It’s Labor Day, the unofficial end of Summer. Ease off with our special 3-day weekend reads:
• Enough, Bosses Say: This Fall, It Really Is Time to Get Back to the Office* After more than two years, corporate leaders say time is up on avoiding in-person work. (Wall Street Journal)
• A Job Market Anomaly Begins to Correct: After diverging for awhile, business and household surveys of employment are headed in the same direction again: Up. (Bloomberg) see also The Labor Shortage Will Get Worse and May Last for Decades Average annual growth of the U.S. prime working-age population is projected to slow sharply to just 0.2% over the next three decades, down from 1% average annual growth over the past 40 years. By 2100, as much as two-thirds of the country could be out of the workforce. (Barron’s)
• The Stock Market’s Real Inflation Fighters Might Surprise You The conventional wisdom says now’s the time to invest in companies that have pricing power. But the last time the U.S. hit a prolonged period of stagflation, those stocks weren’t the real stars. (Wall Street Journal)
• Twitter’s edit button is a big test for the platform’s future: Re-inventing the tweet is a hard thing to do. (The Verge)
• Tech Companies Slowly Shift Production Away From China: Worried about geopolitical tensions and stung by pandemic shutdowns, Google, Apple and others are moving some work to nearby countries. (New York Times) but see also The long road ahead for American-made electric vehicles: The Inflation Reduction Act lays the groundwork for an EV supply that starts in the United States. (Vox)
• 21 Charts That Explain How America Is Failing Schools: Opinions—and funding—are becoming more polarized; Enrollment in traditional public schools is down, while alternatives grow more popular (Businessweek)
• The Unexpected Power of Random Acts of Kindness: New research shows small gestures matter even more than we may think. (New York Times)
• Book banning in U.S. schools has reached an all-time high: What this means, and how we got here Grid takes a comprehensive look at culture wars and censorship in America’s public learning spaces. (Grid) see also UnBanning Books Since 1934: You might have heard of our recent initiative Books UnBanned, which allows individuals ages 13-21 nationwide to apply for a free BPL eCard, providing access to our full eBook collection as well as our learning databases, and which makes a selection of frequently challenged and banned eBook & audiobook titles always available for BPL cardholders (Brooklyn Public Library)
• How Bird Collecting Evolved Into Bird-Watching: In the early 1900s, newfound empathy for avian creatures helped wildlife observation displace dispassionate killing. (Smithsonian Magazine)
• On Set, Intimacy Coordinators Finally Ease Long-Simmering Discomfort It’s a relatively new job for film and TV that’s part choreographer, part advocate. (Bloomberg)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Lynn Martin, President of the NYSE, which is part of the Intercontinental Exchange. NYSE is the world’s largest stock exchange, with 2,400 listed companies and a combined market cap of ~$36 trillion dollars. She began her career at IBM in its Global Services.
Job Market Cooled but Was Still Strong in August
Source: NYT
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