The Blubber

Per WP

Persistent labor shortages in the United States have reportedly affected many companies that are trying to attract and retain workers. This was especially true for small businesses and service industry businesses.

This comes when the average hourly earnings per month rose by 0.3%. The Fed notes that due to this increase, Americans can still continue to spend despite the pressure felt on the prices of multiple products and services across different industries.

The report notes that there was a concentration of hiring demands in these specific sectors.

• Leisure
• Hospitality
• Healthcare

It was noted that those specific sectors reportedly experienced acute labor shortages. It also highlighted that, on the other hand, employers in other industries, like retail trade and temporary help services, had to stop hiring due to weaker demands.

The industries that experienced the most layoffs were the tech industry and the banking industry. These two industries reportedly hired the most in 2022.

Employees reportedly started working shorter hours, declining to just a 34.4-hour workweek, which was the lowest number of hours that employees worked since April 2020, when the pandemic happened.

The report also highlighted how temporary workers were experiencing the most risk of being laid off. In times of demand, companies would onboard many temporary workers, but when decline dives, they're usually the first to go.

At the start of the year, it was reported that a third of the global workforce worked over 48 hours, while a fifth of them worked less than 35 hours a week in 2019.

In November, when Elon Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion, it was reported that Twitter employees were being made to work longer hours than other companies. It was shared that the CEO actually asked staff to work more than 84 hours a week.

This would equal 12-hour shifts for seven days a week.

See flow at unusualwhales.com/flow.

Other News:

• Working nine-to-five? That's no longer the norm for a majority of people
• Elon Musk ordered Twitter employees to reportedly work 84 hours a week

Resources:

The Washington Post