Maintaining productivity through a pandemic and a derecho — as well as operational success, not to mention continued hiring and retention — over the past 20 months have had a direct, permanent impact on how organizations function, Gazette business panelists say.
Beth Livingston, assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business, is one of a team of investigators that’s among the first to look at how artificial intelligence could affect the future of clerical work.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to a fresh pandemic low last week, another sign the job market may be healing after last year's coronavirus recession. But in Iowa, initial jobless claims rose to 2,172 — a slight increase from the previous week’s 2,030.
With policy changes to unemployment benefits yet to result in a boost to workforce numbers in Iowa, businesses continue to search for ways to fill jobs and to keep employees they already have -- many now raising wages, offering bonuses and adding perks.
While disagreeing with the Biden administration's plan to mandate vaccines or testing, business organizations in Iowa say Iowa’s new law puts employers at risk of facing federal penalties and could worsen the workplace shortage.
Nursing home leaders across the state have been working to increase the number of staff fully immunized against COVID-19. A federal mandate expected this month also aims to do the same thing -- but many across Iowa’s industry say the new rule could have a detrimental effect.
Unemployed Iowans would be required to meet weekly with state case managers, conduct twice as many weekly work searches and undergo audits to prove they're actively looking for work under a new proposal announced Wednesday by Gov. Kim Reynolds.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to its lowest stage since the pandemic began. Iowa also saw a small drop.
Homes for Iowa, started in 2019, aims to satisfy two of Iowa’s biggest needs — training workers for in-demand jobs and building affordable housing for Iowa communities. The program at the Newton Correctional Facility supports several apprenticeship programs for offenders.
Closures of wood and metal shops have dramatically reduced the opportunities for Anamosa offenders to participate in apprenticeships, shown to reduce recidivism and improve an ex-offender’s likelihood of getting a job on the outside.
Mitchell Stites got 2,200 hours of hair cutting experience as a barber in the Iowa Department of Corrections, using clippers -- no scissors or straight-edges allowed -- to do bald fades and trims to make the men incarcerated with him at Fort Dodge look and feel good.
Last year, the Iowa Department of Corrections and NewBoCo, in Cedar Rapids, started a coding program for women at the prison, funded by a $175,000 grant from the Google Impact Challenge. The pilot project is modeled after NewBoCo’s Delta V program, a 20-week boot camp where individuals with no technical background become Full Stack JavaScript developers.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose for the third straight week, a sign that the highly contagious delta variant may be slowing a recovery in the job market.
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