US job openings fall to more than 2-year low in June | Panama Canal seeks solutions as drought limits passage | Construction spending extends gains in June
US job openings declined by 34,000 to a seasonally adjusted 9.58 million in June, according to the Labor Department. That marks the lowest level since April 2021, while layoffs held steady at 1.53 million. Manufacturing and goods-producing sectors were a major driver of declining openings.
Shipping limits newly imposed and expected to last months in the Panama Canal amid a severe regional drought has reduced canal traffic 10%. The move comes as the canal pursues a long-term solution in the form of a new water management system.
Construction spending rose 0.5% month over month and 3.5% year over year in June, according to the Commerce Department, buoyed by growth in single-family and multifamily housing projects. The department has revised May's month-over-month gain to 1.1% from a previous report of 0.9%.
Factory activity in the US contracted for the ninth consecutive month in July, with the Institute for Supply Management's gauge of factory activity coming in at 46.4, a slight improvement from the previous month but below expectations. New orders and production showed some improvement but remained in contraction as high interest rates, shifting consumer behavior and weak global demand continue to weigh on the manufacturing sector.
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Warehouse automation is set to grow in the double digits in two years, with revenue expected to hit $51.4 billion and warehouse operators including DHL Supply Chain, Maersk and Amazon are ramping up their investments in the technology, according to Interact Analysis. "Many companies now factor in a greater degree of unpredictability, and this has a knock-on effect on warehouse construction, with companies requiring higher inventory and therefore more storage capacity," according to Interact Analysis.
Conversations enable innovation and are a strategic necessity for distributors and customers, "but what makes them truly different, is their ability to create people-centered customer relationships," writes Mark Dancer, a National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors fellow and CEO of Network for Business Innovation. Dancer advocates for an upgrade in distributor conversations and "a new mindset that embraces the pursuit of new possibilities."
Alan Wizemann will join Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits as chief digital officer on August 15, an addition that chief growth officer David Chaplin said "will help drive the next digital chapter in the Southern Glazer's story." Wizemann has led digital initiatives at Target and has also worked at Dollar Shave Club Goop, Lululemon, Munchkin and WebMD.
Storytelling is the key to helping business-to-business marketers differentiate their products and services, particularly when it comes to "horizontal differentiation," the art of showing buyers why others like them choose your brand, Robert Rose writes. Rose points to SAP's "Searching for Salai" podcast series as a prime example of how to put B2B storytelling into practice.
Donna Loughlin of LMGPR predicts that AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT "will become commonplace in marketing, so we need to learn about it and adopt it because it's not going away." That said, Loughlin doesn't advocate producing material with AI and passing it off as original because "[i]ntegrity and authenticity go hand in hand."
The crisis response plan at your enterprise is probably inadequate because several versions are needed to cover different types of crises, experts say. "Having more than one crisis management plan is akin to carrying a fully stocked first-aid kit in your car instead of just a box of Band-Aids," says Lakesha Cole of ShePR.
Forty-two percent of employers that mandated office returns experienced higher-than-expected attrition rates and 29% have recruitment struggles, according to a Unispace study. Separate research from Greenhouse finds 76% of employees are prepared to leave if their employer stops flexible working and the discontent surrounding moves from flexible to traditional working equates to the same negative sentiment of a 2% to 3% pay cut, per the Federal Reserve's Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking.
