Workforce
State and local governments face a tight labor market and a competitive disadvantage with the private sector. But salaries aren’t the only issue, with cities, counties and states all grappling with training, retention, remote work and increased union activity.
While one stated purpose of worksite immigration raids is to remove illegal competition from the labor marketplace, the reality is far messier.
Oklahoma's state Senate has introduced legislation to reduce the red tape for experienced educators to move to Oklahoma and teach. But critics worry the law could work in reverse, sending teachers out of state.
The metro area had 408,700 jobs in December which is 300 more than the area had in March 2020. The health-care industry has added 4,400 jobs since the start of the pandemic, followed next by leisure and hospitality.
BIPOC entrepreneurs, veteran- and women-owned businesses and small businesses in underserved regions of Washington state, including Walla Walla County, may be eligible to receive an impact grant of up to $100,000.
Though annual installations of solar panels increased by nearly 60 percent between 2016 and 2021, the solar energy industry employed 11 percent fewer people in 2021 than it did five years earlier.
A few governors have moved to open up thousands of state jobs to people without a college degree. It's commonsense policy and an economic win for states. It’s also a political opportunity for governors eyeing the White House.
The state Senate passed the “Temp Worker Bill of Rights” after a monthslong saga that included a thrice-delayed final vote. The bill will give temp workers the right to basic information in their native language and eliminate agency fees.
The program offers companies tax breaks based on the number of employees they hire and where those jobs are located. A report found the program costs more to operate than the tax revenue it generates.
Private companies and corporations can much more easily ban workers from using TikTok on work-issued devices than government agencies. But it’s unlikely an employer could ban an employee from using the platform entirely.
The state’s $35 million initiative, Good Jobs Hawai’i, hopes to support 3,000 state residents with their career advancement in health care, technology, clean energy, skilled trades and creative industries.
Three years after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, those in the Cleveland area are still uncertain about where employers will require their workers to be: in office, at home or a hybrid of the two.
The state’s layoffs decreased from 12,000 in 2020 to just 1,750 in 2022. But officials and economists are reluctant to hail the drop, saying the data needs to be contextualized to better understand Connecticut’s economic health.
Recent data reveals that four counties across North Texas have increased their numbers of workers with college degrees over the last five years and drawn more companies and workers from out of state.
A study evaluated 79 cities for their minimum wages and ranked them. When the cost of living is included, Philly’s minimum wage came out to just $6.69 per hour.
The factory jobs that used to be a fit for unskilled blue-collar workers are rapidly going high tech and white collar.
Calls to the state’s Employment Security Department were answered just 12.5 percent of the time in December and problems left over from the pandemic continue to backlog the benefits system, delaying relief for residents.
While they are disruptive for the lives of the affected workers, experts and economists argue that the layoffs don’t necessarily foreshadow economic collapse as the classic indicators of recession haven’t happened yet.
A new study has found that the arts, entertainment and recreation industry offers the least job security for the year. Jobs in the federal government were the most safe, with state and local education jobs ranked second in security.
Two studies found that white people account for about 54 percent of exempt city employees who make at least $90,000. African Americans are the only nonwhite group whose 2021 exempt employment rate fell below its 2016 rate.
Houston-area workplaces saw occupancy rates increase to nearly 60 percent in December 2022, up 25 percent from the beginning of the pandemic. The area’s return-to-office rate is outpacing several other major metro areas.
Some believe that companies fail to recognize a person’s commitment and desire to work that could make them a good candidate for an offered position, despite lacking credentials. But when do falsehoods become too much?
The state’s minimum wage increased by 80 cents to $10.10 an hour for non-tipped workers, the largest increase in more than a decade and a half. The state’s minimum wage increased about four times between 1969 and 2006.
The western region of New York is faced with an aging, shrinking and undiverse local workforce, and significant structural issues that make attracting and maintaining new workers a challenge. Revitalizing the workforce will be a large undertaking.
A handful of new state labor laws will go into effect on Jan. 1. With the new laws, employers will be required to include salary and wage ranges on job postings, minimum wage will rise and millions will receive greater paid family leave.
After taking a tour of the MBTA’s Repair Facility in Everett, Mass., Maura Healey reinforced the need for future investment, including in vocational schools and programs to create a talent pipeline.
The Los Angeles and Long Beach ports move a total of $469 billion worth of freight a year and employ 175,000 workers. But if the industry continues to favor East Coast ports, the impact on Southern California ports could be devastating.
Are community colleges prepared to train the workers a technology-based economy requires? Joseph Fuller of Harvard Business School talks about findings from a multiyear research project that finds they have far to go.
The WorkPlace Inc., and the Northwest Regional Workforce Investment Board have received funding from the EPA to launch environmental careers for students from underserved areas of the state known as brownfields.
A new report from experts at NYU and Harvard law schools outlines the ways state attorneys general can protect communities and workers as the country builds a clean energy economy.
Since 2000, 375 railroad workers have been killed on the job and more than 109,000 have been injured. But last year the National Transportation Safety Board investigated just 14 train incidents.
Workers at John Deere, Starbucks, University of California and Cedar Rapids’ Ingredion are all a part of the wave of organized labor strikes that occurred this year. An economics professor explains the impacts of these movements.
