HR News: Payrolls and Jobs Growth Slows, Goldman Sachs' 5-Day RTO, Extended Overtime, More Layoffs
HREN News Roundup for the Week of 8/28
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This is a weekly roundup of the latest in HR News.
The week in Human Resources produced more than the usual number of headlines. It was the end of the month, so a new Jobs Report came out. Payrolls and jobs slowed down, which means the Fed will refrain from another rate hike. Probably the biggest head shaker among the news items is the fact that Goldman Sachs is enforcing a five-day per week return to office (RTO) mandate. Then again, many might have perked up at the news of the U.S. Department of Labor's extended overtime proposal for 3.6 million low-paid, salaried workers. Of course, there were more layoffs, this time at Barstool Sports. Read on for details:
Slowing Jobs and Payrolls Growth
Earlier in the week, LinkedIn shared news from Bloomberg, which is behind a paywall, that although private payrolls grew by 177,000 in August, according to ADP, it was the slowest growth in five months. In addition, other data showed the slowest jobs growth in more than two years.
By week's end, the Jobs Report for August revealed that U.S. unemployment spiked to 3.8%, according to Reuters. In addition, wage gains remained moderate. The economy created 110,000 fewer jobs than reported in June and July.
"The labor market is slowing in response to the U.S. central bank's hefty rate hikes to cool demand in the economy," according to Reuters.
Goldman Sachs' RTO Mandate
Goldman Sachs again reminded employees that everyone should be back in the office five days per week. Goldman CEO David Solomon reportedly wanted to get people back in the office five days per week back in 2020, when the world was still gripped by the pandemic.
"Though he reluctantly yielded on the issue for a while after facing pushback from his top advisors, he made his disdain for remote work public, according to Business Insider: 'This is not ideal for us, and it's not a new normal,' Solomon later said at a conference in February 2021 regarding remote work, Bloomberg reported. 'It's an aberration that we are going to correct as quickly as possible,'" according to Business Insider.
This fits with mandates at other Wall Street firms. Many are wondering about the future of remote work and whether employees will lose any leverage they had in the wake of the pandemic and ensuing Great Resignation.
READ: 8 Reasons the United States Shuns the Four-Day Workweek
Extended Overtime
The U.S. Department of Labor is proposing a significant extension of overtime that could impact millions of workers. U.S. President Joe Biden's administration wants to increase the cutoff below which most salaried workers automatically receive time-and-a-half overtime pay.
"Under the proposed rule, issued by the Labor Department, the cutoff for receiving overtime pay after 40 hours a week would rise to about $55,000 a year from about $35,500, a level that was set during the Trump administration," according to The New York Times.
More Layoffs
Barstool Sports is laying off 25% of its staff or 100 employees, according to the New York Post.
"...We’re in a position it’s a no-brainer. It’s not like I have that moral — well, you can’t do it because nobody will have jobs. We’ll all not have jobs. So we have to get back to a break-even thing. We’re losing a lot and it sucks,” said Barstool Founder Dave Portnoy on the company's radio show.
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