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🎉 1.9 MILLION fewer employees are working...

July 18, 2023

Read time: 3 minutes

Good Morning Party People! 🎉

We’re the Barbie to your Oppenheimer. The Ken to your Barbie. And we’re here to spice up your week.

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Here’s what we got today:

⬇ 1.9 MILLION fewer employees are working compared to Feb 2020

🏛 5 steps to building a killer HR strat

🤖 70% oppose AI in final hiring decisions

🏢 White House is reviewing an overtime rule

And, of course, MEMES!

MOTD (Meme of The Day)

Meme creds: Mark Finkelnburg

Think you have great meme skills? Reply to this email with your best meme to be featured in the MOTD.

America’s Labor Shortage

1,900,000 fewer Americans are working today, compared to February 2020. 9.8 million jobs are currently open, and 5.9 million workers are currently unemployed. This means if every unemployed person found a job, there would still be ~4,000,000 open jobs.

Insane.

COVID temporarily shut the doors of 120,000 businesses, causing 30 million employees to temporarily be unemployed. The US added 4.5 million jobs in 2022, but things still haven’t fully recovered.

So what’s contributing to the labor shortage? Here are some factors:

  1. Early retirement

  2. Migration to the US has slowed

  3. Childcare (lack of access)

  4. Entrepreneurship

  5. Increase in savings

Other crazy stats:

  • About half (49%) are not willing to take jobs that do not offer the opportunity for remote work

  • Two-thirds (66%) of Americans who became unemployed during the pandemic say they are only somewhat active or not very active at all in searching for a new job

  • Nearly one in five have altered their livelihood, 17% have retired, 19% have transitioned to homemaker, and 14% are now working part-time

Given the crazy number of layoffs in tech, it sure doesn’t seem like there are more job openings than unemployed workers.

5 Steps to Building a Killer HR Strat

According to a report by Gartner, “only 32% of HR leaders state that their HR strategic planning process is fully integrated with the business' planning process”.

Here are their 5 recommended steps for building a great HR strategy:

  1. Understand your organization's strategy and goals

  2. Identify capabilities and skills for the future

  3. Evaluate current capabilities and skills

  4. Develop HR goals and criteria for success

  5. Communicate your HR strategy

Gartner also offers a free template for building HR strategies.

Party Snacks (Weekly Resources)

 15 Resources for Chief Human Resources Officers - This curated list of resources has tons of useful clickable links for those working in HR.

Talent Edge Weekly - Join thousands of HR and business professionals who get smarter, faster each week about the world of work, the workplace, and the workforce in just 10 minutes, every Sunday, 6 PM EST!

We Work Remotely - WWR is the largest remote work community in the world. The site has over 4.5M visitors, and thousands of remote jobs listed.

70% Oppose The Use of AI in Final Hiring Decisions

No one wants AI to make hiring decisions. Well, most don’t. We even asked ChatGPT and it said it does not want to make hiring decisions. Take that, Sam Altman.

According to a Pew Research survey that polled 11,000 people, ~71% had negative attitudes about AI making hiring decisions. 7% stated they were in favor (weirdos), and 22% were unsure.

“Around two-thirds said they wouldn’t want to apply for a role if AI was used to make a hiring decision, citing worries about systemic bias and an absent “personal touch” when it comes to traits that transcend a resume” (Emerging Tech Brew)

Additionally, legislators are ready to start cracking down on AI in hiring. NYC will require AI tools used in hiring to be audited. Maryland and Illinois recently passed laws limiting facial recognition in interviews. California and DC are also exploring regulatory options around AI.

White House is Reviewing Overtime Rules

The White House has been in the spotlight lately as a foreign substance was (allegedly) found inside the President’s Palace. There’s probably a good joke in there, (white house, white substance) but we won’t make it.

Anywho, overtime laws are under review. This would make an extra 1 million workers eligible for time-and-a-half overtime pay.

“If finalized, the overtime rule would cover more workers than was previously the case. More than a million currently exempt workers would be reclassified as non-exempt, and pay would increase for those above the new threshold. Unlike prior drafts, the proposal does not call for automatic adjustments to the salary threshold, does not create different salary levels based on the region of the country, and does not make any changes to the duties tests” (ServantHR)

Last month, The Department of Labor stated that it’s targeting an August publication date to update the regulations. Stay tuned.

To read more about the potential change, click the link below.

Party Favors (extra reading)

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ICYMI - We created an AI Meme Machine! His name is PartAI (pronounced “part-ay”)

Check out his latest creation (Barbie and Ken in Oppenheimer)…

Kinda creepy tbh