Assorted Links Tuesday

Amazon helps employees become software engineers in 9 months

Industrial to property construction to hit 5-year high in 2021, topping 342 million square feet

West Virginia today launched the nation's premiere remote-work program, aimed at recruiting outdoor-enthusiast professionals to the Mountain State.

Site selector Dean Barber on plowing money into technology:

Winston Churchill is purported to have once said, “You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing after they have tried everything else.”

The Covid pandemic forced new standards for social distancing, which in turn forced employers across the country to turbocharge their investments in technology and automation.

Business investment rose 17 percent in computer equipment, 6 percent in software, and 1 percent in research and development, even as GDP fell 2.4 percent in the fourth quarter from the same period a year earlier.

Investment in automation and technology accelerated to 7 percent year-over-year growth in the third quarter of 2020 from 5 percent growth in the same period a year earlier, according to a McKinsey Global Institute analysis of 4,000 U.S. companies’ financials.

About 75 percent of respondents to a survey of North American and European companies conducted by McKinsey in December expected to increase investment in new technology in 2020-24.

The economy is looking up!  Economic Weekly Update Industry Indicators (PDF)

For one glorious summer, Americans will vacation like the French: Workers are on the verge of going bonkers with their PTO