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Articles, research, and perspectives on workforce development, HR, and leadership. Curated highlights are reframed for job seekers under For Job Seekers → Career Resources.
Workforce Trends
Wages Didn't Stall. They Lost a Race.
Median usual weekly earnings rose 1.5 percent over the year and fell 2.1 percent in constant dollars. The same release shows young full-time workers earning $773 a week against $1,307 for workers 25 and over. There are two races, and the people at the start of a working life are losing both.
Workforce Trends
A Degree Didn't Stop Paying. It Stopped Paying More.
The Federal Reserve's 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances reports real median family income up 7 percent and real mean family income down 6 percent over the same three years, from the same survey. Read by education, every group's median rose and the only average that fell was the college graduates'. The return to a degree is intact at the middle and compressing at the top - and employer appetite for the credential has not moved at all.
Workforce Trends
Part-Time Isn't a Schedule. It's a Benefits Category.
Employers offer medical care to 89 percent of full-time workers and 23 percent of part-time workers. That sixty-six point gap is not about hours - it is a threshold written into a plan document. The five benefit cliffs are different heights, and the order tracks what each benefit costs per enrolled person.
Workforce Trends
Workers Didn't Get More Loyal. They Got Fewer Places to Go.
Median job tenure rose to 4.1 years, and it will be reported as loyalty returning. Tenure is a duration, not a sentiment. The age detail gives it away: workers 45 and older did not move at all, while 25-to-34-year-olds — the cohort whose careers are built by changing employers — rose the most of any age band. A retention number in 2026 tells you about the market, not about your workplace.
Workforce Trends
The Problem Isn't Finding People. It's the First Ninety Days.
Employers keep diagnosing a shortage. The national numbers point somewhere else: new hires aren't staying connected, and the first ninety days is where the connection breaks.
Workforce Trends
Why Small Businesses Need People Operations Earlier Than They Think
Small businesses often postpone HR infrastructure until a problem occurs. Building basic people systems earlier can protect the business while making future growth significantly easier.
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