BUSINESS BRIEFS: NFIB Employment Concerns, Harvard RE Comments, New Esco Tool

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NFIB Concerned by Jobs Report

“Massachusetts is still below pre-pandemic levels of employment as small businesses continue to face staffing challenges,” said Christopher Carlozzi, NFIB State Director in Massachusetts. “The mantra for state lawmakers this session should be: Do no harm. Small businesses need an environment conducive to growth that includes lowering taxes and making healthcare more affordable, while avoiding proposals like a job-killing $20 per hour minimum wage. Legislators need to understand that the best way to encourage job creation is to support policies that allow Main Street businesses to thrive."

You can read the report, which the Bureau of Labor and Statistics released today here.

Despite Remodeling Boom, US Need Work

The pandemic focused attention on our homes as never before, lifting the US remodeling market to an unprecedented height of $567 billion in 2022, according to Improving America's Housing 2023, a new report released today by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. Despite the enormous boom in remodeling activity, the nation’s homes are older today than at any time ever recorded and in growing need of critical replacements and maintenance. Greater investment is also needed to better prepare against disasters, improve energy efficiency, and meet the accessibility needs of an aging population, according to the study.

Esco Tool Introduces New Beveler for Sanitary Tubing

Holliston-based Esco Tool has introduced a portable O.D. clamping tube beveling tool that can bevel, face, and bore simultaneously and has easily interchangeable clamps for changing pipe sizes. The C-HOG MILLHOG® O.D. Clamping End Prep Tool mounts securely to the outside of sanitary tubing to maintain the integrity of the tube interior and operates without cutting fluids to prevent contamination. Designed for use on thin-wall tubing, it evenly distributes holding power along the tube exterior, fits tube and pipe from 0.5" I.D. to 3 0.D., and is ideal for orbital welding end preps because of the consistency of the land.

Available with cutter blades for performing any angle of prep including J-preps, the C-HOG MILLHOG® O.D. Clamping End Prep Tool can bevel, face, and bore simultaneously. Featuring a narrow 1.75" W body and a 120V or 220-240V electric motor, it has an easy-to-operate attached feed wrench. Pneumatic, hydraulic, and battery-powered motors are optional.