Transcript:
Conway Gittens: I’m Conway Gittens reporting from the New York Stock Exchange. Here’s what we’re watching on TheStreet today.
Interest rates are top of mind for investors as the Federal Reserve kicks off a two-day meeting. Policymakers have new data to consider as they decide how deep of a cut to make. Retail sales surprisingly rose in August in a sign the economy remained on firm footing. Meanwhile, factory output rebounded sharply in August after a hurricane-related slowdown the prior month.
Related: Amazon CEO revokes a major privilege employees love
In other news…the list of high-profile corporate names ordering workers back to the office full time continues to grow. Amazon told its employees that all corporate workers must return to a five-day in-person work-week as of January 2025. Previously, Amazon only required workers to be in-office 3 days a week.
CEO Andy Jassy laid out his rationale for a full return-to-office policy in a note to employees. “We’ve observed that it’s easier for our teammates to learn, model, practice, and strengthen our culture; collaborating, brainstorming, and inventing are simpler and more effective; teaching and learning from one another are more seamless; and, teams tend to be better connected to one another.”
Previous attempts to scale back work-from-home were met with stiff resistance by Amazon employees. Experts, however, point out that times have changed and the balance of power has shifted back to employers. Amazon is not alone in ending or scaling back work-from-home, so has some of the nation’s biggest employers including General Motors, Walt Disney, Walmart, UPS, Meta, and IBM. One thing to note about this list - many of those companies either over-hired during the pandemic or have seen business slow markedly from a pandemic peak.
Despite these high-profile names, work-from-home isn’t totally dead. According to a survey taken at the beginning of the year by the Conference Board, only 4 percent of CEOs said a full return-to-office policy was a priority.
That’ll do it for your Daily Briefing. From the New York Stock Exchange, I’m Conway Gittens with TheStreet.
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