Power Reads: 5 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Week

Each week, I select a few articles that rise above the fray and hopefully help you on your journey in leadership and the CRE world. They pull from one of four "corners": corporate real estate, technology, management science and anything positive. Each day we can become a better version of ourselves.

1. Amazon Gobbling Up SoCal Office Space, Taking 439K SF In Santa Monica, Irvine, San Diego

Amazon may have too much warehouse space and too many warehouse workers, but they are apparently still short on the white-collar side.

“The e-commerce giant announced plans Tuesday to add more than 2,500 corporate and tech jobs in three Southern California cities, snapping up nearly 450K SF of office space in LA, Orange and San Diego counties to make room for its new staff. The commitments would “[contribute] to local job creation and the revitalization of downtown areas,” Amazon said. ”

In Santa Monica, Amazon is planning to add more than 1,000 jobs “in the coming years” and has inked a 200K SF lease at the Water Garden in the beach city to support that growth. The Water Garden is owned by J.P. Morgan Asset Management and managed by CBRE. The first employees are expected on-site in mid-2023, according to Amazon.

2. U.S. unemployment rate remains at pandemic low of 3.6 percent

U.S. employers added 428,000 jobs in April, capping a year of solid growth and adding more fuel to an already robust recovery. The unemployment rate remained steady at a pandemic low of 3.6 percent, the Labor Department said Friday.

“The labor market has added more than 6.5 million jobs in the past year and is on pace to return to pre-pandemic levels this summer, although economists say there are signs that this record streak of employment gains is beginning to moderate. The number of people working or searching for work, for example, declined by 363,000 in April after six months of gains. And the pace of average wage growth slowed slightly to 0.3 percent, from 0.4 percent a month earlier.”

“This has been an extraordinary jobs recovery, but this kind of growth can’t last forever, especially now that the unemployment level is as low as it is,” said Scott Anderson, the chief economist for Bank of the West in San Francisco. “It’s getting harder to find folks to come back into the labor market, even if you’re paying higher wages.”

3.American Consumers Are Shopping, Traveling and Working Out Like It’s 2019

In early 2020, many companies said the pandemic would change everything for consumers. And it did—for a while.

“Now many Americans are resuming their prepandemic habits: rocking out at crowded concerts, doing deadlifts next to strangers at the gym and stocking a standard supply of toilet paper. Airlines, restaurants and child-care centers, which relied on government loans to stay afloat during Covid-19’s peak, can now hardly keep up with demand.”

Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster, said concert ticket sales were up 45% as of February 2022 compared with the same period in 2019, the last full prepandemic year. As of February, the company had 30% more concerts planned for 2022 than 2019.

4. Russian Oil Ban, Ukraine War Present Risks to Global Economy, Janet Yellen Says

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the U.S. economy remains strong despite the fact that it shrank in the first quarter of this year, adding that both persistently high inflation and spillovers from the war in Ukraine present economic risks.

““The outlook is very uncertain. The dangers at the global level are high,” she said. “I do worry about commodity prices, I am worried about spillovers from Russia and Ukraine that can have adverse impacts not just on the U.S. that is strongly positioned, but on Europe, on emerging markets.””

Adding to the challenges to the global economy is the recent European Union decision to ban imports of Russian oil, she said. Oil prices jumped on Wednesday in the wake of the EU announcement.

5. How Austin Lured the Most Workers Back to Offices

AUSTIN, Texas—Companies nationwide are struggling to get employees back in the office, but not in Austin.

“These days, the city’s workforce is putting in more face time at offices than those in any other major U.S. metro area. ”

Austin offices are 59%-occupied—and cracked the 60% threshold last month—according to data from Kastle Systems, an office-security firm that records workers’ comings and goings by measuring badge swipes into skyscrapers and corporate campuses.

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

Ken Ashley