Searching for a Labor Day angle? Try these ideas
By Flickr user Pacerboy4
The upcoming Labor Day weekend is, like most seasonal occurrences, ripe for perennial business stories.
Tourism and travel are likely subjects, especially with the 2.9 percent uptick in vacationing predicted by AAA. In addition to asking resorts, theme parks, attractions, hotels and other venues to reflect on the summer of 2012 in comparison to recent post-recession years, you might twist the story a bit and ask about how they are extending the season with themed packages, promotional rates or other tactics. Some theme parks offer harvest or Halloween events, for example, while lodges may tout fall “leaf peeping” packages when poolside lounging no longer appeals. How do staffing and employment levels change at these venues as summer winds down? (And of course, if you’re in the southern tier of the country, the opposite may be true.)
Retail sales keyed to the Labor Day observance also are common; it’s the last gasp of back-to-school promotions and an opportunity to check on how consumer spending matched predictions.
Anything to do with jobs and employment is likely fodder for the coming week. Unions, particularly public-employee labor groups, have been a focus of political ire in recent years and your news organization is probably covering that from the state or metro desk, as is any pending right-to-work legislation. And indeed, as this federal Bureau of Labor Statistics annual report on union membership shows, the number of union members is inching downward. But unions range from musicians’ guilds to niche organizations like the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (which represents painters, drywall finishers, floor covering workers and those who install trade show displays) to the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union. It would be interesting to contact these labor groups at both the national and local level — as well as the firms that employ their members – to find out about membership and employment trends, industry concerns, occupational outlook and other reflections of the larger economy and jobs picture.
A quick shortcut is Unions.org, a sort of clearinghouse website which is searchable by city or ZIP code. And of course, the U.S. Department of Labor has extensive resources; I like its Office of Labor Management Standards resources for viewing financial reports from unions. And of course, with this year’s general election looming in November, you might want to check out labor groups’ campaign spending activity at the Labor portal on OpenSecrets.org.
Saving the best for last: I think an interesting and useful Labor Day story would take a look at apprenticeship programs offered by skilled trades unions. Paid, on-the-job training — in the sorts of occupations not easily offshored, like plumbing and electrical wiring — is alive and well; a labor department fact sheet says 130,000 people entered registered apprenticeships last year. Active programs have dwindled quite a bit in the past decade, but apprenticeship — in careers ranging from dental hygiene to bricklayer — still is a viable career direction your readers might like to hear about.
Search the DOL’s database by state and county to find program sponsors near you, and browse the DOL site to learn more about apprenticeship regulations. Check out the website of the National Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee, which is affiliated with electrical contractors, for information about its programs that will help you formulate questions no matter which industry you cover.