Welcome to Mobility Minute, a newsletter published every Friday by Worldwide ERC for the benefit of members and the global mobility and relocation industry as a whole. If you get Mobility Minute weekly, please forward this issue to colleagues in the Workforce Mobility industry. If this was shared with you, click here to get your own free subscription and access the archives.
What's happening?
Here's a quick glimpse of what you'll find in this week's Mobility Minute:
Social Networks Give Remote Networking a Boost
The H-1B Visa Backlog is Slowing American Innovation
What Does Euro-U.S. Dollar Parity Mean for Americans?
Call to Serve on 2023 Worldwide ERC Board and 2023 Foundation Board
Social Networks Give Remote Networking a Boost
Before the coronavirus pandemic, professional networking might happen on the spur of the moment. Networking occurred at a conference or when coworkers bumped into each other in the hallway, but the pandemic has made it difficult. What happens when those connections with colleagues and mentors exist solely online?
Why is this important?
In a world where work is increasingly conducted remotely or even hybrid, it's more challenging to form informal connections. Instead, many young professionals must rely on Zoom "coffee chats" with their new coworkers. LinkedIn might be a great place to start when looking for a mentor, and Slack-based networking groups have grown in the past two years, allowing far-flung workers to share job knowledge and strategies.
The H-1B Visa Backlog is Slowing American Innovation
Historically, immigrants have played a vital role in American innovation. Multiple analyses of historical immigration patterns show that more migrants to a region correlates with a higher rate of innovation and related economic growth. By contrast, when immigration is more restricted, companies — especially tech companies and those that conduct innovative R&D work — are less successful, and growth in jobs and wages slows.
Why is this important?
Congress sets an annual cap on how many H-1B visa holders can come in, and that cap is now far below what the labor market demands. That means that year in and year out, hundreds of thousands of high-skilled workers from abroad try to come to the US and ultimately fail, so that both the prospective employee and the company hoping to hire them end up losing out on their preferred option.
The US has long been a desirable destination for young, highly educated foreign workers eager to seek out the best career opportunities. Facing a longstanding shortage of skilled STEM workers, US companies and the overall US economy stand to benefit. But the country risks losing its position to others like the UK or Canada, which have made recent immigration reforms aimed at attracting and retaining high-skilled young people if the US continues to restrict skilled immigration so heavily.
The United States and China, the world’s two leading greenhouse gas emitters, are each responsible for more than $1.8 trillion of global income losses from 1990 to 2014, according to a new study that links the emissions in individual countries to the economic impacts of climate change in others. — The Washington Post
For the first time in three years, start-up funding is dropping. Investments in U.S. tech start-ups plunged 23 percent over the last three months, to $62.3 billion, the steepest fall since 2019, according to figures released on Thursday by PitchBook, which tracks young companies. Even worse, in the first six months of the year, start-up sales and initial public offerings — the primary ways these companies return cash to investors — plummeted 88 percent, to $49 billion, from a year ago. —The New York Times
The US dollar has been on a major surge against major global currencies in the past year, recently hitting levels not seen in 20 years. It has gained 15% against the British Pound, 16% against the Euro, and 23% against the Japanese Yen. The dollar is the world’s reserve currency, which means it is used in most international transactions. As a result, changes in its value have implications for the entire global economy. —QRIUS
BA.5 became dominant in the U.S. just two months after it first appeared, rapidly displacing previous subvariants of Omicron including the fast-spreading BA.2 and BA.2.12.1 strains. The BA.5 sub-variant is also causing spikes of COVID cases and hospitalizations across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. —Fortune
What Does Euro-U.S. Dollar Parity Mean for Americans?
The euro and the U.S. dollar are exchanging at a 1-to-1 rate for the first time in nearly two decades when the European currency was in its infancy. The dollar is considered a safe haven, and it has gained strength as investors maneuver an uncertain economic playing field in Europe and elsewhere.
Why is this important?
The stronger dollar is good news for Americans considering a European vacation or buying goods abroad. It could lower the price of commodities, such as grain, and potentially ease the relentless inflation that has sent household and business expenses surging.
Experts say the euro’s retreat also hints at the slower pace of global trade, adding to recession worries. It could hurt American exports abroad because foreign buyers’ purchasing power is weakened. It also will affect currency translations on repatriated profits for U.S. multinationals
Applications are Open for the Worldwide ERC® Board of Directors and Foundation for Workforce Mobility Board of Trustees
Worldwide ERC is seeking industry leaders willing and able to serve on the Worldwide ERC Board and the Foundation for Workforce Mobility Board. These governing bodies provide leadership on organizational mission, vision, values, and strategic direction. The selection process for both bodies is highly competitive and reflects the need and commitment to diversity and inclusion.
The deadline for applications for both is July 20, 2022.
Worldwide ERC Board of Directors
We are seeking members with leadership experience, industry knowledge, and volunteer commitment to apply for a total of 4-5 Board positions (comprising 1-2 corporate mobility professionals and 2-3 service providers) for a three-year term commencing January 1, 2023.
Successful candidates will be visible leaders who have been active and engaged in Worldwide ERC activities, are effective in leveraging professional industry networks to support Worldwide ERC, and offer insights and perspectives that will inform the organization's thought leadership.
Detailed responsibilities and attributes sought in 2023 candidates can be found here. Applications can be found here.
Foundation for Workforce Mobility Board of Trustees
We are also seeking leaders for the Foundation for Workforce Mobility, which relies upon volunteer efforts to further its mission to energize the global community through charitable giving and to make sure all communities touched by global mobility are actively aware of, inspired by, and engaged in our charitable efforts worldwide.
Detailed Foundation responsibilities and attributes sought in 2023 candidates can be found here. Applications can be found here.
As Travel Heats Up, Berlin, New York City, and Dublin Named as ‘Sold Out Cities’
A new AltoVita survey has revealed that Berlin at 94% occupancy, New York City at 89% occupancy, and Dublin at 96% occupancy are set to be sold-out cities this summer. With demand high across the globe, Denver 93%, and San Diego 93% also ranked popular in the US, based on AltoVitas data and research on corporate accommodation occupancy rates. Equally, Singapore 89%, Tokyo 89%, and Panama 89% are current hotspots for business travelers. This surge in certain areas follows the much-reported summer travel boom news of 2022.
Why is this important?
With business travel back in full swing, it’s unsurprising that there is now huge demand in a range of cities across the world. AltoVita also found that many business travelers are taking families and pets with them, as part of an extended “workation”.
Holland to make remote work the law, but will it backfire? Read more via Inc.
Is it up to employees to fix the remote-work promotion gap? Read more via the BBC.
The bear market puts ESG investing to its first big test. Read more via Reuters.
The workplace benefits of neurodiversity. Read more via People Management.
Form I-9 and Remote Workers: Is the Flexibility Almost Over? Read more via JD Supra.
DHL teams up with Coldplay to make their tour sustainable. Read more via Deutsche Post DHL Group.
On Tap
2022 Global Workforce Symposium, October 25, 2022 – October 28, 2022 — We're living in a time of great transformation. The global pandemic and the advance in technology is changing how humans live, move, and work. What do these changes mean for the workforce mobility industry? Join us this fall as we build the game plan for how mobility responds. Click here to learn more about the 2022 Global Workforce Symposium.
Air travel in Europe is a little hectic at the moment: lost luggage, canceled flights, and hours spent in check-in lines. Some airports are worse than others. A new report from travel agency Hopper is here to help you work out which airports youshould avoid at all costs.
The worst (and best) European airports for delays right now. Using data from the Official Aviation Guide, a provider of data and analytics for airports, Hopper has worked out how European airports are performing so far in July, focusing on the number of delays and cancellations up to July 10.
The worst European airport for delays is Brussels Zaventem! Belgium’s busiest airport, Zaventem has seen a whopping 72 percent of flights delayed so far this month, with 2.5 percent canceled.
The best-performing airport in Europe is Milan’s Bergamo, which only had three percent of flights delayed and one percent canceled. Similarly reliable is Gran Canaria’s airport (with eight percent delayed, 0.3 percent canceled) and Bucharest’s Otopeni International (ten percent delayed, 1.7 percent canceled).
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