The CQ: Humans Needed in the AI-Fueled Work & Religious "Nones" on the Rise
The Forerunner Team's Top Read of the Week
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By Forerunner
What We’re Talking About on Slack:
The AI-fueled future of work needs humans more than ever. The advancement of technology has changed the skills required for many jobs by 25% since 2015, and that number is predicted to grow to 65% by 2030. Wired explains how it’s important for employees to look at their job as a collection of tasks and determine which of those tasks AI can make more efficient, and which require your unique skills. According to Wired’s data, 92% of American executives believe people skills—problem solving, strategic thinking, time management, empathy, active listening—are more important than ever. “2024 will start to usher in a new world of work where people skills...are more core to career success, and people-to-people collaboration is more core to company success. Leaders and employees need to think of AI as just one tool in the toolbox. It doesn’t replace people, it allows them to do their job more effectively, leaving them time to focus on the more valuable—and more human—parts of their jobs.”
Businesses and consumers are borrowing again. Because investors look to credit markets to gauge economic health, this rebound is a hopeful sign that the U.S. can sidestep a recession. The Wall Street Journal maps out the current state of things in eight charts. In terms of consumers, falling rates have led to an increase in applications for mortgages to buy homes. Issuance of asset-backed securities, which are the bonds backed by several types of debt such as credit cards and auto loans—had a big jump this month. Auto loans rose from about $3 billion in December 2023 to nearly $18 billion in January 2024.
The number of new U.S. businesses opened in 2023 beat out pre-pandemic levels, according to data from Yelp. Compared to 2022, home services saw the most growth of new businesses (up 32%). But every industry got a boost from new businesses, most notably hotels and travel (up 28%), event services (up 23%), automotive services (up 22%), local services (up 20%), and food businesses (up 16%). There was also more diversity among new business founders this past year: LGBTQ-owned (up 29%), Latinx-owned (up 28%), Black-owned (up 24%), and Asian-owned (up 16%). Women entrepreneurs also saw an impressive 17% increase from 2022 in categories like hotels and travel (up 44%), home services (up 38%), local services (up 30%), event services (up 23%), and automotive services (up 14%).
Religious ‘Nones’ are now the largest single group in the U.S. A new Pew Research study says 28% of Americans have no religious affiliation, which is up from 16% in 2007. For perspective, there are 24% evangelical Protestants and 23% Catholics. What researchers found is that ‘nones’ are not a uniform group; they're agnostics and atheists as well as those who describe themselves as “nothing in particular” yet believe in God or a higher power even though many do not attend religious services. Demographically, most nones are liberal, young (65% are under 50), and less racially diverse (63% are white). “Nones are also less civically engaged than those who identify with a religion–they're less likely to vote. So, while they identify as Democrats, getting them to the polls on election day may prove to be a challenge.”
Parents are hiring ‘empty-nest coaches’ to cope with kids leaving for college. Yes, they’re a thing—and their counseling sessions are going for $250 an hour and growing in popularity among helicopter parents who are struggling with the sudden “emotional and logistical vacuum” now that they no longer have daily caretaking to focus on. One certified coach has more than 50,000 subscribers to his TikTok account, while the Facebook group Empty Nest Moms has more than 12,000 members. Another empty nest coach says many of her clients have focused on raising their children “to a point where they have no idea who they are. Their whole identity is their kids.”
From The New York Times: Hark, the millennial death wail. The largest living generation, currently between the ages of 28 and 43, is, by large, not adapting well to middle age (at least by the look of things on social media anyway). “So loud is the chorus of lamentations that there is a sense of protesting a bit too much. Could it be a shtick? Remember, millennials are the first generation who learned to mine their lives for social media content, and ‘aging’ may be a category that is too robust to leave on the shelf.”
From the start of the pandemic, rents have risen 19%. Today, half of American renters spend more than 30% of income on rent and utilities—more than at any other time in history, according to a new Harvard report. And over 12 million renters are spending more than half their income on housing. This is affecting everyone from low- to high-income households, though middle-income renters are the ones who have experienced the sharpest increase since 2019. There is some good news on the horizon though: “Vacancies are up. And 1 million new multifamily units are under construction, almost entirely rentals, the most the country has seen in decades.”
2014 Tumblr is back in a big way. Recently, influencer Addison Rae and Kylie Jenner posted photos reminiscent of Tumblr in 2010s, marking a return to a “messier, edgier and looser aesthetic.” Says one digital creator, “If I had to sum that all up, I’d say people just miss having fun, and Tumblr was a lot of fun. People haven’t been having fun online for a while. It’s like a job for everyone. You don’t even have to be trying to be famous and it feels like a job for people.”
Researchers conducted several experiments with food products to discover when consumers prefer simple packaging—and when they don’t. Here’s what they found: “When consumers see food packaging with minimal text, fewer colors, and plain white or neutral boxes, they infer that the product inside contains few ingredients. That, in turn, leads them to assume the product is more pure than similar products in busier packaging and worth paying a premium for.” However, the opposite is true for generic store brands and junk food. In those cases, consumers prefer bright colors, elaborate fonts, and bold designs.
A new study looks at younger generations’ perceptions of their finances, including this tidbit: About 45% of Gen Z and millennials are obsessed with being rich. The report also touches on “money dysmorphia,” which refers to people having distorted and insecure views of their finances despite the reality, which then leads to poor decision-making that can negatively affect their finances. According to the study, 43% of Gen Z and 41% of millennials said they experience money dysmorphia and 48% of Gen Z and 59% of millennials said they feel left behind financially. Conflicting with these stats, 59% of poll respondents also said they are financially stable. Those who had money dysmorphia reported that it held them back from building long-term savings (40%), overspending (38%), taking on debt (32 %) or held them back from saving for a house or paying off debt (30%). “Seeing friends, family members and strangers speak about money and flaunting their wealth on social media platforms has led people to second-guess where they stand in their financial status. As trend cycles tend to be short, combined with easy access to certain goods, younger generations are feeling pressure to buy or consume products to keep up with others around them.”
Portfolio Highlights:
TechCrunch reports on Studio’s new online school that features AI to create curriculums for musicians.
Retail Brew reports that Catch is gaining traction with brands that target Gen Z.
Yahoo!Finance defines fractional real estate with a brief explainer of Arrived.
Ritual’s CEO Katerina Schneider speaks with Fortune about how her daily routine keeps her healthy, and visited the Finding Mastery podcast to discuss supplement safety. Lindsay Dahl, chief impact officer, was also quoted in Glossy about transparency in the supplement industry.
Tom’s Guide interviews Oura CEO Tom Hale on how the brand plans to set itself apart from competitors. Hale was also featured in a Business Insider article, weighing in on the patent dispute between Apple and Masimo as well as Samsung’s Galaxy ring.
Cotopaxi’s chief brand officer Brad Hiranaga spoke to Adweek about the brand’s Sundance strategy.