Workforce

Many States Resist Adapting Worker Safety Rules to Pandemic

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued no new rules during the pandemic. And states with their own workplace safety agencies lack a strong benchmark to follow.

  • By Alex Brown, Stateline

The New Year’s Resolutions That Don’t Lead to Happiness

COMMENTARY | And better ones to consider instead.

  • By Arthur C. Brooks, The Atlantic

How to Outsmart Your Covid-19 Fears and Boost Your Mood in 2021

COMMENTARY | Releasing negative emotions is the first step in preventing stress overload.

  • By Laurel Mellin, The Conversation

A Burnout Crisis Hits Government

COMMENTARY | A soon-to-be released survey reveals some surprising findings about local and state public sector employees’ struggles and how helping them feel connected to each other can reduce burnout.

  • By Katherine Barrett & Richard Greene

The Year We Lost

When we look back on 2020, will we see past all the things that didn’t happen?

  • By Joe Pinsker, The Atlantic

Local Health Departments Are Understaffed. Would Biden’s ‘Public Health Jobs Corps’ Help?

Public health leaders say the president-elect’s idea for a corps to help with contact tracing would miss the mark of current needs on the ground, saying they are looking for broader, and more long lasting, federal support.

  • By Emma Coleman

Farmworkers, Firefighters and Flight Attendants Jockey for Vaccine Priority

Everyone — from toilet paper manufacturers to patient advocates — is lobbying state advisory boards, arguing their members are essential, vulnerable or both — and, thus, most deserving of an early vaccine

  • By Phil Galewitz and Rachel Bluth, Kaiser Health News

Biden Team Tries Recruiting Tech Workers Through Source Code

If you find the hidden message, you might be someone the incoming administration wants to hire.

  • By Aaron Boyd

Some States Train Jobless for Post-Pandemic Workforce

At least nine states are paying for short-term training.

  • By Sophie Quinton, Stateline

In November, Men Dropped Out of the Workforce at Higher Rates than Women

November was the first time in what has been dubbed the first female recession that men suffered greater losses than women. About 347,000 left the labor force.

  • By Chabeli Carrazana, The 19th

It’s Time to Reform the Public Sector Workforce

COMMENTARY | The public sector workforce is in the midst of a major transformation brought on by the pandemic, creating a need for public sector employers to redesign the employee experience.

  • By Bob Lavigna

Measuring Your Happiness Can Help Improve It

Are you a Mad Scientist, a Cheerleader, a Sober Judge, or a Poet?

  • By Arthur C. Brooks, The Atlantic

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Government Tech & Innovation
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State CIOs in 2020

Americans Got Tired of Looking Bad on Zoom

The pandemic’s at-home workers are discovering what internet influencers have long known: If you want to be taken seriously, get good lighting.

  • By Amanda Mull, The Atlantic

Why Employers Find It So Hard to Test for Covid

A board overseeing occupational safety in California approved the nation's first emergency rule to require employers to provide testing to all workers after an outbreak.

  • By Hannah Norman, Kaiser Health News

How Social Work is Changing in the Covid Era

COMMENTARY | The pandemic has forced the entire social work industry to rapidly evolve and adapt to a virtual environment.

  • By Molly Tierney

One State Will Use Education College Students to Plug Ongoing Teacher Shortage

Education students in Connecticut can serve as apprentice teachers in classrooms, getting paid the same rate as substitute teachers without needing to be certified.

  • By Kate Elizabeth Queram

Disasters Are Inevitable; Government’s Inadequate Response Is Not

COMMENTARY | New research analyzing the responses of hundreds of local leaders identified common obstacles and proven ways to overcome them.

  • By John Kamensky

More Crucial Than Ever, EMS Agencies Are Short Staffed and Overworked

COMMENTARY | Adequately staffing emergency medical services has been a problem for some time, potentially putting lives at stake. The pandemic threatens to make shortages worse.

  • By Katherine Barrett & Richard Greene

3 Reasons for Information Exhaustion—and What to Do About It

COMMENTARY | Uncertainty, polarization and misinformation can make you miserable if you don't find ways to cope.

  • By Mark Satta, The Conversation

The Lopsided Telework Revolution

COMMENTARY | The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated a transition to telework, protecting the jobs and the health of those whose work can be performed remotely. Creative policies in a post-pandemic world are needed to help more broadly distribute the benefits of increased remote work.

  • By Jason Ward and M. Rebecca Kilburn

Another Region Offers Remote Workers $10,000—and a Bike!—to Move

Northwest Arkansas will provide a cash incentive and a street or mountain bike to qualified remote workers who relocate to the area.

  • By Kate Elizabeth Queram