Tag: Labor and Jobs

Trump’s Tax Cut Fueled Investment but Did Not Pay for Itself, Study Finds

The corporate tax cuts that President Donald J. Trump signed into law in 2017 have boosted investment in the U.S. economy and delivered a modest pay bump for workers, according to the most rigorous and detailed study yet of the law’s effects. Those benefits are less than Republicans promised, though, and they have come at […]

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American Office Workers Are Living Even Farther From Employers Now

In 2020, Virginia Martin lived two and a half miles from her office. Today, the distance between her work and home is 156. Ms. Martin, 37, used to live in Durham, N.C., and drove about 10 minutes to her job as a librarian at Duke. After the onset of remote work, Ms. Martin got her […]

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How 33-Year-Olds, the Peak Millennials, Are Shaping the U.S. Economy

I have covered economics for 11 years now, and in that time, I have come to the realization that I am a statistic. Every time I make a major life choice, I promptly watch it become the thing that everyone is doing that year. I started college in 2009, in the era of all-time-high matriculation […]

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Big Labor Gamble: Push to Unionize Every U.S. Auto Plant

When Shawn Fain, the United Automobile Workers president, unveiled the deal that ended six weeks of strikes at Ford Motor in the fall, he framed it as part of a longer campaign. Next, he declared, would be the task of organizing nonunion plants across the country. “One of our biggest goals coming out of this […]

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Report Helps Answer the Question: Is a College Degree Worth the Cost?

Most people go to college to improve their financial prospects, though there are other benefits to attending a postsecondary institution. But as the average cost of a four-year degree has risen to six figures, even at public universities, it can be hard to know if the money is well spent. A new analysis by HEA […]

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The U.S. Economy Is Surpassing Expectations. Immigration Is One Reason.

The U.S. economic recovery from the pandemic has been stronger and more durable than many experts had expected, and a rebound in immigration is a big reason. A resumption in visa processing in 2021 and 2022 jump-started employment, allowing foreign-born workers to fill some holes in the labor force that persisted across industries and locations […]

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3 Questions: Shaping the future of work in an age of AI

The MIT Shaping the Future of Work Initiative, co-directed by MIT professors Daron Acemoglu, David Autor, and Simon Johnson, celebrated its official launch on Jan. 22. The new initiative’s mission is to analyze the forces that are eroding job quality and labor market opportunities for non-college workers and identify innovative ways to move the economy […]

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“We offer another place for knowledge”

In the Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi, Jospin Hassan didn’t have access to the education opportunities he sought. So, he decided to create his own.  Hassan knew the booming fields of data science and artificial intelligence could bring job opportunities to his community and help solve local challenges. After earning a spot in the 2020-21 […]

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Child Care Is an Industry on the Brink

Running a child care business has long been a very challenging math problem: Many providers can barely afford to operate, yet many parents cannot afford to pay more. During the pandemic, there was temporary relief. The federal government spent $24 billion to keep the industry afloat. Many providers were given thousands of dollars a month, […]

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Child Care Is an Industry on the Brink

Running a child care business has long been a very challenging math problem: Many providers can barely afford to operate, yet many parents cannot afford to pay more. During the pandemic, there was temporary relief. The federal government spent $24 billion to keep the industry afloat. Many providers were given thousands of dollars a month, […]

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Can a Tech Giant Be Woke?

The December day in 2021 that set off a revolution across the videogame industry appeared to start innocuously enough. Managers at a Wisconsin studio called Raven began meeting one by one with quality assurance testers, who vet video games for bugs, to announce that the company was overhauling their department. Going forward, managers said, the […]

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Starbucks Baristas Fuel Workers in NYC, but Is Anyone Helping Them?

For more than a year, Felix Santiago has worked as a barista at a Starbucks near Times Square, and for about half that time he loved it. It was easy to swap shifts, easy to pick up new ones, easy to get along with supervisors who were largely accommodating. “The first six months were absolutely […]

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U.S. Awards $1.5 Billion to Chipmaker GlobalFoundries

The Biden administration on Monday announced a $1.5 billion award to the New York-based chipmaker GlobalFoundries, one of the first sizable grants from a government program aimed at revitalizing semiconductor manufacturing in the United States. As part of the plan to bolster GlobalFoundries, the administration will also make available another $1.6 billion in federal loans. […]

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It’s Not Just Wages. Retailers Are Mistreating Workers in a More Insidious Way.

Back in 2018, with an eye to writing a novel about low-wage work in America, I got a job at a big-box store near the Catskills in New York, where I live. I was on the team that unloaded the truck of new merchandise each morning at 4 a.m. We were supposed to empty the […]

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Volkswagen and BASF Are Reconsidering Ties to Xinjiang, China

Volkswagen Group is reviewing the future of its joint venture in the Xinjiang region of northwestern China and another German industrial giant is starting to sell its stakes there following new international scrutiny of forced labor by predominantly Muslim ethnic groups. Volkswagen said last week that it was in discussions with one of its main […]

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U.K. Economy Shrank as 2023 Ended, Tipping Into Recession

The News Britain’s economy sunk into a recession at the end of last year, capping off a year of economic strain in which interest rates were pushed to their highest level in a decade and a half to stamp out high inflation. Gross domestic product contracted 0.3 percent in October to December from the previous […]

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And … Action: Filming Is Back in New York

At first glance, there was nothing unusual about the small park in Sunnyside, Queens. A kid sailed back and forth on a swing. Other children scampered over a jungle gym and played basketball. But upon closer inspection, the streetlamp lying on its side turned out to be a prop. So was the police car on […]

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With Addiction Recovery, It’s a Misperception That Nothing Works

This is the seventh in the series “How America Heals,” in which Nicholas Kristof examines the interwoven crises devastating working-class America and explores paths to recovery. .g-goldbergseriesinfo{ position: relative; display: flex; overflow: hidden; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 1.125rem 1.25rem 1.0625rem; border: 1px solid var(–color-stroke-quaternary,#DFDFDF); color: var(–color-content-secondary,#363636); max-width: 600px; margin: 1.3125rem auto 1.5rem; width: 100%; max-width: 600px; […]

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Three Lessons From a Surprisingly Resilient Job Market

The pandemic created an economic crisis unlike any recession on record. So perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that the aftermath, too, has played out in a way that almost no economists expected. When unemployment soared in the first weeks of the pandemic, many feared a repeat of the long, slow rebound from the Great Recession: […]

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The A.I. Economy Will Make Jobs More Human

There have been just a handful of moments over the centuries when we have experienced a huge shift in the skills our economy values most. We are entering one such moment now. Technical and data skills that have been highly sought after for decades appear to be among the most exposed to advances in artificial […]

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Can America Turn a Productivity Boomlet Into a Boom?

Kevin Rezvani came of age in kitchens: spending summers at his grandfather’s bakery in Japan, doing work-study in his college cafeteria and working for years as a line cook at mid-tier restaurants, along with some stints in fast food. By his late 20s, the biggest takeaway Mr. Rezvani had from his experience “working in every […]

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This Arctic Circle Town Expected a Green Energy Boom. Then Came Bidenomics.

In Mo i Rana, a small Norwegian industrial town on the cusp of the Arctic Circle, a cavernous gray factory sits empty and unfinished in the snowy twilight — a monument to unfulfilled economic hope. The electric battery company Freyr was partway through constructing this hulking facility when the Biden administration’s sweeping climate bill passed […]

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Michigan Voters’ Anger Is a Problem for Joe Biden

Betrayal is a powerful emotion, especially at the ballot box. Voters who feel betrayed tend to act like spurned lovers, punishing the offending party even if it means electing somebody who will actually be worse. That’s how America got Donald Trump as president. Many blue-collar workers in factory towns in battleground states like Michigan, Ohio […]

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The Friar Who Became the Vatican’s Go-To Guy on A.I.

Before dawn, Paolo Benanti climbed to the bell tower of his 16th-century monastery, admired the sunrise over the ruins of the Roman forum and reflected on a world in flux. “It was a wonderful meditation on what is going on inside,” he said, stepping onto the street in his friar robe. “And outside too.” There […]

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How Biden Could Act on the Border, and Help Himself in November

The Senate killed the bipartisan proposal to curb illegal immigration, but as President Biden’s Republican critics have suggested, he can, on his own authority, take measures that will limit the number of undocumented workers crossing the border. If given sufficient fanfare, these measures could help Mr. Biden and the Democrats in November. They are also […]

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U.S. Debt on Pace to Top $54 Trillion Over Next 10 Years

The United States is on a pace to add nearly $19 trillion to its national debt over the next decade as the mounting costs of an aging population and higher interest expenses continue to weigh on the nation’s fiscal outlook, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday. But the report did offer a sliver […]

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Is the Middle-Class Dream Over in Las Vegas?

To many Americans, Las Vegas is a burst of glittering hotels and seedy wedding chapels, a mirage-like city rising improbably from the Mojave Desert. The Americans who live in Las Vegas know the city as a destination for the middle class: Valets and cocktail waitresses become homeowners. Immigrants who arrive with empty pockets build thriving […]

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Immigrants Make America Stronger and Richer

Modern nations can’t — practically or politically — have open borders, which allow anyone who chooses to immigrate. The good news is that America doesn’t have open borders, and there is no significant faction in our politics saying we should. In fact, immigrating to the United States legally is fairly difficult. The bad news is […]

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MIT researchers map the energy transition’s effects on jobs

A new analysis by MIT researchers shows the places in the U.S. where jobs are most linked to fossil fuels. The research could help policymakers better identify and support areas affected over time by a switch to renewable energy. While many of the places most potentially affected have intensive drilling and mining operations, the study […]

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How Nevada Is Pushing to Generate Jobs Beyond the Casinos

Before the pandemic brought everyday life to a halt, Joe Kiele supported himself through the industry that dominates Nevada’s economy. He waited tables at a steakhouse inside a casino in Reno. Four years later, Mr. Kiele, 49, remains in Reno, yet he now spends his workday inside a factory. In place of worrying about the […]

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