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:
US Housing Underproduction Report Released
New Survey Explores LGBTQ Employee Experiences
OECD Delays International Tax Implementation
Securing A Mortgage Utilizing Open Banking
US Housing Underproduction Report Released
Up for Growth, a cross-sector member network committed to solving the nation’s housing shortage and affordability crisis through data-driven research and evidence-based policy, released a groundbreaking report last week on housing underproduction in the United States.
Why is this important?
The average U.S. state had a housing deficit of 79,000 homes. Although California has the most severe housing deficit, The shortage has become a national issue and its repercussions are vast and long-lasting. The report’s data finds that building 3.8 million additional homes would create increased housing affordability, add $209 billion to the U.S. GDP, generate $7 billion in additional local revenue, and reduce C02 emissions to the equivalent of 7.7 billion fewer miles traveled annually at full buildout.
Employers are devoting more time and resources to diversity, equality, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) efforts than ever before. In addition to being a sound leadership strategy, investing in DEIB benefits workers because employees who feel included are more inclined to be engaged, according to recently released Gallup research.
Why is this important?
Only 17% of LGBTQ+ employees strongly agree that their organization cares about their well-being, which means DEIB initiatives are falling short. The goal of DEIB programs is to create an inclusive environment. This is a leadership issue, and leaders can have a beneficial influence on LGBTQ+ employees' sense of inclusion in a variety of ways.
More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, uncertainty over how the health crisis will evolve continues to hinder businesses across the U.S. The long-term impact on consumer behavior is hard to predict, posing challenges to businesses. — CBS News
Japan's economy is likely to grow at a slower pace than previously thought throughout the rest of the fiscal year, a Reuters poll showed, as growing risks of a global economic slowdown and supply woes torment Japanese exporters. — Reuters
Copper has suffered its worst weekly plunge in price since the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, in a stark indicator of the worsening state of the global economy. The metal dropped below $7,000 (£5,913) a tonne for the first time since November 2020, as fears over a worldwide recession grew. —The Guardian
The global economy is in the midst of a sudden slowdown accompanied by a steep run-up in global inflation to multidecade highs. These developments raise concerns about stagflation—the coincidence of weak growth and elevated inflation—similar to what the world suffered in the 1970s. —Brookings
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Delays International Tax Implementation
The Organization for Economic Development Cooperation and Development, an intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, announced this week that an international tax proposal, that was agreed upon last October will not be implemented at least until 2024.
Why is this important?
The global tax agreement, which was agreed upon by more than 130 countries, is aimed at addressing rampant cross-border profit shifting that cost governments an estimated $100 billion to $240 billion in tax revenue annually and represents a major shift in how multinationals are taxed. The agreement is intended to increase taxes substantially on many large corporations and to end an international fight over how technology companies are taxed.
Open banking, an outgrowth of the fintech industry, is a banking practice that provides third-party financial service providers open access to consumer banking, transaction, and other financial data from banks and non-bank financial institutions through the use of application programming interfaces (APIs). Open banking can allow the networking of accounts and data across institutions for use by consumers, financial institutions, and third-party service providers.
Why is this important?
Mortgage companies are utilizing open banking technology to streamline the front-to-back process of getting a mortgage, including workflow management, document extraction and management, income and asset verification, employment verification, title verification, appraisal management, e-closings, automated compliance, and decisioning.
Facebook’s workforce grew more diverse when it embraced remote work. Read more viaThe Washington Post.
High housing costs and remote work led people to move out of the Bay Area. Read more viaNBC.
Sustainable architecture requires greater scale to have an impact on the planet. Read more viaFortune.
How organizations can master the fundamentals of inclusivity. Read more viaForbes.
The Senate is nearing a deal on immigration that could also lower food prices. Read more viaNPR.
On Tap
SECURE E-Notarization Act — Worldwide ERC continues to express our strong support for adding SECURE E-Notarization Act to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) as amendment #543. Learn more about the SECURE E-Notarization Act in the forthcoming issue of Mobility Magazine.
Applications are Open — 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. Click here to learn more about the Worldwide ERC Board of Directors. Click here to learn more about the Foundation for Workforce Mobility Board of Trustees.
2022 Global Workforce Symposium, October 25, 2022 – October 28, 2022 — GWS2022 will be the largest mobility industry gathering attracting over 1,000 attendees seeking connections and expert knowledge focused on domestic and international moves, immigration policies, tax issues, cutting-edge technology trends, hot topics and much more. 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.
Worldwide ERC® Member-Only LinkedIn® Groups: Benchmark with the best in the industry with three of our member-only LinkedIn® groups:Young Professionals Member-Only Forum, Corporate/HR Benchmarking Member-Only Forum, and ourMember-Only Open Forum. This is your private, member-only community to exchange questions, answers, industry announcements, and sharing ideas with other relocation professionals! Click here to join to learn more about each Forum group.
Most of Europe slid back into more typical summer temperatures this week, but the aftermath continued from the record-setting heat wave that threatened lives, destroyed buildings, and upended daily routines for much of the continent this week.
How hot is it? For the first time on record, Britain suffered under temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius or 104 Fahrenheit. Parts of Southern England — where the heat was fiercest — buckled, literally at times, with reports of “melting” runways halting air traffic. Though temperatures have cooled in France and the UK, firefighters are still tackling blazes in Greece, Spain, and Italy.
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