Has Work Grown More Transactional? It’s Complicated.
What is commonly referred to as “loyalty” between employers and employees has eroded for decades. Does the weakening of implied contracts mean that work has become more transactional?
workforce
Frontiers 2025: Four Insights Redefining How We Work and Lead
Common threads tied together the vast collection of information at the 2025 Frontiers of Business Conference. We offer takeaways for those looking to tackle the skills gap and build a more robust and resilient economy.
Consumer Mood Check-In
For our September economic briefing, Kenan Institute Research Director Camelia Kuhnen discussed the morning's employment report, which showed a lower-than-expected number of jobs created in August, as well as other indicators that the economy is slowing.
May 25, 2026
UNC Business of Healthcare Conference: Strategic Healthcare Workforce of the Future
Join the Center for the Business of Health on Friday, November 8 for a conference exploring how to strategically prepare the healthcare workforce of the future.
Muddying the Waters
For our November 1 economic briefing, Kenan Institute Research Fellow Greg Brown discussed the morning's employment report and the effects that two hurricanes and a major strike had on some of the numbers it contained.
Is the Fed Reassessing?
For our October 9 briefing, Chief Economist Gerald Cohen noted that the previous Friday's strong employment report caused the markets to reassess the path of Federal Reserve easing and discussed whether the Fed might do the same.
Making the Cut?
Institute Research Fellow Christian Lundblad discussed the morning's employment report, factors the Federal Reserve is considering before possibly cutting interest rates at its next meeting, and the vital role that government economic data plays.
The Trade-Offs of a Soft Landing
At the institute's briefing Aug. 2, Research Fellow Greg Brown discussed the morning's employment report, which showed the number of new jobs in July falling below predictions. He also examined how a slowing economy can affect businesses and consumers.
Productivity Driving Prosperity: Decoding Local Economic Growth
To find signs of productivity, we must first know where to look. Chief Economist Gerald Cohen describes how an area’s industry mix is key to its productivity and how adjusting that mix can drive more local growth using data from our American Growth Project.
Watch Our Childcare Expert on PBS NC
UNC-Chapel Hill professor and Kenan Institute expert Iheoma U. Iruka took part in a roundtable discussion on the "childcare cliff" on PBS NC’s “State Lines” July 5. The episode is available online.
More Signs of Softening
During the institute’s monthly briefing June 7, Research Director Camelia Kuhnen discussed the stronger-than-expected new employment report and predicted that the Federal Reserve would still begin lowering interest rates later in the year.
Kenan Institute Expert Discusses Consumer Sentiment and the Economy
Camelia Kuhnen, Kenan Institute director of research and UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School finance professor, speaks to consumer sentiment during the institute's May 3 economic briefing.
Time for a Confidence Check
During the institute’s monthly press briefing May 3, Research Director Camelia Kuhnen discussed slower growth in the labor market and explored what creates the gap we now see in consumer sentiment numbers.
More Good News, But Potentially Troubling Data
During the institute’s monthly press briefing April 5, Research Fellow Greg Brown presented thoughts on what’s needed to extend a period of job growth and lower inflation.
Kenan Institute Economic Briefing: Going to Extremes
During the institute's monthly press briefing March 8, Chief Economist Gerald Cohen discussed another solid jobs report, in which the U.S. economy added 275,000 jobs for February.
Electric Vehicles: New Cars, New Regions and New Challenges
The increasing demand for electric cars is creating new opportunities for jobs and innovation in new locations, but there are differing views of the potential effect on overall auto sector jobs.
WSJ: Japan Provides a Labor Force Lesson
The institute has teamed up to work with Fifth Third Commercial Bank Chief Economist Jeff Korzenik on research into second-chance hiring. In his new opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, Korzenik discusses Japan’s “miracle” workforce expansion and what the U.S. can learn from it.
Seeking Information at Work: How Employers Can Promote Worker Proactivity
A recent meta-analysis from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Professor Elad Sherf and co-authors examines the literature on "seeking behavior" at work – such as asking for information, feedback or help. Why does it matter and how can it be harnessed to the benefit of both employers and employees?
Going Further Together: The Unique Power of Mixed-Gender Coalitions Advocating for Gender Equity
Research indicates that groups are most effective at achieving gender equity goals when men and women advocate together.
Understaffed and Overwhelmed: In Some Industries, Workers Have Had Enough
A last-minute deal averted a rail strike last week, but it highlights how staffing shortages in the industry as well as in education, hospitality and healthcare are pushing workers to push back, writes The Washington Post. Jobs with long hours and rigid schedules that lack competitive pay and benefits are proving the most difficult to fill, Director of Research Paige Ouimet said. “Running your workers like this – asking them to do 20, 30 percent more because you’re short staffed – it’s very much a short-term strategy,” Ouimet said. “You’re going to keep losing people.”
Long COVID and the Risk That U.S. Labor Markets Face
COVID-19 first caused chaos in our labor markets with the lockdowns of 2020, which sent unemployment rates soaring to all-time highs. It has continued to disrupt labor markets into 2022 as worries about health risks have kept workers at home, exasperating labor shortages. Looking forward, as we learn to live with COVID, we will also have to adapt to the effects of long COVID, when symptoms such as fatigue, difficulty breathing and “brain fog” appear after COVID. In this commentary, I attempt to assess the risk to our labor markets from long COVID.
Is It Good To Be Best? Analyzing What Drives State Business Rankings
Last month our home state of North Carolina was named “America’s Top State for Business” by CNBC (see the full ranking here). It wasn’t long after when some commentators pointed out that Oxfam had recently ranked N.C. as the worst state for workers. The extreme juxtaposition of rankings made me wonder if this was a coincidence or if there are systematic factors that make states good for businesses and bad for workers. Perhaps “right-to-work” laws, lax worker protection regulation or regional wage differences attract businesses looking to take advantage of areas with weak labor bargaining power. This in turn leads to business growth and thus job migration to states that are less desirable for individual workers. At the end of the day, economic planning should have the best interest of residents in mind when crafting business policy, so it seems worth unpacking what drives the rankings.
A Bigger Piece of the (Apple) Pie: What Unionization Could Mean
Unions seem to be popping up everywhere these days. In fact, the National Labor Relations Board reported that requests for union elections during the last nine months are up 58% over the prior fiscal year. This trend has received significant coverage in the media, with particular interest in successful organization efforts at Amazon, Starbucks and Apple.
A Clear-Eyed Look at Salary Transparency Laws
Seventeen states have enacted salary transparency laws to combat pay gaps historically experienced by people of color and women, but the laws take different forms and have produced varying results. How does requiring companies to provide summary salary statistics compare with, for example, preventing companies from asking applicants about their previous salaries? Can such laws actually work against employees? Two experts address these questions and more in this week’s Kenan Insight.
Reimagining the Business of Childcare
With the school year winding down, we invited Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute Fellow and UNC-Chapel Hill Public Policy Research Professor Iheoma Iruka to join us for a discussion on the business of childcare and early education – as well as the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted families’ expectations and workers’ needs