We Interrupt The Normal Bookmarks Blog Post to Bring You Some POSITIVE Economic News

January 7th, 2019

For a number of years I've curated updates in this space on the CRE world. Today, we take a short break to focus on a different topic - the economy. I'm frustrated that some media outlets harp only on the negative news at every turn. This is one of the best economies of our lifetime - please read beyond the trending and check out the good news out there. #factsmatter #don'tjustreadtheheadlines

Credit: iStock

The Labor Market Would Like You All To Stop Panicking Now Please

"Job gains were led by the healthcare industry, which added 50,000 jobs in December, as well as construction, which added 38,000 jobs. Construction employment increased by 280,000 jobs over the year." www.bisnow.com 

'The Labor Market Would Like You All To Stop Panicking Now Please': Economists React To December Jobs Report On Twitter

[tweet_box design="box_09" float="none"]The labor market would like you all to stop panicking now please #cre[/tweet_box]

Fed Chair in Atlanta Boasts About Economy

"...Powell said he remains upbeat and has not made up his mind about further rate hikes this year.

“There is no preset path for policy,” he said. “We are always prepared to shift economic policy and to shift it significantly.”

The Fed is “listening carefully to the message that the market is sending,” he said.

Powell spoke Friday after release of the monthly government report that showed a gain of 312,000 jobs in December – about twice as many as had been expected. The report also showed wages rising. While the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9 percent, that increase was caused by a surge of new workers, he said.

That report was evidence that the economy is chugging along steadily and can probably more easily handle more rate hikes."  www.ajc.com

 

[tweet_box design="box_09" float="none"](The)..."report was evidence that the economy is chugging along steadily and can probably more easily handle more rate hikes."[/tweet_box]

Strong U.S. Job and Wage Growth Provides Assurance on Economy

"All the while, the economy kept cranking out jobs. U.S. employers added a net 2.64 million jobs to their payrolls in 2018, the best year since 2015. Payrolls have grown for 99 straight months, by far the longest stretch of steady hiring on record.

The unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9% in December from 3.7% but remains low by historical standards. The increase owed in part to more people entering the workforce, some of whom get counted as unemployed while they’re looking for work.

Stock prices, already moving up on the economic news, jumped even higher after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the Fed would be patient about further increases in rates this year."[WSJ Paywall] www.wsj.com

 

Businesses across many sectors have been searching for workers as the labor market has tightened.
Businesses across many sectors have been searching for workers as the labor market has tightened. PHOTO: JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES

U.S. Stocks Surge on Powell Remarks, Jobs Report

"U.S. stocks bounced back from their worst two-day start to a year since 2000, soaring Friday after fresh signs of economic strength eased fears that slowing growth around the world could drag on the U.S. expansion.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped nearly 750 points as better-than-expected hiring in December suggested a healthy labor market. Stocks rose further after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said economic data suggest good momentum heading into the new year, but that the central bank is “prepared to adjust policy quickly and flexibly” if necessary.

The combination mitigated investors’ worries about an economic slowdown. Those fears sent waves of volatility sweeping through stock and bond markets in recent weeks..." [WSJ Paywall] www.wsj.com

Q and A on the Big December Jobs Report

"The big news is that the jobs market apparently didn’t get the memo that the U.S. economy was barreling toward a recession. In fact, the jobs numbers came in a lot stronger than expected. Payrolls were up 312,000 in December, compared with expectations for about 180,000, and bringing the full count of jobs added for 2018 up to 2.6 million jobs, the strongest year for job gains since 2015. Wage growth accelerated slightly and, at 3.3 percent (before inflation) for mid-level workers, tied an earlier cyclical high. Weekly hours edged up slightly, jobs gains for the prior two months were revised up, and 70 percent of private industries added jobs on net, a high share for that metric.” www.washingtonpost.com

[tweet_box design="box_09" float="none"]The big news is that the jobs market apparently didn’t get the memo that the U.S. economy was barreling toward a recession. In fact, the jobs numbers came in a lot stronger than expected.[/tweet_box]

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great a hugely impactful week!

Bookmarks: 5 Interesting Articles to Help You This Week

September 5th, 2017

Credit: iStockEach week, I select a few articles that rise above the fray and hopefully help you on your journey in the CRE world. They pull from one of four "corners:" corporate real estate, technology, management science and anything positive. I welcome your comments on these articles and the submissions of others (with credit to you if I post them). I wish you a terrific week!

On the Day I DieJust read this. It will keep everything in perspective, I promise. Love those around you.  www.johnpavlovitz.com

Robocalls Flooding Your Cellphone? Here’s How to Stop ThemOn a lighter note: "And then there is the Jolly Roger Telephone Company, which turns the tables on telemarketers. This program allows a customer to put the phone on mute and patch telemarketing calls to a robot, which understands speech patterns and inflections and works to keep the caller engaged.

Subscribers can choose robot personalities, such as Whiskey Jack, who is frequently distracted by a game he is watching on television, or Salty Sally, a frazzled mother.

The robots string the callers along with vocal fillers like “Uh-huh” and “O.K., O.K.” After several minutes, some will ask the callers to repeat their sales pitch from the beginning, prompting the telemarketers to have angry meltdowns, according to sample recordings posted on the company’s website." www.nytimes.com

The Amazing Life of Uber's New CEO Dara Khosrowshahi — From Refugee to Tech Superstar"Uber's board offered the top job at the company to Dara Khosrowshahi, the CEO of Expedia.The job, should he accept it, represents just another milestone for the 48-year old Khosrowshahi, who has lived an extraordinary life of both hardship and influence." www.businessinsider.com

What You’re Truly Saying With Your Out-of-Office Reply"Even better: If you want to truly unplug, own it and don’t apologize. And you should unplug! Studies have shown unplugging can improve your job performance and overall life satisfaction.

Mallory Ortberg, former editor of the beloved but now defunct website The Toast and current Dear Prudence columnist, went this route:

“I am currently on vacation and not accepting any emails about anything,” Ms. Ortberg wrote in one out-of-office autoreply, as Ms. Gould reported in her story. “I’m not planning on reading any old emails when I get back, either, because that feels antithetical to the vacation experience.”

What do you usually write in your out-of-office messages? Tell me at tim@nytimes.com or on Twitter at @timherrera.

Have a great week (or vacation)!"  www.nytimes.com

[tweet_box design="box_09" float="none"]I am currently on vacation and not accepting any emails about anything. I’m not planning on reading any old emails when I get back, either, because that feels antithetical to the vacation experience.[/tweet_box]

Workers Are Already Pushing Back Against The Office Of The Future|"We are constantly told that real estate and technology will interact and fundamentally change the way people work. Big data, smart technology and artificial intelligence are all regularly predicted to have a huge impact on the way offices operate. Co-working and shared workspace are increasingly being touted as the next evolution in the way companies take space. But the path to the office of the future will not run smoothly, as companies are starting to find out. People are pushing back against innovation as quickly as they are embracing it. Last week Bloomberg reported that management at U.K. banking giant Barclays had faced a flurry of questions when staff discovered tracking devices had been put on their desks to measure occupancy levels."www.bisnow.com

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great a hugely impactful week!Ken 

Bookmarks: 5 Interesting Articles to Help You This Week

January 23rd, 2017

Credit: iStockEach week, I select a few articles that rise above the fray and hopefully help you on your journey in the CRE world. They pull from one of four "corners:" corporate real estate, technology, management science and anything positive. I welcome your comments on these articles and the submissions of others (with credit to you if I post them). I wish you a terrific week!

The Surprising Truth About ChoiceTechnology gives us the power to check emails from home in the middle of the night and to collaborate in real time with colleagues all around world. And because choice empowers a person to work in whatever style they find most conducive to success, we expected our 2016 survey to show that more organizations are offering choice to their employees. So you can imagine the shock we felt when we learned that choice is actually decreasing! According to the results of our 2016 U.S. Workplace Survey, which surveyed 4,000 U.S. workers across 11 industries, only one in four people now reports having choice in where they work. That’s a 24 percent decrease in a span of just three years." www.gensleron.com

[tweet_box design="box_09" float="none"]#CRE #workplace choice is actually decreasing! @Gensleronwork[/tweet_box]

How to Write Email with Military Precision"In the military, a poorly formatted email may be the difference between mission accomplished and mission failure. During my active duty service, I learned how to structure emails to maximize a mission’s chances for success. Since returning from duty, I have applied these lessons to emails that I write for my corporate job, and my missives have consequently become crisper and cleaner, eliciting quicker and higher-quality responses from colleagues and clients. Here are three of the main tips I learned on how to format your emails with military precision..." www.hbr.org

[tweet_box design="box_09" float="none"]I have applied (military) lessons to emails that I write for my corporate job, and my missives have consequently become crisper..#cre[/tweet_box]

What Matters More to Your Workforce than Money"Economists have long argued that money doesn’t buy happiness. But compensation is still a major factor for us when we’re considering where to work. What do we know about how more pay influences employees’ motivations?

That slice of information can be the difference between a workforce that is satisfied and productive and one that isn’t — costing the business money in the long run.

As the chief economist at Glassdoor, my role is to help unearth some of the driving forces behind job seekers’ decisions: why they choose the jobs they do, what matters to them at work, and what causes them to love — or despise — their company or manager." www.hbr.org

Tech That Will Change Your Life in 2017"Ok, teleportation is still a ways off. But we’re still in awe of what’s in store for the next 12 months. The list below has become an annual tradition, where we talk to industry insiders, track the trends and otherwise gaze into our crystal ball to identify the tech that’s going to make an impact in the near term—for better and worse.www.wsj.com

A New Age Industrial Product Emerging to Meet Modern Needs"Inspired by the creative office movement, a new generation of industrial flex space is emerging that combines creative office and industrial uses under one roof. Most of these projects recycle large old industrial buildings by dividing them up for multiple tenants.

This is a relatively new product type that appears most popular in mature urban locations with a large, educated young workforce..www.nreionline.com

5 Trends That Will Change The Way Your Customers Will Shop In 2017"At first glance, the queues for 2016’s hot-ticket holiday item, Snapchat Spectacles, might not have looked all that different from the round-the-block lines that formed for the Tickle Me Elmo craze of 20 years ago. But a closer inspection reveals how the simple act of shopping has been quietly transformed during that time.

Rather than waiting at the mall to make their purchase, Snapchat’s hopeful customers were lining up to buy specs at Snapbot vending machines in exotic locales such as the Grand Canyon, the Rose Bowl and Big Sur..." www.forbes.com

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great a hugely impactful week!Ken