Author: Admin

Increases in major cost categories like housing and vehicles have contributed substantially to recent inflation, while sectors like food and energy have seen great volatility in prices. But one other significant source of pressure has been household items. Household items can represent a large chunk of household spending—and, with inflation, a big reason why more households are feeling pinched.

Household items are typically classified as either durable or nondurable goods—where durable goods are those tangible products that can be stored or inventoried and that have an average life of at least three years, and nondurable goods have an average life of less than three years. Common household items include televisions, smartphones, furniture, apparel, cleaning supplies, and outdoor equipment.

Ranking Methodology:

Researchers ranked U.S. states according to the share of consumer spending spent on household items.

Researchers also ranked common household items based on their CPI percentage change from March 2020 to July 2024.

Results – Household Item Inflation:

• Cumulatively, nondurable goods now cost 20.7% more than they did in early 2020, while durable goods are up 16.2%.

• Since the pandemic began in March 2020, nine categories of household goods have seen prices cumulatively increase by more than 20%, led by household paper products with a 30.8% increase.

• Over the last year, video discs and other media have seen a price increase of 15.3%, with other categories also seeing increases well above the overall rate of CPI inflation.

Consumer Spending Trends in Georgia:

• Overall, 14.2% of consumer spending in Georgia goes to household items—the 10th most of any U.S. state.

• While 18.7% of adults in Georgia are facing severe difficulty paying for their usual household expenses, 48.9% admit to feeling very stressed about recent price increases.

Below is a complete data breakout for Georgia. The full report contains data on household spending characteristics for all 50 states, as well as price changes for nearly 50 common household items since March 2020.

Porsche Cars North America, Inc. (PCNA) is celebrating the 40th anniversary of becoming a sales organization in North America.

Headquartered in Reno, Nevada, PCNA was responsible for just three model lines in 1984 – the 944, 928 and the 911. It proved to be an exciting year for the brand. At Le Mans, Porsche cars occupied eight of the top nine finishing positions – including winning the race outright with the mighty 956B. Meanwhile, away from the track (and mostly away from roads) a Porsche car won the grueling Paris-Dakar rally in a G series 911.  

Just like in 1984, Porsche-brand cars continue to thrive in motorsport – with national series such as the Porsche Carrera Cup North America growing year after year while international endurance racing and Formula E are led by the 963 and 99X electric respectively. On the road, the 911 Dakar harks back to the pioneering win in the rally of the same name in 1984.

Highlights from PCNA’s 40-year history can be found here.

Travel Company’s Biggest Challenges are Solvable

What are Today’s Travel Business Challenges? What challenges is your travel business facing today? Knowing them is critical for continued success against growing competition, who are also studying your target customer. The travel industry is changing, especially with the market aging or seeing more young people who love technology and online marketing. Let’s take a…

Associate Vice President of Student Affairs at Georgia Piedmont Technical College Dr. Melinda Robinson-Moffett talks about some exciting things happening at GPTC and some benefits to attending a technical college.

The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) unveiled today the names of 34 program participants selected to participate in its 2024 Culture and Community Design (CCD) program. The Culture and Community Design program runs from August through mid-December.

This is the second class of the immersive program where participants will examine the space between community building, arts and cultural work, and urban planning. The 2024 class is comprised of artists, organizers, local officials, and planners, who will work with two community organizations, serving underrepresented populations, to design projects and planning initiatives focused on arts and culture.

CCD is a component of ARC’s Culture, and Creative Placemaking Strategic Plan, which provides a blueprint for integrating arts and culture into ARC’s planning work to help build a thriving and healthy region. The program will be co-led by Rosten Woo, a Los Angeles-based artist, designer, writer, and educator. Woo produces civic-scale artworks and works as a collaborator and consultant to a variety of grassroots, non-profit organizations, and local governments such as Los Angeles Poverty Department, the Black Workers Center, as well as the city of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County.

His work has also been exhibited internationally at art and design institutes and can be found at public housing developments and shopping malls, on tugboats, and in parks. Woo is also the co-founder and former executive director of the Center for Urban Pedagogy, a New York-based, non-profit organization and winner of a national design award for institution achievement.

“We have a wonderful cohort excited about how to think of arts and community engagement in planning,” said Roshani Thakore, head of Community Engagement & Culture at ARC. “Over the past two years, we’ve been refining our community engagement and culture class. We can’t wait to see how the diversity in perspectives and experiences will shape their projects and ultimately the ecosystem of arts, culture and creative placemaking across the region.”

Tifany Bruner, Agency Manager for Georgia Farm Bureau, discusses the changes she has seen in the insurance industry over the past 23 years in the industry. Most insurance companies have changed from a model that was built around local communities to a model that requires you to go online or call a 1-800 number for all of your needs. She is proud that Farm Bureau has not wavered in its commitment to keeping local agents in Georgia communities and discusses how this model has allowed her to better serve her community in their times of need.

Duluth’s VoiceNation kicked off an expansion of its ongoing partnership with Rainbow Village on National Humanitarian Day with employees volunteering in a variety of ways with the local nonprofit that serves families currently experiencing homelessness. Participating employees helped clean and organize the community kitchenwhere families enjoy home-cooked meals, and looked after the children in the Afterschool Club where they helped them make wooden racecars.

Through the VoiceNation partnership, employees sign-up to volunteer on chosen dates with both Rainbow Village’s Afterschool Club and Life Skills Evenings. For the weekday afterschool program VoiceNation volunteers will help children with their pre-planned activities, ranging from STEM, crafts, free play, financial literacy, and emotional intelligence for children aged 5 to 18.  

Life Skills Evenings are part of Rainbow Village’s residential program (ASPIRE) providing evening classes for parents that take place four times a month. Families eat together, then the adults go to class while Moneypenny’s volunteers help with the children from infant to 18 years old. 

With a US headquarters in Duluth, VoiceNation, which is part of Moneypenny, handles more than 20 million calls and chats for businesses annually, supporting companies of all shapes and sizes across the US and UK with call answering, live chat and bespoke and proactive customer communication services.

 Reward Gateway | Edenred, a global leader in employee engagement and HR technology, released its report An EVP that drives engagement: The power of benefits, recognition and appreciation exploring how organizations can transform engagement through benefits, recognition, and appreciation.

The survey found that while it’s no secret employee needs are complex and vary from person to person, it’s critical for employers to nurture engagement and foster an environment of recognition and wellbeing. With only half (49%) of employees feeling regularly appreciated for being themselves at work, there’s a major opportunity for organizations to create a true culture of appreciation, which ultimately leads to increased employee attraction, engagement, retention, and productivity.

“Cultivating employee engagement is a delicate dance, and with our people as our greatest asset, this requires a collaborative strategy across leadership teams,” said Anthony Knierim, Managing Director, Americas of Reward Gateway | Edenred. “Our recent research shows us the importance of establishing a dynamic benefits program as one means of supporting employees, and how employees want to be recognized and appreciated as they grow in both their professional and personal lives.”

For HR leaders looking to create a culture of appreciation, additional findings from the report found:

• Recognition fosters appreciation – and also retention: With 84% of employees agreeing that they feel more appreciated as a person when they receive customized recognition for their performance at work (like a personalized gift certificate), 82% then agree that it makes them feel more connected to their workplace. Employees also agree that they are more likely to stay with their company longer (81%), have improved wellbeing (78%) and feel less stressed (73%) when they receive personalized recognition in the workplace.

• Levelling up benefits can impact employee’s productivity and sense of being appreciated: Employees say that receiving the classic three benefits would make them more productive at work: time off (46%), financial (e.g. 401k, stock options) (43%), and insurance-related benefits (42%). While these benefits address traditional needs, 57% also said they would like their workplace to show appreciation for them as a person by offering benefits that are important to them. This highlights the demand for unique offerings, such as the importance of flexibility; a little more than one-third of employees (35%) mentioned flexible start and end times to their workday as desirable benefits from a potential employer.

• Many benefits may top a 10% raise: More than half of employees share that insurance-related benefits (59%) and time off-related benefits (52%) are more important than a 10% pay raise. From training or mentorship programs (40%); health and wellness-related benefits (36%); to family-related benefits (35%), the more organizations customize their benefits for an employee’s needs, likes, personality or role, the more that employee will feel seen, understood and cherished.

• Gen Z and Millennials are progressing, and with that, what they’re looking for is too: With each generation looking for specific benefits that support the different areas and concerns of their lives, research found that Gen Z is more interested in student loan assistance (14%) compared to the average of 7%. With that, Millennials are slightly more interested in childcare reimbursement (10%) than the average of 6%.

For more information about Reward Gateway | Edenred and to read the full report, please visit http://rg.co/evp-report.