According to the IBM Global AI Adoption Index 2023, conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of IBM, the top barrier hindering successful AI adoption at enterprises exploring or deploying the technology is “limited AI skills and expertise.”
Economy
Posted inEconomy
$15 minimum wage in hand, advocates look to $20
As the “Fight for $15” crossed the country over the last decade, Massachusetts joined states like Oregon, New York, California, and Connecticut in reaching or exceeding a $15 hourly wage. Areas with higher costs of living have gone even further, like New York City’s $16 hourly wage and Washington, DC, with the country’s highest minimum hourly wage at $17.
Posted inEconomy
Healey agenda aims to address 242,000 unfilled jobs
The agenda identifies four key industries where the workforce is particularly lacking: manufacturing, healthcare, life sciences, and clean energy.
Posted inEconomy
Nonprofit led by Californian behind tipped wage ballot question
One Fair Wage is organizing in more than a dozen states to eliminate what it calls the sub-minimum wage. The organization’s website says its members include nearly 300,000 restaurant and service workers and nearly 3,000 restaurant employers.
Posted inOpinion
Afterschool programs can help clean energy sector meet workforce needs
Afterschool programs can help address equity and the climate change crisis by helping young people from marginalized communities get access to training for clean tech jobs,
Posted inEnergy
Eversource exits wind business, reports massive loss
The company reported a fourth quarter 2023 loss of $1.288 billion and a full-year 2023 loss of $442 million. In 2022 for those same time periods, Eversource reported earnings of $320 million and $1.4 billion, respectively.
Posted inOpinion
No Degree? No Problem
In a state where around 75 percent of jobs that pay family-sustaining wages require a bachelor’s degree, more than two-thirds of Black and Hispanic residents won’t even be considered.
Posted inCourts
New gig work ballot question lawsuit explained
A coalition of labor leaders and ride-share drivers is asking the Supreme Judicial Court to block ballot measures that would classify the drivers as independent contractors rather than employees under Massachusetts law – and the suit may feel like déjà vu.
Posted inOpinion
Citizenship requirement for liquor licenses is archaic
This is more than just a legislative change; it’s a step toward a more equitable, fair, and inclusive Massachusetts. By removing this unnecessary exclusion, we open doors to greater economic opportunities and cultural enrichment for all communities.
Posted inEconomy
Business community ready to help on housing crisis
Massachusetts is facing a dire housing crisis, and business leaders understand that our state’s economic future depends on addressing the problem.
Posted inEconomy
Short takes: Healey backs Everett soccer stadium
The New England Revolution’s bid to bring a soccer stadium to Everett’s waterfront appears to have a new center forward who could help them score a win: Gov. Maura Healey.
Posted inOpinion
To honor King, rebuild the house of justice
Many thought King’s goals were impossible to obtain, but here we are on a national holiday recognizing those efforts and the man who brought people to the table to achieve them.
Posted inEconomy
Mass. springs up the progressive state tax rankings
With the passage of the Fair Share Amendment, or “millionaire’s tax,” Massachusetts is now the seventh most “progressive” state tax system in the country, according to a sweeping new report.
Posted inArts and Culture
The ‘frantic paddling’ of Boston’s food scene
Boston’s ever-changing food scene is now on the front edge of another era, one driven by the pandemic and marked not just by evolution in outdoor dining or cocktails to go, but labor unrest.
Posted inOpinion
A strategy for leveraging untapped talent in Mass.
The Healey-Driscoll administration is preparing a four-year workforce development agenda, an opportunity to embrace bold solutions to pave more pathways for Massachusetts’ untapped talent.
Posted inOpinion
Bridging the diversity gap in Massachusetts’s corporate sector
Diversity is more than a buzzword; it’s now a strategy for success. The recent report should serve as a wake-up call to make the reality of the corporate workforce in Massachusetts match the hype.
Posted inOpinion
A New Year’s resolution: Make Mass. affordable
The big $1 billion tax cut celebrated by Beacon Hill leaders this year was, for the most part, a regressive giveaway to the already well-off, costing the state millions of dollars that could otherwise be used to support low-income people and the middle class.
Posted inEconomy
For the ‘canna-curious,’ a new way to buy and ‘drink weed’
Theory Wellness, opening the state’s first drink-only cannabis dispensary in Medford, is betting on the growing cannabis beverage market and looking to make the process of buying and drinking marijuana look a lot more like the process of buying and drinking beer or the ever-more-popular spiked seltzer.
Posted inEconomy
Mass. to receive $1.4m in Google antitrust settlement
The $700 million settlement resolves antitrust litigation, with the attorneys general alleging that the company used its Google Play app store to engage in an unlawful monopoly.
Posted inOpinion
UMass Dartmouth remains committed to South Coast economic development
WHEN THE STATE legislature withdrew its longstanding support for the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth lease of the Star Store building in New Bedford in August, necessitating the university’s departure from […]
Posted inOpinion
A new path for unionizing Uber and Lyft
As Massachusetts becomes the latest battleground in the national fight over rideshare drivers’ rights, we’re celebrating efforts in the state to build a new path for unionizing Uber and Lyft.
Posted inEconomy
Soccer stadium plan kicked to the curb
Hopes for a soccer stadium home in Everett for the New England Revolution were dealt a big blow on Thursday as a budget deal between House and Senate negotiators left out a provision that would have streamlined zoning for a planned 25,000-seat venue along the Mystic River.
Posted inTransportation
What commuter rail ridership gains mean for Boston
RIDERSHIP ON THE MBTA’s commuter rail system continues to rebound strongly, providing an interesting data point in the debate over whether Boston in the post-COVID era will face an office […]
Posted inEnvironment
‘Re-wilding’ Massachusetts cranberry bogs
As Massachusetts’ famous cranberry industry consolidates and some of the cranberry bogs fade out of use, famers, governments, and conservationists are increasingly eager to start “re-wilding” them to natural rivers and wetlands.
