Tag: businesses

Health Insurance Costs Expected to Spike at Highest Rate In over a Decade

Arizona Sun Times Staff

Employer health insurance costs are expected to increase significantly in 2024, affecting costs for both workers and businesses as hospital operating costs rise, according to data reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Next year, the costs for health insurance coverage from employers are expected to increase by around 6.5%, which could be the biggest increase in more than a decade, according to survey data acquired by the WSJ. Driving the increase in health insurance costs are inflated labor costs for hospitals and a large demand for expensive new diabetes and obesity drugs, which are being passed down to insurance companies in new contracts with the hospitals.

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Southern States Are Booming as Wealth Flees Democrat-Run Northeast

Arizona Sun Times Staff

Six states in the south are seeing rapid growth in the share of national gross domestic product (GDP) as people flock to the region, while states in the northeast are faltering, Bloomberg reported.

Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Georgia and Tennessee are in the middle of a $100 billion wealth migration that started during the COVID-19 pandemic as businesses and people moved south, according to Bloomberg. States in the northeast lost approximately $60 billion in 2020 and 2021, falling behind the six southern states in collective GDP for the first time.

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Supreme Court Expands Degree to Which Businesses Must Accommodate Religious Workers

The Center Square

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday to expand the degree to which businesses have to accommodate workers for religious purposes.

In the case, Groff v. DeJoy, Postmaster General, the court found that postman Gerald Groff, an evangelical Christian, should not have been disciplined for refusing to work on Sundays for religious reasons. The majority opinion cited Title VII’s requirement to accommodate employees for religious purposes provided it does not cause the employer “undue hardship.”

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50-State Report: GOP-Led States Are in Best Economic Condition

The Center Square

A new report ranks all 50 states from best to worst for economic conditions, showing which states have improved, and worsened, in creating an economic climate where businesses want to invest.

The American Legislative Exchange Council released the state analysis, which ranks Utah as the number one state, North Carolina as second, and Arizona as third. Idaho and Oklahoma fill out the top five spots, ranking fourth and fifth, respectively.

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Record High Employee Turnover Since Pandemic Has Hurt Business Productivity

Arizona Sun Times Staff

Employee turnover has surged since the pandemic, and the need to replace and train new employees at high volume has hampered productivity for businesses, according to The New York Times.

More than 4.5 million workers voluntarily left their jobs in November 2021, the highest since the government began tracking this data 20 years earlier, and the turnover rate remains significantly higher than it was before the pandemic, according to the NYT. Businesses are struggling with the costs of high turnover; new employees take time to become productive, and existing employees lose productivity because of the time they spend training others.

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Businesses Add Fewest Jobs in Two Years as Manufacturing Craters

Arizona Sun Times Staff

Private companies added 127,000 jobs in November, missing investor expectations by more than 70,000 to post the worst result since January 2021, according to private payroll firm ADP and CNBC Monday.

The addition represented a sharp decline from the 239,000 new jobs reported by the firm in October. Industries that were most directly impacted by higher interest rates, such as construction, were hit the hardest by job cuts, while consumer-facing industries, such as hospitality, largely weathered the storm, according to ADP.

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Commentary: Neither White House nor Common Man Can Evade Recession Data

Arizona Sun Times Staff

Newly released data from the Commerce Department show what some people have been saying for months: The nation is in recession.

Furthermore, the Biden administration’s cherry-picking of data has come back to bite it, with even its selected data points now being revised to indicate a recession. And while these numbers confirm the economy shrank in the first half of the year, the rest of this year holds little promise of recovery.

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Arizona Attorney General Brnovich Leads 24 States Objecting to SEC Requiring Climate Change Disclosures by Businesses

Rachel Alexander

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich is leading a coalition of 24 states objecting to proposed rule changes by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) that would require publicly-traded businesses to disclose information about their greenhouse gas emissions and discuss climate risks. The coalition filed formal comments indicating the 500-page rule titled “The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors” goes beyond the jurisdiction of the SEC and into environmental regulation. 

In a 44-page letter addressed to the SEC, Brnovich and the others stated that the Biden “administration has tried and failed to impose regulation directly, and it now appears content to use back-door financial regulatory actions to implement its political will.” The coalition warned, “profit will become secondary to political interests, and capitalism will fall by the wayside.” The proposed rule “seeks to make ‘decisions of vast economic and political significance.’” They accused the SEC of “taking on major policy decisions that belong to Congress.” 

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Businesses Fail to Find Workers, and Experts Say Federal Policies Have Made It Worse

The Center Square

A new labor market survey found that a majority of employers, particularly restaurants, still cannot find enough workers.

The new report from Alignable said that 83% of restaurants can’t find enough workers. Overall, the report found that “63% of all small business employers can’t find the help they need, after a year of an ongoing labor shortage.”

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Biden Unveils $5.8 Trillion Budget Proposal with Increased Taxes on Businesses, Wealthy Individuals

The Center Square

President Joe Biden unveiled a new 2023 budget proposal Monday along with major tax increases to help pay for it.

Biden’s budget, which comes in at about $5.8 trillion, is not expected to become law, but presidential budgets help set the legislative priorities for the year to come.

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State Rep. Quang Nguyen Introduces Bill to Protect Religious Arizonans from Liability If an Employer Requires the COVID-19 Vaccine

Rachel Alexander

Religious employees in Arizona who suffer an injury due to being required to get the COVID-19 vaccine by their employer will have a remedy if a proposed bill makes it into law. State Rep. Quang Nguyen (R-Prescott), along with several co-sponsors, introduced HB 2043 that makes employers liable for a “significant injury” to an employee resulting from the vaccine if the employer denies them a religious exemption. 

“This is one of the most important bills I’m introducing this coming session,” Nguyen said in a statement. “The reality is COVID-19 is going to be with us for a long time. Public and private health mandates are not a good solution and could instead cause harm in some cases. If businesses and employers are intent on mandating vaccinations as a condition of employment, they should be held accountable if their employees face serious harm or illness.”

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Arizona Reps. Gosar, Biggs, and Lesko Join Brief Demanding SCOTUS Block Biden’s Vaccine Mandate on Large Private Employers

Rachel Alexander

Three Arizona members of Congress are joining in on a lawsuit against the Biden administration over its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for businesses with 100 or more employees. Reps. Paul Gosar (R-04-Ariz.), Andy Biggs (R-05-Ariz.), and Debbie Lesko (R-08-Ariz.) along with 180 other members of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate filed an amicus curiae brief in NFIB v. OSHA challenging the authority of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to implement the mandate.

The members of Congress argued that the mandate violates federalism, encroaching on the states’ authority. “[T]he sudden ‘discovery’ of authority under the OSH Act confirms that it was never intended to displace state authority in this area.” They assert, “Congress did not give that power to an agency bureaucrat.”

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Arizona Attorney General Brnovich and Nearly Half the Attorneys General Send Warning Letter to Biden About Vaccine Mandate, Include Policy Concerns

Rachel Alexander

After filing the first lawsuit in the country against President Joe Biden over his sweeping business COVID-19 vaccine mandate, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich next signed onto a letter with 23 other attorneys general to Biden listing their objections, including non-legal ones. The attorneys general stress that the mandate will drive healthcare workers out of hospitals where they are desperately needed. If Biden does not reverse course, the 24 threaten to sue the administration.

“President Biden’s vaccine mandate lacks both legal authority and integrity,” Brnovich said in a statement. “I am proud to stand alongside my colleagues to push back on this assault on state sovereignty and the liberties of Americans.”

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U.S. Retail Sales Increased as States Ended Restrictions

Arizona Sun Times Staff
Male checking out on Square program at retail store

U.S. retail sales jumped in June, boosted by states widely loosening coronavirus restrictions and businesses returning to full capacity.

Retail sales increased 0.6% and totaled $621.3 billion in June, according to the Department of Commerce report released Wednesday. The monthly increase was driven by general merchandise, including food service, clothing, personal care, electronics and gasoline sales, the report showed.

“Sectors that were buoyed by the pandemic are slowing down a little bit, but not to a degree that I’d be concerned about,” Square economist Felipe Chacon told The Wall Street Journal. “Household finances have been bolstered by a few rounds of stimulus spending, so it bodes pretty well.”

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