHINGTON — The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) today applauded the unanimous decision, as reported by the Financial Times, by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board’s (FRTIB), which manages the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), to exclude Chinese and Hong Kong stocks from its International Fund (I Fund). The TSP is the world’s largest retirement fund with more than $770 billion in assets.
The FRTIB’s unanimous vote is a reversal from an earlier decision to invest the TSP’s I Fund in an MSCI index that contained state-sponsored Chinese companies directly aiding the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This decision should force all U.S. funds to address the unacceptable risk of investing in CCP companies, including state pension funds, labor union pension funds, and university endowments. Read Article
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WeWork Files for Bankruptcy in a Stunning Downfall from Its $47 billion Heyday |
NPR Morning Edition - Bobby Allyn
WeWork, which was founded in 2010 with the goal of revolutionizing the way people work, has filed for bankruptcy protection. It follows the company warning investors recently that was teetering on the brink of collapse.
WeWork, the once-buzzy startup that was valued at $47 billion at its peak, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday in federal court in New Jersey.
In its bankruptcy petition, the company listed about $15 billion in assets and more than $18 billion in debt. It also has around $100 million in unpaid rent.
The company said 92% of its lenders agreed to a restructuring plan that would allow WeWork to operate during the reorganization, with many dozens of locations expected to close. Read Article
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Escalating SaaS Prices Outpace CPI Inflation |
CFO Dive - Alexei Alexis, Reporter
Software-as-a-service spending now accounts for 14.1% of a typical company’s expense line, up from 12.7% last year, according to research from Vertice.
Dive Brief:
- Software inflation has remained “stubbornly high” this year at a rate of 8.7% — more than double the inflation rate as measured by the consumer price index in the U.S., according to research conducted by London-based Vertice, a software-as-a-service and cloud spending management company.
- Vertice’s annual “SaaS Inflation Index” report, unveiled Tuesday, shows that software prices are surging despite a decrease in the CPI this year compared with 2022. The price hikes varied across product categories, with sales software seeing the most rapid increases at an inflation rate of 10.6%. This was followed by finance (10.2%) and productivity tools (10.1%). In contrast, consumer prices rose 3.2% year-over-year in October, according to the latest Labor Department data released Tuesday.
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“While consumers across the world face a cost-of-living crisis, businesses are facing their own cost of software crisis, with costs rising much faster than last year, as vendors look to grow their top lines in a challenging macroeconomic environment,” Vertice CEO Eldar Tuvey said in a press release. Read Article
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How a Crypto Super PAC is Trying to Swing 2024 |
Politico – Jasper Goodman
A new crypto-focused super PAC has pumped over $1.2 million into television ads supporting House candidates over the last two months.
The downfall of Sam Bankman-Fried, briefly one of the most prolific spenders in American politics, hobbled the cryptocurrency industry’s influence machine.
Now, others are starting to rebuild.
A new crypto-focused super PAC has pumped over $1.2 million into television ads supporting House candidates over the last two months. The group, Fairshake, could become a key vehicle for the crypto industry to insert itself into the 2024 elections in the coming year. Fairshake is backed in part by Brian Armstrong, the CEO of the largest U.S. crypto exchange, Coinbase. He publicly pledged to contribute $1 million to the organization and has said the goal is for other companies to join in to grow its war chest to $50 million. Read Article
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Health Benefit Costs to Increase 5.2% in 2024 |
EHS Today
A new Mercer survey shows this increase is similar to the one in 2023.
The average per-employee cost of employer-sponsored health insurance rose by 5.2% in 2023 to reach $15,797, according to a report released on Nov. 17 by Mercer.
The report, 2023 National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans, found cost increases were highest for employers with 50-499 employees, averaging 7.8%.
They also reported a higher average per-employee cost for health insurance – $16,464 compared to $15,640 among larger employers with 500 or more employees. Read Article
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Binance CEO Pleads Guilty in Seattle as Federal Prosecutors Secure Record $4.3B Crypto Penalty |
Geek Wire – Taylor Soper & Todd Bishop
The federal courthouse in Seattle was the scene of a pivotal event in the U.S. government’s crypto crackdown Tuesday as prosecutors cemented a settlement in a landmark case against the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, appearing inside the courthouse at 7th Avenue and Stewart Street, pleaded guilty to a range of securities law violations that prosecutors said enabled money laundering, terrorist financing, and other illegal activities on the cryptocurrency exchange, allegedly evading federal law for nearly four years. Read Article
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Another Major Crypto Exchange Has Been Hacked, With $100 Million Stolen |
Tech Radar - Sead Fadilpašić
A crypto bridge was also abused as HTX was hacked
Cryptocurrency exchange platform HTX and the Heco Chain blockchain protocol have been hit by cyberattacks, with the thieves making away with roughly $100 million in different currencies.
The news was confirmed by Justin Sun, a long-time cryptocurrency entrepreneur and an investor in HTX. Besides confirming the attack, Sun also said that all victims will be reimbursed by the company.
“HTX and Heco Cross-Chain Bridge Undergo Hacker Attack. HTX Will Fully Compensate for HTX's hot wallet Losses. Deposits and Withdrawals Temporarily Suspended,” Sun said in an X post. “All Funds in HTX Are Secure, and the Community Can Rest Assured. We are investigating the specific reasons for the hacker attack. Once we complete the investigation and identify the cause, we will resume services.” Read Article
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Jim Chanos: “The Crypto Ecosystem Is Well-Suited for the Dark Side of Finance.” |
Institute for New Economic Thinking - Lynn Parramore
The famed short-seller talks Sam Bankman-Fried, why Wall Street is still so keen on crypto, and how technology is making us dumber.
Last week, Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy following the spectacular collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange FTX. He now takes his place alongside history’s most notorious conmen. Famed short seller Jim Chanos, who exposed the Enron fraud, has been called the “Darth Vader of Wall Street,” probably because he spends a lot of time looking at the dark side of finance. His specialty is sussing out hype, malfeasance, inflated prices, and what he calls the “flimflammery” rampant not only in finance but in our political systems and society. Chanos has a passion for studying the great money scams and fraudsters, teaching courses on the history of financial fraud at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Yale University, his alma mater. Read Article
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What Does Mustard Gas Have in Common with Crypto and Blockchain? |
Institute for New Economic Thinking - Lynn Parramore
In his new book, Let Them Eat Crypto, Peter Howson cautions that the technologies are not just fraudulent but causing indefensible harm to both humanity and the planet.
If Sam Bankman-Fried’s conviction for perpetrating one of American history’s most jaw-dropping financial frauds has made you less keen to embrace the crypto trend, you’re in good company. Three-quarters of Americans who have heard of crypto have little confidence in its safety or reliability. Even the chip-making giant Nvidia has declared that crypto adds nothing useful to society, a sentiment recently voiced by legend short seller Jim Chanos, who stated that the technology is “well-suited for the dark side of finance.” Read Article
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CEO Pay Slightly Declined in 2022 - But it has soared 1,209.2% since 1978 compared with a 15.3% rise in typical workers’ pay |
Economic Policy Institute - Josh Bivens and Jori Kandra
Summary: CEO pay dipped in 2022 but remains enormous compared with the pay of other workers. CEOs are granted massive compensation packages by corporate boards because of their bargaining power, not because of their skills. CEOs’ exorbitant payouts have far outpaced the pay of typical workers over decades.
Key findings
- CEO pay is linked strongly to the stock market—and market declines in 2022 led to an uncharacteristic dip in CEO pay.
- Cumulatively, however, from 1978–2022, top CEO compensation shot up 1,209.2% compared with a 15.3% increase in a typical worker’s compensation.
- In 2022, CEOs were paid 344 times as much as a typical worker in contrast to 1965 when they were paid 21 times as much as a typical worker.
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To illustrate just how distorted CEO pay increases have gotten: In 2021, CEOs made nearly eight times as much as the top 0.1% of wage earners in the U.S. Read Article
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Disquiet in the World’s Middle Class |
Brookings Institution - Homi Kharas, Senior Fellow Global Economy and Development, Center for Sustainable Development
“Middle-class life satisfaction rests on two pillars. The first is the idea that hard work and self-initiative will lead to prosperity. The second is that thanks to this prosperity, the children of middle-class families will enjoy even more opportunities for the good life. Both pillars are shaking.”
Joining the middle class has been a ticket to the good life for two centuries now, a history I trace in a new book “The Rise of the Middle Class.” The American Dream, the glorious years of European reconstruction after World War II, miracle economic growth in Japan and other East Asian countries, Xi Jinping’s great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and India’s software revolution each brought hundreds of millions of people into the ranks of the global middle class. Today, thanks to this progress, most of the world, upwards of 4 billion people, enjoy a middle-class or better lifestyle for the first time ever. Read Article
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Mexico, Latin America, South America and the Caribbean |
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Javier Milei: Argentina's Far-right Outsider Wins Presidential Election |
BBC News - Vanessa Buschschlüter
Argentines have elected far-right outsider Javier Milei, 53, as their new president.
With almost all votes counted, Mr Milei had won close to 56% in the decisive run-off, ahead of his left-wing rival, Sergio Massa, with 44%.
The radical newcomer's victory has been described as "a political earthquake".
It has been welcomed by like-minded politicians such as US ex-President Donald Trump, who said Mr Milei would "Make Argentina Great Again". Read Article
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Dominican Republic: At Least 21 Dead After Storm Brings Torrential Rain |
BBC News - Emily McGarvey
At least 21 people have died in the Dominican Republic after heavy rain over the weekend which displaced thousands of residents, officials say.
An investigation has been launched after nine people died when torrential rain caused a highway tunnel wall to collapse in the capital Santo Domingo.
More than 13,000 people were evacuated to secure areas after heavy downpours. Read Article
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Argentina Dives Into the Unknown |
Brookings Institution – Valerie Wirtschsafter
Earlier this month, Argentines went to the polls to choose between establishment candidate Sergio Massa, a Peronist figure active in politics since 1989, and insurgent candidate Javier Milei, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist” newer to the political sphere. A dire economic situation and anger toward political elites played a critical role in shaping each campaign and fueling Milei’s rise. With frustration boiling over, Milei received the highest number of votes for any candidate in Argentina’s history, beating Massa in the second round by nearly 12 points.
How did the economy and a lack of voter confidence in the presidency play into the result? What can we expect from Milei? In a new commentary, Valerie Wirtschafter examines these questions and discusses what the trends may mean for future elections. Read Article
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Canada, Europe and Great Britain |
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Ruto in Germany to Find 200,000 Jobs for Kenyans |
BBC News
President William Ruto has said that he is aiming to secure opportunities for Kenyans to find employment in Germany, amid a worsening unemployment crisis in his country.
He made the shortly before departing for Europe for a G20 meeting.
More than a dozen African leaders are heading to the German capital, Berlin, to seek economic opportunities, including labour export deals and increased investment in Africa’s economy.
“Germany’s chancellor was in Kenya about three to four months ago. I am travelling to Germany tonight because he promised us that we would secure 200,000 jobs. I must go follow up on those opportunities,” Mr Ruto said on Sunday. Read Article
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German Government Faces Budget Crisis |
DeutscheWelle - Jens Thurau
The German government is at a breaking point over a €60 billion ($65.3 billion) hole in its budget. That's because the Constitutional Court has ruled that a financial maneuver on climate mitigation policies is illegal.
The Constitutional Court's verdict on November 15 was a political bombshell for Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his federal government. It ruled that the government cannot reallocate €60 billion meant to fight the COVID-19 pandemic to instead address climate change.
Whether for more efficient heating, expanded rail or subsidizing energy costs, virtually none of the climate-friendly projects the government had envisioned can be funded as currently planned. More money, in the form of credit, was earmarked for the pandemic than turned out to be necessary. Read Article
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A Volcano in Southwestern Iceland is Expected to Erupt in the Next Few Days |
NPR - Juliana Kim
A volcano is southwest Iceland is expected to erupt in the next few days, the Icelandic Meteorological Office has warned.
Hundreds of small earthquakes have been rattling the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwestern Iceland over the past few days — an early warning sign of a looming volcanic eruption. About 900 earthquakes have been detected so far since midnight on Monday. A day earlier, more than a thousand quakes — all below a 3 magnitude — were recorded.
The Icelandic Meteorological Office estimated magma, also known as molten rock, to be about 800 meters or half a mile from the surface as of Saturday. The office added that it was likely to reach the surface soon. Read Article
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Chinese Tourists are Returning - But Not to Thailand |
BBC News - Jonathan Head, in Bangkok
For Chinese tourists in Bangkok, 76 Garage, an open-air restaurant on the northern outskirts of the Thai capital, has long been near the top of the list of places to visit.
And they go there not for the food, but the waiters.
In the middle of the restaurant is a swimming pool. The evening reaches its highlight when the waiters, all fit young men, strip down to their shorts and wade into the pool, offering to carry the diners for a photo op and a tip. Read Article
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Can the Once-mighty River be Saved? |
BBC News -Laura Bicker
Mai takes a deep breath before disappearing below the muddy brown waters of the biggest freshwater lake in South East Asia. A few bubbles rise to the surface - the only sign that he is underwater, freeing his fishing net, which he had left hanging between trees in a flooded forest.
The Tonle Sap, which takes its name from a tributary that connects it to the Mekong River, is the world’s largest inland fishery - more fish are usually caught here than in any other lake on Earth.
But when Mai finally surfaces, pulling leeches off his neck as he drags his net back to his small blue boat, he knows he hasn’t got the catch he needs. By now it’s dawn. The air is already clammy, as the trees begin to vibrate with the chorus of cicadas. Read Article
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China’s Property Sector Needs More Government Support as Crisis Deepens |
CNBC - Evelyn Cheng
KEY POINTS
- China’s property market, which makes up a substantial chunk of the country’s economy, needs more government support to prevent it from deteriorating further, analysts said.
- Existing home prices fell in October by the most since 2014, while outstanding property loans fell for the first time in history, Larry Hu, chief economist at Macquarie, said in a note.
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Late on Friday, the People’s Bank of China announced it held a meeting with other financial regulators to allow lending to real estate developers that are operating normally, among other signals of support. Read Article
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Asia, India and Australia |
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DP World: Australia Sites Back Online After Cyber-attack |
BBC - Annabelle Liang, Business reporter
One of Australia's major port operators is back online after a cyber-attack crippled its facilities.
Operations at DP World Australia container terminals in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth were disrupted from Friday to Monday morning.
The firm manages around 40% of goods entering and leaving the country.
The outage has not affected the supply of goods to major Australian supermarkets, the BBC understands. Read Article
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Delhi AQI: Why Indian Capital Lags Behind Beijing in the Battle to Breathe |
BBC News - Soutik Biswas, India correspondent
For a long time, people living in two densely populated Asian capitals have suffered the toxic smog that blanket their cities.
On some days, when the smoke draped Delhi and Beijing - both teeming cities with more than 20 million people - in an orange-grey hue, and the air tasted smoky, people said it felt like living in a dystopian nightmare. Beijing residents even gave the calamity a popular nickname - "airpocalypse".
That time of the year is back in Delhi, but Beijing is breathing much better. Read Article
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India: Officials Mull New Plans in Himalayan Tunnel Rescue |
DeutscheWelle
Indian rescuers were on Sunday considering new ways to save 41 workers trapped in the northern state of Uttarakhand.
They became stranded when a highway tunnel they were building partially collapsed last Sunday, trapping them inside.
Since then, rescuers have been trying to drill a hole to reach the workers, but that work stopped when the drilling machine broke on Friday. Read Article
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Optus Outage: Millions Affected by Australian Network Failure |
BBC News - Tiffanie Turnbull, BBC News, Sydney
Millions of Australians were left without mobile and internet after a network failure at telecoms firm Optus.
The failure caused transport delays, cut hospital phone lines, and shut down payment systems.
Optus, the country's second-largest provider, said more than 10 million people and thousands of businesses were affected. Read Article
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Africa, Middle East, Eastern Europe and Russia |
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Liberia's George Weah Concedes Presidential Election Defeat to Joseph Boakai |
France24
Liberian leader and football legend George Weah conceded defeat to opposition leader Joseph Boakai after a tight presidential run-off, saying it was "time to put national interest above personal interest".
The latest and nearly complete results showed Boakai leading with nearly 51 percent of the votes in Liberia, Africa's oldest republic founded by freed American slaves.
"The results announced tonight, though not final, indicate that... Boakai is in a lead that we cannot surpass," Weah said in a speech on national radio late on Friday. Read Article
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Haftar’s Sons Rise in Libya’s East, Bringing ‘Corruption, Death, Destruction’ |
France24 – Leela Jacinto
Khalifa Haftar, the strongman of eastern Libya, has placed his six sons in positions of political and military power. The deadly floods in Derna have seen his youngest, Saddam, rise to head of disaster relief management and the top of his succession charts. For Libyans, it spells more bad news.
Wearing camouflage fatigues and his customary scowl, Saddam Haftar pours over a map of Libya in an airy chamber identified as the “Libyan Emergency Room” in a post on X, formerly Twitter. At his side are three Russian officials, part of a Russian defence ministry team that arrived in eastern Libya days after dams collapsed in Derna, unleashing a disaster of biblical proportions.
“Brigadier General Saddam Haftar, Head of the Libyan Emergency Room, follows up on the latest developments of search and rescue operations,” notes the post by a Libyan local news site barely a week after the September 11 catastrophe, which has been dubbed “Libya’s 9/11”. Read Article
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Proactive Technologies' Project Partners |
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Frank J. Gibson Consulting |
"One thing is certain... nothing is certain!"
The rate of change affecting work, the worker, management and the educational institutions that service all three has been accelerating - made worse by the unexpected Covid-19 pandemic. The economy, the consumer, supply chains and operational strategies have all been disrupted in the short-term, casting doubt on the long-term.
Rapid adaptation is the key to survivability, sustainability and growth. Sometimes an experienced outside advisor can help facilitate needed improvements to take the worry out of change and the fear out of growth. Frank J. Gibson Management and Workforce Excellence Advisor
- Business Development & Growth
- Workforce Development and Optimization
- Training and Cross-Training
- Local,/Regional Workforce Development Projects and Community Development
- Facilitated Problem Solving
- Process Improvement Cross-Functional Leadership Coaching and Mentoring
- Internship and Apprenticeship Projects
- Strategic Doing/Strategic Planning
Copyright © 2023 Frank J. Gibson
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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PTI Systems®
International, Inc.
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Affiliated with Proactive Technologies, Inc®. for projects outside the United States;
- Workforce development partner for employers, and education/ training providers who support employers, to ensure every worker can be trained to full job mastery;
- Experienced with governmental, IDB, GIZ and economic development agency sponsored projects;
- Experienced in assuring multinational employers expanding to the U.S. have the skilled workforce they need.
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PTI Systems® International sets-up complete worker development and performance management systems, and provides technical implementation support;
- We provide strategies for our project's transition to local management.
- Speakers for seminars and conferences.
Don't complain about a "skills gap," deliberately develop every worker to full job mastery!
© 2018-23 PTI Systems® International, Inc.™
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"[A leader] is coach and counsel, not a judge"
American engineer, statistician,
professor, author, lecturer, and
management consultant
1900 - 1993
"If you owe your bank a hundred pounds, you have a problem. But if you owe a million, it has."
English economist, whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments.
1883 - 1946
"There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution."
American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, Founding Father and 2nd president of the United States
1735 – 1826
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U.S. Department of Commerce - Bureau of Economic Analysis |
U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services, September 2023
The U.S. monthly international trade deficit increased in September 2023 according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. Census Bureau. The deficit increased from $58.7 billion in August (revised) to $61.5 billion in September as imports increased more than exports. The goods deficit increased $1.7 billion in September to $86.3 billion. The services surplus decreased $1.2 billion in September to $24.8 billion. Read Report
U.S. International Transactions, 2nd Quarter 2023
The U.S. current-account deficit narrowed by $2.4 billion, or 1.1 percent, to $212.1 billion in the second quarter of 2023, according to statistics released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). The revised first-quarter deficit was $214.5 billion. The second-quarter deficit was 3.2 percent of current-dollar gross domestic product, up less than 0.1 percent from the first quarter. Read Report
New Foreign Direct Investment in the United States
The statistics on new foreign direct investment in the United States provide information on the acquisition, establishment, and expansion of U.S. business enterprises by foreign direct investors. Read Reports
BEA International Trade and Investment Country Facts
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U.S. Department of Commerce - Bureau of the Census |
Monthly Wholesale Trade
Sales
September 2023 sales of merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers’ sales branches and offices, after adjustment for seasonal variations and trading day differences but not for price changes, were $678.1 billion, up 2.2 percent (±0.5 percent) from the revised August level and were up 0.9 percent (±0.5 percent) from the revised September 2022 level. The July 2023 to August 2023 percent change was revised from the preliminary estimate of up 1.8 percent (±0.5 percent) to up 2.0 percent (±0.5 percent).
Inventories
Total inventories of merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers’ sales branches and offices, after adjustment for seasonal variations and trading day differences, but not for price changes, were $901.8 billion at the end of September, up 0.2 percent (±0.2 percent)* from the revised August level. Total inventories were down 1.2 percent (±1.1 percent) from the revised September 2022 level. The August 2023 to September 2023 percent change was revised from the advance estimate of virtually unchanged (±0.2 percent)* to up 0.2 percent (±0.2 percent)*.
Inventories/Sales Ratio
The September inventories/sales ratio for merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers’ sales branches and offices, based on seasonally adjusted data, was 1.33. The September 2022 ratio was 1.36. Read Report
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Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development |
U.S. Data versus the World
Find, compare and share the latest OECD data: charts, maps, tables and related publications. Access Data
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International Trade in Services
Trade in services records the value of services exchanged between residents and non-residents of an economy, including services provided through foreign affiliates established abroad. This indicator is measured in million USD and percentage of GDP for exports, imports and net trade. Services include transport (both freight and passengers), travel, communications services (postal, telephone, satellite, etc.), construction services, insurance and financial services, computer and information services, royalties and license fees, other business services (merchanting, operational leasing, technical and professional services, etc.), cultural and recreational services, and government services not included in the list above. Trade in services drives the exchange of ideas, know-how and technology, although it is often restricted by barriers such as domestic regulations. All OECD countries compile their data according to the 2008 System of National Accounts (SNA). Access Data and Tables
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A Bold Proposition to Connect the Supply Chain |
IndustryWeek – Ryan Kuhlenbeck
OEMs must take the lead on supplier connectivity, collaboratively and with a phased approach.
In manufacturing, data drives decisions and prompts actions. Without visibility of information, businesses can suffer disruption and ongoing efficiency and quality issues.
Large manufacturing and production OEMs may have granular visibility into valuable data within their factories. However, a digital divide separates them from receiving data from the supply base.
According to SCORE, a resource partner for the U.S. Small Business Administration, 98.6% of all manufacturing companies in the U.S. are small businesses with fewer than 500 employees. These manufacturers are vital supply chain components but likely rely on clipboards and Excel spreadsheets for data capture. Manually feeding the data stores creates three issues: Read Article
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Updated: The Panama Canal Continues to Reduce Daily Transit Capacity |
IndustryWeek – Anna Smith
Droughts affecting the region and decades of poor water management have created ongoing issues for the waterway.
Editor’s Note: An update to this story that originally ran August 28, 2023: Due to this year’s precipitation levels and rainfall projections, the Panama Canal Authority will continue to restrict transit capacity. In the coming months, booking slots will gradually be reduced from 25 to 18 per day; from Feb. 1 until further notice, booking slots will remain at 18, half the number of vessels normally allowed to traverse the canal per day.
Drought conditions in the Panama Canal are challenging supply chains that rely on this important waterway to rethink their strategies to move product as shallower-than-usual waters have reduced the number of vessels allowed to traverse the canal per day and restricted maximum ship weights. It’s coming at a cost of both time and money. Read Article
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Trade Deficit Rises 4.9% In September As This Year’s Goods Gap Set To Topple $1 Trillion Again |
Coalition for a Prosperous America – Kenneth Rapoza
The U.S. goods and services trade deficit rose 4.9% in September, and even though the 2023 deficit is set to be smaller than the record 2022 level, the goods deficit will break $1 trillion again this year. If the U.S. manages at least an $80 billion monthly goods deficit over the next three months, which is a conservative estimate, then the U.S. goods trade deficit will come in at $1.039 trillion.
All told, the goods and services deficit for the month of September was $61.5 billion, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said on Tuesday. The goods deficit alone was $86.8 billion on a total Census basis. Services include exports of intellectual property, financial services, business consulting, and travel services.
Trade Deficits with Other Nations
Asia accounts for about half of the goods deficit, with China, the EU, and Mexico being the top three sources of the trillion-dollar trade gap. The September goods deficit with China came in at $28.4 billion, a full $10 billion less than the year-ago September figure. This is the result of a number of factors, including the impact of the China tariffs, the rush to “de-risk” in the corporate sector by shifting production away from China, and an easing in U.S. consumer purchases of electronics this year.
The deficit with Japan increased by $1.9 billion over the year-ago September figure to $6.9 billion in September this year, while the deficit with Vietnam keeps exploding, rising by $1.5 billion to $9.4 billion. Read Article
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WTO Lowers 2023 Trade Growth Forecast Amid Global Manufacturing Slowdown |
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH – World Trade Organization
Projections for growth in global merchandise trade in 2023 have been scaled back by WTO economists amid a continued slump that began in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to the latest WTO trade forecast released on 5 October. The volume of world merchandise trade is now expected to grow by 0.8% this year, less than half the 1.7% increase forecasted in April. The 3.3% growth projected for 2024 remains nearly unchanged from the previous estimate.
The WTO furthermore expects real world GDP to grow by 2.6% at market exchange rates in 2023 and by 2.5% in 2024, as set out in the WTO's “Global Trade Outlook and Statistics — Update: October 2023.”
World trade and output slowed abruptly in the fourth quarter of 2022 as the effects of persistent inflation and tighter monetary policy were felt in the United States, the European Union and elsewhere, and as strained property markets in China prevented a stronger post COVID-19 recovery from taking root. Download Report
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CPA Improves Leading Trade Model to Reflect Real-World Effects of Trade |
Coalition for a Prosperous America – Jeff Ferry
Key Points
- The standard widely-used trade model, GTAP, has been wrong in its forecasts of every major U.S. trade agreement.
- CPA economists have modified the model to allow it to show more realistically the effects of trade policy on employment and the entire economy.
- Our modified GTAP model, GTAP-FP, finds that import restriction or policies specifically designed to stimulate domestic U.S. manufacturing investment via tax credits will stimulate the economy, leading to growth in incomes, output, jobs, and investment.
- The typical downsides of tariff policy, inflation and retaliation, are small compared to the benefits of the stimulus.
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The model confirms that manufacturing is a sector with high impact on the rest of the economy Read Article
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Education And Workforce Development News |
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¾ of Jobs Will Need College Education, Training |
Community College Daily News – Mathew Dembicki
Amid national discussions on the value of higher education — and whether college is even needed to land family-sustaining jobs — a new report puts it plain and simple: nearly three-fourths (72%) of all U.S. jobs through 2031 will require postsecondary education or training.
In 2021, there were 155 million jobs in the U.S., of which 68% required at least some postsecondary education; By 2031, there will be almost 171 million jobs in the U.S. economy, and employers will require college degrees or other postsecondary preparation from 72% of their new and replacement hires, predicts the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW). About 29% of the jobs will require some college or an associate degree, with 42% requiring a baccalaureate or higher, and 28% requiring at least a high school education. Read Article
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What If You Could Turn Your Job Into A Degree? |
Community College Daily News - Joe E. Ross
The emerging “apprenticeship degree” offers a pathway for working adults to earn a salary and degree, with minimal student debt.
Demand for the traditional bachelor’s degree is collapsing.
The share of parents who say they want their children to go to college has fallen to nearly half of what it was just ten years ago. And the bachelor’s degree has never looked less attractive to young people wary of a lifetime of student loan debt. Nonetheless, colleges scramble for their share of this year’s crop of graduating high school students, who number less than four million. That’s a relatively small market. Read Article
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Training And Organizational Development News |
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The Power of Intentional Encouragement |
IndustryWeek – Ashleigh Walters
Developing others and encouraging them to grow, every day and with intention, is part of servant leadership.
Susan Hileman of RED Day Communications is a trusted mentor of mine, teaching me how to be a people-centric leader. She has been behind the scenes helping me train leaders for many years. Last month, after reading my IndustryWeek column, she encouraged me to write about “intentional encouragement.”
To be honest, I am not sure I had ever heard the term. I had to Google it. Intentional encouragement has biblical roots, but it is applicable in everyday life. It means valuing others above yourself and encouraging them to fulfill their interests, without expecting anything in return.
‘Almost There’
The original “intentional encouragement” came as my husband and I were hiking up Mount LeConte in the Great Smoky Mountains. With a mile and a half left to go, someone had scratched a note on a stone that read, “Almost There!” That note was just what we needed in order to not quit and turn back. The next mile and a half would be the steepest climb of the whole trip. But we knew that a stranger was rooting us on, and we were not going to let them down. Read Article
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Just 31% of Employees Find Their Work Engaging |
EHS Today – Staff
Gartner survey reveals engaged employees are more likely to stay at their organization and contribute more.
Even with companies trying a myriad of things to get employees engaged, the numbers aren’t looking good according to research from Gartner. Less than one-third of employees report they are engaged, enthusiastic and energized by their work, according to Gartner, Inc. And this be a big problem since companies need employees to be engaged in their safety programs.
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Taking Stock of Your Team: An End-of-Year Assessment |
IndustryWeek - Chris Morgan
Too often, we default to "team building" events, while not addressing the more complex architecture of high-performing teams.
As the year gallops into the final stretch, many of us look at this period of upcoming reviews and planning exercises as a series of hurdles to jump – just as we are fatiguing at the end of the annual race.
Reframed, this can be a time to generate excitement and fitness for the new year.
The Team Needs to be Developed in Three Dimensions
To make this happen, we want to think more broadly than planning a holiday party. To be clear, we are in favor of that, but it is just one component.
Too often we default to "team-building" events – fun parties, work-style assessments, awkward ice-breaking and other team games – while not addressing the more comprehensive architecture required for high-performing teams. Instead, we need to consider the team’s development against the following three dimensions: Read Article
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Survey: Companies Struggle to Measure the Value of Training |
HR Dive - Carolyn Crist
Demonstrating ROI from employee development — and clearly defining that ROI — can be a major challenge, a D2L report showed.
Most organizations in North America are struggling to measure the return on investment (ROI) of employee training programs, according to a Nov. 7 report from D2L, a global learning technology company.
In a survey of hundreds of high-level leaders across a range of industries, 46% indicated that demonstrating ROI from employee training is a challenge.
“The results of this survey are revealing in that they show how difficult organizations find it to quantify the benefits of employee training,” Sasha Thackaberry, senior vice president of Wave at D2L, said in a statement. “The key to helping make this easier is to establish clear metrics and delineate closely the skills needed for success.” Read Article
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The Team Needs to be Developed in Three Dimensions |
IndustryWeek
To make this happen, we want to think more broadly than planning a holiday party. To be clear, we are in favor of that, but it is just one component.
Too often we default to "team-building" events – fun parties, work-style assessments, awkward ice-breaking and other team games – while not addressing the more comprehensive architecture required for high-performing teams. Instead, we need to consider the team’s development against the following three dimensions: Read Article
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Access Proactive Technologies' Recent "Proactive Technologies Workforce News" Article Quicklinks |
Located on the left panel below, this includes articles on structured worker development, achieving worker "full job mastery," engineering/quality/safety compliance, ISO/TS/AS quality program support and compliance, and many other contemporary worker development and management topics. |
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Recent Proactive Technologies News Article Quicklinks |
November
by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
by Stacey Lett, Director of Operations - Eastern U.S. - Proactive Technologies, Inc.
by Frank Gibson, Workforce Development Advisor, retired from The Ohio State University – Alber Enterprise Center
by Proactive Technologies, Inc. Staff
October
by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
by Stacey Lett, Director of Operations - Eastern U.S. - Proactive Technologies, Inc.
Proactive Technologies, Inc. - Staff
by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
September
by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
by Stacey Lett, Director of Operations – Eastern U.S. – Proactive Technologies, Inc.
by Proactive Technologies, Inc. – Staff
by Proactive Technologies, Inc. – Staff
by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
August
by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
by Stacey Lett, Director of Operations - Eastern U.S. - Proactive Technologies, Inc.
by Frank Gibson, Workforce Development Advisor, retired from The Ohio State University – Alber Enterprise Center
by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
by Proactive Technologies, Inc. Staff
July
By Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
by Stacey Lett, Director of Operations – Eastern U.S. – Proactive Technologies, Inc.
by Randy Toscano, Jr., MSHRM, Executive Director of Human Resources, Paris Regional Medical Center
by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
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Proactive Technologies, Inc.® Partners With Educational Institutions, Workforce/Economic
Development Groups, Government Agencies
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Structured on-the-job training attracts and engages employers in workforce development partnerships...some projects sustainable for more than 18 years!
This creates a steady need for your related technical instruction, services and a pathway for employment.
These partnerships:
- enhance your institution's opportunity to market your products and services to incumbent workers;
- allow your organization to include structured on-the-job training as a capstone to preemployment preparation;
- document a trainee-to worker's increasing value to the employer - the key to retention - rather than leaving it to chance;
- properly aligns workforce development resources and maximizes the impact and results; allows you to engage an employer's facility, equipment and staff in the training process;
- provides the best, sustainable infrastructure for apprenticeships and internships that last!
- is a win for the trainee, win for the worker, win for the employer, win for the institution and win for the community!
This approach has continued to prove itself since 1988, and does not compete with your school's or agency's products and services; it adds to your efforts the clear, tangible, measurable advantage that employers seek.
Proactive Technologies has continued to partner with community colleges, universities, workforce development agencies and training providers with its " hybrid approach" to worker training. Introduce the power of the PROTECH® system of managed human resource development to your clients!
Copyright © 2015 - 2023
Proactive Technologies, Inc.®
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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Tri-Rivers Career Center - Adult Education provides lifelong, continuous learning for a diverse adult population. We utilize practical skills with an eye toward technological advancement.
We partner with state agencies and employers to provide targeted skill development to future and incumbent workers.
Our RAMTEC (Robotic and Advanced Manufacturing Technology Education Collaborative) facility - one of many throughout the state - offers advanced technical training in specialized areas such as robotics, robotic welding, and engineering technology.
Copyright © 2022 Tri-Rivers Career Center - Adult Education - RAMTEC ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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PROACTIVE TECHNOLOGIES, INC.® CLIENT SERVICES
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To supplement onsite PROTECH® system of managed human resource development classes, these regularly scheduled webinars are available to the registered staff of clients:
- Structured On-The-Job Training Instructor Certification
- Structured On-The Job Training Checklist Administrator Certification
- Management Structured On-The-Job Training Project Support Briefing
- Integrating Support for Plant-Wide ISO/AS/IATF Quality and Safety Systems with PROTECH Workforce Development System
- Supporting "Pay-For-Value" Systems
- Promoting Continuous Process Improvement While Implementing the PROTECH System for the Accelerated Transfer of Expertise™
- PROTECH Onsite Lead Trainer and System Administrator Certification
Contact US t o attend one of these seminars and we will send you an e-reservation. Include your client ID, name and user ID number and which webinar you would like to attend.
Copyright © 2019-23
Proactive Technologies, Inc.®
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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What Product Quality Testing is Made of – Quality Materials are the Route to Quality Products. |
Quality Magazine – Carl Bramley
Any physical manufactured product is made of something—its fundamental material is the baseline on which its functionality and usefulness are built. Neglecting materials testing can be the root cause of final product failure in service and damage a brand’s profitability and reputation. Quality materials are the route to quality products.
For a product to be fit-for-purpose and meet legislative and commercial requirements it must check several boxes: Read Article
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Honda, BMW, and Subaru Among 528,000 Vehicles Recalled: Check Car Recalls |
USA Today -Zoe Wells
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued multiple recalls last week including nearly 250,000 Honda vehicles for manufacturing error in the connecting rod bearing.
Are you looking to see if any recalls were issued on your vehicle? If the car isn’t listed below, owners can check USA TODAY’s automotive recall database or search NHTSA’s database for new recalls. The NHTSA website allows you to search for recalls based on your vehicle identification number or VIN. Read Article
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Judge Says Evidence Shows Tesla and Elon Musk Knew About Flawed Autopilot System |
NPR - Vanessa Romo
The Palm Beach County Court lawsuit was filed by Kim Banner, wife of Jeremy Banner, who died in the fatal car crash after engaging the Autopilot function on a Tesla Model 3.
A Florida judge says a lawsuit against Tesla and its autopilot driving car can go to trial, adding to the company's legal woes over the technology.
Palm Beach County Judge Reid Scott ruled that there was "reasonable evidence" to conclude that Tesla owner and CEO, Elon Musk, and other company executives knew that the vehicle's autopilot system was defective. But they continued to tout its capabilities and sell it anyway.
The suit stems from a deadly crash in 2019, in which Jeremy Banner switched on the autopilot function on his Tesla Model 3 about 10 seconds before it drove under the trailer of a semi-truck. The collision sheared off the top of the car, killing Banner. Read Article
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Stellantis Recalls Over 32,000 SUVs Over Potential Fire Risk |
IndustryWeek - Agence France-Presse
The recall applies to some 2021-2024 Wrangler 4xe models.
Automaker Stellantis announced on Wednesday that it was recalling more than 32,000 hybrid Jeep Wrangler SUVs from the U.S. market, citing a potential fire risk.
Eight of the plug-in vehicles had caught fire, six of them while connected to chargers, the company said in a statement.
All the SUVs were switched off at the time, and Stellantis said it was unaware of any injuries or accidents.
"The vehicles may be driven. However, the Company is advising owners to refrain from recharging these hybrid vehicles, and to park them away from structures and other vehicles, until they are remedied," Stellantis said. Read Article
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How to Keep Your Gemba Walks Fresh |
IndustryWeek - Michael Bremer
It’s a challenge to keep the traditional tools we use for continuous improvement or lean efforts fresh and meaningful.
Who has tried doing a gemba walk and felt over time they just didn’t add much value? Or that they were OK for a while, but now?
It’s a challenge to keep the traditional tools we use for continuous improvement or lean efforts fresh and meaningful. All too often, something like “leader’s standard work” becomes a checklist. It does not drive meaningful behavior change. I’d like to share three thoughts/actions you might try to keep your gemba walks meaningful. If you find this helps with your walks, you could apply a similar thought process to other improvement tools you use: leader standard work, white boards, team huddle meetings, etc. Read Article
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Lighting Up Rural Zimbabwe with Upcycled Plastic and LEDs |
DeutscheWelle – Privilege Musvanhiri
In rural Zimbabwe, only 30% of people have access to electricity. An engineering student has designed a lamp made from upcycled plastic bottles and used LED lights that provides solar-powered illumination and also tackles plastic and e-waste. See Video Report
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NASA’s Webb Reveals New Features in Heart of Milky Way |
NASA
A crowded region of space, full of stars and colorful clouds, more than twice as wide as it is tall. A funnel-shaped region of space appears darker than its surroundings with fewer stars. It is wider at the top edge of the image, narrowing towards the bottom. Toward the narrow end of this dark region a small clump of red and white appears to shoot out streamers upward and left. A large, bright cyan-colored area surrounds the lower portion of the funnel-shaped dark area, forming a rough U shape. The cyan-colored area has needle-like, linear structures and becomes more diffuse in the center of the image. The right side of the image is dominated by clouds of orange and red, with a purple haze.
The latest image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows a portion of the dense center of our galaxy in unprecedented detail, including never-before-seen features astronomers have yet to explain. The star-forming region, named Sagittarius C (Sgr C), is about 300 light-years from the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*. Read Article
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Antibiotic Resistance a Looming, Deadly Global Threat |
DeutscheWelle – Fabian Schmidt | Gudrun Heise
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria present a deadly threat to our health. But only a few pharmaceutical companies are still trying to bring new antibiotics onto the market — making new drugs just isn’t profitable.
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria threaten our health, and yet only a few pharmaceutical companies are still conducting research into new antibiotic drugs to bring them to market.
That’s because these drugs generate too little profit to cover the high cost of research, development and distribution.
The Netherlands-based Access to Medicine Foundation is committed to ensuring that suitable medicines are available for patients worldwide, wherever possible. Read Article
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SpaceX Starship test flight fails minutes after launch on second attempt |
France24
SpaceX's uncrewed spacecraft Starship, developed to carry astronauts to the moon and beyond, was presumed to have failed in space minutes after lifting off on Saturday in a second test after its first attempt to reach space ended in an explosion.
The two-stage rocketship blasted off from the Elon Musk-owned company's Starbase launch site near Boca Chica in Texas, soaring roughly 55 miles (90 km) above ground on a planned 90-minute flight into space.
But the rocket's Super Heavy first stage booster, though it appeared to achieve a crucial maneuver to separate with its core stage, exploded over the Gulf of Mexico shortly after detaching. Read Article
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US Coast Guard Leading Oil Spill Clean-up in Gulf of Mexico |
Reuters
The U.S. Coast Guard was leading an oil spill clean-up in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, partnering with local and federal agencies and companies after a Main Pass Oil Gathering Co (MPOG) underwater pipeline began leaking.
The crude oil pipeline is around 19 miles (30 km) offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, east of Venice, Louisiana, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said.
Third Coast Infrastructure Llc, which owns MPOG, declined to comment and referred questions to the Coast Guard.
The EPA added that the Coast Guard had activated the National Response Team, comprising of 15 federal entities responsible for coordinating the response to oil pollution incidents. Read Article
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Mysterious Respiratory Dog Illness Detected in Several States: What to Know |
USA Today - Saman Shafiq
Veterinary laboratories are warning pet owners about an infectious respiratory disease that was first detected among dogs a few months ago.
Cases have spread to at least five states while experts are still trying to figure out the cause of the illnesses, the American Veterinary Medical Association said in a news release on Friday.
Here's everything to know about the mystery illness, symptoms to look out for and what to do if you suspect your dog could be affected. Read Article
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Cyber Security And IT News |
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File-transfer Services, Rich with Sensitive Data, Are Under Attack |
Cybersecurity Dive - Matt Kapko, Senior Reporter
This year has seen a trio of supply-chain attacks that created turmoil for thousands of corporate victims and their customers.
The spree of attacks against MOVEit environments in May, which are still cascading to downstream victims five months later, capped a concentrated period of damaging attacks against file-transfer services.
Progress Software’s MOVEit, Fortra’s GoAnywhere and IBM Aspera Faspex were hit by supply-chain attacks over a three-month span starting in March this year. Clop, the ransomware group responsible for exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in MOVEit and GoAnywhere, was also responsible for zero-day exploits against Accellion file-transfer devices in 2020 and 2021. Read Article
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Non-bank Financial Institutions Must Report Data Security Breaches: FTC |
Cybersecurity Dive - Rajashree Chakravarty, Reporter
The amendment to the FTC’s Safeguards Rule requires non-banking financial institutions to disclose data breaches within 30 days.
The Federal Trade Commission will require non-banking financial institutions to report data breaches and other events related to cybersecurity, the agency announced Friday.
The amendment to the FTC’s Safeguards Rule would require non-banking financial institutions like mortgage brokers, motor vehicle dealers and payday lenders to notify the commission as soon as possible, and no later than 30 days, after the discovery of a breach affecting at least 500 consumers. Read Article
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5 Okta Customers Snared in Attack on the Provider’s Support System |
Cybersecurity Dive - Matt Kapko, Senior Reporter
The IAM provider says the attack was most likely linked to a compromised employee’s personal Google account or personal device.
Five Okta customers were compromised by a cyberattack against the single sign-on provider’s support system, Okta CSO David Bradbury said in a Friday blog post. The company shared results of its internal investigation two weeks after it first disclosed an intrusion into its support system.
In each case, data was exposed by browser log files the customers shared with Okta support staff. The threat actor used those files, which contained session tokens, to hijack legitimate Okta sessions.
Of the five, three have come forward — BeyondTrust, Cloudflare and 1Password independently shared how they detected and thwarted any threat actor damage. The additional pair of customers compromised by the attack remain unknown. Read and Hear Article
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Updated: Clorox Cyberattack Cost $356 Million |
IndustryWeek
The bleach manufacturer this week begins the cleanup process to fully repair damage from an attack first reported in mid-August that slowed production and caused product shortages.
IndustryWeek - Dennis Scimeca
Update Nov. 7, 2023: Clorox reported first-quarter 2024 earnings earlier this month, posting a 20% decline in net sales, a $356 million decline, most of which it blamed on the cyberattack. While a huge cost to the company, it outperformed the worst-case scenarios from its Oct. 5, 2023, warning to investors.
Update Oct. 5, 2023: Clorox Co. today, October 5, announced preliminary financial information for Q1 2024. Among other ramifications of the cyberattack, net sales are expected to decrease between about $487 million and $593 million (in its release the company predicted a 23%-to-28% decline from projections released at the end of its fourth quarter. The Q4 release predicted "mid-single digit" increases from Q4's $2 billion in net sales. A 5% increase would have suggested a $2.1 billion quarter).
Clorox expects operational impacts from the cyberattack to continue into Q2, though the majority of order processing operations have returned to automated processes. The company continues to assess impacts of the attack on the remainder of FY 2024.] Read Article
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This Devious Malware Will Let Hackers Restore Deleted Cookies and Hijack Your Google Account |
Tech Radar - Sead Fadilpašić
Flaw could post a risk even for companies who watch their security practices
The latest version of the Lumma infostealer malware has a rather interesting feature - it is able to restore expired Google cookies, which can then be used to access the victim’s Google account.
The findings come from cybersecurity researchers from Hudson Rock, who have warned it could spell disaster even for organizations that follow best practices in terms of cybersecurity.
The team discovered an ad for the feature posted on a dark web forum which said that the version released on November 14 can “restore dead cookies using a key from restore files.” The ad further stresses that this only applies to Google cookies. Read Article
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Hacked Microsoft Word Documents Being Used to Trick Windows Users |
TechRadar - Sead Fadilpašić
Macro-laced Microsoft Word documents still work in some attacks
North Koreans are looking to steal sensitive data from Russian targets using malicious Microsoft Word documents, experts have claimed.
These are the findings of Fortinet’s researcher Cara Lin, who observed a group called Konni (but could be Kimsuky AKA APT43 due to a number of overlaps it has with the known threat actor) trying to deliver a malicious Russian-language Microsoft document to its victims.
The malware, as you might expect, comes in the form of a macro. This script will launch an interim Batch script that will check the system, bypass User Account Control (UAC) settings, and finally deploy an infostealing DLL. Read Article
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Top File-sharing Service Hit With Embarrassing Security Bug That Reveals Admin Passwords |
Tech Radar - Sead Fadilpašić
Three critical vulnerabilities were found in ownCloud
Top file sharing service ownCloud has released three fixes to critical vulnerabilities that allowed malicious actors to steal admin credentials, modify and delete files at will, and redirect callbacks.
ownCloud is an open-source file-syncing and sharing software for businesses who would rather store files in their own servers, instead of a third-party environment. Per its site, it services more than 200 million users worldwide.
As it consists of multiple libraries, the vulnerabilities discovered were found in different components. The first one, CVE-2023-49103, can be abused to steal login data and configuration information in containerized deployments. This flaw was given the maximum severity score - 10. Read Article
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Human Resource Management News |
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NLRB Finalizes Joint Employer Rule |
HR Dive – Ryan Golden, Senior Reporter
The board essentially reinstated the standard articulated in Browning-Ferris Industries, a case that has been the center of a nearly decade-long employment law saga.
Dive Brief:
- The National Labor Relations Board published Thursday a rule updating the standard for determining when multiple employers may be considered joint employers under the National Labor Relations Act.
- NLRB’s new joint employer rule retains much of the same details from its 2022 proposed rule, specifying that an entity may be considered a joint employer of another employer’s employees if the two share or codetermine essential terms and conditions of employment. Per the rule, joint employers may possess or exercise direct or indirect control over one or more essential terms and conditions of employment.
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Changes from the proposed rule include an exhaustive list of seven categories of employment terms or conditions that the board will consider essential for the purposes of its joint employer analysis, as well as a description of those it will consider “irrelevant” for such analysis. The final rule also addresses joint employers’ bargaining obligations. The rule is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register tomorrow; it will take effect 60 days after that. Read Article
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U.S. Employers Announced 22% Fewer Job Cuts in October |
CFO.com - Vincent Ryan, Senior Reporter-at-Large
But for the first 10 months of 2023, job cuts have more than doubled compared with 2022, according to The Challenger Report.
U.S. businesses announced 36,836 job cuts in October, a 22% decline from the prior month and the second-lowest monthly this year, according to data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas released Thursday.
“Job cut plans have slowed significantly since the first half of the year, and consumers have continued to spend, even in the face of high inflation,” said Andy Challenger, senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Read Article
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Subaru to Raise Wages After Similar Moves by Nonunionized Automakers |
CFO Dive - Eric Walz, Reporter
The decision impacts Subaru’s sole U.S. assembly plant in Lafayette, Indiana, which employs over 5,600 workers.
Subaru will raise U.S. autoworkers’ wages following similar pay hikes by Toyota, Hyundai and Honda, which all were announced after the UAW negotiated labor deals with the Big Three, CEO Atsushi Osaki told Reuters on Thursday at the Los Angeles Auto Show.
The amount of Subaru’s pay raise amounts have not been determined, according to Reuters, but Osaki said through an interpreter that they will be “in line with industry levels” after the new UAW deals. The timing of the raises is also unclear. Read Article
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Investing in Education is Smart Retention Strategy |
EHS Today
Survey shows employees more likely to stay if company provides education investment.
If I had a dollar, well maybe $5 with inflation, for everytime sometime told me that retention is a real pain point in their company, I'd be rich.
While the ultimate solution is having an engaged workforce, whose needs are being met, it's finding out what those needs are that is challenging.
Arecent survey of over 20,000 employees conducted by Strategic Education, found that 87% of workers feel that employers should be investing in continuing education for employees. This number was a 4% increase over last year's survey. Read Article
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Environmental, Health & Safety News |
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OSHA Seeks to Add Union Reps to Inspections |
EHS Today - David Sparkman
Agency also announces alliance with NLRB to promote unionization.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has proposed a rule that would allow employees to request that a non-governmental third party—which could be a representative from a labor union—to join an OSHA safety inspection of a non-union employer’s facility.
In a separate development, OSHA and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) also announced that they have entered into a formal agreement to work together closely, coordinating their activities in a manner that promotes unionization of the workforce.
Commenting on the OSHA proposal to allow employees and agency inspectors to choose third parties, such as union representatives, to accompany the inspectors when they walk around employer facilities, Marc Freedman, vice president, employment policy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said, “Without question, if OSHA moves forward with this regulation, the agency will be making clear its agenda is no longer focused on improving workplace safety but on promoting organized labor.” Read Article
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Workplace Violence Is on the Rise, and So Are Regulations |
IndustryWeek
Everyday acts of workplace violence affect more than a million Americans each year. A federal study published last year found an annual average of 1.3 million nonfatal workplace violence incidents between 2015 and 2019. Workplace homicides increased by 11% over that period, although they were down considerably from their peak in 1994.
In its most recently published data, the BLS found that in 2020, there were 392 homicides and more than 37,000 injuries in the workplace that resulted from intentional violence. Sales, transportation, management, construction and production are the five occupational groups with the highest rates of workplace homicide. Read Article
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Health Cost Hikes to Moderate Slightly in ’24 |
CFO.com - David McCann, Contributing Editor
That’s the best face that can be put on the forecast for medical benefits costs next year, with another large increase in store.
It’s going to be another year of stiff increases in companies’ costs for medical benefits in 2024 — not quite as stiff as those experienced this year, but unsettling nonetheless.
In North America, the projected health care cost increase for next year is 9.4%, following a 9.8% upward surge in 2023, according to Willis Towers Watson’s 2024 Global Medical Trends Survey. Globally, the corresponding figures are 9.9% and 10.7%.
The survey also revealed that 58% of those polled — 266 health insurers in 66 countries — anticipate higher or significantly higher increases from 2025 through 2027. In North America, though, just 45% said so. Read Article
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Having trouble finding, selecting, training and keeping the skilled workers you need? Are your employee turnover costs a concern?
Let's start with what we already know:
- Classes alone will not train workers to perform your tasks...
- Quality Control policies and Process Documents are not a substitute for task training...
- Putting 2 people together and hoping for the best is not a training strategy...
- Wishing and hoping won't develop the skilled workers you need...
The cost of one worker malperformance or one worker's under-capacity or under-performance - due to lack of proper training - can more than justify the investment to train all your workers properly!
AND, unstructured, uncontrolled, undocumented task training is going on all day, every day. But if you cannot explain the process, you surely cannot measure and improve it.
Proactive Technologies's approach to structured on-the-job training takes place where, and while, the work is performed. You need no additional staff and structured on-the-job training does not interrupt your work schedule like unstructured, haphazard and ad hoc training or classroom learning does.
As part of every project, Proactive Technologies provides the support to set-up, implement, manage, document and revise the worker development system so you can stay focused on business.
Copyright © 2019-23 Proactive Technologies, Inc.® ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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EMPLOYERS!
If your organization sees training as a cost, not as an investment, maybe you should consider another approach!
- Cuts the employer's internal costs of training;
- Lowers the costs associated with turnover;
- Drives new-hires and incumbent workers to "full job mastery;"
- Increases worker capacity, work quality, productivity and compliance (ISO/AS/IATF training and records requirement, engineering specifications and safety mandates);
- Creates framework for cross-training, retraining and worker certification;
- Establishes the framework for employer specific/job-specific apprenticeships and internships - registered or not;
- Builds career development tracks and succession plans for hourly (and salary) workers;
- Ensures the increased and maintained "Return on Worker investment" through any type of change...
ALL OF THIS FROM ONE APPROACH!
This structured on-the-job training is performed where, and while, the work takes place!
You need no additional staff, and this will not disrupt your work schedule or burden your existing staff!
If your firm is partnered with local career and technical educational institutions, use of shared employer's equipment, facilities and paid wages of trainer(s) and trainee(s) are attractive match for potential grant assistance.
for more information.
Copyright © 2019-23 Proactive Technologies, Inc.®
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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Copyright © 1988 - 2023 Proactive Technologies, Inc.TM
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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