In The News

Thomson Reuters Foundation: Corporations Tackle Forced Labor

Adela Suliman September 14, 2017
The EcoVadis Global Corporate Social Responsibility Risk and Performance Index evaluated corporate social responsibility efforts of more than 20,000 companies and found that human trafficking and forced labor are common in global industries where minimal skills are required, reports Adela Suliman for Thomson Reuters Foundation. The good news is that companies are pursuing transparency and audits...

Economics Wire: 3 Trends Shaping Global Labor Market

August 25, 2017
Technology, culture and globalization are influencing the global labor market, and Economics Wire identifies three trends. First, the internet is connecting more work equipment. More people work from home and other remote locations. Researchers are quickly developing robots and artificial intelligence, putting any task performed by humans under threat. Second, the workday is shrinking – which...

Caixin: Could the Chinese Mainland Be the Next Hong Kong for Filipino Maids?

Luo Ruiyao, Li Rongde and Zhang Congzhi August 11, 2017
The Philippine Statistics Authority reports that about 2.4 million women left the nation to work as domestic help in Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong and elsewhere. China may be the next stop for Filipina staff who provide elder and child care, as officials from the Philippines report negotiations are underway to organize work programs in five Chinese cities. “If it happens, it would mark a huge change in...

Forbes: Without "Neutral" Internet, US Workers Could Lose

Janet Burns July 12, 2017
If the US Federal Communications Commission drops protections on net neutrality, the country's innovation and global competitiveness will decline. Companies and internet users are speaking out to block a proposal by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to roll back the protections: “these so-called "net neutrality rules" establish that internet service providers (ISPs) must comply with Title II...

Business Review Europe: Starbucks to Hire 2,500 Refugees Across Europe by 2022

Nell Walker June 30, 2017
Refugees, by the UN definition, are forced to leave their homes due to persecution, war or violence, and they try to start new lives in foreign lands. The world has 21 million refugees, and Starbucks is pitching in to contribute stability to their lives and their new communities by hiring 10,000 globally, including 2,500 in Europe, over the next five years. “The plan going into motion coincides...

Council on Foreign Relations: US Temporary Foreign Worker Programs

Claire Felter June 20, 2017
Each year, the United States allows temporary workers to enter the country to work for seasonal agriculture, tourism and other industries and skilled labor, too: “more than one million visas were granted in 2014, up from some four hundred thousand in 1994,” reports Claire Felter for the Council on Foreign Relations. Opponents to such programs worry about visa tracking, illegal immigration,...

The Atlantic: My Family’s Slave

Alex Tizon May 23, 2017
Cultural traditions in one society can be crimes in another. Children raised with such traditions confront a dilemma as acceptance slowly transforms into questions and shame. Author Alex Tizon, now deceased, profiles a woman who had served his family without pay for more than 50 years. The uneducated worker was taken from the fields at age 12 and eventually given to Tizon’s mother by his...