recession Archives

News Article Research ● Labor Unionization Unions

Feds: Low unemployment, inflation, recession have economy at crossroads

September 6, 2022 // “Further, many structural barriers existed before the pandemic, including weaker skills, lack of access to affordable, good-quality child care, transportation problems, incarceration, addiction and discrimination,” they wrote. “Individually and collectively, they reduce job matching efficiency.” While they note an economy is in recession when gross domestic product falls in two consecutive quarters, they also state the National Bureau of Economic Research’s definition of a recession relies on a variety of indicators. If we’re in a recession or entering one, economists can’t predict its effects on employment.

Covid Federal Reserve Labor Day Labor Market National Bureau of Economic Research recession St. Louis unemployment rate

News Article Research ● Labor

Another Weirdness of the COVID Labor Market

September 2, 2022 // The early retirements problem came into view as pandemic unemployment “cleared” and the labor market returned to status quo ante. The 65-plus group accounts for between 50 percent and 100 percent of the decline in the population-to-employment ratio, amounting to .7 percent of the entire workforce, perhaps a million or so workers, and about half that number were among those who chose to hang up their cleats ahead of time. These early retirements are interacting with the overall market in some unique ways. In a normal recession, businesses tend to cut labor costs through automation. As the old jobs are eliminated, workers are “reallocated,” meaning they move into new occupations. The NBER study finds that the COVID-19 recession saw almost no reallocation except in low-skill leisure and hospitality occupations. In the meantime, the number of workers in professional occupations grew as a share of the labor market. This relative expansion of professional jobs was also accompanied by “downskilling” (i.e., the relaxation of educational and experience requirements reflected in help-wanted ads) as firms responded to the tight labor market by making it easier for less credentialed workers to qualify for openings further up the value chain.

automation Covid downskilling economy employment ratio furlough hospitality Labor Market layoffs low-skilled workers National Bureau of Economic Research professional occupations recession remote work Retirement workforce

News Article ● Labor Unionization

‘They Should Be Ashamed’: Understaffing at NYC’s Beloved Museum of Natural History Pushes Workers to Unionize

March 28, 2022 // The union campaign arrives during a wave of organizing at museums and other cultural institutions across New York City and the United States, such as the Guggenheim and the Art Institute of Chicago.

American Museum of Natural History benefits cashier Center for Biodiversity and Conservation conservation coordinator contact tracing covid safety plans curriculum District Council 37 District Council 37 Local 1559 duty expansion Ellen Futter exhibition explainer fired Jacklyn Grace Lacey funding from the government furlough gift shop employee graphic designer guest services representative guest services representatives Head Start employees health and safety highest paid museum executives in-person work job security Lauren Kaori Gurley layoffs librarian live exhibit coordinator local 1306 local 1559 mask membership mouse poop museum educator Nadav Gazit National Labor Relations Board New York New York City organizing chair of DC37 Local 1559 OSHA Pandemic panic attack pay discrepancies pest control phone post-doctoral fellow privately owned public-sector union recession reduced tourism regular raises research assistant retaliation safe workspaces scientist security guards senior museum specialist of African and Pacific ethnology socially distancing software engineer specialist positions staffing subcontractors teachers temporary employment status unfair labor practices unionize verbal abuse from guests verbally abused wages wall-to-wall expansion of Local 1559 writer writers

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