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PHOENIX — Cam Ferguson gets to his spot on the street adjacent to Chase Field — home of Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks — about four hours before first pitch to set up his usual display of cold water, sports drinks, peanuts and candy. By game time, it’s about 103 degrees Fahrenheit on this Labor Day afternoon in downtown Phoenix. Business is brisk. “Two for five, but it’s eight inside!” shouts another vendor, hawking water bottles. “Plus, they’re having some problems with the air conditioning in there.” It’s always hot this time of year in central Arizona, but 2024 is...

A new year is here, and with it, a new workplace phenomenon that bosses and employees should prepare for: quiet hiring. Quiet hiring is when an organization acquires new skills without actually hiring new full-time employees, says Emily Rose McRae, who has led Gartner's future of work research team since its 2019 inception, focusing on HR practices. Sometimes, it means hiring short-term contractors. Other times, it means encouraging current employees to temporarily move into new roles within the organization, McRae says. "The reality for the next year is — whether or not we go into a recession — everyone's a...

NOAA claims global temperatures are the hottest ever, based on some rather spectacular junk science. NOAA doesn’t actually have any temperature data over most of the land surface.They never had any data from most of the southern hemisphere.

In the future, will employees become extinct? All over the world, from the United States to Japan, businesses of all sizes – corporations and small enterprises – are gradually phasing out the employee. Contractual workers are becoming the norm, while firms are taking on freelancers. Crowdsourcing the New Reality in Labor Market Uber is the latest sensation in the marketplace. The ride-sharing app allows consumers to save money on transportation, while the drivers earn a little bit of extra cash. Of course, the drivers aren’t employees but rather contractors. The real number of staffers at Uber is 2,000, compared to...

The state Government Accountability Board is hiring temporary workers to help with the petition-review process. The agency has hired about 30 of a desired 50 people, said spokesman Reid Magney. Finding people in the Madison area who have not signed a recall petition — one of the prerequisites — has slowed the effort, he said. The agency is staffing two shifts between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m. weekdays. The hourly pay is between $9 and $11. Interested people should apply through one of the following companies: • ABR Employment Services, 608-827-5818. • Spherion, 608-274-6000. • Hiring & Staff Services Inc.,...

Spend trillions now, and world temperatures might fall in 1,000 yearsBy: Barbara Hollingsworth 03/25/11 4:38 PM Local Opinion Editor Even if every country in the world adopts economy-killing carbon caps, they’ll have to wait about 1,000 years for global temperatures to fall, says Australia’s newly appointed climate commissioner. Tim Flannery, a zoologist and author of an acclaimed 2005 book on climage change, “The Weather Makers,” compares skeptics of global warming to “flat Earth believers.” But he made a point that most global warming alarmists gloss over when he threw down this lightning bolt in an interview with Macquarie Radio’s Andrew...

U.S. corporations have a renewed emphasis on temporary hirings at the expense of permanent job placements. Years ago, inventory on-demand solutions arose at manufacturing companies around the world, resulting in improved returns on industrial invested capital and corporate profitability both in the U.S. and abroad. Not surprisingly, today, the trend of a broader use of temporary workers is the next generation of return optimization in an age of broad uncertainty and a wider-than-usual set of economic outcomes. Prior to the 2008-2009 Great Decession, temporary employment growth has signaled permanent hiring strength. The chart below plots the year-over-year percentage change in...

... Last month 52,000 temps were added, greater than the number of new workers in any other category. Not even health care and government, stalwarts through the long recession, did better. “Sometimes we’re asked by a company to bring back ex-employees as temps,” said Joanie Ruge, a senior vice president of Adecco. Some are even ex-employees who have been laid off. “That does happen,” she said. In the past, temps who do well have often been offered regular employment, with higher pay and benefits. Given the uncertainties about this recovery, companies are not doing that now, and temps, as a...

California utilities would control the temperature of new homes and commercial buildings in emergencies with a radio-controlled thermostat, under a proposed state update to building energy efficiency standards. Customers could not override the thermostats during "emergency events," according to the proposal, part of a 236-page revision to building standards. The document is scheduled to be considered by the California Energy Commission, a state agency, on Jan. 30. The description does not provide any exception for health or safety concerns. It also does not define what are "emergency events." During heat waves, customers crank up the air conditioning, putting severe strains...

High temps cut swath across U.S. MONTGOMERY, Ala., Aug. 23 (UPI) -- High temperatures cut a swath across the United States Thursday from the deep South to Ohio. In Alabama, where temperatures have topped 100 degrees for 14 days so far in August, at least 12 deaths have been blamed on the heat, the Montgomery Advertiser reported. "Because of the extreme heat Alabama is still suffering from, I am afraid that we will have even more heat-related deaths reported to us before the state cools down this fall," Dr. Jim McVay of the Alabama Public Health Service said. Six of...

Minnesota's reputation for bitter winters earns bragging rights today when temperatures start to fall into a subzero cellar for a long, frigid weekend. The National Weather Service predicts a daytime high temperature in the Twin Cities of 9 degrees, though blustery winds will create wind chills in the region of 16 to 20 below zero. Then it will get colder. A metro temperature of 14 below is predicted for tonight, and readings should remain below zero until Monday. The predicted highs are 4 below on Friday, 7 below on Saturday and 6 below on Sunday. The last time the Twin...

NEW YORK — Conventional wisdom says that once companies begin hiring temporary workers, a turnaround in the overall job market must be close behind. But nearly 2 1/2 years after the economy officially began its recovery, old assumptions about new jobs are providing more confusion than comfort. A report released by the government Friday showed temporary employment increased once again in February -- by 32,000 jobs -- just as it has been doing for the better part of a year. But the permanent hiring that was supposed to flow from the temp jobs is still not materializing. The economy as...