• Employee engagement is up:  Get the latest from the ADP Research Institute’s Data Lab.

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In this article, we go deeper into our Global Worker Survey data on good stress (eustress) and bad (distress), focusing on each end of the scale – the thriving and the overloaded.

March 27, 2024

Workplace stress: It’s complicated

Our 2023 Global Worker Survey shows that geography, job level, and other factors can have a big difference in how people experience stress on the job.
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August 1, 2022

MainStreet Macro: Are we or aren’t we? The three Ds of recessions, and how to prepare

by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.

Are we in a recession? Maybe, maybe not. What we know for sure is that the economy is running hot this summer – and not just because of the temperatures. Today we explain how downturns are measured, why this one is unique, and what you can do to prepare.
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June 21, 2022

MainStreet Macro: The New World of Inflation

by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.

The Federal Reserve met last week and raised short term interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point. That’s the biggest rate hike since 1994. At that time year-over-year CPI inflation was just shy of 3 percent gas prices were around a $1 a gallon and house price growth was up 2.5 percent from the previous year.
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June 13, 2022

MainStreet Macro: Missing Workers: Hiring in a Tight Job Market

by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.

Summer usually signals the start of theme park season, when adventure-seekers line up for the adrenaline rush of their favorite roller coaster and its ups and downs. Labor market watchers can relate to those ups and downs – maybe too much, lately. It’s clear that employers, workers and jobseekers are more than ready for some stability. The labor market’s high-speed airtime cost more than 19 million workers their jobs at the beginning of the pandemic. Since then, we’ve recovered, but that ride has been bumpy and uneven.
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June 6, 2022

MainStreet Macro: What are small businesses telling us about inflation?

by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.

I spend a lot of time talking about small employers because they punch above their weight when it comes to the economy. Companies with fewer than 500 employees created two-thirds of net new jobs leading into the pandemic, and they led the recovery afterward. Each quarter, we at the ADP Research Institute survey our small company clients to gather their insight on the business landscape. This quarter, they wanted to talk about the macroeconomy and – no surprise -- inflation. Here are three things clients are telling us.
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May 31, 2022

MainStreet Macro: Globalization: The Promise, Perils, and Possibilities

by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.

Last week I joined the World Economic Forum meetings in Davos, Switzerland. After a two-year hiatus from in-person events, world leaders, CEOs, international investors, and nonprofits reconvened at a time of great risk to global growth. This week, on the occasion of the Davos meetings, I’ll review the promise, the perils and the possibilities of globalization from the perspective of Main Street.
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May 23, 2022

MainStreet Macro: How data is transforming Main Street

by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.

Last week I spoke at the World Data Summit in Amsterdam, a conference at which experts from across the globe met to discuss the most pressing data issues of our time. As the name suggests, data is fast becoming the universal language of business. For that reason, in this week’s blog I thought we’d talk about why data is important to Main Street.
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May 16, 2022

MainStreet Macro: Peak or Plateau?

by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.

One of my family’s favorite pastimes is playing board games. Our faves include chess (which my teenage boys dominate), Scrabble (my husband’s the GOAT on this one) and Monopoly (the most frequent victor is me, obviously). But not all games are quite so fun. My least favorite, when it comes to the economy, are guessing games. Wall Street right now is in the midst of a guessing game on key economic data. I call this game “peak or plateau”. This week, we examine three elements of the economy to determine if we’re at a peak or a plateau.
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May 9, 2022

MainStreet Macro: Makin’ it look easy

by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.

The truly great always make it look easy, don’t they? Be it Meryl Streep or Michael Jordan – no matter how hard, no matter what the feat – they make it look so easy. The Fed is trying to do something now that’s really hard: Rein in inflation without choking growth. Last week, the central bank announced its intention to raise short-term interest rates by a half percentage point. In this week’s blog we share three things to keep in mind as the Fed tries to pull off one of the trickiest maneuvers in modern monetary history.
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