Free Republic

As American workers and businesses struggle with the fallout from the most vicious bout of inflation in 40 years, workers across the US are struggling as wage growth lags behind inflation. For example, federal jobs data released last month showed that wage growth was disappointingly slow, as the YoY growth rate actually declined from January, coming in at just 5.1% (and missing the Wall Street consensus forecast of 5.8%). Since the start of the pandemic, most economists expected near-record numbers of open jobs would force employers to hike wages significantly. And while wages did indeed climb for public-facing workers during...

The percentage of white-collar workers in New York City office buildings remains abysmal. Workers aren't returning, and it's crushing the local economy.NYC's 7.6% unemployment rate is shockingly high compared with the rest of the country (nationwide average of 3.8%) as an economic recovery is slow to materialize, according to Bloomberg. There could be a muted recovery without five-day-a-week commuters because their impact on the local economy is substantial. Keycard swipes tracked by security company Kastle Systems show NYC offices are about 36% occupied, far below pre-COVID levels. Even as companies announced return-to-office dates, many implemented a hybrid work model that...

Rineke Lewis, a registered nurse in Boise, Idaho, said she expects to be fired after her exemption to the mandatory vaccination rule had been revoked and her religious exemption request denied. Though Democrat politicians are rapidly throwing out increasingly unpopular COVID jab mandates ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, many ordinary Americans, including frontline healthcare workers, still face termination for refusing to get the experimental drugs. Last week, one Idaho nurse’s heartfelt Instagram message went viral when she explained that she faced imminent termination for refusing the shot, and asked followers whether they had any “leads” on other nursing positions...

They’re slob goblins. With employees prepping to flock back to the office amid easing COVID restrictions, many are faced with the same dilemma — how to switch off “goblin mode” now that they’re around other people.

President Joe Biden and his deputies at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have dropped nearly all border protections for U.S. graduates, allowing a mass rush of Indian graduates to grab jobs from Fortune 500 companies, experts and foreign workers say. “They’ve opened up everything,” said Jay Palmer, a civil rights, human trafficking, and immigration rights activist, who works with many of the foreign visa workers who are exploited by their U.S. employers. He continued: “The administration has basically taken down all the checks and balances, and they opened the entire immigration platform for any [foreign gradaute] that wants to...

We are renewing a challenge to the CMS vaccine mandate in court so Tennessee health care workers have the right to private health care decisions. - Governor Bill Lee

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) issued an order Wednesday mandating healthcare workers be fully vaccinated and receive a booster or face being fired, NorthJersey.com reported. The order removes the state’s previous option for unvaccinated workers to test regularly for the coronavirus instead of getting vaccinated. Medical exemptions and exemptions for “deeply held” religious beliefs will still be granted, Murphy said. The order includes all workers in congregate settings such as prisons and group homes.

Labor shortages at supermarkets across the country have increased in recent weeks as the COVID-19 omicron variant continues to spread. Workers are calling sick, and there are not enough cashiers, baggers, and stockers, forcing some supermarket chains to slash hours of operations. Compounding labor woes, supply chains are still severely snarled as food shortages are being reported nationwide. WSJ reports supermarkets are having difficulty staying open as workers call out sick because of infection. Some grocers are frantically hiring new employees, using temporary employment agencies, and overworking current staff to keep stores from shuttering. The seven-store supermarket chain Stew Leonard’s...

Citigroup Inc. workers who refuse to comply with the company’s vaccine mandate by Jan. 14 will be fired, Bloomberg reports. They will be put on unpaid leave and released from employment at the end of January. Employees will be required to sign an agreement stating that they will not pursue legal action against Citigroup to receive year-end bonus payments. Some workers will still receive certain payments.

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court turned down emergency requests by New York healthcare workers for a religious exemption from state requirements to vaccinate against Covid-19. A federal appeals court in New York previously denied the workers’ requests. The court denied the requests in brief written orders. As is typical for such emergency actions, the majority didn’t explain its thinking. Three conservative justices—Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch—said they would have allowed the exemptions. In October, the court denied a similar application from Maine healthcare workers seeking exemption from their state’s vaccination requirements, which lower courts had rejected. The same three conservatives...

After the number of U.S. workers voluntarily quitting their jobs reached a record high in September, White House Council of Economic Advisers member Jared Bernstein framed the labor crunch as a "good sign," saying that employees now have more leverage to negotiate better-paying roles. More than 4.4 million employees left their jobs last month, the highest figure in two decades, and a rise of about 164,000 from the last record set in August of 4.3 million, according to the Labor Department's monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey released Friday. As employers contemplate raising wages to attract workers amid their...

Very brief segment at 1:53 mark on linked video.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) on Thursday said he is “not having second thoughts” about mandating vaccines for first responders and other city workers ahead of Friday’s 5 p.m. deadline. He predicted many will get vaccinated anyway “once they really realize that they’re not going to get paid.” When asked about the likelihood of shortages of city workers Monday — from sanitation workers to first responders — the Democrat mayor made it clear he has no regrets.

In a rare move, federal labor officials have threatened to take over three states’ workplace safety programs because they failed to adopt emergency COVID-19 rules to protect healthcare workers. That admonition, labor advocates say, also serves as a thinly veiled warning that resisting the forthcoming federal vaccine mandate for most healthcare workers and employees at large companies likewise could cost states their regulatory power over workplace safety. “This is definitely an effort to send a message that [the Occupational Safety and Health Administration] is going to take any defiance of the next standard very seriously,” said Jordan Barab, who served...

Southwest Airlines’ CEO said the company will not fire employees who do not get the COVID-19 vaccine by Dec. 9 following a Biden administration mandate that was announced last month for federal contractors. In a statement to news outlets Friday, the Dallas-based carrier confirmed to Fox News it does not want to “lose any employee” over President Joe Biden’s mandate, adding that firing a worker over the vaccine “makes no sense.” It came a day after Southwest CEO Gary Kelly made a similar announcement during an earnings call. “This is an evolving process working with the government in terms of...

* Seven in 10 tech workers are considering quitting in the next year, per a new survey of 1,200 people. * Their top reasons included working hours, limited career progression, and toxic work environments. * The labor shortage continues to cause havoc across multiple industries.Seventy-two percent of US tech workers are considering quitting their jobs in the next 12 months, according to a new survey from learning software firm TalentLMS and Workable.About four in ten of the 1,200 IT, software, and tech workers surveyed said that limited career progression made them think about leaving their jobs.Other common reasons for considering...

Labor flexes its muscle as leverage tips from employers to workersNew York Workers are saying enough is enough. And many of them are either hitting the picket lines or quitting their jobs as a result. The changing dynamics of the US labor market, which has put employees rather than employers in the driver's seat in a way not seen for decades, is allowing unions to flex their muscle. Already on strike are 10,000 workers at John Deere (DE), who hit the picket lines early Thursday after rejecting a tentative deal which would have improved wages and benefits. They joined 1,400...

Department will seek to monitor vital signs, “psychosocial information." The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is seeking proposals for a new system that will allow it to track the biometric data of its workers in order to monitor their physical and mental well-being. DHS said in a call for proposals this week that it is looking to “find innovative technological solutions that will improve the overall health and wellness of those consistently placed in high-stress and dangerous conditions” under DHS employment. “DHS is seeking capabilities that not only promote intervention action when necessary, but preemptively and in real-time optimize DHS...

Brief: • Retail workers in August walked out on their jobs at one of the highest rates in the nation, with a total 721,000 quitting that month, according to the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. • Their quit rate — which the Labor Department in its release said “can serve as a measure of workers’ willingness or ability to leave jobs” — was 4.7% in August, a high since April. In the wider labor market, the overall quitting rate rose to a series high 2.9%, while the rate of layoffs and discharges was little changed at 0.9%,...

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez (R) says he is moving forward with a proposal to pay city workers in bitcoin. During an interview on Bloomberg Technology on Tuesday, Suarez said the city is will request a proposal this month to allow employees to get paid in bitcoin, and even allow residents to pay fees and even taxes in bitcoin if the county allows. Suarez said it was a “major priority” for him as he wants to differentiate the city as a “crypto capital of the United States or of the world.”