Axios AM: Mike's Top 10 — Boom, bust jobs

Plus: Secret code on Mars | Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Open in app View in browser   Presented By Amazon   Axios AM By Mike Allen ·Feb 24, 2021 🐪 Good Wednesday morning. Smart Brevity™ count: 941 words ... < 4 minutes. 🔋Join Axios' Joann Muller today at 12:30 p.m. ET for a virtual event on the future of green transportation, featuring United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby and GM chief sustainability officer Dane Parker. Register here.     1 big thing: How Black professionals get left behind Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios   Across cities, companies and industries, Black professionals remain underrepresented in top jobs, Axios @Work author Erica Pandey reports: Why it matters: Fixing the broken pipeline for Black executives isn't just the right thing to do. Improving boardroom diversity has also been proven to drive profits. Two new reports, from McKinsey and Glassdoor, show the plethora of cultural, geographic and other barriers that keep Black workers out of the C-suite: Black Americans make up 12% of the U.S. population. They're proportionately represented in entry-level professional jobs (12%), but underrepresented at the manager level (7%). Black professionals are even more severely underrepresented at the senior manager, VP and SVP levels (4%). On the current trajectory, it'd take Black professionals 95 years to get to 12% representation at the manager level, per McKinsey. What's happening: 60% of Black workers live in the South, which has far fewer job growth centers than other parts of the country, according to the McKinsey analysis. Put another way, only 1 in 10 Black workers live in cities with high projected growth, like Seattle or Provo, Utah. Even for Black professionals who are in lucrative jobs, attrition rates are high. What you can do: Companies can add transparency to recruiting and promotion processes, set up ways for employees to report discrimination, and hold aggressors accountable, Patrick McKay, a professor of human resource management at Temple University, told Axios. Share this story. 💼 Sign up for Erica Pandey's weekly newsletter, Axios @Work.     2. Boom, bust jobs A server sanitizes a dining yurt at Crown Shy in Lower Manhattan. Photo: Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images   Federal economists have projected growth from 2019-2029, Erica Pandey writes from BLS data reported by N.Y. Times Upshot (subscription). Low-skilled, low-wage jobs requiring a high school diploma or less are getting hit hardest — underscoring the need to train and upskill the U.S. workforce post-pandemic. The booms: The job of epidemiologist is projected to grow by 25% by 2029, meaning there'll be 25% more epidemiologists than there would have been without the pandemic. Medical scientists: 23% growth. Web developers: 11%. Biochemists, biophysicists: 10%. Computer systems administrators: 10%. The busts: The job of restaurant host or hostess is expected to decline 24% by 2029, meaning 24% fewer hosts and hostesses than there would have been sans pandemic. Bartenders: –19%. Travel, ticket agents: –17%. Hotel, motel clerks: –16%. Servers: –16%. Share this story.     3. Kids' surge isn't over Data: HHS, University of Minnesota COVID-19 Hospitalization Tracking Project and Zach Levin. Chart: Michelle McGhee/Axios Children's hospitals across the country say they're still seeing a surge of kids suffering from a serious illness — multisystem inflammatory syndrome, commonly known MIS-C — that typically follows coronavirus infections, Axios' Caitlin Owens reports. Why it matters: Severe coronavirus infections in children remain extremely rare, compared to the risk to adults. But hospitals say children are sicker now than they were in earlier surges. Keep reading.     A message from Amazon Watch what happened when Amazon raised their starting wage to $15/hr     Amazon saw the need to do more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour. In 2018, they established a $15/hour starting wage, and they've seen the positive impact it's had on their employees and their families first-hand. That's why they're calling on Congress to pass the Raise the Wage Act.     4. Pic du jour: Bilat in time of virus Photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters President Biden and Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hold a video conference call for closing remarks at their virtual bilateral meeting.     5. Tiger awake, responsive, recovering Photo: Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP   L.A. County Sheriff's Deputy Carlos Gonzalez, the first to arrive at Tiger Woods' rollover accident, told a televised news conference that he found the golf legend behind the wheel, with the airbag deployed. The deputy asked Woods questions to be sure he could orient: "I asked him what his name was. He told me his name was Tiger. And at that moment, I immediately recognized him." Woods, 45, underwent "a long surgical procedure on his lower right leg and ankle," his team said in a late-night statement. Sign destroyed in the accident. Photo: Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Woods was traveling at a "relatively greater speed than normal" descending down a hill, noting that the area "has a high frequency of accidents," the L.A. Times reports. The sheriff said there were no skid marks and no signs of braking, and that the golfer's 2021 Genesis GV80 SUV hit the center divider, a curb and a tree in the rollover crash. Read the statement from Tiger's team.     6. 👻 Snapchat bets on 50% annual revenue growth Data: Investing.com. Chart: Axios Visuals Snap stock hit a record yesterday after the company told investors it expects 50% annual growth in top-line revenue for the next several years, Axios Media Trends author Sara Fischer reports. Snapchat has quietly built a loyal audience of people mostly under the age of 30. Now, it says it's ready to start making money off them. Keep reading. 📡 Sign up for Sara Fischer's weekly newsletter, Axios Media Trends.     7. States wrestle with how to teach slavery Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios   Red and blue states are considering proposals that would exclude — or bolster — lessons on slavery and Native American removal in public schools, Axios race and justice reporter Russell Contreras writes. GOP lawmakers in Iowa, Arkansas and Mississippi are trying to withhold funding for schools that teach the N.Y. Times' "1619 Project." Black, Latino, and Native American advocates are using the nation's current racial reckoning to push for more diverse history lessons. Keep reading.     8. 2024 watch: A Republican take on minimum wage Sen. Josh Hawley at yesterday's hearing on the Capitol riot. Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), jumping on the minimum-wage bandwagon, today will introduce a "Blue Collar Bonus" paid for by taxpayers rather than employers, Alayna Treene and Dan Primack report. Why it matters: Hawley, a likely 2024 presidential candidate, is breaking with GOP orthodoxy by arguing that the federal minimum wage is too low. The details: Those making below $16.50 per hour would receive a refundable tax credit worth 50% of the difference. Go deeper.     9. Secret code on Mars Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP The 70-foot parachute used by NASA's Perseverance rover to land on Mars contained a secret message, thanks to a crossword hobbyist on the spacecraft team, AP's Marcia Dunn writes: Systems engineer Ian Clark used binary code to spell out "Dare Mighty Things" on the chute. He included the GPS coordinates for the mission's HQ at Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena. P.S. "Percy" has a plaque showing all five NASA Mars rovers in increasing size — similar to family car decals seen on Earth.     10. Parting shot: Vanity Fair's Hollywood Issue Cover photographed by conceptual artists Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari/Vanity Fair Vanity Fair, which each year brings an array of stars together for its pre-Oscars cover, goes with a "fantasia" theme as a respite from shutdown: The cover of the 27th annual issue "portrays a magical dreamscape representing not only that the show must go on, but that there's joy in its continuance." Explore the issue.     A message from Amazon What Amazon saw after raising their starting wage to $15/hr     Applications doubled and the investments made in their hourly employees were quickly transferred to local businesses and economies, showing the benefits far transcend the workplace. They're ready to see this done on a larger scale. It's time to pass the Raise the Wage Act.   📬 Thanks for starting your day with us. 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