It’s a job seeker’s market out there. Unemployment benefits claims plunged to their lowest level in 45 years this week, further tightening an already-tight job market. Businesses across all industries are finding it more difficult to fill vacancies, particularly in manufacturing and construction, according to the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book, released this week. Bloomberg
Pay equity was in the news this week, when it was revealed there was a gargantuan disparity between what Mark Wahlberg and co-star Michelle Williams were paid to re-shoot some scenes in the movie “All the Money in the World” after Kevin Spacey was fired and his role recast. Wahlberg was paid $1.5 million for the re-shoot, while Williams earned just $80 per day. It has everyone talking about pay equity, not only on the news, but around the water cooler. The Atlantic
A federal court just voided the EEOC’s rules on wellness initiatives after the agency failed to move swiftly to come up with new rules and regs on the subject. It stemmed from a recent Supreme Court ruling that found the EEOC’s recent wellness regs for employer wellness incentive programs (the ability to offer employees a 30 percent discount on insurance premiums if they participated in “voluntary” wellness programs) were in a legal gray area, not HIPAA compliant, and punitive. The EEOC has until August 2018 to revise those rules. HR Morning
Hiring managers, take note. The more diverse your company is, the more innovative it will be, according to a new study out of North Carolina State University. Researchers looked at data from 3,000 large, publicly held U.S. companies and found that diverse companies perform better at developing innovative products and services. It was a “causative link” that held true across a range of industry sectors. What it means for HR: Keep diversity top of mind when making hiring decisions. You’ll be boosting your company’s bottom line. HR Dive
At a time when HR is focusing on cloud-based services for payroll, benefits, performance, and learning and a proliferation of HR tech blogs and review sites are popping up, there’s a new tech conference in town, and it’s going head-to-head with the HR Technology Conference, which has been dishing on HR tech for 20 years. Unleash, from European-based HR event organizer HRN, will take place in Las Vegas in May, and plans to focus on the future of work and other unique programming. HRN tapped HR titan China Gorman, former CEO of Great Place to Work and COO of SHRM, to head up Unleash. Workforce
