OREGONIZER
The Official Newsletter of the IAWP Oregon Chapter
1st QUARTER 2024
PRESIDENTS NOTES
2024 is here; can you believe it. We are almost a quarter of a century into the 21st century. Amazing. You know what else is amazing – YOU. Start of a new year can be a start of a new you. You can do anything you set your mind to. IAWP would love to help.
As of 2024, we are expanding the services IAWP provides to it’s members. More on this in the coming weeks/months. Some people do resolutions; for me; I just try to make every day the best day it can be. Sometimes I accomplish that goal, sometimes, not so much, but the main thing is to try – EVERY day
We had a successful Fall and provided various activities for our members. We had a a wonderful activity for our members and their families – the Salem Carousel, as well as some other great events down in Southern Oregon, including supporting our country’s veterans’ (which is near and dear to my heart).
Our Executive Board has already reserved the Carousel for 2024, so please plan on attending this event. We will also be having other activities throughout 2024 which we are working on and will provide more information about as available/finalized.
As always, if you are interested in knowing more about YOUR IAWP Chapter please don’t hesitate to reach out to anyone on the board and/or you can reach out to the chapter by emailing: info@iawporegon.org.
Feel free to get ahold of me directly and let’s chat.
Looking forward to Spring,
Ron Sohnrey
President
IAWP Oregon Chapter
A Heartwarming Event
By David Gerstenfeld, Director, Oregon Employment Department
I was so pleased to stop in at IAWP’s “Evening at the Salem Riverfront Carousel” in December. For years I have been impressed with how dedicated so many OED employees are to being true workforce professionals. The commitment to helping others is clear in so much of what I see everyday from our employees, and that extends to many people being very engaged in the IAWP as it seeks to support and elevate workplace professionals around the world. I have seen many OED members take on leadership roles in IAWP. And for years, I have seen the IAWP’s commitment to supporting workplace professionals from all over.
That sense of community and caring was so evident at the Riverfront Carousel event. I saw current and former OED employees coming together with their families to socialize and to celebrate each other. After so often seeing people hard at work, seeing that same energy there as people shared food, hot chocolate, holiday cheer, and friendly companionship was wonderful. It was great to see many former OED employees also, who still care so much about their colleagues that they came to share in the holiday spirit – staying part of the community even after having retired from OED. The conversations, children enjoying rides and pictures with Santa, children (and adults) enjoying hot chocolate and treats – it was just wonderful.
And doing all of this as a way to raise food donations for those in need is so in keeping with the care and compassion that makes people such dedicated and effective workplace professionals. The holidays are a great time to give to others, and share joyful times. I’m glad I had a chance to briefly be a part of that wonderful community – and thank IAWP for hosting such a heartwarming event.
By Rebecca Nance, Senior Legislative Advisor
2024 Legislative Session
Because 2024 is a year that ends in an even number, that can only mean one thing – it’s time for the abbreviated session of the Oregon Legislative Assembly. The “short session” as it is called, was instituted for the purpose of the legislature to address emergencies and to rebalance state budgets, as needed. The short session convened on Monday, February 5, and will wrap up no later than Sunday, March 10, 2024.
Long sessions are held in odd-numbered years and is generally when legislators deal with complex policy bills. This being said, short sessions have increasingly been a conduit for more complex policy issues, which has some observers and participants up in arms depending on what side of an issue they are on.
The number one priority of the Oregon Employment Department (OED) is House Bill (HB) 4035, which would increase the Supplemental Employment Department Administrative Fund (SEDAF) contribution rate. This is important as it would provide more stable funding for department staff and increasing our ability to better serve our customers.
In addition to SEDAF, at this writing, the following are other pieces of legislation that are potentially impactful to the department:
HB 4005 – Professional Employer Organization Client Reporting
HB 4038 – Tax Credits to Employers Negatively Impacted by HB 3389 (2021)
SB 1514 – Paid Leave Trust Fund Sustainability Options
SB 1515 – Paid Leave Policy Changes and Oregon Family Leave Act Alignment
SB 1595 – Debt Collection Exemptions
There may be additional impactful legislation that pops up over the course of the first two weeks of session, the bills listed above are those we were aware of prior to the start of session. Be assured my colleague David Genz, Senior Legislative Advisor, and the entire agency legislative coordination team is constantly monitoring for prospective laws that may affect OED.
If the short session was a movie, the title may be “Fast and Furious”. Many of your OED co-workers will be working evenings and weekends, until adjournment on March 10, 2024, to ensure the best outcome possible for the agency.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out, rebecca.nance@employ.oregon.gov.
Tactical Career Planning Video Series - EP06
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGapH16HpIgbY-8NBBGjxet9AHVEtglhq
Us Labor Market Sizzles With Blowout Job Growth, Solid Wage Gains
Reuters
U.S. job growth accelerated in January and wages increased by the most in nearly two years, signs of persistent strength in the labor market that could make it difficult for the Federal Reserve to start cutting interest rates in May as currently envisaged by financial markets. Read more...
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Strong Us Worker Productivity Keeps Labor Costs In Check In Fourth Quarter
Reuters
U.S. worker productivity grew faster than expected in the fourth quarter, keeping unit labor costs contained and giving the Federal Reserve another boost in the fight against inflation. Read more...
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Oregon Gives Out $35m Grants To Programs Training Workers For High-Demand Industries
OPB
Oregon is sending a total of $35 million in grant funding to 30 projects across the state designed to support workforce training in high-demand industries. Read more...
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Can Chatbots Transform the Unemployment Claim Experience?
A glimpse into the future of claims handling as Wisconsin works to apply generative AI to a UI chatbot to provide customers with a more responsive experience. Read more...
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Senate Confirms Biden Pick to Lead Bureau of Labor Statistics
Bloomberg Law
The Senate confirmed Erika L. McEntarfer to lead the US Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the federal government’s principal agency measuring inflation and labor market indicators. Read more...
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A Record Number Of Americans Are Choosing To Work Part Time. Here's Why.
USA TODAY
A record number of Americans are choosing to work part time, including stay-at-homemothers, teens, retirees seeking extra cash to cope with inflation and employees who burned out on their full-time jobs while covering for missing colleagues during COVID-19. Read more...
Artificial Intelligence – What it says about itself!
By Malcolm G. Boswell, Workforce Operations Analyst and Economist 1
There is a lot of hype about AI, a lot of concerns and a lot of speculation about its impact on jobs and the economy. To begin with, let’s let one such AI systems write their version of this article:
From Chat GPT 4 (with Chat GPT 4 Formatting):
Your query: Pro’s and Con’s of AI on the Economy
ChatGPT Response:
Pros:
1. Increased Efficiency: AI can automate tasks, leading to higher productivity and efficiency in various industries. This efficiency can lower costs for businesses and consumers.
2. Innovation and Growth: AI fosters innovation by enabling the development of new products, services, and business models. This innovation can drive economic growth and create new opportunities for businesses and workers.
3. Job Creation: While AI may replace some jobs, it also creates new job opportunities in AI development, maintenance, and related fields. Additionally, AI can augment human capabilities, leading to new roles that require human-AI collaboration.
4. Customization and Personalization: AI algorithms can analyze large amounts of data to personalize products, services, and experiences for individual consumers. This customization can lead to higher customer satisfaction and increased demand for goods and services.
5. Cost Reduction: AI-powered automation can reduce operational costs for businesses by streamlining processes, minimizing errors, and optimizing resource allocation.
Cons:
1. Job Displacement: AI and automation can lead to the displacement of certain jobs, particularly those that involve repetitive or routine tasks. This displacement can result in unemployment and income inequality if workers are unable to transition to new roles.
2. Skills Gap: The adoption of AI may exacerbate the skills gap, as workers need to acquire new skills to remain relevant in the workforce. This could lead to disparities between the skills demanded by employers and those possessed by workers.
3. Privacy Concerns: AI systems often rely on vast amounts of data, raising concerns about privacy and data security. Unauthorized access to sensitive data or misuse of AI algorithms can result in breaches of privacy and potential harm to individuals.
4. Bias and Fairness: AI algorithms can inherit biases present in the data they are trained on, leading to unfair or discriminatory outcomes. Addressing bias in AI systems is crucial to ensuring fairness and equity in decision-making processes.
5. Dependency and Vulnerability: Overreliance on AI systems could make economies and societies more vulnerable to disruptions caused by system failures, cyberattacks, or manipulation of AI algorithms.
6. Economic Concentration: The deployment of AI may contribute to the concentration of economic power in the hands of a few dominant firms capable of investing in AI technologies. This concentration could stifle competition and innovation in the long run.
Overall, while AI offers significant potential benefits for the economy, careful consideration of its potential drawbacks is essential to mitigate its negative impacts and ensure inclusive and sustainable economic growth.
Essentially what we see here is an AI system that pulls from articles posted on the world wide web and compiles it without necessarily vetting the sources, note that Chat GPT never quoted its sources or gave credit to any study or offered any significant statistical data. Maybe because I didn’t ask it too, maybe because for it to work to its best, it needs the human end user to specify the parameters needed to get the expected results. This illustrates one of the many flaws in AI, that it is only as good as its programming or what it is asked to do. One could say this is true of any human being, and that on average, AI is probably better at interpreting requests and delivering results than the average person. But it also has none of the human emotional or moral filters that can sometimes question the nature of a request to ensure it is honest and non-biased.
In this article, AI did a relatively good job of addressing what I would have; but is it because I asked a straightforward question with no bias as to the impact of AI on the Economy. I could have asked it to tell me how AI will make industries better… and then it may have only given me the Pro’s and ignore the Con’s… an average person would be more likely to ask about the negative impacts of AI as well before embarking on the information search.
To be fair to Chat GPT, in this case it covered a lot of what I have read about it from reputable sources like the Harvard School of Business (AI Doesn’t Have to Be Too Complicated or Expensive for Your Business (hbr.org) and Brookings Institute of Technology (Understanding the impact of automation on workers, jobs, and wages | Brookings), the World Economic Forum (Generative AI's impact on the economy needs to be realistic | World Economic Forum (weforum.org)), The European Center for Economic Policy Research (The impact of artificial intelligence on growth and employment | CEPR), IBM (Top 6 predictions for AI advancements and trends in 2024 - IBM Blog), the International Monetary Fund (AI Will Transform the Global Economy. Let’s Make Sure It Benefits Humanity. (imf.org)), and more.
To be clear, AI is not a bad thing, it is a great tool, if used properly and for the purpose it was intended. The article Chat GPT wrote about the Pros and Cons of AI on the Economy is actually pretty close to what I would have written given the research I did at the above-mentioned sources and others of equal reputable standing. However, it can also have negative impacts. Again, a hammer can be used to build a house, but it can also be used as a blunt weapon to hurt people, to break in a property, etc. We have seen how technology, not just electronic tech, but industrial, transportation, communication technology has helped improve productivity, lifestyles, and more; but they have also come at significant costs, such as pollution, over stripping of natural resources, added stressors of highly concentrated cities and new ways for committing crimes.
Again, AI is a program that was coded by humans, who intentionally or not have designed it based on their perspectives and biases of the world, and the original design was for a specific purpose, so the base programming needs to be adjusted to the many purposes the concept, not the program, is intended for. How it learns is very much like how people learn, based on the educational guidelines set by the culture, racial/ethnic and economic environment it is exposed to. It also is based on the mores and values of the programmers and the sources of its learning.
There is so much to be discussed about the pros and cons (both are many and varied) that this article cannot cover, but you have a starting point to read reputable studies and perspectives to make your own conclusions.
"Carpe Datum"
Journal Writing
A professor of a writing class I had when in college, advise all of her students to begin keeping a journal. (Journal from the French word jour meaning day – suggesting a daily entry.) The professor said that not only would writing skills improve with more concise expression, but thought organization would be made more efficient benefiting all aspects life. She also said that when years later we went back and read our journal entries, we would be pleasantly surprised when we discovered how smart we were when we made those entries.
She was correct. When I take a moment and read entries in my journal from earlier in my life, I am transported back in time and reminded of what was going on in my life on the date of the entry. Also, I often am impressed by the observations I made at the time and how I expressed my thoughts. Consider beginning a journal for your enjoyment. It will also be worth your time to find a letter, report, or some form of communication you wrote several years ago and examine how you wrote in addition to what you wrote.
The average office worker spends 50 minutes a day looking for lost files and other items. That's almost an hour a day! Multitasking at work can drop a persons IQ by ten points, which is equivalent to lack of sleep or taking drugs. People are more creative in the shower.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Red Cross Blood Drive -
EMERGENCY BLOOD SHORTAGE
The Americen Red Cross is experiencing an emergency blood shortage as the nation faces the lowest number of people giving blood in 20 years. Your blood donation is needed now to help alleviate the shortage and ensure lifesaving medical procedures are not delayed.
Times are 9:30 AM to 2:30 PM
CLICK HERE to schedule your apointment.
Look for the American Red Cross Bus in the ODVA/ODA parking lot
Wednesday, Mar 27, 2024, 09:30 AM
635 Capitol St NE Salem, OR 97310
NOT A MEMBER YET?
TRAININGS & WEBINAR'S OFFERED TO MEMBERS VIA IAWP INTERNATIONAL
The Workforce Professional Development Program (WPDP) is an online course providing both new and long time workforce development professionals a strong foundation to the work we do each day.
IAWP WEBINARS
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IAWP Mentorship Program Supports Career Development for Workforce Professionals
The International Association of Workforce Professionals (IAWP) is excited to announce the launch of its Mentoring Program. Click for more info
The Lighter Side of Work
DEEP THOUGHTS by Leonard Pinth-Garnell
"Nothing is on fire. Fire is on things."
2023/2024 OREGON IAWP BOARD
CONTRIBUTORS WANTED
Duties: Write articles and features based on research and interviews; conceive ideas for content; arrange for content from other sources; and select and edit photos and artwork to benefit the educational and professional interests of Oregon Chapter IAWP members.
Pay: The gratitude and admiration of your fellow Oregon Chapter IAWP members and the joy of seeing your name in print.
How to Apply: Submit articles or express interest by e-mail to Steve Strain at Steven.D.Strain@employ.oregon.gov
The Oregonizer
VOLUME 51, ISSUE 1
CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE:
Ron Sohnrey
David Gerstenfeld
Rebecca Nance
Paul Messet
Malcolm Boswell
Mark Butterfield, DC
Email: info@iawporegon.org
Website: http://iawporegon.org
Location: 2490 Fisher Rd NE, Salem, OR 97305