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 primarily a military reserve force, the National Guard also responds to a wide variety of state-level missions — some familiar kinds of missions, some more unusual.
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.
Many “guest workers” on temporary work visas must get rehired within 60 days to avoid being forced to leave the U.S. It’s unclear how many of the 18,000 Seattle-area tech workers laid off had temporary visas.
The state’s Workforce Development Council has recommended the Legislature invest more funding in operations and programming of new career and tech centers and education as well as support staff training.
This week, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration announced that it would rescind its telework policy that was established during the pandemic. Union leaders and members have expressed frustrations over the decision.
Two million Californians lost unemployment benefits last September when pandemic-era programs ended a lifeline for many workers, specifically those who were less-educated, Black or over the age of 64.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced a bipartisan agreement to fill the financial hole in the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund, which once stood at $4.5 billion, that was depleted by the pandemic.
In September, the state had nearly 1.03 million job openings, which amounts to almost 1.8 openings for every unemployed resident. Dallas-Fort Worth added 255,000 jobs in the last year, roughly 2.5 times the usual pace.
The region has added 19,500 jobs in October and 255,000 jobs in the 12 months ending in October, far outpacing previous years’ job growth. D-FW also set a new high for total employment in October with nearly 4.19 million workers.
With more people questioning the facts used in public finance, the Government Finance Officers Association has developed a curriculum that provides education and communication skills to remedy divisive and uncivil discourse.
The Washington state Employment Security Department estimates that the state is set to lose as many as 18,000 tech or tech-related jobs over barely two months. But some are hopeful the layoffs will be short-lived.
Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office reported that the state’s antiquated unemployment system and “ad hoc workarounds” contributed to a loss of billions of dollars in improper payments.
Voters on Tuesday approved an amendment to enshrine a right-to-work law in the state’s constitution by a more than 2-to-1 margin, which will make it more difficult in the future to change how union workers collect dues.
There was concern earlier this year that the Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund would diminish, but the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations reported this week that it has grown to $232 million.
Not only do bus operators need better pay, but they need to be treated with dignity and respect, and they need flexibility in their work along with opportunities for advancement.
A state audit found that the Workforce Development office paid nearly $125,000 to deceased people and another nearly $114,000 to ineligible prisoners in the 2019 to 2020 fiscal year.
As the nation prepares for the possibility of an economic recession, one survey found that 60 percent of managers said remote workers would likely be the first to be laid off as compared to in-office positions.
A report has found that the state is performing worse than it should be in creating innovation-based jobs, growing only 11 percent between 2010 and 2019, eight points less than the national sector.
The ValleyBuild NOW program pays women a stipend to cover their living expenses and help with transportation and child-care costs while participating in the two-month training that prepares them for construction and related trade jobs.
A report found that 21 percent of millenials have changed jobs within the past year, which is three times higher than non-millenials. The study also found that 55 percent of millennial workers are not engaged at work.
The state’s food assistance program’s Fresno County office experienced a 23 percent staff vacancy rate last month while applications for the food benefits increased by 18 percent from 2019 to 2021.
Much of the Seattle area’s office return is stuck in limbo, with just 36 percent of downtown office workers back as of last week. Employees continue working remotely and optimizing flexible schedules.
Our prisons don’t have enough staffers to protect inmates or themselves. Better pay, benefits and working conditions are needed, and there are other effective strategies.
