Union Power Slips as Percentage of Union Jobs Declines

Union Rally

The percentage of hourly and salaried workers in a union decreased in 2023, continuing a trend of ongoing decline in the past few decades.

The decline in 2023 was small, from 10.1% of the workforce to 10% even, but the trend is significant. In 1983, about 20% of hourly and salaried workers were in a union, meaning U.S. union membership has halved in about four decades.

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Expert: Georgia Should Alleviate Burdensome Licensing Requirements

Eliminating licensing requirements for some professions in Georgia could help businesses and bring more people into the workforce.

“We did a national ranking in terms of occupational licensing, and we had Georgia coming in at 32nd with first being the worst,” Edward Timmons, director of the Knee Regulatory Research Center at West Virginia University, which recently rebranded from the Knee Center for the Study of Occupational Regulation, told The Center Square.

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Commentary: No Jobs for White Men

A recent Bloomberg investigation reported on a shocking development: “The year after Black Lives Matter protests, the S&P 100 added more than 300,000 jobs — 94% went to people of color.” While only 6% of jobs at these top companies went to whites, white people make up 77% of the total U.S. workforce and about 60-65% of the adult population.

This means that after 2020’s summer of rioting for “racial equity,” all whites, and particularly young people seeking entry-level positions after college, were deprived of employment by large institutional employers on a massive scale.

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Nearly Four in 10 Georgians Out of the Workforce

While state officials continue to tout the state’s low unemployment, numbers show nearly 39% percent of Georgia’s working-age population isn’t participating in the workforce.

On Thursday, state officials said Georgia’s August unemployment rate was 3.3%, a slight increase from July’s revised 3.2% rate. The state’s rate is lower than the 3.8% national unemployment rate.

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Energy Sector Sees 88 Percent Increase in ‘Nonbinary’ Workers from Last Year

The number of people who identify as “nonbinary” in the energy workforce has skyrocketed by more than 88% since last year, according to data from the Department of Energy. 

The agency’s annual employment report (USEER), showed that last year, there were 22,723 individuals in the energy workforce who don’t identify as male or female (nonbinary). As of June 2023, that number had increased to 42,810—an 88.4% surge. 

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Economic Development in Georgia Breaks Records for Third Year in a Row

The State of Georgia broke records for the third year in a row in regards to economic development as total investments in facility expansions and new locations totaled more than $24 billion during fiscal year 2023 (FY23).

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Georgia Committee Probes Ways to Expand State’s Workforce

Georgia has a 3.2% unemployment rate and roughly 5.1 million people in its workforce, but Peach State companies struggle to recruit employees.

And, a looming recession may only temporarily ease hiring troubles, testimony at the first meeting of the Senate Study Committee on Expanding Georgia’s Workforce revealed.

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Plastic Manufacturer Announces $6.9 Million Investment Project in Georgia’s Washington County

PVS Plastics Technology Corporation officials recently announced that the company will invest $6.9 million to establish its second U.S. facility in Johnson City.

PVS, which describes itself as an “environmentally friendly plastics company,” is based in Niedernhall, Germany. The company specializes in manufacturing electric motor and fan components for the automotive and commercial HVAC industries.

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Electric Vehicle Parts Manufacturer Announces $18 Million Investment in Dublin-Laurens County

Woory Industrial Company, Ltd., an automotive parts manufacturer, recently announced that it will establish a new manufacturing facility in Dublin as its first U.S. manufacturing location.

Woory is a Korea-based company that develops and produces HVAC auto components for all types of vehicles, including electric and internal combustion engine vehicles, and eco-friendly and hydrogen-fueled cars.

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Three Investment Projects Coming to Georgia Totaling $1.59 Billion Announced Last Month

During the month of May, the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) announced that three companies are investing a combined total of $1.59 billion to establish new business operations in the Peach State.

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Survey: 56 Percent of Companies Dropping COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates to Retain Talent, Grow Workforce

According to Price Waterhouse Coopers 2022 Pulse survey, business leaders are implementing a range of measures to retain talent and grow their workforce, including dropping COVID-19 vaccine mandates as a condition of in-person employment.

According to the survey, 56% of companies said they were dropping COVID-19 vaccine mandates for on-site work. The survey findings, published Aug. 18, came after vaccine mandates continue to be challenged and overturned in courts and after it remains questionable that the COVID-19 vaccines were effective in preventing the spread of the coronavirus.

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New York City Fires over 1,400 Workers Who Failed to Meet Deadline for COVID-19 Vaccine

New York City recently fired nearly 1,500 municipal workers who failed to comply with its COVID-19 vaccine mandate, officials said Monday.

City officials said 1,430 workers were fired Friday and that the number represents less than 1% of the city’s 370,000-person workforce. The number was also far smaller than what they had predicted.

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Missouri Economic Leaders Give Glimpse of How $2.6 Billion in Federal Pandemic Funds Will be Spent

Maggie Kost

Missouri’s Department of Economic Development (DED) recently previewed how Gov. Mike Parson plans to allocate the state’s $2.6 billion portion of federal pandemic funds.

In late December, Maggie Kost, acting director of the DED, outlined major priorities for Missouri’s portion of the more than $195 billion in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds. A total of $350 billion will be delivered to the 50 states and the District of Columbia and local and Tribal governments throughout the nation to support the response and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The total amount of ARPA funds, passed in March 2021, is $1.9 trillion.

“We want to give you an idea of what to expect as we get into the legislative and budget session here in January,” Kost said. “As you’re planning and setting priorities locally for communities, we want to make sure you have an idea of what’s to come so you can think about how to leverage state funds as you’re building out your local priorities.”

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Boeing Suspends Vaccine Mandate for Employees

Boeing Friday said it has suspended its requirement that U.S.-based employees be fully vaccinated or face losing their jobs.

The announcement comes as several attempts by President Joe Biden to require vaccinations for workers in various settings have been blocked by courts in recent weeks.

“Boeing is committed to maintaining a safe working environment for our customers, and advancing the health and safety of our global workforce,” a company spokesperson told KOMO News. “As such, we continue to encourage our employees to get vaccinated and get a booster if they have not done so. Meanwhile, after careful review, Boeing has suspended its vaccine requirement in line with a federal court’s decision prohibiting the enforcement of the federal contractor executive order and a number of state laws.”

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Child Tax Credit Is Driving Americans Toward Entrepreneurship, Has Little Effect on Workforce

A new study suggests that the child tax credit (CTC) is not reducing overall employment nationwide but is driving some low and middle-income parents away from their private sector jobs and toward self-employment.

The study, led by researchers at the Washington University in St. Louis’ Social Policy Institute and Appalachian State University and provided exclusively to the Daily Caller News Foundation, found that the monthly payments had barely any impact on the job market whatsoever, contradicting concerns that the tax credits would worsen the labor shortage. It also found that adults were far less likely to list child care as a reason for unemployment, with the share of people saying so dropping from 26% to below 20% once they began receiving the payments.

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New York City to Mandate COVID-19 Vaccine for Entire City Workforce

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday that all New York City municipal workers would be required to have a COVID-19 vaccination.

All municipal employees, including police and firefighters, will have until Oct. 29 to receive their first shot or risk losing their jobs, according to de Blasio. City employees will receive an additional $500 in their paychecks after receiving their first dose.

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Commentary: Biden’s Medical Apartheid

Joe Biden

Events this weekend showcased the intense bifurcation of America into two separate realities. As our country observed the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, former presidents gathered, sans Donald Trump, in New York for a solemn ceremony — wearing masks even though they are fully vaccinated and were outside. In Shanksville, Pa., George W. Bush leveraged the occasion to take a not-very-veiled shot at the MAGA movement, comparing its most fervent adherents to the 9/11 terrorists.

Meanwhile, at stadiums across America, massive crowds of rowdy, unmasked college football fans tailgated, packed into stadiums, and also recalled the grim events of 2001, but in far more boisterous displays of patriotism.

This same-day divergence highlights the sharply divided nation of 2021. That chasm will now only widen as Joe Biden targets many of those same people, the ones unwilling to live under the thumb of onerous government virus mitigation restrictions. These ineffective mandates may nominally emanate from science, but they moreover stem from a preference for coercion and control by Democrat politicians, all with the assistance of powerful business interests, including Big Tech and Big Pharma.

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Georgia Long-Term Care Facilities Face Financial Hardship from Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a financial toll on Georgia’s long-term care facilities, officials said.

Devon Barill, communications director for the Georgia Health Care Association and Georgia Center for Assisted Living (GHCA/GCAL), said the facilities have faced increased expenses and revenue losses from caring for the state’s most vulnerable population.

While COVID-19 can lead to severe complications in older people and those with underlying issues, the congregated facilities are often home to the elderly and people who require supportive care.

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Donald Trump Commentary: A Plan to Get Divisive and Radical Theories Out of Our Schools

Teacher holding book, reading to boy student

As a candidate, Joe Biden’s number one promise was to “unite” America. Yet in his first months as president, his number one priority has been to divide our country by race and gender at every turn.

There is no clearer example than the Biden administration’s new effort aimed at indoctrinating America’s schoolchildren with some of the most toxic and anti-American theories ever conceived. It is vital for Americans to understand what this initiative would do, what drives it and, most importantly, how we can stop it.

For decades, the America-blaming left has been relentlessly pushing a vision of America that casts our history, culture, traditions, and founding documents in the most negative possible light. Yet in recent years, this deeply unnatural effort has progressed from telling children that their history is evil to telling Americans that they are evil.

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South Carolina, Montana to Stop Providing Pandemic-Related Welfare

"Come in, we're open" business sign

The states of South Carolina and Montana have both decided in recent days to put an end to their handouts of federal unemployment benefits as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, in an effort to encourage residents to return to the workforce, as per CNN.

Montana Governor Greg Gianforte (R-Mont.) said in his announcement that “incentives matter, and the vast expansion of federal unemployment benefits is now doing more harm than good. We need to incentivize Montanans to return to the workforce.” Instead, Governor Gianforte announced that the state government will be providing $1,200 checks as bonuses to every citizen who returns to work, using the state’s share of the recent $1.9 trillion stimulus package to pay for it.

In South Carolina, Governor Henry McMaster (R-S.C.) announced on Thursday that the state would be ending their share of federal unemployment benefits, since “what was intended to be a short-term financial assistance for the vulnerable and displaced during the height of the pandemic has turned into a dangerous federal entitlement, incentivizing and paying workers to stay at home rather than encouraging them to return to the workplace.”

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