30Jun2023
One in four workers looking for new jobs as cost of living concerns bite
PwC released the 2023 Global Workforce Hopes & Fears Survey which details the attitudes and behaviors of nearly 54,000 workers in 46 countries and territories.
Despite a softening economy globally, ‘The Great Resignation’ looks to continue. One in four (26%) employees say it is likely they will change jobs in the next 12 months, up from 19% last year. Workers who said they are most likely to change employers include those who feel overworked (44%), struggle to pay the bills every month (38%), and Gen Z (35%).
Purpose, company culture and inclusion also remains key to employee concerns. Among workers who said they are likely to change employers, less than half (47%) said they find their jobs fulfilling compared to 57% of those unlikely to change employers. Those likely to change employers are also eight percentage points less likely to say that they can truly be themselves at work than their counterparts who intend to stay (51% vs. 59%).
“The global workforce is divided into two – those with valuable skills who are well set to keep learning, and those without”, Bob Moritz, PwC Global Chair, said. “We found that often, those without the skills are less financially secure and less able to access training in the skills of the future. In a world where CEOs know they need to transform their businesses to succeed, they need to combine the benefits of technology with a plan to unlock the talents of all workers. It is in no-one’s interest for businesses to chase the same group of skilled workers while the rest of society gets left behind.”
Robots as a service and the democratization of robotics
Robotics is constantly evolving, and increasingly intelligent and autonomous robots are being developed that are capable of adapting to variable situations and performing increasingly complex tasks. One of the greatest barriers preventing companies and individuals from taking advantage of advances in robotics is the cost. However, new technological platforms and the robot-as-a-service (RaaS) business model are helping to overcome this obstacle. RaaS allows companies to use robots without having to buy or maintain them directly. This market is undeniably growing: according to MarketWatch, the market will be worth over $16.4 billion in 2022, reaching $43 billion by 2028.
The RaaS model, like other pay-per-use systems, allows users to reduce their capital and maintenance costs, giving them permanent access to the latest technology without having to invest in their own research and development, providing a wide range of adapted applications so they can operate on a flexible and scalable basis: adding or reducing the number of robots they use in line with the real needs of the business.
“Robotics can boost the economic and social progress of communities and countries that adopt this technology. It can improve industries’ efficiency, productivity, and safety, which in turn can increase competitiveness and economic growth. It can also help tackle social issues such as labor shortages, job security, and reducing workloads in certain sectors”, explained Carla Gómez Cano, cofounder of TheKer, a robotics development, artificial intelligence, and computer vision start-up. “The democratization of robotics through models such as RaaS will help to overcome the barriers to adoption of technology, making it more accessible and affordable.”
Issuu launches new app on Canva to enhance its content transformation, publishing & analytics platform
Issuu, the largest SaaS content publishing and marketing platform in the world, today released a new app on Canva to enable bi-directional, seamless creation across the two platforms. Now content creators and marketers can cohesively leverage both platforms to enhance their content, extend its reach, and understand its performance. This comes at a time when demand is high, with Issuu seeing five times more Canva content uploaded to Issuu in the past year.
Through this powerful new functionality, all content creators and marketers can reach their audiences more effectively by creating content once and sharing it everywhere.
“The number of organizations and individuals who designed content in Canva and uploaded that content to Issuu quadrupled within the past two years,” said Joe Hyrkin, Chief Executive Officer at Issuu. “To both companies, this signaled an immediate opportunity to evolve with our customers and enhance their experience. This new integration simplifies their workflows, and enables them to transform, host, and more easily create content once and share everywhere.”
“By collaborating with Issuu’s intuitive all-in-one publishing platform, we’re powering a faster, more insightful content creation process for people who need to create, publish and share long-form content at high volumes, quickly,” said Anwar Haneef, Head of Ecosystem at Canva. “Our mission at Canva is to empower anyone to design anything so they can achieve their goals. Through Issuu’s app on Canva, we’ll be helping customers get more value from their designs.”
The UK net debt goes over 100% of GDP
The U.K. public sector net debt in May exceeded 100% of the nation’s GDP for the first time since 1961, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. According to CNBC, public sector net debt, excluding that of state-controlled banks, came in at GBP 2.567 trillion, which amounted to 100.1% of GDP.
Government borrowing in May totaled GBP 20.045 billion, the ONS revealed, exceeding consensus expectations of GBP 19.5 billion from a Reuters poll of economists. This marked a GBP 3 billion decline from the April figure but was still more than double that of May 2022 and represented the second-highest May borrowing figure since records began, noted PwC Economist Divya Sridhar.
U.K. annual inflation remained unchanged in May from the previous month, the ONS announced Wednesday, defying economic expectations of a slight decline, and piling further pressure on the government and consumers. “This will likely drive up spending through increased debt interest payments and inflation-linked benefits and tax credits,” Sridhar noted.
Sticky inflation and a persistently tight labor market have led economists in recent weeks to increase their forecast for peak interest rates, and the cycle of monetary policy tightening is now expected to last longer than previously expected.
