The American Apparel & Footwear Association, the Footwear Retailers & Distributors of America, the National Retail Federation, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, and the United States Fashion Industry Association have released a study that calls out...
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Has Trade with China Really Cost the U.S. Jobs?
How did trade with China affect the United States? In Washington, the consensus is that it cost Americans jobs. A central concern is the negative impact on manufacturing jobs and U.S. employment more generally. But that’s not necessarily the case, according to...
Growing Small Business Exports: How Technology Strengthens American Trade
It has long been known that U.S. economic growth and job creation depend on the ability to sell beyond America’s borders; after all, 95% of consumers live outside the United States. Moreover, U.S. businesses that export tend to grow faster, create more jobs, and...
Understanding America’s Labor Shortage: The Most Impacted Industries
The pandemic caused a major disruption in America’s labor force—something many have referred to as The Great Resignation. But a closer look at what has happened to the labor force can be better described as ‘The Great Reshuffle’ because hiring rates have outpaced quit...
U.S. Restaurant Industry Adds Jobs in June, but Keeps Sight on Tech Fixes
The restaurant industry added 40,800 jobs in June and now employs 11,938,000 workers—a figure that’s climbed 27 percent since June 2020 yet remains roughly 700,000 below pre-COVID marks, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released last week. Overall...
Bright Future for Post Pandemic U.S. Uniform Industry, Says BLS
Uniforms, whether for public safety, medical, industrial or corporate, strengthen the structures of organizations today. Workplace uniforms are associated with enhancing brand awareness, but they of course go beyond this. The uniforms establish and support a business...
Revenues Trending Up in TRSA’s June 2022 Uniform and Linen Rental Survey
Robert W. Baird & Co. and TRSA recently released the June 2022 Uniform & Linen Rental Survey. The results noted rising revenues among survey respondents in the second quarter as well as a positive growth outlook among both uniform rental and linen rental...
Covid Two Years Later: 6 Hard-Won Lessons from Businesses That Survived the Pandemic
It's been two years since the World Health Organization declared Covid a global pandemic, and since then nearly every facet of business has been upended. While hundreds of thousands of businesses did not make it, those that have survived have done so out of sheer...
Supply Issues Badger July Manufacturing as Growth Slows Again
The Institute for Supply Management reported August 2 that its Manufacturing PMI fell 1.1 points to 59.1% in July. The reading indicates that U.S. manufacturing continued to grow, albeit at a slower rate than it had in June. While the manufacturing sector has grown...
AAFA Seeks More Support to End Shipping Crisis as Inflation Hits U.S.
In a recent letter to President Joe Biden, American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) president and chief executive officer Steve Lamar emphasized the need for additional government support to address an ongoing shipping crisis that has caused a ‘destructive...
U.S. hiring picks up with 559K jobs added; leisure, hospitality lead way
In a mild improvement over the previous month, the U.S. labor market added 559,000 jobs in May, according to Labor Department figures released last Friday. Economists had expected roughly 671,000 new jobs, a significant step up from April's disappointing 266,000. The...
USPS Has Nearly Exhausted the $10B Congress Awarded It for COVID-19 Relief
The U.S. Postal Service has spent nearly all of the $10 billion Congress allocated to it last year to offset losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, placing the mailing agency in an improved financial position after recently cautioning it may have to cease its normal...