Employers must post new State of Michigan Veteran poster:  Effective 4/2/25, businesses must display a veteran’s resource poster in an area accessible to all employees, per PA 197 of 2004 — enacted by the Michigan Legislature on the final day of its session.  The Act requires the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO), in collaboration with the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs and the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency, to provide these posters for free with a list of resources available to veterans.   The two versions of the poster are available at LEO’s website:  Blue Version | White Version

New I-9 form: On April 2, 2025, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services updated its Employment Eligibility Verification form (Form I-9) and the Department of Homeland Security Privacy Notice in the form’s instructions to align with statutory language. The revised Form I-9 is dated 01/20/25 and has an expiration date of 05/31/2027. Key updates include: renaming the fourth checkbox in Section 1 to “An alien authorized to work;” revising the descriptions of two List B documents in the Lists of Acceptable Documents; and adding appropriate statutory language and a revised DHS Privacy Notice to the instructions. Starting April 3, 2025, E-Verify and E-Verify+ will have updated the Citizenship Status selection during case creation to reflect this statutory language. The selection “A noncitizen authorized to work” will be updated to “An alien authorized to work.” Additionally, E-Verify users creating cases through Web Services applications will see the employee status attestation automatically updated to “An alien authorized to work”—even if the WS application submits “A noncitizen authorized to work” if the employee selected citizenship status number four on Form I-9. Source: USCIS

Carpenters’ union recruiting women for pre-apprenticeships: The North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters (NASRCC) has started its annual recruitment of women to establish a career in carpentry, an industry that NASRCC contends is “traditionally overlooked.”  The union cites data from the U.S. Census Bureau that indicates women continue to be underrepresented within the industry nationally and in New York State, though numbers are rising. Across the US, 11.5% of construction workers are women, and in New York State, about 11,000 women are employed as construction workers.  The Sisters in the Brotherhood program has launched the carpentry careers of over 150 women across New York since 2015, the NASRCC said. The pre-apprenticeship program provides women with the chance to gain experience and become skilled, qualified carpenters, “offering them a path to a career with excellent wages, benefits and independence through trade education,” the NASRCC said.  Will this be targeted as an illegal DEI action? Time will tell. Source: CNYBJ 3/5/25

Catfishing becoming more common today? Career “catfishing” occurs when someone accepts a job offer but then fails to show for their first day of work with no explanation. A recent survey conducted in the UK of 1000 workers found one in three Gen Z employees have admitted to career catfishing in the past.  One in four Millennials also admitted to this act, according to the 2025 Future of Work Survey from CV Genius, compared to just 11% of Gen X and 7% of Baby Boomer workers. It is such a common occurrence that recruiters will often ring new hires the week and day before their start date to remind them to turn up for their first day.  Even then, there are still situations where people just never show up. The rise of the Gen Z workforce has already brought in massive changes, with work-life balance, flexible arrangements, and open communication held in high regard with younger workers.  However, don’t count your chickens until the new employee comes onboard.  Source: NY Post 3/10/25

Employee confidence takes a hit: Employee confidence fell to its lowest level in nearly a decade, as concerns about layoffs and the economy mount.  The share of employees who held a positive six-month business outlook fell to 44.4% in February, according to a new report by Glassdoor, where employees rank and review their employers.  That ratio is the lowest since Glassdoor started running its Employee Confidence Index in 2016.  Glassdoor collects tens of thousands of employee ratings each month.  Meanwhile, mentions of layoffs in Glassdoor reviews rose 0.3% month-over-month. That took the mentions to their highest level since July 2020, during the heights of the pandemic. Layoff mentions were 5% higher than last February. U.S. employers announced more than 172,000 job cuts in February, the highest monthly total since July 2020, according to global outplacement and business-coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.  Source: The Wall Street Journal 3/11/25

Are you overstating benefits in your marketing of jobs? 56% of employees would trade a salary increase for certain perks, like flexibility and more competitive leave policies, according to data from technology insights blog TechnologyAdvice, and another 60% say benefits beyond healthcare and retirement are a major factor in considering a job. But overpromising and underdelivering on those perks and benefits could end up having devastating consequences on recruiting and retention. One of the more common areas where companies can fall short is when trying to improve their workplace flexibility policies. For example, companies will boast unlimited PTO without disclosing the limitations and compromises, such as high-demand roles that require a certain number of hours or a lack of the proper back-end systems and portals to support the use of unlimited PTO, which could make taking advantage of the perk harder than anticipated.  Hybrid and remote benefits, which can attract a large number of applicants amidst RTO mandates, are also often poorly managed with employees being asked to work more days in-office than previously discussed or being continuously tracked and monitored at home. As a result, 51% of employees are unhappy with their current benefits package, according to data from workplace insights website Glassdoor.  Source: EBN 3/14/25