 |
|
|
|||||
In recent weeks, as President Trump has made huge cuts to federal programs, let go of thousands of federal workers under the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and given U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) more authority, we’ve seen tons of criticism of the president’s executive orders. Even some who voted for Trump, but have lost their jobs as a result of Trump’s firings, have admitted they now regret their decision and have turned on the president. Despite all that, the president’s approval rating is going up among Gen Z, according to a new poll from AtlasIntel conducted between February 24 and February 27. Overall, the president’s rating remains largely unchanged. In the survey of 2,849 U.S. adults, Trump’s overall approval rating was 50.3%a slight gain from a poll taken days after he took office for the second time, when it was 50.1%. However, the evaluations varied greatly by age group. The survey showed Trump gaining points among the Gen Z group of people ages 18 to 29: 41.3% approved of him in the previous poll taken days after the inauguration. In the new poll, the number is 52.7%. Men felt more favorably than women, according to the poll, with 53.8% of men approving of the president, as opposed to 46.9% of women. Millennials felt differently, with 77.2% saying they disapprove of the president. The survey didn’t offer a clear explanation for why Trump is gaining popularity among Gen Z. However, when asked about the president’s policy proposals, more respondents overall approved of plans like “mass deportations of undocumented immigrants” and “starting negotiations with Russia to end the war in Ukraine.” He gained 8 points on the first proposal, and 9 on the latter. Trump hasn’t actually deported more illegal immigrants than President Biden. But he has ramped up ICE’s authority. And despite pitching himself as the “honest broker” of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, it’s worth noting that in February, just one day after AtlasIntel’s poll closed, Trump held a contentious meeting in the Oval Office with Ukraine’s President Zelensky in which the two sparred over negotiations. In the recent survey, Trump also gained 4 points in his proposals to roll back “federal protections for gender identity procedures.” Trump has given executive orders that would make it harder, if not impossible for transgender youth to receive gender reassignment surgery or medications that support their true gender identity. The plans are terrifying for many in the transgender community, including those who have already been living as a certain gender who depend on certain medications, as well as parents of transgender kids. While Gen Z’s reasoning may not be entirely clear, one thing we do know is that young Gen Z white men voted overwhelmingly for Trump (67%). At the same time, many young men have felt threatened by shifting gender roles, including rights for women and LGBTQ+ individuals, which far-right influencers have framed as a turn away from traditional masculinity. In a 2023 survey, young men said they increasingly felt they experienced gender discrimination. Nearly half of all men ages 18 to 29 identified with feeling discriminated against, more than any other age group.
Category:
E-Commerce
Mental health resources have become a crucial corporate benefit among employers who are looking to recruit the best talent, with more and more companies now offering access to therapy and wellness apps. Even so, many workers report feeling like they don’t have the support they are seekingparticularly as they encounter rising levels of stress in and out of the workplace. In a new report from mental-health-benefits provider Lyra Health, 89% of the 7,500 employees surveyed said they had faced at least one mental health challenge over the past year, citing stress and anxiety as the biggest issues. In many cases, work was the leading source of their stressnamely, overwhelming workloads and staff shortagesand 73% of employees believed that those work-related mental health issues were, in turn, impacting their performance in the workplace. There are, of course, other factors driving these mental health challenges, from the political climate to financial stress. Women were more likely to cite caregiving responsibilities as a reason for their stressthough in comparison to their male counterparts, they also reported higher levels of anxiety and mental health struggles on the whole. Despite all thisnot to mention, the growing investment in mental health benefits across corporate workplacesmany employees claimed to have limited access to the support they need or want. While the majority of workers said their employers care about their mental health and take stock of their well-being, only 29% of respondents think their workplace provides adequate mental health resources. (Of the 500 HR and benefits leaders who were surveyed, however, 45% argued that their companies offer those resources.) More than half of younger workers are likely to switch jobs in the next year to find more comprehensive mental health support, with millennials being the most likely to take advantage of those resources. But nearly all employees surveyed said they strongly consider mental health benefits when looking for jobs. There are signs that employees don’t always use mental health benefits even when they are available to them; also, that there can be a disconnect between which benefits employers typically offer and what their workers might be looking for. But companies have also seen the effects of securing these benefits for their workers: 81% of HR and benefits leaders said that mental health offerings had boosted their company’s reputation and made it a more appealing opportunity for job candidates. It’s clear that workers are clamoring for more mental health supportand that along with fertility and family-building benefits, these resources can be a real differentiator for employers who are looking to attract and retain top talent.
Category:
E-Commerce
Over the past few weeks, Republican lawmakers around the country holding town halls have faced angry questioning and booing from their constituents who are upset with mass federal layoffs, among other controversial moves by the Trump administration. Now, after a series of (televised) tense confrontations, Congressional Republicans have been advised to hold their historically in-person town halls online. It’s hard not to note the irony here: The same party thats requiring federal employees to work in-person full-time has suddenly learned to embrace the conceptual power of a Zoom meeting (aka, remote) conducted from a distance. All it took, apparently, was some in-person criticism from their own voters. In response to the onslaught of hostile instances, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) encouraged members to host town halls on Facebook Live and other virtual platforms, ABC News reported. Remote meetings would give them more control over the event, such as being able to screen questions in advance and conceivably have the ability to mute a particularly agitated constituent, or 10. The news comes after Kansas Senator Roger Marshall was booed at a town hall he held Tuesday in a hospital. At a Texas GOP town hall on Saturday, a raucous crowd continually heckled Rep. Keith Self. And a few weeks earlier, Georgia Rep. Rich McCormick faced intense criticism at a town hall in Georgia, where a constituent told him: We are all fricking pissed off. After the NRCCs meeting, House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that many of the disruptions in the town halls came from professional protestors. There is no evidence that this is true. The move to take town halls virtual has elicited backlash from voters because they want their local representatives to hear their anger, feel their pain, and be held publicly accountable for what this GOP administration is doing. Several petitions have circulated urging these lawmakers back into the public eye, to stop hiding behind a screen. One, asking Senator Thom Tillis to hold a Charlotte town hall, has garnered more than a thousand verified signatures at press time. And several similar petitions are popping up on Change.org, a site that allows anyone to create and post a petition and circulate it online to acquire a requisite number of signatures. In a Tuesday morning X post, former vice presidential candidate Governor Tim Walz offered to host in-person town halls in lieu of Republican lawmakers who are now refusing to. If your Republican representative wont meet with you because their agenda is so unpopular, maybe a Democrat will, Governor Walz wrote. Hell, maybe I will. If your congressman refuses to meet, Ill come host an event in their district to help local Democrats beat em.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||