How Fair Is Your Workplace?

Under pressure from activist investors, the public, and their own employees, many companies are expanding their commitments to corporate social responsibility with an emphasis on equity and justice for disadvantaged communities. Nearly nine in 10 of Fortune 100 companies list equity as one of their corporate values, according to our analysis of value statements of Fortune 100 companies. Mentions of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) on S&P 500 earnings calls have increased 658% just since 2018, according to our analysis of earnings calls transcripts for S&P Global 500 for 1Q18 and 1Q21. READ MORE

Why Are Tech Companies Being Hit So Hard By The Downturn?

The last couple months have been rough for both public and private tech companies.

More than 28,000 employees of U.S.-based tech companies have been laid off so far this year, with layoffs accelerating in June, the end of the second quarter. And while late-stage startups have been hit the hardest by layoffs, according to a Crunchbase News analysis, it seems like public tech companies are starting to ramp up layoffs as well. READ MORE

Inflation rises to 11.3% in producer index for June, near highest on record

Inflation as measured by producer wholesale prices ticked up to a red-hot 11.3% for the year ending in June, according to a report Thursday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, near the highest on record.

Thursday’s report comes a day after headline inflation as measured by the consumer price index exploded to 9.1% for the 12 months ending in June, the highest level since 1981 and a bigger increase than expected. READ MORE

Remote v. in-person employee performance

Nearly half of remote workers say their teams’ performance has improved over the past two years, according to new research from Eagle Hill Consulting. Comparatively, only 34% of in-person workers can say the same. Additionally, the data finds that over the past two years, 50% of remote workers say their personal performance has gotten better, along with 49% of hybrid workers. Forty-five percent of in-person workers said the same. READ MORE

U.S. SEC votes to undo Trump-era curbs on shareholder advisers

The U.S. securities regulator voted on Wednesday to rescind rules introduced under former President Donald Trump that critics said impeded the independence of firms that advise investors on how to vote in corporate elections.

The move is the latest installment in a long-running battle over how to regulate proxy advisers like Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis, which advise investors how to cast their ballot on issues including the election of directors, merger transactions and shareholder proposals. READ MORE

Hybrid Work Is Doomed

I noticed the shoes first. That I was wearing them. Real shoes, the leather kind, with laces. After a year and a half, I was finally returning to the office, and that meant giving up the puffer slippers and slides that had sustained me for so long. Real shoes, I quickly remembered, are terrible. Likewise pants. Likewise getting to work, and being at work. Whew. READ MORE

Consumer finance bureau ‘out of control’ under Biden's director

After one of the federal government’s most powerful bureaucrats warned he would be "reining in repeat offenders," the nation’s largest business group wants to rein in his powers. 

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce launched a six-figure digital ad campaign in late June targeting Rohit Chopra, director of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB), appointed by President Biden in 2021 and confirmed without a single Republican vote.  READ MORE

Top VC Marc Andreessen: Remote Work Will Cause an 'Earthquake' in How People Live Their Lives

There are a million and one rankings out there scoring cities on just about every metric you can think of, and as someone who writes about these things I am sent what feels like nearly all of them. They rarely hold too many surprises. 

Finland (or a near neighbor) is always the world's happiest country. Somewhere boring but pleasant like Zurich or Vienna is crowned most livable year after year. Everyone hypes various towns as the "new Silicon Valley" but Silicon Valley remains the world's top destination for entrepreneurs.  READ MORE

The layoffs at Tesla show that white-collar workers are screwed

Michael Burry said on Tuesday that the U.S. labor market is about to be sliced in half, with blue-collar workers remaining a sought-after commodity, while white-collar workers see job losses and falling wages. In other words, the good times are ending for office workers.

“I see a bifurcated labor market developing as unskilled and semiskilled remain in short supply, but white-collar workers, having proven their redundancy during COVID, will find gross excess in the labor market, pressuring wages at the end,” he wrote in a Tuesday tweet. READ MORE