Monthly Archives: April 2018

Chicago: Adding Jobs

Employment,

When a region creates more jobs, it is pretty much great news for everyone.  Last month, the ADP Regional Employment Report  recorded an additional 5,700 new positions in the private sector. And for those in Chicago still seeking employment, there is good news too; a new law has forbidden potential employers from asking job applicants to reveal their salary history in an increasing attempt around the country to create gender equal salaries.

The additional jobs in Illinois saw the most in Chicago but the state as a whole added a staggering 41,000 jobs in 2017.  Over half of these though were in Chicago – nearly 24,000.

And with this, the executive order to mark Equal Pay Day was signed by the Chicago Mayor.  This shows how far into the year women have to work – on average – to earn as much as their male counterparts did the previous year! This comes at a time when lawmakers in the region are looking at two different pieces of legislation that are seeking to close the wage gap.

Label Insight Named One of Chicago’s Best Places to Work

Business News, ,

Crain’s Business Chicago and Best Companies Group recently revealed Chicago’s Best Places to Work, a survey and awards program which recognizes the top 100 businesses to work for in Chicago. The choices are made based on each company’s workplace policies, practices and demographics, as well as employee survey’s which assessed their attitudes towards their workplaces.

Final scores revealed Label Insight, a leading company focused on transparency and digital transformation, as one of the winners.

“We are honored to be recognized as one of the best places to work in Chicago,” said Label Insight chief executive officer Paul Schaut. “Label Insight was founded with the mission of providing greater product transparency to consumers- and that impacts everything we do from the products we create, to the companies we partner with, to how we run our business.

“Our team believes in this greater mission and collectively works toward our broader goal of helping consumers better understand what is in the products they use and consume,” he said. “I am grateful to the tremendous Label Insight team for their outstanding contributions to our company’s growth and continued success.”

Upcoming Attractions!

Wellness, ,

There are some great things going on in the Chicago area over the next few days.  From 13thto 15thApril there is the I Heart Halal exhibition at the Navy Pier.  At this, attendees will get the opportunity to learn about the Halal lifestyle, food and culture prominent in Muslim life.

Get healthy with skills, knowledge and education at the Rally HealthFest on April 14th.  With no charge, it’s a no brainer. Combining fitness activities, healthy snacks and more, comedians will be on hand to add a bit of an edge to the day. For anyone who wants to find new – and fun –ways to improve their health this is a great event.  And, considering Rally is intent on bringing health to the workforce too, this is a good opportunity for local businesses to get on board.  With a kid zone it’s good for those looking for a family day.

The core of the Rally movement is having a cohesive effort made between payers, providers, employers and embers together “recognizing the crucial role they play in the ecosystem.” Through this, employees can get practical experiences to facilitate their understanding of how to manage healthcare benefits at the workplace as well.

 

City Monitoring

Infrastructure, ,

There could soon be a way to monitor things like air quality and vehicle traffic in the city of Chicago.  Thanks to the Array of Things project, real-time data on a city will be assembled to make this happen. With scientists, government officials and just lay people from the community, this data will be formulated for predictions on current environmental fluctuations.

The project is being navigated by the University of Chicago and Argonne’s Urban Center for Computation and Data director, Charlie Catlett who is seeking to install 500 sensor nodes around the city. The plan ultimately is to install a network worldwide to “improve living and working in the city.”

Catlett added:

“We talked to people in the city of Chicago to understand what their challenges are. And we found from talking with them and from our own work there’s a lot of data that’s missing, that should be able to be measured, and that requires data analytics, it requires data integration infrastructure, and it requires a measurement strategy.”