ED Now

The City of Tucson Office of Economic Initiatives launched a free workforce development program in 2022 to address the skill gap in the industrial sewing trades. The program, named AZ Stitch Lab, is offered by a partnership between the City of Tucson, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, Moonshot, and Sonoran Stitch Factory. Erica Yngve, president and CEO of Tucson-based Sonoran Stitch Factory, was working to meet the needs of commercial clients from around the world wanting to produce materials made in the U.S. With business growing Yngve needed more workers to meet the demand, but at the time there were only 1,770 sewing machine operators in all of Arizona. Sonoran Stitch Factory happens to sit in the heart of a neighborhood that was already a ...

Aaron N. Gruen of Gruen Gruen + Associates—an urban economics, market research, housing and land use policy, and pre-development services firm—shares his annual economic and real estate outlook with ED Now.

Former PetSmart groomer BreAnn Scally recently filed a class action lawsuit in California against the pet retail giant, a move that has brought nationwide attention to Training Repayment Agreement Provisions. Scally took a training course during her time at PetSmart and signed a Training Repayment Agreement Provision (TRAP). The TRAP obligates Grooming Academy enrollees to take on $5,000 of debt as payment for the training. This debt is forgiven if the employee stays with PetSmart for two years. Scally, who resigned from PetSmart after seven months with the company, sued after PetSmart attempted to collect on the debt. Scally, in her complaint, alleges that the training primarily benefited PetSmart and not Scally, so collecting on the ...

In August, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law. The act is designed to fight inflation, invest in domestic energy production and manufacturing, and reduce carbon emissions by roughly 40 percent by 2030. Specifically, the bill includes $369 billion in investments towards energy security and climate change. Below is a brief overview of the energy provisions and the potential implications the act has for consumers, employers, and manufacturers. Lowers energy costs for Americans – The incentives in the bill will alleviate the burden of high energy costs and decrease utility bills. Additionally, it includes incentives that will help consumers afford more energy efficient and cleaner technologies. The bill ...

As businesses across the United States continue to adapt to inflation and supply chain disruptions, evidence shows that small businesses have been disproportionately affected by these challenges. The looming threat of a recession adds to the uncertainty these businesses face. Rising costs are unsurprisingly the number one concern for small businesses. In addition to the supply chain being ravaged by inflation, rents have also skyrocketed for small businesses. A recent survey by Alignable reports a rent delinquency rate among small businesses of 40 percent, the highest number in years. As rents continue to rise, this rate is expected to get worse. Chuck Casto, head of research at Alignable, sounded the alarm at rising delinquency rates: ...

As federal pandemic relief funding nears its end, school districts prepare for food security gaps to return for a "missing middle." These are the families who do not qualify to receive free and reduced lunches but still have a dire need for support. Convincing committees to spend money to help middle class families is difficult, but Vermont state senator Brian Campion discovered that feeding children healthy and nutritious meals could also bolster economic development in the state. A bill passed in Vermont stipulates that a percentage of food purchased for school cafeterias come from local farms with an incremental increase over time. The bill will benefit farmers in the state as well as those migrating to the area, and provide a market ...

There has been a significant spike in labor union activity across the United States. Groups of workers at Starbucks, Amazon, Apple, Google, and Trader Joe’s have all orchestrated efforts to unionize in the last year and the movement continues to grow. According to Gallup, 71 percent of Americans now approve of labor unions—the highest Gallup figure since 1965, and up from 68 percent in 2021 and 48 percent in 2009. After decades of declining unionization rates, several factors appear to underlie workers’ decision to organize now. The resurgence is concentrated primarily among young—and sometimes college-educated—employees that hold low-paying service sector positions. In interviews, many union proponents ...

Throughout the pandemic and resulting labor shortage, the fast-food industry has had to be flexible. Chains closed dining rooms and focused on drive-thrus. Some reduced operating hours and/or menu items. Pizza chains are now having to innovate due to a shortage of delivery drivers. In the first quarter of 2022, Pizza Hut saw a 6 percent decrease in sales. Parent company CEO David Gibbs attributed it to delivery-driver shortages which have limited the ability to meet consumer demand. Pizza Hut is now piloting AI technology designed to make operations more efficient. Domino’s has found a solution in outsourcing phone orders to external call centers; employees who previously took phone orders are reassigned to deliveries. ...