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Here are some recent tweets that came across the @cnybj Twitter feed, offering small business, tech, COVID-19, and HR tips. SBA @SBAgovIn addition to #COVID19 relief efforts, SBA also provides export assistance to help small businesses overcome trade-related challenges. Learn more at https://sba.gov/exporting SCORE Mentors @SCOREMentorsJoin us on our #RealTimeMentoring platform every Tuesday and Thursday […]

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Here are some recent tweets that came across the @cnybj Twitter feed, offering small business, tech, COVID-19, and HR tips.

SBA @SBAgov
In addition to #COVID19 relief efforts, SBA also provides export assistance to help small businesses overcome trade-related challenges. Learn more at https://sba.gov/exporting

SCORE Mentors @SCOREMentors
Join us on our #RealTimeMentoring platform every Tuesday and Thursday from 2–5 p.m. (ET) to engage with top business experts and gain resources from supporters like @FedEx. Register here to participate: http://ow.ly/QlQW30qByAk

IRS Small Biz @IRSsmallbiz
If you’re a #smallbiz owner who offers paid family and medical leave to your employees, you may qualify for the employer credit for paid family and medical leave. Learn more about it from #IRS: https://go.usa.gov/xVwTS

NFIB @NFIB
@NFIB’s webinar with step-by-step guidance on how to complete the #PPP loan forgiveness application is now available on-demand. Watch here: https://on.nfib.com/2BbveR5

Zach David Scott @ZachDavidScott
How To Start A Retail Arbitrage Business For Less: https://howtoexit9to5.com/how-to-start-a-retail-arbitrage-business-for-less-than-200/ utm_source=ReviveOldPost&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ReviveOldPost

Apolline Adiju @apollineadiju
25 Free Marketing Tools That Accelerate Online Traffic: https://bit.ly/3gFpqzm #B2C #SmallBiz #Startup #Marketing #Business

Maria Hochschild @mariabattung
As #WFH continues, do your small business employees have the tech tools they need to succeed? @BizTechMagazine https://biztechmagazine.com/article/2020/05/future-work-here?cm_ite=na

stanislav ilev @stnle
‘How #AI and #machinelearning are helping to tackle COVID-19’ https://dy.si/Baivqj

TechNative @TechNative
As the world begins to roll out #DriverlessCars, #AI navigation systems will be the key to ensuring accuracy responsiveness: https://www.technative.io/artificial-intelligence-taking-driverless-navigation-up-a-gear/

Strategic Watch @Strategic_Watch
9 Strategies To Build An Employee-First Culture: http://dlvr.it/RXbmsx

Hancock Estabrook @HancockLawLLP
Labor & Employment Law Alert: New York State Issues Guidance for Phase 2 Industries https://hancocklaw.com/publications/labor-employment-law-alert-new-york-state-issues-guidance-for-phase-2-industries/ #phase2 #employmentlaw #nyforward

Nihal Moidu @nihalmoidu
From me to we: the next shift in performance management https://mck.co/35O7JbS via @McKinsey / Even though in terms of goals, the shift has taken place to measure team-based objectives, behavioral indicators are still largely measured at an individual level. #HR

Mark C. Crowley @MarkCCrowley
The COVID-driven work-from-home experience has actually made a manager’s job easier. By setting clear & agreed upon goals, & by providing performance metrics, they can hold people accountable for results w/o concerns about when employees #work or for how long.

Hannah Morgan @careersherpa
Great Idea — Talent sharing is an innovative solution to layoffs and furloughs. @KateBravery of @mercer offers guidance to help you help your furloughed workforce find temporary #jobs. https://bit.ly/36Az7KW

President Trump signs PPP loan flexibility bill into law

Banks & Credit Unions, Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Health Care, Insurance & Financial Services, New York News, Nonprofits, Small Business

Small-business owners now have some more flexibility and time in the federal government’s emergency forgivable loan program designed to help them during the coronavirus pandemic

JCPenney to close seven New York stores, including Destiny USA location

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Employee Benefits & Human Resources, New York News, Regional News, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism

J. C. Penney Company, Inc. (OTC MKTS: JCPNQ), parent company of the retailer JCPenney, plans to close stores at Destiny USA, along with locations in

McMahon, other upstate county executives discuss economic recovery from pandemic

Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Health Care, New York News, Nonprofits, Regional News, Small Business, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Central New York passed phase one of New York’s regional economic reopening with flying colors and is now working its way through

Crucible Industries promotes Shiesley to company president

Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Manufacturing & Engineering, People on the Move

GEDDES, N.Y. — Crucible Industries has promoted John Shiesley to company president, effective June 1. Shiesley had previously served as VP of sales and marketing

Report: Just one out of six Jefferson County hotel rooms were occupied in April

Regional News, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism, Subscriber Only

WATERTOWN — As the coronavirus crisis ravaged the travel and hospitality industry, hotels in Jefferson County saw a massive drop in guests in the month, according to a recent report. The hotel occupancy rate (rooms sold as a percentage of rooms available) in the county plunged 63.6 percent to 16.8 percent in April, according to

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Lockheed Martin’s Owego plant wins nearly $38 million order from U.S. Navy

Manufacturing & Engineering, Regional News, Subscriber Only

OWEGO — Lockheed Martin Corp.’s (NYSE: LMT) Owego plant has been awarded a more than $37.8 million delivery order from the U.S. Navy for computer retrofits to Seahawk helicopter systems. The order provides for retrofits from the Generation III, V, and VI Mission Computer (or MC) configuration to the Generation 3i and 5i MC configuration

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Syracuse Nationals to return in 2021 after one-year hiatus

Sports, Entertainment & Tourism, Subscriber Only

GEDDES — The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has forced the cancellation of a Central New York summertime favorite. Organizers of the 2020 Syracuse Nationals classic-car show on June 1 announced they are canceling this year’s event, which had been scheduled for mid-July, due to the coronavirus. The Syracuse Nationals show will return to the New York

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CNY, state unemployment rates soar in April amid pandemic

Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Subscriber Only

Unemployment rates in the Syracuse, Utica–Rome, Watertown–Fort Drum, Binghamton, Ithaca, and Elmira regions jumped in April compared to a year ago, due in large part to the layoffs from the coronavirus shutdowns of many businesses. The figures are part of the latest New York State Department of Labor data released May 27. The Syracuse, Utica–Rome, and

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The figures are part of the latest New York State Department of Labor data released May 27.

The Syracuse, Utica–Rome, and Binghamton regions lost jobs in five-digit figures between April 2019 and this past April. The Watertown–Fort Drum, Ithaca, and Elmira areas shed jobs in four-digit figures in the same period.

That’s according to the latest monthly employment report that the New York State Department of Labor issued May 21.

Regional unemployment rates

The jobless rate in the Syracuse area was 16.3 percent in April, up from 3.8 percent in April 2019.

The Utica–Rome region’s unemployment rate rose to 15.1 percent from 4.1 percent a year prior; the Watertown–Fort Drum area’s rate soared to 16.9 percent from 5.4 percent; the Binghamton region’s number hit 15 percent, up from 4.2 percent; the Ithaca area’s rate jumped to 10.1 percent from 3.2 percent; and the Elmira region’s jobless number climbed to 15.9 percent from 3.8 percent.

The local-unemployment data isn’t seasonally adjusted, meaning the figures don’t reflect seasonal influences such as holiday hires.

The unemployment rates are calculated following procedures prescribed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the state Labor Department said.

State unemployment rate

New York state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose from 4.1 percent in March to 14.5 percent in April. This change (+10.4 percentage points) was the state’s largest recorded monthly increase since current record keeping began in 1976.

In addition, the number of unemployed New York State residents increased by 931,600, while the labor force dropped by 307,600 — “both monthly records,” per the state Labor Department.

The 14.5 percent unemployment rate was lower than the U.S. unemployment rate of 14.7 percent in April.

The federal government calculates New York’s unemployment rate partly based upon the results of a monthly telephone survey of 3,100 state households that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics conducts.

April jobs data

The Syracuse region lost 60,000 jobs in the past year, a decline of 18.7 percent.

The Utica–Rome metro area shed 22,300 jobs in the past 12 months, a decrease of 17.3 percent; the Watertown–Fort Drum region lost 6,300 jobs, a drop of 15.4 percent; the Binghamton area lost 14,600 jobs, a decrease of 14 percent; the Ithaca region shed 9,500 jobs, a drop of 14.4 percent; and the Elmira area lost 4,800 jobs, a decrease of 13 percent.

New York state as a whole lost nearly 1.9 million jobs, a decrease of 19.4 percent, in that 12-month period. The state economy lost more than 1.8 million jobs, an 18.8 percent drop, between March and April of this year, the labor department said.

Learn to Enjoy Your New Workday

Business Mentors, Subscriber Only

If you are like most of us, your former ordinary workday was not like it is now, but rather very different. When New York State went into PAUSE, our lives changed dramatically. Are you learning to enjoy your new workday? It’s now time to design one you can enjoy. At MACNY, we are embracing the

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At MACNY, we are embracing the “new normal.” We even have a team dedicated to designing the best new normal we can achieve. Why did we do this? Because we are not going back to the old normal. What has happened to MACNY — and every MACNY member — will forever change how we operate. We are planning to do more than navigate this challenging time. We plan to be better — much better — when we emerge from this current crisis. We are planning to enjoy our changed workday once again. In order to do our work well, we need to embrace the changes that are now becoming part of our lives.

For instance, I now work from home. And as of this weekly message, MACNY’s entire staff is working remotely. I am more efficient at home. I have more than twice as many stakeholder and MACNY member conversations and meetings. I Zoom from one event to another. I can reach people quicker and for shorter periods of time. Our staff is doing much the same. So much of what we are learning, we will keep doing once we return some of our staff to MACNY’s office. Others will be in the office some of the time. And, we want to keep all of the efficiency we have now as we reopen our events safely. The new normal will serve our team and our members better. This is how we want to handle the crisis to make us better than we have ever been.

The technology to do what we are now doing has existed for many years. In general, many of us had not fully learned and embraced it. We will need to take what works for us and make it a part of our new everyday workday. Our mental models and the ways we see work is what will need to continue to change. This can be hard to do. But once we have done it, we can embrace it and learn to look forward to our new future with excitement. I believe we can all do this.

For those who know me well, you know I try to see opportunities in all events of life. I do mourn what is lost. I do realize that times like this are painful. I would never wish such a crisis on anyone. And yet, we do need to learn to be happy as we move forward. Some aspects of the old normal will carry forward with us. Other things we used to do — and enjoyed — will go away. Our world has forever been changed by COVID-19. We now need to find our new normal and learn to live it — and learn to love it.

Are you starting to embrace your new normal? Can you learn to enjoy it? What parts of the new way of work and living do you want to maintain? As we transition out of the NY PAUSE, what do you want to return to and how can you do it safely? All of these are important questions for us today.

None of us really know what the world will look like even a few years from now. However, we can learn to embrace and enjoy elements of our new workdays now. We can all take important new lessons and skills from this experience. I hope all of you can enjoy your days going forward despite how different they are now.

Randy Wolken is president and CEO of MACNY, The Manufacturers Association, a not-for-profit 501(c)(6) association representing more than 300 businesses and organizations across Central and Upstate New York. This article is drawn and edited from Wolken’s weekly message to members, posted on May 29.

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