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June 2018 Summary of Select Trends
Click on the source in (parenthesis) to visit the full article Community Many renters continue to feel stretched after a half-decade of sharply rising rents. The typical renter nationwide now spends about 28.8 percent of their income on rent, above the historical average of 25.8 percent. In some markets, the median is much higher. Among low-income renters, the share of income necessary to pay rent is above 45 percent in all but one of the country’s 25 largest metro areas. It is unsurprising that the idea of rent control is very popular; however, economists overwhelmingly agree that rent control ultimately backfires for renters. (Zillow) Workplace Few topics stir up as much disagreement in the workplace as the gender pay gap. Some say it’s a major obstacle for women today, and others say it’s just a bunch of baloney. Both sides, however, seem to agree on one thing — their opponents are completely wrong. The truth is, though, that there are a lot of misconceptions floating around, and they don’t just come from any one camp in particular. Rather, they exist on both sides of the fence. (Glassdoor) Demographics Nearly half of teenagers today say they’re on the Internet almost constantly. And, Facebook has been largely dethroned as the most popular social network by teenagers today. In its place, YouTube, Snapchat, and Facebook-owned Instagram have taken the podium as tastes have changed over the years. According to Pew research, lower income teens are nearly twice as likely to use Facebook than teens in higher-income households. (Pew) Community Locales across the US are discussing and voting on measures to consolidate their 9-1-1 emergency dispatch services. Last month San Francisco, Calif. and Kalamazoo County, Mich. voted ‘yea’, while Spokane, Wash. and two municipalities in Porter County, Ind. voted ‘nay’ due to lingering questions. Those in support of the concept touted faster response times in true emergencies and better service to the community. Skeptics were unconvinced in Spokane because of a lack of data supporting these claims. In addition union workers in fire, medical, and emergency have a unique set of concerns. (Smart Brief) Environment Americans are noticing weather and temperature changes across the US. Nearly six in ten Americans say climate change is currently affecting their local community either a great deal or some, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. Factors such as political party identification and distance from the coastlines impacted survey participants’ responses. Of those, responses ranged from 81% of Democrats located less than 25 miles from a coastline to only 28% of Republicans located 300+ miles from a coastline. (Pew) Taxes In 2016, it cost nearly $5 in government subsidies every time a passenger boarded a public transit vehicle. As ridership continues to decline because of a rise in telecommuting capabilities at work and ride share companies like Uber and Lyft, there’s a nagging question. Should taxpayers carry the burden of public transit and highways? (Governing) Taxes In a study by Governing earlier this year, data indicated it takes 1.9 times longer to travel by public transit than commuting alone. And the majority of time spent riding public transit is spent waiting – not actually riding. The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas, which includes Houston, recently redesigned its entire bus system that allowed for quicker commutes, thanks in part to an increase from 12 mph to 14 mph. After decades of declining ridership, weekly commuter rates have stabilized, and riders have increased by 10 and 30 percent on Saturdays and Sundays respectively. There may be something to this trend toward reevaluating the status quo for public transit. (Governing) Health Care Can a hospital room be hacked? Just when you started to switch to cruise control in the land of cyberattacks, one more twist in the road to safety appears. Luckily, these kinds of cyberattacks are implemented to steal and replicate the technology that gathers the data, not the data itself. However, health data is still personal health information (PHI) covered by HIPAA. There are a few investments in monitoring software and training that hospitals can make now to help protect patients’ data. (U.S. News & World Report) Health Care Health insurers are targeting copay assistance programs from drug manufacturers at the expense of US patients. For more expensive name brand prescription drugs or drugs with no generic available, drug manufacturers provide coupons and assistance programs to help patients with out-of-pocket costs for the prescriptions. Insurers are arguing that patients should cover a larger share of these costs and these assistance programs should contribute to the patient’s annual out-of-pocket obligations. (U.S. News & World Report) Retirement 10,000 people retire per day in the US, according to AARP, but many may be “retired while at work.” Productivity stalls. Teams aren’t led as aggressively to meet and exceed goals. Knowledge sharing may not be a top priority. Here are a few tactics organizations in the US are implementing to ensure a smooth, productive transition for all involved. (SHRM) Technology As the pool of qualified workers tightens with each quarter of 2018, HR departments must become more strategic, competitive, and savvy to attract and obtain top talent. Organizations across the US (and globe) are implementing artificial intelligence (AI) in areas of decision making through machine learning, completing transactional or simple requests via chat bots, and evaluating gender pay equity using data analytics. AI also can be used to evaluate various areas of employment law to decrease an organization’s exposure to litigation. (SHRM) |
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Cobalt Community Research is a national 501c3 nonprofit, non-partisan coalition that helps local governments, schools and membership organizations affordably engage communities through high-quality surveys, dynamic population segmentation, focus groups and work groups that use instant audience feedback technology. Cobalt combines big data with local insights to help organizations thrive as changes emerge in the economic, demographic and social landscape. Explore how we can help by calling 877.888.0209, or by emailing Information@CobaltCommunityResearch.org.
Cobalt Community Research is a national 501c3 nonprofit, non-partisan coalition that helps local governments, schools and membership organizations affordably engage communities through high-quality surveys, dynamic population segmentation, focus groups and work groups that use instant audience feedback technology. Cobalt combines big data with local insights to help organizations thrive as changes emerge in the economic, demographic and social landscape. Explore how we can help by calling 877.888.0209, or by emailing Information@CobaltCommunityResearch.org.