Red light, stay away; green light, feel free to hang around and gab. That’s the gist of FlowLight, a new innovation in workplace productivity from UBC computer scientist Thomas Fritz.
Fritz first started work on the "FlowLight" at the University of Zurich. It was inspired by a system used by workers at international engineering firm ABB Inc., wherein they would place road safety cones on their desks when they didn’t want to be disturbed.
In Switzerland, frontier workers are 317,821, up 2.8% compared with the same period in 2016, down 0.2% on the previous quarter.
Workers from borders increased in Ticino by 0.5% over the last three months of 2016. In the first quarter, the frontiers registered by the Federal Statistical Office were 64’670, up by 3.6 % in a year.
The most significant growth, by 6.5% (1,908) was recorded by primary sector, although the largest number of jobs are in the service sector with a 4.1% increase and 207,830 people, followed by the secondary, slightly up 0.3% and 108’082 people occupied in the branch.
Last year, Swiss nominal wages recorded an average increase of 0.7% over 2015. For the fifth consecutive year, the increase remained below the 1% threshold. In majority, the economic sectors marked a real increase in wages favored by 0.4% negative inflation.
By comparison, the wages increases, negotiated in 2016 by the main labor organizations, referred to almost half a million employees, was 0.4%.
One again, Switzerland again ranked No. 1 on the list, according to the 2017 Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2015-16, released by INSEAD, the France-based business school for the world. The research is produced in partnership with the Adecco Group and the Human Capital Leadership Institute of Singapore.
Essentially, the report argued that while tech advancements will continue to disrupt the workplace and displace jobs, new opportunities will also be created. High ranking countries share key traits, according to INSEAD.
Japanese transportation service group Yamato said Tuesday it will pay about 47,000 employees 19 billion yen ($175 million) in unpaid overtime for the past two years.
The delivery company admitted that many of its drivers had to work long hours, including overtime without pay, a chronic situation due to a surge in parcel delivery demand in line with rapid growth in the e-commerce industry.
The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits decreased more than expected last week, hitting the lowest level over the past five weeks, official figures revealed on Thursday. The US Department of Labour reported initial jobless claims fell 25,000 to a total of 234,000 in the week ended April 1, down from the preceding week’s upwardly revised reading of 259,000. This was the biggest weekly decline since April 2015. Meanwhile, market analysts expected unemployment claims to plunge only 251,000 during the reported week. The number of job-seeking persons decreased from 2,052,000 to 2,028,000, thus, affecting the moving average, which hit its lowest level since June 2000. At the same time, the seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate of 1.5% remained unchanged from last week. In general, the fact that jobless claims have been fluctuating around 260,000 for more than two years, indicating that the US has a healthy labour market. In addition, the largest spike in unemployment claims was recorded in New York, Texas, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and California, while the largest drop in unemployment happened in Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky.
According to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) surveys, 152,280 unemployed persons were registered at the Regional Employment Services Centers (RAV) at the end of March 2017, 7,529 less than in the previous month. The unemployment rate thus fell from 3.6% in February 2017 to 3.4% in the reporting month. Compared to the previous month, unemployment fell by 3,044 (-2.0%). Youth unemployment (15 to 24 year olds) in March 2017 decreased by 1,545 persons (-8.1%) to 17,563. Compared to the previous year, this corresponds to a decrease of 1’344 persons (-7.1%).
The UK’s unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest since the summer of 1975, with a record number of people in work: the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the unemployment rate fell to 4.7% .
Other figures published on Wednesday showed that unemployment fell by 31,000 in the three months to January, to 1.58 million, the lowest for a decade, giving a jobless rate of 4.7%, the lowest since the summer of 1975.
