Business

Barbara Hewitt of Career Services said finance has remained a top industry for graduating Penn students. “They know it’s going to be a lot of work for a couple of years,” she said. “They’re pretty open-eyed about that.”

Steve Viscelli of the School of Arts & Sciences said the trucking industry has had labor and supply chain issues since it was deregulated in the 1980s.

Barbara Kahn of the Wharton School said Amazon’s pandemic-driven growth has come with increased scrutiny. “The Big Bad Wolf is Amazon now,” she said.

Gad Allon of the Wharton School said ride-share customers will need to accept higher costs if they want their drivers to be paid better. “We just got used to investors subsidizing our cheap rides from point A to point B. That's not sustainable,” he said.

Witold Henisz of the Wharton School was interviewed about the mounting pressure on companies to disclose their tax payments. “One of the primary ways in which firms impact a variety of social indicators is through taxes,” he said.

Steve Viscelli of the School of Arts & Sciences said a new trucker apprenticeship program for drivers between 18 and 21 is a gift to the industry, which has struggled to find commercial drivers willing to accept low wages. “There’s nothing new about this apprenticeship program from what the system already looks like,” he said. “They’re just allowing people under 21.”

Harald Schmidt of the Perelman School of Medicine spoke about businesses that require proof of vaccination from customers. “There is a risk that vaccine passports turn into antagonism, when really what we need is a partnership approach,” he said.

Peter Cappelli of the Wharton School spoke about the transition from remote to in-person work. “What employees want is choice and that is the most difficult thing for employers to swallow,” he said.