The website of economist and keynote speaker Linda Nazareth, expert in demographics, global trends and the future of work
Walmart buying Modcloth? ‘Say it’s not so’ went the lament from Millennials and other assorted cool people earlier this year. After all, Modcloth is a cutting-edge, online retailer that offers funky clothes for those who consider themselves the opposite of everything the world’s biggest retailer stands for. Modcloth and Walmart could never be a fit […]
North America is aging, and a lot of the rest of the world is aging as well. It is something to think about as we consider where we are going to get the labor we need to grow our economies in the years ahead. That is, for decades we in North America have been able […]
Demographics drives a lot of things including Mergers and Acquisitions (M & A) activity. That is a lesson we are now learning from Japan, where there are apparently too few heirs to take over large companies as their boomer-aged Chief Executives head for retirement. This piece from the Financial Times looks at what is going […]
There are a lot of things robots can do, but they cannot make societies any younger. Canada and the U.S. are aging – there is little debate about that. What exactly that will mean for the labor force and the economy is a bit more up for grabs, but to get an idea of how […]
The inside itself is still a work in progress, but here is the (provisional) cover of my upcoming book Work Is Not a Place: Reimagining Our Lives and Our Organizations in the Post-Jobs Economy. I am at work on it and the plan is to have it out early in 2018. As with my last […]
So I see it as kind of too little too late, but Canada’s 2017/18 Federal Budget (presented yesterday) did kind of address some of the big labour market issues to come. Skills Development and Innovation were kind of themes, but identifying the issues is really just a starting point. Here is the piece I wrote […]
If I had to think of an industry prone to poisonous industrial relations battles I would probably think first or the auto sector, or maybe even something like education or health. The battles in those industries, however, are apparently being matched by orchestras (can I say ‘in the orchestra industry’?) across North America. Like many […]
Collaboration, sharing ideas, boosting creativity, creating bonds – all of these are reasons that are typically given for having open plan workspaces. Sit next to your colleagues in an open plan office or cubicle, goes the reasoning, and productivity will rise. Not so, says new analysis by researchers at the University of Auckland in New […]
Maybe I’m late to the party, but it was only recently that I heard the phrase ‘side hustle’. Apparently it has been around a while: way back in 2013, Entrepreneur.com tacked up an online definition, calling ‘a way to make some extra cash that allows you flexibility to pursue what you’re most interested in’. It […]
Robots, joined by Gig Workers, are now making Twinkies, and they are doing such a good job that their parent company is going public. That’s a powerful statement about today’s manufacturing and economy, never mind our nutritional preferences. Twinkies, those flaky, cream-filled snack cakes that are apparently beloved by many, have been a business news […]
