🕵️ Guys, We Found the Workers

Image: Tenor

• The U.S. saw a record 4.3 million new business applications last year and 3.8 million so far this year, according to the Census Bureau.
• In July, the number of self-employed workers hit an eight-year high, data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis shows.
• Some more bad news for existing businesses: 35% of the companies created last year have a high propensity – or a high likelihood – to employ people.

👋 Zoom out: More Americans quit their jobs in August than in any other month since at least 2000 and staffing shortages are currently hamstringing businesses across most industries. “Labor availability remains the biggest challenge to hiring right now,” according to Wells Fargo economists Sarah House and Michael Pugliese.

• People between 30 and 45 years old have had the greatest increase in resignation rates, with an average increase of more than 20% between last year and this year, according to Harvard Business Review.

📝 The bottom line: New businesses have a 50% chance of surviving their first five years… so why not try ?

🎁 The American bumblebee population has dropped 89% over the past two decades, and an "endangered species" listing could be imminent, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

You’re Still Carrying A Wallet ?

We’re ditching the wallet. Which means the universal “Wallet. Keys. Phone” just became “Keys. Wallet Slayer.”

Smartish is here to slay your wallet. Not in an expensive way, but in the coolest gladiator style fight to the death way.

Store your IDs, credit cards, expired coupons, grocery reward cards, gym passes, old photos... where were we going with this... oh yeah, store your important stuff directly in your phone case.

Okay... what if I drop it ? Well, you probably won’t. The Wallet Slayer is super durable and has extra grippy sides so your $1,000 pocket computer stays in your hand where it belongs.

Slay Your Wallet With Smartish.

Image: Ronstick/Dreamstime

The mandate is being implemented under a federal policy known as an emergency temporary standard. It will apply to all businesses with at least 100 employees and is projected to affect ~80 million workers nationwide.

• When combined with Biden's order last month requiring all federal workers and contractors to be vaccinated without the option for weekly testing, roughly two-thirds of the U.S. workforce would be covered under some form of vaccine mandate (100 million people in total).

📰 In the news: Earlier this week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order prohibiting any entity, including private businesses, from enforcing a COVID-19 vaccine mandate on workers. Failure to comply could result in a fine of $1,000, though Abbott didn’t specify how it would be implemented.

• It’s unclear how this move will interact with the Biden administration’s federal mandate. Typically, the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution prohibits states from interfering with valid federal laws.
• Businesses could choose to test Abbott's order by imposing mandates for workers and then, if fined, challenge the fine in court, arguing they were complying with Biden’s federal order.

👁️ Looking ahead… The Biden administration’s plan is expected to be finalized as early as next week, sources told NBC News.

• Questions still remain over how the vaccine mandate will be enforced and whether it will be able to withstand planned legal challenges from 24 Republican attorneys general, one of whom has already filed a lawsuit.

🎁 Shares of code repository startup GitLab jumped ~35% on its first day of trading on Thursday after the company sold shares well above the expected range in its IPO.

🚀 A New Form Of ‘Remote Work’

Image: Rocket Labs

It comes after the startup closed a $42 million Series A in July and signed a deal with Rocket Labs weeks later to build three custom spacecraft to carry out its missions.

⏩ Driving the move… Varda’s goal is to utilize the benefits of microgravity - which can only be found for sustained periods in outer space - to create novel materials such as bio-printed organs or specialized semiconductors.

• The plan is for each spacecraft to spend approximately three months in orbit before bringing back 40-60 kilograms of manufactured materials to Earth.

📝 The bottom line: Varda is betting the demand for these kinds of unique products will be high enough to offset its manufacturing costs.

Image via screenshot: Fox9

Shaine Kilyun is a sixteen year old high school student with a passion for animals.

• The founder of Wheelies Dog and Cat Wheelchairs, Shaine spends most of her free time constructing personalized mobility devices for animals with special needs almost entirely free of cost.

🐶 Introducing Scooter: Her most recent recipient was a small two-year-old mutt from Saudi Arabia with paralyzed back legs.

• Upon arriving in the States, Shaine was able to build not one, but two “wheelchairs” for Scooter, providing the dog with a new chance at life and saving his adopters ~$1,000.

See Scooter Scoot.

Which two colors do people with the most common form of color blindness have trouble distinguishing ?

A) Blue & Yellow
B) Red & Green
C) Blue & Green
D) Red & Yellow

(keep scrolling for the answer)

Access exclusive rewards and even an all-expenses-paid round trip to Austin, TX, just for sharing this newsletter.

Simply:

1. Copy your unique referral link.👇
2. Post said link on social media, drop it in the company Slack channel, share it with your nosy neighbor, etc.
3. Watch the rewards roll in.

No link found!

B) Red & Green

There are three documented types of color blindness in humans:

• Most common: Red-green
• Less frequent: Blue-yellow
• Very uncommon: Monochromacy, or complete color blindness