Electric lighting didn’t take over overnight. By the early 1900s, urban areas began embracing it. Still, it wasn’t until the mid-20th century that household adoption became nearly universal. This timeline reminds us: even world-changing innovations move at the pace of trust, not just technology.
Just as we learned to educate users, set up safeguards, and guide adoption with the PC, we must do the same with AI. Let’s not be paralyzed by fear. Let’s shape the future with wisdom and optimism.
More workers have accepted a smaller paycheck when changing jobs — and the trend predates the pandemic.
October’s exceptionally weak U.S. Jobs Report was among the strangest in recent memory, due in part to extreme weather. The number of people saying they had a job but could not work due to bad weather was easily a record high, more than double the previous record.
Today women comprise 29% of the C-suite, way up from 17% in 2015. Yet improvement in representation has been notably slower at the entry and manager levels.
Tenure continues to decline since its high in 2012. Research shows that female workers, and younger workers overall, were more likely to be short-tenured employees.
Insights on worker sentiment, from the Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index (Daniel Zhao) – Sluggish hiring is likely dampening worker sentiment as laid-off workers and new hires find it difficult to get their foot in the door and even employed workers feel stuck in their jobs.
US labor productivity has soared in the last five years, far more than other countries. The U.S.’s comparative advantage in technology likely played a key role. Other factors include a more flexible labor market, stronger investment in innovation, and a robust government stimulus that helped fuel a faster post-pandemic recovery.
Turnover risk is lower when employees can choose where they work (Great Place To Work Institute) – In the words of luminary thinker Daniel Pink: “Companies instituted mandatory return-to-office measures to boost productivity and deepen employee commitment. Turns out those moves had the *opposite* effect.”
The premium earned by Americans with advanced degrees (Guy Berger, Ph.D.) – How much more does an advanced degree pay out? It’s the lowest premium since 2000.