As you relax this weekend and fritter away the monthly paycheck, take a moment to consider the vagaries of the labor market, which has been whipsawing stocks and bonds and making bankers nervous. The latest US employment data did little to calm nerves about the Fed’s peak rate. Tech companies and banks continue to cull workforces. Cities across the globe are grappling with new work patterns. And the finance industry is in ferment after the spectacular failure of Silicon Valley Bank. Here’s a g
(Bloomberg) — As you relax this weekend and fritter away the monthly paycheck, take a moment to consider the vagaries of the labor market, which has been whipsawing stocks and bonds and making bankers nervous. The latest US employment data did little to calm nerves about the Fed’s peak rate. Tech companies and banks continue to cull workforces. Cities across the globe are grappling with new work patterns. And the finance industry is in ferment after the spectacular failure of Silicon Valley Bank. Here’s a guide to the hired and the fired and where the real money is.
SVB’s sudden demise and the aftershocks reverberating from America’s biggest bank failure in almost 15 years have rattled the industry in the US and beyond, with startups worried about being able to pay employees and fear rippling across markets of a systemic risk.
Topping the list of job security on the other hand is Xi Jinping, who was unanimously elected to a third term as president of China on Friday. Xi will complete his shake-up of China’s top personnel this weekend, starting with key ally Li Qiang, who was named today as premier. Also in the line up: new chiefs for the finance ministry and central bank.
The reshuffle in Beijing is partly designed to better compete with Washington, especially in technology — a thrust that has prompted the US to make its biggest foray into industrial policy since World War II. But America has a problem. It doesn’t have enough cooks, assembly line workers, nurses, teachers, truck drivers, police officers, firemen, welders and countless other skills. Unemployment is almost the lowest in more than half a century, while the number of job openings is near an all-time high. The tight labor market is often treated as a pandemic-driven aberration, but there is a bigger, more alarming reason.
Setting up new factories in the US is one thing, but moving them out of China is quite another. Despite a slew of promises to reduce reliance on the world’s biggest manufacturer, apparel companies are finding it isn’t so easy to shift somewhere else.
One career with rosy prospects: technician in a Biosafety Level 4 laboratory. A decade ago, there were 25 of these super-high-spec facilities around the world, where workers wear moonsuits and handle deadly viruses. Now there are 69, with at least a dozen more announced since the start of the pandemic, mostly in Asia. So how safe are they?
A traditional path to seeking your fortune is to head for the bright lights of the big cities. Now that those lights have been switched on again after Covid, which city should you head for? Here’s Bloomberg Opinion’s take on five global metropolises plotting their post-pandemic futures. Take your pick from New York, London, Hong Kong, New Delhi or Rio.
Or maybe go to Sydney, where some rookie traders are earning $400,000 a year, fresh out of college.
Have an industrious weekend.
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