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Definition of 'recent' recent.

Definition of 'report' report

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The Latest IPCC Report: What is it and why does it matter?

The UN released a new climate report—here's what it says, and what we can do about it

Last updated March 20, 2023

This article was updated on March 20, 2023, to include findings from the most recent IPCC report.

The IPCC has released a new climate report, updating and synthesizing the findings from a series of previous reports. But what exactly is the IPCC? What do all these reports mean? Is our situation as grim as some of the news headlines make it sound?

We’ve prepared this guide to help you understand what these climate reports are, what their findings mean for our world and what we can do.

What is the IPCC and what do they do?

IPCC stands for Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC is the scientific group assembled by the United Nations to monitor and assess all global science related to climate change. Every IPCC report focuses on different aspects of climate change.

This latest report is the IPCC’s 6 th Synthesis report. It updates and compiles in one report findings from all the reports in the IPCC’s sixth assessment cycle, which covered the latest climate science, the threats we’re already facing today from climate change, and what we can do to limit further temperature rises and the dangers that poses for the whole planet.

What should I know about the latest IPCC report?

There is some good news in this synthesis report. There have been promising developments in low-carbon technologies. Countries are making more ambitious national commitments to reduce their emissions and doing more to help communities adapt to the effects of climate change. And we’re seeing more funding committed for all of this work.

The problem is it’s still not enough. Even if every country in the world delivers on its current climate pledges, that’s probably not enough to keep global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels—a threshold scientists believe is necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Current adaptation efforts, too, are scattered and leave behind some of the most vulnerable communities. And if the planet gets much warmer, we may see irreversible changes to some ecosystems around the world, which would be catastrophic for the people and wildlife that depend on them.

Want to go deeper on the findings? TNC Chief Scientist Katharine Hayhoe breaks them down in this Twitter thread .

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Is there any hope then?

Yes. Climate change is here today, reshaping our world in ways big and small—but that doesn’t mean our future is predetermined. Every fraction of a degree of warming makes a big difference in how powerful the effects of climate change will be, including the frequency and intensity of heatwaves, storms, floods and droughts. That means every action we take to limit further warming makes a big difference, especially for vulnerable communities around the world.

We need bolder global climate commitments, and we need them fast so we can transition to clean energy and reach “net zero” emissions as soon possible . And as the IPCC's reports shows, we’ll not only need to cut out emissions—we’ll have to remove some of the carbon that’s already in the atmosphere. Fortunately, nature created a powerful technology that does just that: photosynthesis . Plants naturally absorb carbon from the air and store it in their roots and in the soil.

In addition to phasing out fossil fuels, we also need to protect the natural habitats around the world that store billions of tons of this “living carbon.” We can also help by changing the way we manage working lands like farms and timber forests so they retain more carbon, and restore natural habitats on lands that have been cleared or degraded.  

What can we do to stop climate change?

A global challenge like climate change requires global solutions. It will require movement-building and on-the-ground action, as well as new national policies and economic transformations. Here’s a few things that communities, governments, and business can do.  

Communities

• When it comes to working with nature to fight climate change, we cannot achieve effective action without the leadership of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs).
• These communities are some of the most important protectors of the world’s living carbon, as lands owned or managed by IPLCs often have much lower deforestation rates than government protected areas. In fact, Indigenous-managed lands support about 80 percent of the world’s remaining biodiversity and 17 percent of the planet’s forest carbon.
• To help Indigenous groups keep playing this crucial role, governments must formally recognize their land and resource rights, and funding for climate action should include support for their communities.

Related reading: Protecting nature through authentic partnerships.  

Governments

• All countries—especially the wealthy countries that generate the most emissions— must create more ambitious climate action plans to eliminate emissions and pull more carbon from their atmosphere—and they need to follow through on them.
• In addition to cutting fossil fuel use, this can be done investing more in nature . The IPCC estimates it would cost about $400 billion to make the changes to agriculture, forestry and other land uses required to limit emissions. That sounds like a lot—but it’s less than the government subsidies these sectors are already receiving .
• The best part? Many of these natural climate solutions benefit society in other ways , like improving air and water quality, producing more food and protecting the variety of natural life we all depend on.

Related reading: Canada's new climate plan includes working with nature to reduce emissions.

• Like national governments, businesses must first and foremost commit to reaching net-zero emissions in their operations—they have to stop putting more carbon into the air.
• The most direct way to do this is to switch to clean energy sources . Transitioning to renewable energy provides a low-cost, low-carbon, low-conflict pathway to meet global energy needs without harming nature and communities.
• Those sectors that will have a hard time reducing their emissions today—like airlines, for example—should find ways to offset their impact.
• Carbon markets offer one way to achieve this. Carbon markets allow businesses and other polluters to purchase “offsets” for their unavoidable emissions, which pay to protect natural lands that would have otherwise been cleared without that funding or restore those that would not recover. 

Related reading: An illustrated guide to carbon offsets.

What can I do as an individual?

• Learn how to talk about climate change: We can all help by engaging and educating others. Our guide will help you feel comfortable raising these topics at the dinner table with your friends and family. Download our guide to talk about climate change.
• Share your thoughts: Share this page on your social channels so others know what they can do, too. Here are some hashtags to join the conversation: #IPCC #ClimateAction #NatureNow
• Join collective action : By speaking collectively, we can influence climate action at the national and global levels. You can add your name to stand with The Nature Conservancy in calling for real solutions now.
• Keep learning : Educate yourself and share the knowledge—you can start with some of these articles, videos, and other resources .

Videos: Climate Issues Explained

Climate Action Resources

Natural Climate Solutions Handbook

October 2021

A technical guide for assessing nature-based mitigation opportunities in countries More information on Natural Climate Solutions

Playbook for Climate Action

This playbook showcases five innovative pathways for reducing emissions and climate impacts. A comprehensive suite of science-based solutions, the playbook presents actions governments and companies can deploy—and scale—today. Visit the Digital Version

Further Reading

COP28: Your Guide to the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference in UAE

COP28 takes place November 30-December 12, 2023 in United Arab Emirates. This guide will tell you what to expect at COP28, why TNC will be there, and what it all means for you.

Climate Change FAQs

You asked. Our scientists answered. Use this guide to have the best info about climate change and how we can solve it together.

Coastal Risk And Resilience

Recognizing the Protective Value of Nature

Global Insights

To get more tips like this, plus feature stories and the latest news from the world of nature, sign up for our monthly newsletter.

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[ ri- pawrt , - pohrt ]

a report on the peace conference;

a medical report on the patient.

Synonyms: story , description

Synonyms: dispatch , bulletin

• a widely circulated statement or item of news; rumor; gossip.
• an account of a speech, debate, meeting, etc., especially as taken down for publication.

the report of a distant cannon.

Synonyms: detonation , shot

• a statement of a student's grades, level of achievement, or academic standing for or during a prescribed period of time.
• Computers. output, especially printed, containing organized information.
• a statement of a judicial opinion or decision, or of a case argued and determined in a court of justice.
• reports, Law. a collection of adjudications.

a man of bad report.

verb (used with object)

Synonyms: relay

to report a deficit.

The committee reported out the bill.

I intend to report him to the dean for cheating.

Synonyms: accuse

to report a ship missing.

• to present (oneself ) to a person in authority, as in accordance with requirements.
• to take down (a speech, lecture, etc.) in writing.
• to write an account of (an event, situation, etc.), as for publication in a newspaper.

Synonyms: repeat , detail , describe , recount , rehearse , narrate

verb (used without object)

• to prepare, make, or submit a report of something observed, investigated, or the like.
• to serve or work as a reporter , as for a newspaper.

to report sick.

to report to Room 101.

/ rɪˈpɔːt /

• an account prepared for the benefit of others, esp one that provides information obtained through investigation and published in a newspaper or broadcast

according to report, he is not dead

a report of parliamentary proceedings

• a statement on the progress, academic achievement, etc, of each child in a school, written by teachers and sent to the parents or guardian annually or each term
• a written account of a case decided at law, giving the main points of the argument on each side, the court's findings, and the decision reached

he is of good report here

• a sharp loud noise, esp one made by a gun
• to give an account (of); describe

to report on housing conditions

• (of a committee, legislative body, etc) to make a formal report on (a bill)

I'll report you to the teacher

• tr to reveal information about (a fugitive, escaped prisoner, etc) esp concerning his whereabouts

report to the manager's office

to report fit

the plant manager reports to the production controller

• intr to act as a reporter for a newspaper or for radio or television
• law to take down in writing details of (the proceedings of a court of law) as a record or for publication

Discover More

Derived forms.

• reˈportable , adjective

Other Words From

• re·porta·ble adjective
• nonre·porta·ble adjective
• nonre·ported adjective
• over·re·port verb
• prere·port noun verb
• quasi-re·ported adjective
• subre·port noun
• unre·porta·ble adjective
• unre·ported adjective
• well-re·ported adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of report 1

Idioms and Phrases

• on report , Military. (of personnel) under restriction pending disciplinary action.

Example Sentences

Developing and manufacturing vaccines, which are significant challenges in their own right, “won’t end the pandemic quickly unless we also deliver them equitably,” the report notes.

Separately, Yelp released a new local economic impact report this week.

He based his report on information from NSA leaker Edward Snowden.

More importantly, notice that more than 70% of my impression volume comes from search terms that are not in the search query performance report.

Of the report’s 11 recommendations, the first highlighted safety.

Then add in all bored people, as well as people whose job it is to report on celebrities.

Despite the strong language, however, the neither the JPO nor Lockheed could dispute a single fact in either Daily Beast report.

Did he go to the authorities to file a report against the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel?

The Amazon biography for an author named Papa Faal mentions both Gambia and lists a military record that matches the FBI report.

Similarly, a recent NPR report covered the challenges many police departments are having recruiting officers of color.

Most of my observations are in keeping with Skutch's detailed report of the species in Central America.

Aguinaldo withheld his decision until Paterno could report to him the definite opinions of his generals.

William has thus been happily able to report to the society the approaching conversion of M'Bongo and his imminent civilization.

At last the report of several rifles from the island of trees gave us a clue to the mystery.

Mrs. Charmington hastened to spread the report that his Royal Highness was seriously smitten.

Related Words

• account for

More About Report

What is a basic definition of  report .

A report is a detailed account of something based on observation and research. Report is also used to mean to relay information or to appear at a destination as ordered. The word report has many other senses as a noun and a verb.

A report is a paper, article, announcement, or similar account that contains detailed information that someone has gathered through observation, study, or other research. Sometimes, another noun is used with report to specify what the report is about. For example, students often write book reports in school in which they analyze books they have read.

• Real-life examples : Businesses often create budget reports so they can figure out how much money they have to spend. Scientists compile scientific reports in which they present the results of experiments. Sports journalists often compile injury reports that list all of the players who will miss games due to injuries.
• Used in a sentence : I listened to the weather report on the news to see if I needed to bring an umbrella. 

As a verb, report means to repeat or relay information that a person has heard from another source or has gathered themselves. People who report things (such as at a news agency) are called reporters .

• Real-life examples : A journalist’s job is to report information to the public. A spy’s job is to gather secret information and report it to their boss. Scientists will report things they have learned to scientific journals or to the news media.
• Used in a sentence : The tabloid magazine reported sightings of Bigfoot in the woods. 

Report is also used to mean to go to a specific place because you were ordered to.

• Used in a sentence : General Harris ordered the recruits to report to basic training in the morning.

Where does  report come from?

The first records of the verb report come from around 1325. It ultimately comes from the Latin reportāre , meaning to carry. The first records of the noun report come from around 1425. It comes from the Middle French report .

Did you know ... ?

What are some other forms related to report ?

• reporter (noun)
• reportable (adjective)
• nonreportable (adjective)
• nonreported (adjective)
• overreport (verb)
• prereport (verb, noun)
• quasi-reported (adjective)
• subreport (noun)
• unreportable (adjective)
• unreported (adjective)
• well-reported (adjective)

What are some synonyms for report ?

What are some words that share a root or word element with report ? 

• report card

What are some words that often get used in discussing report ?

How is  report used in real life?

Report is a very common word that often means a detailed account or to disclose information.

In a new report, the International Criminal Court confirmed a reasonable basis to believe that crimes against humanity have been committed in the Philippines under President Rodrigo Duterte’s merciless war on drugs https://t.co/MgWt69WUIm — New York Times World (@nytimesworld) December 15, 2020

Over 500 people have been hospitalized and at least one person killed by an unidentified illness in southern India. People have suddenly started to convulse. Nausea and loss of consciousness have been reported. Experts are still baffled by the cause. https://t.co/nmJ2XwPmNZ — The Associated Press (@AP) December 8, 2020

After today, I'll be awaiting the call to report to basic training! — Jake Wetherell (@Wetherell4cast) February 2, 2014

Try using  report !

Which of the following is NOT a synonym of report ?

A. detail B. broadcast C. hide D. disclose

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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Definition of recent

Examples of recent in a sentence.

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'recent.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Middle English, from Latin recent-, recens ; perhaps akin to Greek kainos new

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing recent

• of recent origin

Dictionary Entries Near recent

Cite this entry.

“Recent.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/recent. Accessed 7 Jun. 2024.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of recent, more from merriam-webster on recent.

Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for recent

Nglish: Translation of recent for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of recent for Arabic Speakers

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A Guide To The Top 14 Types Of Reports With Examples Of When To Use Them

Table of Contents

1) What Is The Report Definition?

2) Top 14 Types Of Reports

3) What Does A Report Look Like?

4) What To Look For In A Reporting Tool

Businesses have been producing reports forever. No matter what role or industry you work in, chances are that you have been faced with the task of generating a tedious report to show your progress or performance.

While reporting has been a common practice for many decades, the business world keeps evolving, and with more competitive industries, the need to generate fast and accurate reports becomes critical. This presents a problem for many modern organizations today, as building reports can take from hours to days. In fact, a survey about management reports performed by Deloitte says that 50% of managers are unsatisfied with the speed of delivery and the quality of the reports they receive. 

With this issue in mind, several BI tools have been developed to assist businesses in generating interactive reports with just a few clicks, enhancing the way companies make critical decisions and service insights from their most valuable data.

But, with so many types of reports used daily, how can you know when to use them effectively? How can you push yourself ahead of the pack with the power of information? Here, we will explore the 14 most common types of reports in business and provide some examples of when to use them to your brand-boosting advantage. In addition, we will see how online dashboards have overthrown the static nature of classic reports and given way to a much faster, more interactive way of working with data.

Let’s get started with a brief report definition.

What Is The Report Definition?

A report is a document that presents relevant business information in an organized and understandable format. Each report is aimed at a specific audience and business purpose, and it summarizes the development of different activities based on goals and objectives.  

That said, there are various types of reports that can be used for different purposes. Whether you want to track the progress of your strategies or stay compliant with financial laws, there is a different report for each task. To help you identify when to use them, we will cover the top 14 most common report formats used for businesses today. 

What Are The Different Types Of Reports?

1. Informational Reports 

The first in our list of reporting types is informational reports. As their name suggests, this report type aims to give factual insights about a specific topic. This can include performance reports, expense reports, and justification reports, among others. A differentiating characteristic of these reports is their objectivity; they are only meant to inform but not propose solutions or hypotheses. Common informational reports examples are for performance tracking, such as annual, monthly, or weekly reports . 

2. Analytical Reports 

This report type contains a mix of useful information to facilitate the decision-making process through a mix of qualitative and quantitative insights as well as real-time and historical insights. Unlike informational reports that purely inform users about a topic, this report type also aims to provide recommendations about the next steps and help with problem-solving. With this information in hand, businesses can build strategies based on analytical evidence and not simple intuition. With the use of the right BI reporting tool , businesses can generate various types of analytical reports that include accurate forecasts via predictive analytics technologies. Let's look at it with an analytical report example.

**click to enlarge**

The example above is the perfect representation of how analytical reports can boost a business’s performance. By getting detailed information such as sales opportunities, a probability rate, as well as an accurate pipeline value forecast based on historical data, sales teams can prepare their strategies in advance, tackle any inefficiencies, and make informed decisions for increased efficiency. 

3. Operational Reports 

These reports track every pertinent detail of the company's operational tasks, such as its production processes. They are typically short-term reports as they aim to paint a picture of the present. Businesses use this type of report to spot any issues and define their solutions or to identify improvement opportunities to optimize their operational efficiency. Operational reports are commonly used in manufacturing, logistics, and retail as they help keep track of inventory, production, and costs, among others. 

4. Product Reports

As its name suggests, this report type is used to monitor several aspects related to product development. Businesses often use them to track which of their products or subscriptions are selling the most within a given time period, calculate inventories, or see what kind of product the client values the most. Another common use case of these reports is to research the implementation of new products or develop existing ones. Let’s see it in more detail with a visual example. 

The image above is a product report that shows valuable insights regarding usage intention, purchase intention, willingness to pay, and more. In this case, the report is based on the answers from a survey that aimed to understand how the target customer would receive a new product. Getting this level of insights through this report type is very useful for businesses as it allows them to make smart investments when it comes to new products as well as set realistic pricing based on their client’s willingness to pay. 

5. Industry Reports 

Next in our list of the most common kinds of reports, we have industry-specific reports. Typically, these reports provide an overview of a particular industry, market, or sector with definitions, key trends, leading companies, and industry size, among others. They are particularly useful for businesses that want to enter a specific industry and want to learn how competitive it is or for companies who are looking to set performance benchmarks based on average industry values. 

6. Department Reports

These reports are specific to each department or business function. They serve as a communication tool between managers and team members who must stay connected and work together for common goals. Whether it is the sales department, customer service, logistics, or finances, this specific report type helps track and optimize strategies on a deeper level. Let’s look at it with an example of a team performance report . 

The image above is a department report created with an online data analysis tool , and it tracks the performance of a support team. This insightful report displays relevant metrics such as the top-performing agents, net promoter score, and first contact resolution rate, among others. Having this information in hand not only helps each team member to keep track of their individual progress but also allows managers to understand who needs more training and who is performing at their best. 

7. Progress Reports

From the brunch of informational reports, progress reports provide critical information about the status of a project. These reports can be produced on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis by employees or managers to track performance and fine-tune tasks for the better development of the project. Progress reports are often used as visual materials to support meetings and discussions. A good example is a KPI scorecard . 

8. Internal Reports

A type of report that encompasses many others on this list, internal reports refer to any type of report that is used internally in a business. They convey information between team members and departments to keep communication flowing regarding goals and business objectives. 

As mentioned above, internal reports are useful communication tools to keep every relevant person in the organization informed and engaged. This healthcare report aims to do just that. By providing insights into the performance of different departments and areas of a hospital, such as in and outpatients, average waiting times, treatment costs, and more, healthcare managers can allocate resources and plan the schedule accurately, as well as monitor any changes or issues in real-time. 

9. External Reports

Although most of the reports types listed here are used for internal purposes, not all reporting is meant to be used behind closed doors. External reports are created to share information with external stakeholders such as clients or investors for budget or progress accountability, as well as to governmental bodies to stay compliant with the law requirements.

The image above is the perfect example of an external client report from an IT project. This insightful report provides a visual overview of every relevant aspect of the project's development. From deadlines, budget usage, completion stage, and task breakdown, clients can be fully informed and involved in the project. 

10. Vertical & Lateral Reports 

Next, in our rundown of types of reports, we have vertical and lateral reports. This reporting type refers to the direction in which a report travels. A vertical report is meant to go upward or downward the hierarchy, for example, a management report. A lateral report assists in organization and communication between groups that are at the same level of the hierarchy, such as the financial and marketing departments.

11. Research Reports

Without a doubt, one of the most vital reporting types for any modern business is centered on research. Being able to collect, collate, and drill down into insights based on key pockets of your customer base or industry will give you the tools to drive innovation while meeting your audience’s needs head-on.

The image above is a market research analytics report example for customer demographics. It serves up a balanced blend of metrics that will empower you to boost engagement as well as retention rates. Here, you can drill down into your audience’s behaviors, interests, gender, educational levels, and tech adoption life cycles with a simple glance.

What’s particularly striking about this dashboard is the fact that you can explore key trends in brand innovation with ease, gaining a working insight into how your audience perceives your business. This invaluable type of report will help you get under the skin of your consumers, driving growth and loyalty in the process.

12. Strategic Reports

Strategy is a vital component of every business, big or small. Strategic analytics tools are perhaps the broadest and most universal of all the different types of business reports imaginable.

These particular tools exist to help you understand, meet, and exceed your most pressing organizational goals consistently by serving up top-level metrics on a variety of initiatives or functions.

By working with strategic-style tools, you will:

• Improve internal motivation and engagement
• Refine your plans and strategies for the best possible return on investment (ROI)
• Enhance internal communication and optimize the way your various departments run
• Create more room for innovation and creative thinking

13. Project Reports

Projects are key to keeping a business moving in the right direction while keeping innovation and evolution at the forefront of every plan, communication, or campaign. But without the right management tools, a potentially groundbreaking project can become a resource-sapping disaster.

A project management report serves as a summary of a particular project's status and its various components. It's a visual tool that you can share with partners, colleagues, clients, and stakeholders to showcase your project's progress at multiple stages. Let’s look at our example and dig a little deeper.

To ensure consistent success across the board, the kinds of reports you must work with are based on project management. 

Our example is a project management dashboard equipped with a melting pot of metrics designed to improve the decision-making process while keeping every facet of your company’s most important initiatives under control. Here, you can spot pivotal trends based on costs, task statuses, margins, costs, and overall project revenue. With this cohesive visual information at your fingertips, not only can you ensure the smooth end-to-end running of any key project, but you can also drive increased operational efficiency as you move through every significant milestone.

14. Statutory Reports

It may not seem exciting or glamorous, but keeping your business's statutory affairs in order is vital to your ongoing commercial health and success.

When it comes to submitting such vital financial and non-financial information to official bodies, one small error can result in serious repercussions. As such, working with statutory types of report formats is a water-tight way of keeping track of your affairs and records while significantly reducing the risk of human error.

Armed with interactive insights and dynamic visuals, you will keep your records clean and compliant while gaining the ability to nip any potential errors or issues in the bud.

What Does A Report Look Like?

Now that we’ve covered the most relevant types of reports, we will answer the question: what does a report look like? 

As mentioned at the beginning of this insightful guide, static reporting is a thing of the past. With the rise of modern technologies like self-service BI tools , the use of interactive reports in the shape of business dashboards has become more and more popular among companies.

Unlike static reports that take time to be generated and are difficult to understand, modern reporting tools are intuitive. Their visual nature makes them easy to understand for any type of user, and they provide businesses with a central view of their most important performance indicators for an improved decision-making process. Here, we will cover 20 useful dashboard examples from different industries, functions, and platforms to put the value of dashboard reporting into perspective. 

1. Financial Report

Keeping finances in check is critical for success. This financial report offers an overview of the most important financial metrics that a business needs to monitor its economic activities and answer vital questions to ensure healthy finances. 

With insights about liquidity, invoicing, budgeting, and general financial stability, managers can extract long and short-term conclusions to reduce inefficiencies, make accurate forecasts about future performance, and keep the overall financial efficiency of the business flowing. For instance, getting a detailed calculation of the business's working capital can allow you to understand how liquid your company is. If it's higher than expected, it means you have the potential to invest and grow—definitely, one of the most valuable types of finance reports.

2. Marketing Report 

Our following example is a marketing report that ensures a healthy return on investment from your marketing efforts. This type of report offers a detailed overview of campaign performance over the last 12 weeks. Having access to this information enables you to maximize the value of your promotional actions, keeping your audience engaged by providing a targeted experience. 

For instance, you can implement different campaign formats as a test and then compare which one is most successful for your business. This is possible thanks to the monitoring of important marketing metrics such as the click-through rate (CTR), cost per click (CPC), cost per acquisition (CPA), and more. 

The visual nature of this report makes it easy to understand important insights at a glance. For example, the four gauge charts at the top show the total spending from all campaigns and how much of the total budget of each campaign has been used. In just seconds, you can see if you are on target to meet your marketing budgets for every single campaign. 

3. Sales Report

An intuitive sales dashboard like the one above is the perfect analytical tool to monitor and optimize sales performance. Armed with powerful high-level metrics, this report type is especially interesting for managers, executives, and sales VPs as it provides relevant information to ensure strategic and operational success. 

The value of this sales report lies in the fact that it offers a complete and comprehensive overview of relevant insights needed to make smart sales decisions. For instance, at the top of an analysis tool, you get important metrics such as the number of sales, revenue, profit, and costs, all compared to a set target and to the previous time period. The use of historical data is fundamental when building successful sales strategies as they provide a picture of what could happen in the future. Being able to filter the key metrics all in one screen is a key benefit of modern reporting. 

4. HR Report 

Our next example of a report is about human resources analytics . The HR department needs to track various KPIs for employee performance and effectiveness. But overall, they have to ensure that employees are happy and working in a healthy environment since an unhappy workforce can significantly damage an organization. This is all possible with the help of this intuitive dashboard. 

Providing a comprehensive mix of metrics, this employee-centric report drills down into every major element needed to ensure successful workforce management. For example, the top portion of the dashboard covers absenteeism in 3 different ways: yearly average, absenteeism rate with a target of 3.8%, and absenteeism over the last five years. Tracking absenteeism rates in detail is helpful as it can tell you if your employees are skipping work days. If the rate is over the expected target, then you have to dig deeper into the reasons and find sustainable solutions. 

On the other hand, the second part of the dashboard covers the overall labor effectiveness (OLE). This can be tracked based on specific criteria that HR predefined, and it helps them understand if workers are achieving their targets or if they need extra training or help. 

5. Management Report

Managers must monitor big amounts of information to ensure that the business is running smoothly. One of them being investor relationships. This management dashboard focuses on high-level metrics that shareholders need to look at before investing, such as the return on assets, return on equity, debt-equity ratio, and share price, among others. 

By getting an overview of these important metrics, investors can easily extract the needed information to make an informed decision regarding an investment in your business. For instance, the return on assets measures how efficiently are the company's assets being used to generate profit. With this information, investors can understand how effectively your company deploys available resources compared to others in the market. Another great indicator is the share price; the higher the increase in your share price, the more money your shareholders are making from their investment. 

6. IT Report 

Just like all the other departments and sections covered in this list, the IT department is one that can especially benefit from these types of reports. With so many technical issues to solve, the need for a visual tool to help IT specialists stay on track with their workload becomes critical. 

As seen in the image above, this IT dashboard offers detailed information about different system indicators. For starters, we get a visual overview of the status of each server, followed by a detailed graph displaying the uptime & downtime of each week. This is complemented by the most common downtown issues and some ticket management information. Getting this level of insight helps your IT staff to know what is happening and when it is happening and find proper solutions to prevent these issues from repeating themselves. Keeping constant track of these metrics will ensure robust system performance. 

7. Procurement Report

The following example of a report was built with intuitive procurement analytics software , and it gives a general view of various metrics that the procurement department needs to work with regularly. 

With the possibility to filter, drill down, and interact with KPIs, this intuitive procurement dashboard offers key information to ensure a healthy supplier relationship. With metrics such as compliance rate, the number of suppliers, or the purchase order cycle time, the procurement team can classify the different suppliers, define the relationship each of them has with the company, and optimize processes to ensure it stays profitable.

8. Customer Service Report

Following our list of examples of reports is one from the support area. Armed with powerful customer service KPIs , this dashboard is a useful tool to monitor performance, spot trends, identify strengths and weaknesses, and improve the overall effectiveness of the customer support department. 

Covering aspects such as revenue and costs from customer support as well as customer satisfaction, this complete analysis tool is the perfect tool for managers who have to keep an eye on every little detail from a performance and operational perspective. For example, by monitoring your customer service costs and comparing them to the revenue, you can understand if you are investing the right amount into your support processes. This can be directly related to your agent’s average time to solve issues; the longer it takes to solve a support ticket, the more money it will cost and the less revenue it will bring. If you see that your agents are taking too long to solve an issue, you can think of some training instances to help them reduce this number. 

9. Market Research Report 

This list of report types examples would not be complete without a market research report . Market research agencies deal with a large amount of information coming from surveys and other research sources. Taking all this into account, the need for reports that can be filtered for deeper interaction becomes more necessary for this industry than any other. 

The image above is a brand analytics dashboard that displays the survey results about how the public perceives a brand. This savvy tool contains different charts that make it easy to understand the information visually. For instance, the map chart with the different colors lets you quickly understand in which regions each age range is located. The charts can be filtered further to see the detailed answers from each group for a deeper analysis. 

10. Social Media Report 

Last but not least, we have a social media report .  This scorecard format dashboard monitors the performance of 4 main social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, and it serves as a perfect visual overview to track the performance of different social media efforts and achievements. 

Tracking relevant metrics such as followers, impressions, clicks, engagement rates, and conversions, this report type serves as a perfect progress report to show to managers or clients who need to see the status of their social channels. Each metric is shown in its actual value and compared to a set target. The colors green and red from the fourth column let you quickly understand if a metric is over or under its expected target. 

11. Logistics Report

Logistics are the cornerstone of an operationally fluent and progressive business. If you deal with large quantities of goods and tangible items, in particular, maintaining a solid logistical strategy is vital to ensuring you maintain your brand reputation while keeping things flowing in the right direction.

A prime example of the types of data reporting tool designed to improve logistical management, our warehouse KPI dashboard is equipped with metrics required to maintain strategic movement while eliminating any unnecessary costs or redundant processes. Here, you can dig into your shipping success rates across regions while accessing warehouse costs and perfect order rates in real-time. If you spot any potential inefficiencies, you can track them here and take the correct course of action to refine your strategy. This is an essential tool for any business with a busy or scaling warehouse.

12. Manufacturing Report

Next, in our essential types of business reports examples, we’re looking at tools made to improve your business’s various manufacturing processes.

Our clean and concise production tool is a sight to behold and serves up key manufacturing KPIs that improve the decision-making process regarding costs, volume, and machinery.

Here, you can hone in on historical patterns and trends while connecting with priceless real-time insights that will not only help you make the right calls concerning your manufacturing process at the moment but will also help you formulate predictive strategies that will ultimately save money, boost productivity, and result in top-quality products across the board.

13. Retail Report

As a retailer with so many channels to consider and so many important choices to make, working with the right metrics and visuals is absolutely essential. Fortunately, we live in an age where there are different types of reporting designed for this very reason.

Our sales and order example, generated with retail analytics software , is a dream come true for retailers as it offers the visual insights needed to understand your product range in greater detail while keeping a firm grip on your order volumes, perfect order rates, and reasons for returns.

Gaining access to these invaluable insights in one visually presentable space will allow you to track increases or decreases in orders over a set timeframe (and understand whether you’re doing the right things to drive engagement) while plowing your promotional resources into the products that are likely to offer the best returns.

Plus, by gaining an accurate overview of why people are returning your products, you can omit problem items or processes from your retail strategy, improving your brand reputation as well as revenue in the process.

14. Digital Media Report

The content and communications you publish are critical to your ongoing success, regardless of your sector, niche, or specialty. Without putting out communications that speak directly to the right segments of your audience at the right times in their journey, your brand will swiftly fade into the background.

To ensure your brand remains inspiring, engaging, and thought-leading across channels, working with media types of a business report is essential. You must ensure your communications cut through the noise and scream ‘quality’ from start to finish—no ifs, no buts, no exceptions.

Our content quality control tool is designed with a logical hierarchy that will tell you if your content sparks readership, if the language you’re using is inclusive and conversational, and how much engagement-specific communications earn. You can also check your most engaged articles with a quick glance to understand what your users value most. Armed with this information, you can keep creating content that your audience loves and ultimately drives true value to the business.

15. Energy Report

In the age of sustainability and in the face of international fuel hikes, managing the energy your business uses effectively is paramount. Here, there is little room for excess or error, and as such, working with the right metrics is the only way to ensure successful energy regulation.

If your company has a big HQ or multiple sites that require power, our energy management analytics tool will help you take the stress out of managing your resources. One of the most striking features of this dashboard is the fact that it empowers you to compare your company’s energy usage against those from other sectors and set an accurate benchmark.

Here, you can also get a digestible breakdown of your various production costs regarding energy consumption and the main sources you use to keep your organization running. Regularly consulting these metrics will not only help you save colossal chunks of your budget, but it will also give you the intelligence to become more sustainable as an organization. This, in turn, is good for the planet and your brand reputation—a real win-win-win.

16. FMCG Report

The fast-moving consuming goods (FMCG) industry can highly benefit from a powerful report containing real-time insights. This is because the products handled in this sector which are often food and beverages, don’t last very long. Therefore, having a live overview of all the latest developments can help decision-makers optimize the supply chain to ensure everything runs smoothly and no major issues happen. 

Our report format example above aims to do just that by providing an overview of critical performance indicators, such as the percentage of products sold within freshness date, the out-of-stock rate, on-time in full deliveries, inventory turnover, and more.  What makes this template so valuable is the fact that it provides a range of periods to get a more recent view of events but also a longer yearly view to extract deeper insights. 

The FMCG dashboard also offers an overview of the main KPIs to help users understand if they are on the right track to meet their goals. There, we can observe that the OTIF is far from its target of 90%. Therefore, it should be looked at in more detail to optimize it and prevent it from affecting the entire supply chain. 

17. Google Analytics Report

Regardless of the industry you are in, if you have a website then you probably require a  Google Analytics report. This powerful tool helps you understand how your audience interacts with your website while helping you reach more people through the Google search engine. The issue is that the reports the tool provides are more or less basic and don’t give you the dynamic and agile view you need to stay on top of your data and competitors. 

For that reason, at datapine, we generated a range of Google Analytics dashboards that take your experience one step further by allowing you to explore your most important KPIs in real-time. That way, you’ll be able to spot any potential issues or opportunities to improve as soon as they occur, allowing you to act on them on the spot. 

Among some of the most valuable metrics you can find in this sample are the sessions and their daily, weekly, and monthly development, the average session duration, the bounce rate by channel and by top 5 countries, among others.

18. YouTube Report

So far, we’ve covered examples for various industries and sectors. Now, we will dive a bit deeper into some templates related to popular platforms businesses use in their daily operations. With the rise in video-related content, we could not leave YouTube outside of the list. This popular platform hides some valuable insights that can help you improve your content for your current audience but also reach new audiences that can be interested in your products or services. 

This highly visual and dynamic sample offers an interactive view of relevant KPIs to help you understand every aspect of your video performance. The template can be filtered for different videos to help you understand how each type of content performs. For instance, you get an overview of engagement metrics, such as likes, dislikes, comments, and shares, that way, you can understand how your audience interacts with your content.

Additionally, you also get more detailed charts about the number of views, the average watch time per day, and audience retention. These indicators can help you understand if something needs to be changed. For instance, audience retention goes down a lot after one minute and a half. Therefore you either need to make sure you are making the rest of the video a bit more interesting or offering your product or service or any other relevant information in the first minute.

19. LinkedIn Report

Another very important platform that companies use, no matter their size or industry, is LinkedIn. This platform is the place where companies develop and showcase their corporate image, network with other companies, and tell their clients and audience about the different initiatives they are developing to grow and be better. Some organizations also use LinkedIn to showcase their charity or sustainability initiatives. 

The truth is LinkedIn has become an increasingly relevant platform, and just like we discussed with YouTube, organizations need to analyze data to ensure their strategies are on the right path to success. 

The template above offers a 360-degree view of a company page's performance. With metrics such as the followers gained, engagement rate, impressions vs unique impressions, CTR, and more. Decision-makers can dive deeper into the performance of their content and understand what their audience enjoys the most. For instance, by looking at the CTR of the last 5 company updates, you can start to get a sense of what topics and content format your audience on the platforms interact with the most. That way, you’ll avoid wasting time and resources producing content without interaction.

20. Healthcare Report

Moving on from platform-related examples, we have one last monthly report template from a very relevant sector, the healthcare industry. For decades now, hospitals and healthcare professionals have benefited from data to develop new treatments and analyze unknown diseases. But, data can also help to ensure daily patient care is of top quality. 

Our sample above is a healthcare dashboard report that tracks patient satisfaction stats for a clinic named Saint Martins Clinic. The template provides insights into various aspects of patient care that can affect their satisfaction levels to help spot any weak areas. 

Just by looking at the report in a bit more detail, we can already see that the average waiting time for arrival to a bed and time to see a doctor are on the higher side. This is something that needs to be looked into immediately, as waiting times are the most important success factors for patients. Additionally, we can see those lab test turnarounds are also above target. This is another aspect that should be optimized to prevent satisfaction levels from going down.

If you feel inspired by this list and want to see some of the best uses for business reports, then we recommend you take a look at our dashboard examples library, where you will find over 80+ templates from different industries, functions, and platforms for extra inspiration! 

What You Should Look For In A Reporting Tool

As you learned from our extensive list of examples, different types of reports are widely used across industries and sectors. Now, you might wonder, how do I get my hands on one of these reports? The answer is a professional online reporting tool. With the right software in hand, you can generate stunning reports to extract the maximum potential out of your data and boost business growth in the process. 

But, with so many options in the market, how do make sure you choose the best tool for your needs? Below we cover some of the most relevant features and capabilities you should look for to make the most out of the process. 

• Pre-made reporting templates

To ensure successful operations, a business will most likely need to use many types of reports for its internal and external strategies. Manually generating these reports can become a time-consuming task that burdens the business. That is why professional reporting software should offer pre-made reporting templates. At datapine, we offer an extensive template library that allows users to generate reports in a matter of seconds—allowing them to use their time on actually analyzing the information and extracting powerful insights from it. 

• Multiple visualization options

If you look for report templates on Google you might run into multiple posts about written ones. This is not a surprise, as written reports have been the norm for decades. That being said, a modern approach to reporting has developed in the past years where visuals have taken over text. The value of visuals lies in the fact that they make the information easier to understand, especially for users who have no technical knowledge. But most importantly, they make the information easier to explore by telling a compelling story. For that reason, the tool you choose to invest in should provide you with multiple visualization options to have the flexibility to tell your data story in the most successful way possible. 

• Customization 

While pre-made templates are fundamental to generating agile reports, being able to customize them to meet your needs is also of utmost importance. At datapine, we offer our users the possibility to customize their reports to fit their most important KPIs, as well as their logo, business colors, and font. This is an especially valuable feature for external reports that must be shown to clients or other relevant stakeholders, giving your reports a more professional look. Customization can also help from an internal perspective to provide employees who are uncomfortable with data with a familiar environment to work in. 

• Real-time insights 

In the fast-paced world we live in today, having static reports is not enough. Businesses need to have real-time access to the latest developments in their data to spot any issues or opportunities as soon as they occur and act on them to ensure their resources are spent smartly and their strategies are running as expected. Doing so will allow for agile and efficient decision-making, giving the company a huge competitive advantage. 

• Sharing capabilities 

Communication and collaboration are the basis of a successful reporting process. Today, team members and departments need to be connected to ensure everyone is on the right path to achieve general company goals. That is why the tool you invest in should offer flexible sharing capabilities to ensure every user can access the reports. For instance, at datapine, we offer our users the possibility to share reports through automated emails or password-protected URLs with viewing or editing rights depending on what data the specific user can see and manipulate. A great way to keep everyone connected and boost collaboration. 

Types Of Reporting For Every Business & Purpose 

As we’ve seen throughout our journey, different report formats are used by businesses for diverse purposes in their everyday activities. Whether you’re talking about types of reports in research, types of reports in management, or anything in between, these dynamic tools will get you where you need to be (and beyond).

In this post, we covered the top 14 most common ones and explored key examples of how different report types are changing the way businesses are leveraging their most critical insights for internal efficiency and, ultimately, external success.

With modern tools and solutions, reporting doesn’t have to be a tedious task. Anyone in your organization can rely on data for their decision-making process without needing technical skills. Rather, you want to keep your team connected or show progress to investors or clients. There is a report type for the job. To keep your mind fresh, here are the top 14 types of data reports covered in this post: 

• Informational reports 
• Analytical reports 
• Operational reports  
• Product reports 
• Industry reports 
• Department reports 
• Progress reports 
• Internal reports 
• External reports 
• Vertical and lateral reports 
• Strategic reports
• Research reports
• Project reports
• Statutory reports

Now, over to you. Are you ready? If you want to start building your own types of reports and get ahead of the pack today, then you should try our BI reporting software for 14 days for free ! 

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Definition of recent adjective from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

• a recent study/report/survey
• a recent event/development/discovery
• The Prime Minister discussed the issue during his most recent visit to Poland.
• There have been many changes in recent years .
• in recent months/weeks/days
• a relatively recent phenomenon
• It is only in the recent past that these problems have arisen.
• a relatively recent development
• The next chapter summarizes recent developments in the field.
• comparatively

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• Research Report: Definition, Types + [Writing Guide]

One of the reasons for carrying out research is to add to the existing body of knowledge. Therefore, when conducting research, you need to document your processes and findings in a research report. 

With a research report, it is easy to outline the findings of your systematic investigation and any gaps needing further inquiry. Knowing how to create a detailed research report will prove useful when you need to conduct research.  

What is a Research Report?

A research report is a well-crafted document that outlines the processes, data, and findings of a systematic investigation. It is an important document that serves as a first-hand account of the research process, and it is typically considered an objective and accurate source of information.

In many ways, a research report can be considered as a summary of the research process that clearly highlights findings, recommendations, and other important details. Reading a well-written research report should provide you with all the information you need about the core areas of the research process.

Features of a Research Report 

So how do you recognize a research report when you see one? Here are some of the basic features that define a research report. 

• It is a detailed presentation of research processes and findings, and it usually includes tables and graphs. 
• It is written in a formal language.
• A research report is usually written in the third person.
• It is informative and based on first-hand verifiable information.
• It is formally structured with headings, sections, and bullet points.
• It always includes recommendations for future actions. 

Types of Research Report 

The research report is classified based on two things; nature of research and target audience.

Nature of Research

• Qualitative Research Report

This is the type of report written for qualitative research . It outlines the methods, processes, and findings of a qualitative method of systematic investigation. In educational research, a qualitative research report provides an opportunity for one to apply his or her knowledge and develop skills in planning and executing qualitative research projects.

A qualitative research report is usually descriptive in nature. Hence, in addition to presenting details of the research process, you must also create a descriptive narrative of the information.

• Quantitative Research Report

A quantitative research report is a type of research report that is written for quantitative research. Quantitative research is a type of systematic investigation that pays attention to numerical or statistical values in a bid to find answers to research questions. 

In this type of research report, the researcher presents quantitative data to support the research process and findings. Unlike a qualitative research report that is mainly descriptive, a quantitative research report works with numbers; that is, it is numerical in nature. 

Target Audience

Also, a research report can be said to be technical or popular based on the target audience. If you’re dealing with a general audience, you would need to present a popular research report, and if you’re dealing with a specialized audience, you would submit a technical report. 

• Technical Research Report

A technical research report is a detailed document that you present after carrying out industry-based research. This report is highly specialized because it provides information for a technical audience; that is, individuals with above-average knowledge in the field of study. 

In a technical research report, the researcher is expected to provide specific information about the research process, including statistical analyses and sampling methods. Also, the use of language is highly specialized and filled with jargon. 

Examples of technical research reports include legal and medical research reports. 

• Popular Research Report

A popular research report is one for a general audience; that is, for individuals who do not necessarily have any knowledge in the field of study. A popular research report aims to make information accessible to everyone. 

It is written in very simple language, which makes it easy to understand the findings and recommendations. Examples of popular research reports are the information contained in newspapers and magazines. 

Importance of a Research Report 

• Knowledge Transfer: As already stated above, one of the reasons for carrying out research is to contribute to the existing body of knowledge, and this is made possible with a research report. A research report serves as a means to effectively communicate the findings of a systematic investigation to all and sundry.  
• Identification of Knowledge Gaps: With a research report, you’d be able to identify knowledge gaps for further inquiry. A research report shows what has been done while hinting at other areas needing systematic investigation. 
• In market research, a research report would help you understand the market needs and peculiarities at a glance. 
• A research report allows you to present information in a precise and concise manner. 
• It is time-efficient and practical because, in a research report, you do not have to spend time detailing the findings of your research work in person. You can easily send out the report via email and have stakeholders look at it. 

Guide to Writing a Research Report

A lot of detail goes into writing a research report, and getting familiar with the different requirements would help you create the ideal research report. A research report is usually broken down into multiple sections, which allows for a concise presentation of information.

Structure and Example of a Research Report

This is the title of your systematic investigation. Your title should be concise and point to the aims, objectives, and findings of a research report. 

• Table of Contents

This is like a compass that makes it easier for readers to navigate the research report.

An abstract is an overview that highlights all important aspects of the research including the research method, data collection process, and research findings. Think of an abstract as a summary of your research report that presents pertinent information in a concise manner. 

An abstract is always brief; typically 100-150 words and goes straight to the point. The focus of your research abstract should be the 5Ws and 1H format – What, Where, Why, When, Who and How. 

• Introduction

Here, the researcher highlights the aims and objectives of the systematic investigation as well as the problem which the systematic investigation sets out to solve. When writing the report introduction, it is also essential to indicate whether the purposes of the research were achieved or would require more work.

In the introduction section, the researcher specifies the research problem and also outlines the significance of the systematic investigation. Also, the researcher is expected to outline any jargons and terminologies that are contained in the research.  

• Literature Review

A literature review is a written survey of existing knowledge in the field of study. In other words, it is the section where you provide an overview and analysis of different research works that are relevant to your systematic investigation. 

It highlights existing research knowledge and areas needing further investigation, which your research has sought to fill. At this stage, you can also hint at your research hypothesis and its possible implications for the existing body of knowledge in your field of study. 

• An Account of Investigation

This is a detailed account of the research process, including the methodology, sample, and research subjects. Here, you are expected to provide in-depth information on the research process including the data collection and analysis procedures. 

In a quantitative research report, you’d need to provide information surveys, questionnaires and other quantitative data collection methods used in your research. In a qualitative research report, you are expected to describe the qualitative data collection methods used in your research including interviews and focus groups. 

In this section, you are expected to present the results of the systematic investigation. 

This section further explains the findings of the research, earlier outlined. Here, you are expected to present a justification for each outcome and show whether the results are in line with your hypotheses or if other research studies have come up with similar results.

• Conclusions

This is a summary of all the information in the report. It also outlines the significance of the entire study. 

• References and Appendices

This section contains a list of all the primary and secondary research sources. 

Tips for Writing a Research Report

• Define the Context for the Report

As is obtainable when writing an essay, defining the context for your research report would help you create a detailed yet concise document. This is why you need to create an outline before writing so that you do not miss out on anything. 

• Define your Audience

Writing with your audience in mind is essential as it determines the tone of the report. If you’re writing for a general audience, you would want to present the information in a simple and relatable manner. For a specialized audience, you would need to make use of technical and field-specific terms. 

• Include Significant Findings

The idea of a research report is to present some sort of abridged version of your systematic investigation. In your report, you should exclude irrelevant information while highlighting only important data and findings. 

• Include Illustrations

Your research report should include illustrations and other visual representations of your data. Graphs, pie charts, and relevant images lend additional credibility to your systematic investigation.

• Choose the Right Title

A good research report title is brief, precise, and contains keywords from your research. It should provide a clear idea of your systematic investigation so that readers can grasp the entire focus of your research from the title. 

• Proofread the Report

Before publishing the document, ensure that you give it a second look to authenticate the information. If you can, get someone else to go through the report, too, and you can also run it through proofreading and editing software. 

How to Gather Research Data for Your Report  

• Understand the Problem

Every research aims at solving a specific problem or set of problems, and this should be at the back of your mind when writing your research report. Understanding the problem would help you to filter the information you have and include only important data in your report. 

• Know what your report seeks to achieve

This is somewhat similar to the point above because, in some way, the aim of your research report is intertwined with the objectives of your systematic investigation. Identifying the primary purpose of writing a research report would help you to identify and present the required information accordingly. 

• Identify your audience

Knowing your target audience plays a crucial role in data collection for a research report. If your research report is specifically for an organization, you would want to present industry-specific information or show how the research findings are relevant to the work that the company does. 

• Create Surveys/Questionnaires

A survey is a research method that is used to gather data from a specific group of people through a set of questions. It can be either quantitative or qualitative. 

A survey is usually made up of structured questions, and it can be administered online or offline. However, an online survey is a more effective method of research data collection because it helps you save time and gather data with ease. 

You can seamlessly create an online questionnaire for your research on Formplus . With the multiple sharing options available in the builder, you would be able to administer your survey to respondents in little or no time. 

Formplus also has a report summary too l that you can use to create custom visual reports for your research.

Step-by-step guide on how to create an online questionnaire using Formplus  

• Sign into Formplus

In the Formplus builder, you can easily create different online questionnaires for your research by dragging and dropping preferred fields into your form. To access the Formplus builder, you will need to create an account on Formplus. 

Once you do this, sign in to your account and click on Create new form to begin. 

• Edit Form Title : Click on the field provided to input your form title, for example, “Research Questionnaire.”
• Edit Form : Click on the edit icon to edit the form.
• Add Fields : Drag and drop preferred form fields into your form in the Formplus builder inputs column. There are several field input options for questionnaires in the Formplus builder. 
• Edit fields
• Click on “Save”
• Form Customization: With the form customization options in the form builder, you can easily change the outlook of your form and make it more unique and personalized. Formplus allows you to change your form theme, add background images, and even change the font according to your needs. 
• Multiple Sharing Options: Formplus offers various form-sharing options, which enables you to share your questionnaire with respondents easily. You can use the direct social media sharing buttons to share your form link to your organization’s social media pages.  You can also send out your survey form as email invitations to your research subjects too. If you wish, you can share your form’s QR code or embed it on your organization’s website for easy access. 

Conclusion  

Always remember that a research report is just as important as the actual systematic investigation because it plays a vital role in communicating research findings to everyone else. This is why you must take care to create a concise document summarizing the process of conducting any research. 

In this article, we’ve outlined essential tips to help you create a research report. When writing your report, you should always have the audience at the back of your mind, as this would set the tone for the document. 

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10 Big Findings from the 2023 IPCC Report on Climate Change

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March 20 marked the release of the final installment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) , an eight-year long undertaking from the world’s most authoritative scientific body on climate change. Drawing on the findings of 234 scientists on the  physical science of climate change , 270 scientists on  impacts, adaptation and vulnerability to climate change , and 278 scientists on  climate change mitigation , this  IPCC synthesis report  provides the most comprehensive, best available scientific assessment of climate change.

It also makes for grim reading. Across nearly 8,000 pages, the AR6 details the devastating consequences of rising greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions around the world — the destruction of homes, the loss of livelihoods and the fragmentation of communities, for example — as well as the increasingly dangerous and irreversible risks should we fail to change course.

But the IPCC also offers hope, highlighting pathways to avoid these intensifying risks. It identifies readily available, and in some cases, highly cost-effective actions that can be undertaken now to reduce GHG emissions, scale up carbon removal and build resilience. While the window to address the climate crisis is rapidly closing, the IPCC affirms that we can still secure a safe, livable future.

Here are 10 key findings you need to know:

1. Human-induced global warming of 1.1 degrees C has spurred changes to the Earth’s climate that are unprecedented in recent human history.

Already, with 1.1 degrees C (2 degrees F) of global temperature rise, changes to the climate system that are unparalleled over centuries to millennia are now occurring in every region of the world, from rising sea levels to more extreme weather events to rapidly disappearing sea ice.

Additional warming will increase the magnitude of these changes. Every 0.5 degree C (0.9 degrees F) of global temperature rise, for example, will cause clearly discernible increases in the frequency and severity of heat extremes, heavy rainfall events and regional droughts. Similarly, heatwaves that, on average, arose once every 10 years in a climate with little human influence will likely occur 4.1 times more frequently with 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) of warming, 5.6 times with 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) and 9.4 times with 4 degrees C (7.2 degrees F) — and the intensity of these heatwaves will also increase by 1.9 degrees C (3.4 degrees F), 2.6 degrees C (4.7 degrees F) and 5.1 degrees C (9.2 degrees F) respectively.

Rising global temperatures also heighten the probability of reaching dangerous tipping points in the climate system that, once crossed, can trigger self-amplifying feedbacks that further increase global warming, such as thawing permafrost or massive forest dieback. Setting such reinforcing feedbacks in motion can also lead to other substantial, abrupt and irreversible changes to the climate system. Should warming reach between 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) and 3 degrees C (5.4 degrees F), for example, the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets could melt almost completely and irreversibly over many thousands of years, causing sea levels to rise by several meters.

2. Climate impacts on people and ecosystems are more widespread and severe than expected, and future risks will escalate rapidly with every fraction of a degree of warming.

Described as an “an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership” by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, one of AR6’s most alarming conclusions is that adverse climate impacts are already more far-reaching and extreme than anticipated. About half of the global population currently contends with severe water scarcity for at least one month per year, while higher temperatures are enabling the spread of vector-borne diseases, such as malaria, West Nile virus and Lyme disease. Climate change has also slowed improvements in agricultural productivity in middle and low latitudes, with crop productivity growth shrinking by a third in Africa since 1961. And since 2008, extreme floods and storms have forced over 20 million people from their homes every year.

Every fraction of a degree of warming will intensify these threats, and even limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degree C is not safe for all. At this level of warming, for example, 950 million people across the world’s drylands will experience water stress, heat stress and desertification, while the share of the global population exposed to flooding will rise by 24%.

Similarly, overshooting 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F), even temporarily, will lead to much more severe, oftentimes irreversible impacts, from local species extinctions to the complete drowning of salt marshes to loss of human lives from increased heat stress. Limiting the magnitude and duration of overshooting 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F), then, will prove critical in ensuring a safe, livable future, as will holding warming to as close to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) or below as possible. Even if this temperature limit is exceeded by the end of the century, the imperative to rapidly curb GHG emissions to avoid higher levels of warming and associated impacts remains unchanged.

3. Adaptation measures can effectively build resilience, but more finance is needed to scale solutions.

Climate policies in at least 170 countries now consider adaptation, but in many nations, these efforts have yet to progress from planning to implementation. Measures to build resilience are still largely small-scale, reactive and incremental, with most focusing on immediate impacts or near-term risks. This disparity between today’s levels of adaptation and those required persists in large part due to limited finance. According to the IPCC, developing countries alone will need $127 billion per year by 2030 and $295 billion per year by 2050 to adapt to climate change. But funds for adaptation reached just $23 billion to $46 billion from 2017 to 2018, accounting for only 4% to 8% of tracked climate finance.

The good news is that the IPCC finds that, with sufficient support, proven and readily available adaptation solutions can build resilience to climate risks and, in many cases, simultaneously deliver broader sustainable development benefits.

Ecosystem-based adaptation, for example, can help communities adapt to impacts that are already devastating their lives and livelihoods, while also safeguarding biodiversity, improving health outcomes, bolstering food security, delivering economic benefits and enhancing carbon sequestration. Many ecosystem-based adaptation measures — including the protection, restoration and sustainable management of ecosystems, as well as more sustainable agricultural practices like integrating trees into farmlands and increasing crop diversity — can be implemented at relatively low costs today. Meaningful collaboration with Indigenous Peoples and local communities is critical to the success of this approach, as is ensuring that ecosystem-based adaptation strategies are designed to account for how future global temperature rise will impact ecosystems.

4. Some climate impacts are already so severe they cannot be adapted to, leading to losses and damages.

Around the world, highly vulnerable people and ecosystems are already struggling to adapt to climate change impacts. For some, these limits are “soft” — effective adaptation measures exist, but economic, political and social obstacles constrain implementation, such as lack of technical support or inadequate funding that does not reach the communities where it’s needed most. But in other regions, people and ecosystems already face or are fast approaching “hard” limits to adaptation, where climate impacts from 1.1 degrees C (2 degrees F) of global warming are becoming so frequent and severe that no existing adaptation strategies can fully avoid losses and damages. Coastal communities in the tropics, for example, have seen entire coral reef systems that once supported their livelihoods and food security experience widespread mortality, while rising sea levels have forced other low-lying neighborhoods to move to higher ground and abandon cultural sites. 

Whether grappling with soft or hard limits to adaptation, the result for vulnerable communities is oftentimes irreversible and devastating. Such losses and damages will only escalate as the world warms. Beyond 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) of global temperature rise, for example, regions reliant on snow and glacial melt will likely experience water shortages to which they cannot adapt. At 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F), the risk of concurrent maize production failures across important growing regions will rise dramatically. And above 3 degrees C (5.4 degrees F), dangerously high summertime heat will threaten the health of communities in parts of southern Europe.

Urgent action is needed to avert, minimize and address these losses and damages. At COP27, countries took a critical step forward by agreeing to establish funding arrangements for loss and damage, including a dedicated fund. While this represents  a historic breakthrough  in the climate negotiations, countries must now figure out the details of what these funding arrangements, as well as the new fund , will look like in practice — and it’s these details that will ultimately determine the adequacy, accessibility, additionality and predictability of these financial flows to those experiencing loss and damage.

5. Global GHG emissions peak before 2025 in 1.5 degrees C-aligned pathways.

The IPCC finds that there is a more than 50% chance that global temperature rise will reach or surpass 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) between 2021 and 2040 across studied scenarios, and under a high-emissions pathway, specifically, the world may hit this threshold even sooner — between 2018 and 2037. Global temperature rise in such a carbon-intensive scenario could also increase to 3.3 degrees C to 5.7 degrees C (5.9 degrees F to 10.3 degrees F) by 2100. To put this projected amount of warming into perspective, the last time global temperatures exceeded 2.5 degrees C (4.5 degrees F) above pre-industrial levels was more than 3 million years ago.

Changing course to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) — with no or limited overshoot — will instead require deep GHG emissions reductions in the near-term. In modelled pathways that limit global warming to this goal, GHG emissions peak immediately and before 2025 at the latest. They then drop rapidly, declining 43% by 2030 and 60% by 2035, relative to 2019 levels.

While there are some bright spots — the annual growth rate of GHG emissions slowed from an average of 2.1% per year between 2000 and 2009 to 1.3% per year between 2010 and 2019, for example — global progress in mitigating climate change remains woefully off track. GHG emissions have climbed steadily over the past decade, reaching 59 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e) in 2019 — approximately 12% higher than in 2010 and 54% greater than in 1990.

Even if countries achieved their climate pledges (also known as nationally determined contributions or NDCs),  WRI research  finds that they would reduce GHG emissions by just 7% from 2019 levels by 2030, in contrast to the 43% associated with limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F). And while handful of countries have submitted  new or enhanced NDCs  since the IPCC’s cut-off date,  more recent analysis  that takes these submissions into account finds that these commitments collectively still fall short of closing this emissions gap.

6. The world must rapidly shift away from burning fossil fuels — the number one cause of the climate crisis.

In pathways limiting warming to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) with no or limited overshoot just a net 510 GtCO2 can be emitted before carbon dioxide emissions reach net zero in the early 2050s. Yet future carbon dioxide emissions from existing and planned fossil fuel infrastructure alone could surpass that limit by 340 GtCO2, reaching 850 GtCO2.

A mix of strategies can help avoid  locking in  these emissions, including retiring existing fossil fuel infrastructure, canceling new projects, retrofitting fossil-fueled power plants with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies and scaling up renewable energy sources like solar and wind (which are now cheaper than fossil fuels in many regions).

In pathways that limit warming to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) — with no or limited overshoot — for example, global use of coal falls by 95% by 2050, oil declines by about 60% and gas by about 45%. These figures assume significant use of abatement technologies like CCS, and without them, these same pathways show much steeper declines by mid-century. Global use of coal without CCS, for example, is virtually phased out by 2050.

Although coal-fired power plants are starting to be retired across Europe and the United States, some multilateral development banks continue to invest in new coal capacity. Failure to change course risks stranding assets worth trillions of dollars.

7. We also need urgent, systemwide transformations to secure a net-zero, climate-resilient future.

While fossil fuels are the number one source of GHG emissions, deep emission cuts are necessary across all of society to combat the climate crisis. Power generation, buildings, industry, and transport are responsible for close to 80% of global emissions while agriculture, forestry and other land uses account for the remainder.

Take the  transport system , for instance. Drastically cutting emissions will require urban planning that minimizes the need for travel, as well as the build-out of shared, public and nonmotorized transport, such as rapid transit and bicycling in cities. Such a transformation will also entail increasing the supply of electric passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles and buses, coupled with wide-scale installation of rapid-charging infrastructure, investments in zero-carbon fuels for shipping and aviation and more.

Policy measures that make these changes less disruptive can help accelerate needed transitions, such as subsidizing zero-carbon technologies and taxing high-emissions technologies like fossil-fueled cars. Infrastructure design — like reallocating street space for sidewalks or bike lanes — can help people transition to lower-emissions lifestyles. It is important to note there are many co-benefits that accompany these transformations, too. Minimizing the number of passenger vehicles on the road, in this example, reduces harmful local air pollution and cuts traffic-related crashes and deaths.

Systems Change Lab  monitors, learns from and mobilizes action to achieve the far-reaching transformational shifts needed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C, halt biodiversity loss and build a just and equitable economy.

Transformative adaptation measures, too, are critical for securing a more prosperous future. The IPCC emphasizes the importance of ensuring that adaptation measures drive systemic change, cut across sectors and are distributed equitably across at-risk regions. The good news is that there are oftentimes strong synergies between transformational mitigation and adaptation. For example, in the global food system, climate-smart agriculture practices like shifting to  agroforestry  can improve resilience to climate impacts, while simultaneously advancing mitigation.  

8. Carbon removal is now essential to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C.

Deep decarbonization across all systems while building resilience won’t be enough to achieve global climate goals, though. The IPCC finds that all pathways that limit warming to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) — with no or limited overshoot — depend on some quantity of  carbon removal . These approaches encompass both natural solutions, such as sequestering and storing carbon in trees and soil, as well as more nascent technologies that pull carbon dioxide directly from the air.

Hover over each carbon removal approach to learn more:

Note: This figure includes carbon removal approaches mentioned in countries' long-term climate strategies as well as other leading proposed approaches. The natural/biotic vs. technological/abiotic categorization shown here is illustrative rather than definitive and will vary depending on how approaches are applied, particularly for carbon removal approaches in the ocean.

The amount of carbon removal required depends on how quickly we reduce GHG emissions across other systems and the extent to which climate targets are overshot, with estimates ranging from between 5 GtCO2 to 16 GtCO2 per year needed by mid-century.

All carbon removal approaches have merits and drawbacks. Reforestation, for instance, represents a readily available, relatively low-cost strategy that, when implemented appropriately, can deliver a wide range of benefits to communities. Yet the carbon stored within these ecosystems is also vulnerable to disturbances like wildfires, which may increase in frequency and severity with additional warming. And, while technologies like bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) may offer a more permanent solution, such approaches also risk displacing croplands, and in doing so, threatening food security. Responsibly researching, developing and deploying emerging carbon removal technologies, alongside existing natural approaches, will therefore require careful understanding of each solution’s unique benefits, costs and risks.

9. Climate finance for both mitigation and adaptation must increase dramatically this decade.

The IPCC finds that public and private finance flows for fossil fuels today far surpass those directed toward climate mitigation and adaptation. Thus, while annual public and private climate finance has risen by upwards of 60% since the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report, much more is still required to achieve global climate change goals. For instance, climate finance will need to increase between 3 and 6 times by 2030 to achieve mitigation goals, alone.

This gap is widest in developing countries, particularly those already struggling with debt, poor credit ratings and economic burdens from the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent mitigation investments, for example, need to increase by at least sixfold in Southeast Asia and developing countries in the Pacific, fivefold in Africa and fourteenfold in the Middle East by 2030 to hold warming below 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F). And across sectors, this shortfall is most pronounced for agriculture, forestry and other land use, where recent financial flows are 10 to 31 times below what is required to achieve the Paris Agreement’s goals.

Finance for adaptation, as well as loss and damage, will also need to rise dramatically. Developing countries, for example, will need $127 billion per year by 2030 and $295 billion per year by 2050. While AR6 does not assess countries’ needs for finance to avert, minimize and address losses and damages,  recent estimates  suggest that they will be substantial in the coming decades. Current funds for both fall well below estimated needs, with the highest estimates of adaptation finance totaling under $50 billion per year.

10. Climate change — as well as our collective efforts to adapt to and mitigate it — will exacerbate inequity should we fail to ensure a just transition.  

Households with incomes in the top 10%, including a relatively large share in developed countries, emit upwards of 45% of the world's GHGs, while those families earning in the bottom 50% account for 15% at most. Yet the effects of climate change already — and will continue to — hit poorer, historically marginalized communities the hardest.

Today, between 3.3 billion and 3.6 billion people live in countries that are highly vulnerable to climate impacts, with global hotspots concentrated in the Arctic, Central and South America, Small Island Developing states, South Asia and much of sub-Saharan Africa. Across many countries in these regions, conflict, existing inequalities and development challenges (e.g., poverty and limited access to basic services like clean water) not only heighten sensitivity to climate hazards, but also limit communities’ capacity to adapt.  Mortality from storms, floods and droughts, for instance, was 15 times higher in countries with high vulnerability to climate change than in those with very low vulnerability from 2010 to 2020.

At the same time, efforts to mitigate climate change also risk disruptive changes and exacerbating inequity. Retiring coal-fired power plants, for instance, may displace workers, harm local economies and reconfigure the social fabric of communities, while inappropriately implemented efforts to halt deforestation could heighten poverty and intensify food insecurity. And certain climate policies, such as  carbon taxes  that raise the cost of emissions-intensive goods like gasoline, can also prove to be regressive, absent of efforts to recycle the revenues raised from these taxes back into programs that benefit low-income communities.

Fortunately, the IPCC identifies a range of measures that can support a just transition and help ensure that no one is left behind as the world moves toward a net-zero-emissions, climate-resilient future. Reconfiguring social protection programs (e.g., cash transfers, public works programs and social safety nets) to include adaptation, for example, can reduce communities’ vulnerability to a wide range of future climate impacts, while strengthening justice and equity. Such programs are particularly effective when paired with efforts to expand access to infrastructure and basic services.

Similarly, policymakers can design mitigation strategies to better distribute the costs and benefits of reducing GHG emissions. Governments can pair efforts to phase out coal-fired electricity generation, for instance, with subsidized job retraining programs that support workers in developing the skills needed to secure new, high-quality jobs. Or, in another example, officials can couple policy interventions dedicated to expanding access to public transit with interventions to improve access to nearby, affordable housing.

Across both mitigation and adaptation measures, inclusive, transparent and participatory decision-making processes will play a central role in ensuring a just transition. More specifically, these forums can help cultivate public trust, deepen public support for transformative climate action and avoid unintended consequences.

Looking Ahead

The IPCC’s AR6 makes clear that risks of inaction on climate are immense and the way ahead requires change at a scale not seen before. However, this report also serves as a reminder that we have never had more information about the gravity of the climate emergency and its cascading impacts — or about what needs to be done to reduce intensifying risks.

Limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) is still possible, but only if we act immediately. As the IPCC makes clear, the world needs to peak GHG emissions before 2025 at the very latest, nearly halve GHG emissions by 2030 and reach net-zero CO2 emissions around mid-century, while also ensuring a just and equitable transition. We’ll also need an all-hands-on-deck approach to guarantee that communities experiencing increasingly harmful impacts of the climate crisis have the resources they need to adapt to this new world. Governments, the private sector, civil society and individuals must all step up to keep the future we desire in sight. A narrow window of opportunity is still open, but there’s not one second to waste.

Note: In addition to showcasing findings from the IPCC’s AR6 Synthesis Report, this article also draws on previous articles detailing the IPCC’s findings on  the physical science of climate change ,  impacts, adaption and vulnerability ,  and  climate change mitigation .

Relevant Work

6 takeaways from the 2022 ipcc climate change mitigation report, 6 big findings from the ipcc 2022 report on climate impacts, adaptation and vulnerability, 5 big findings from the ipcc’s 2021 climate report, 8 things you need to know about the ipcc 1.5˚c report.

Join us on March 23 for a high-level webinar featuring IPCC authors, government representatives and leading carbon removal experts to discuss how carbon removal is a critical tool in our toolbox to address the climate crisis.

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What Is a Quarterly Earnings Report?

Understanding the quarterly earnings report, the impact of quarterly earnings reports.

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• Earnings Reports and News

Guide to Company Earnings

A quarterly earnings report is a filing made by public companies every three months to report on their recent financial performance. Quarterly earnings reports include items such as net income, earnings per share , earnings from continuing operations , and net sales. Stock analysts and investors use quarterly earnings reports as one way to gauge the financial health of the company and its prospects for the future.

Key Takeaways

• Public companies file quarterly earnings reports to detail their latest performance.
• A quarterly earnings report contains information on the company's net income, earnings per share, earnings from continuing operations, net sales, and other data.
• Fundamental analysts look for trends in the data from the current and previous quarterly reports.
• When a company's quarterly earnings report fails to live up to expectations, its share price—and sometimes the entire market—can be affected.

Quarterly earnings reports provide an update of three financial statements: the income statement , the balance sheet , and the cash flow statement . That information includes an overview of sales, expenses, and net income for the most recent quarter. The report may also provide a comparison to the previous year and possibly to the previous quarter.

Some quarterly earnings reports include a brief summary and analysis from the CEO or other company spokesperson.

The quarterly earnings report is generally backed up by the company's Form 10-Q , which companies must file with the Securities and Exchange Commission each quarter for the first three quarters of the year. (At the end of the fourth quarter, companies file a 10-K form, reporting annual performance.) The 10-Q is more comprehensive in nature than the quarterly earnings report and provides additional details. It is usually published a few weeks after the quarterly earnings report.

Fundamental analysts pay particular attention to the trend in ratios gleaned from quarterly earnings reports over time, rather than to individual data points from the latest report. One of the most important numbers for these analysts is earnings per share. Some companies post quarterly earnings reports going back several years on their websites.

The announcement of quarterly earnings for a stock, particularly for widely followed large capitalization stocks , can move the overall market. An individual stock's price can also fluctuate wildly on days when the company's quarterly earnings report is released .

For better or worse, a company's ability to beat earnings estimates projected by analysts or by the firm itself can be more important than its ability to grow earnings over the prior year. If it fails to meet or exceed the estimates published before the release, that may result in a sell-off of the stock.

In capital markets, it is all about market expectations since many believe expectations are already reflected in stock prices, following the efficient markets theory .

How Do You Know When a Company Will Release Its Quarterly Earnings Report?

You should be able to obtain the exact date and time for a quarterly earnings report announcement from the company's investor relations department. You can also track it on an earnings calendar through Nasdaq or your broker.

What Is Fundamental Analysis?

Fundamental analysis attempts to determine the intrinsic value of a particular stock by studying both its unique financial data and trends in the larger economy. In that way, fundamental analysts hope to identify stocks that are trading at lower or higher prices than their actual worth.

What Is the Efficient Markets Theory?

The efficient markets theory—also known as the efficient markets hypothesis—maintains that all the information that is known about a particular stock at a given time is already reflected in its share price or will be in short order. For that reason, adherents of the theory say it is all but impossible for any investor to consistently outperform the market. Efficient markets theory is often cited as a major argument for investing through index funds .

As Princeton economist Burton C. Malkiel, author of the influential book A Random Walk Down Wall Street wrote in a 2003 paper, "Many of us economists who believe in efficiency do so because we view markets as amazingly successful devices for reflecting new information rapidly and, for the most part, accurately."

Quarterly earnings reports are filings made by public companies every three months to provide data on their latest performance. Earnings reports are important to stock analysts, investors, and others as a way of assessing a company's current financial health and its performance over time. A disappointing earnings report can have serious consequences for the company's share price and, sometimes, for the entire market.

Investor.gov. " Form 10-Q ."

Princeton.edu. " The Efficient Market Hypothesis and Its Critics ," Page 5.

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U.S. Hiring Rises Strongly, Along With Wages

Hiring was unexpectedly robust in May, with a gain of 272,000 jobs, but it wasn’t all good news: The unemployment rate ticked up, to 4 percent.

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Monthly change in jobs

+272,000 jobs in May

By Lydia DePillis

The U.S. economy keeps throwing curveballs, and the May employment report is the latest example.

Employers added 272,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department reported on Friday, well above what economists had expected as hiring had gradually slowed. That’s an increase from the 232,000-job average over the previous 12 months, scrambling the picture of an economy that’s relaxing into a more sustainable pace.

Most concerning for the Federal Reserve, which meets next week and again in July, wages rose 4.1 percent from a year ago — a sign that inflation might not yet be vanquished.

“For those who may have thought they would see a July rate cut, that door has largely been shut,” said Beth Ann Bovino, chief U.S. economist for U.S. Bank. Although wage gains are good for workers, she noted, persistent price increases undermine their spending power.

Stocks fell shortly after the report was published, then recovered most of their losses by the end of the day. Government bond yields, which track expectations for Fed rate moves, rose sharply and remained elevated through the trading day.

Wage growth ticked up in May

Year-over-year percentage change in earnings vs. inflation

+4.1% in May

+3.4% in April

Consumer Price Index

Avg. hourly earnings

But the portrait of an accelerating labor market isn’t perfectly clear, either. In another part of the report, the unemployment rate ticked up to 4 percent, its highest point since January 2022. That number is drawn from a survey of households, which showed essentially no employment growth for the past year and rising part-time employment that had displaced full-time positions.

The data from employers that generates the job growth number tends to be more reliable, but the household survey has recently been more consistent with other indicators. Retail sales have flattened . The growth rate of gross domestic product declined markedly in the first quarter. The number of job openings is as low as it has been since 2021.

That’s why most economists have expected employment growth to continue slowing, and the unemployment rate to rise further this year.

“Other than health care, we’re not seeing as much strength in the data,” said Parul Jain, chief investment strategist with MacroFin Analytics. “Growth in 2024 is unlikely to be very strong, consumers are pulling back quite a bit, and we expect that disposable income is also going to be affected.”

Health care has been the backbone of hiring for two and a half years, delivering 18.6 percent of the jobs added. An aging population has driven demand, and rising insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act has given more people access to care.

On the other hand, leisure and hospitality — which was harmed more than any other sector by Covid-19 lockdowns — took until April to regain its February 2020 employment level. Forecasts of a record summer travel season may propel that number higher in the coming months, though few expect job growth to outdo last year’s numbers.

United Airlines, for example, announced this week that it expected to add 10,000 jobs this year, down from 16,000 in 2023 and 15,000 the year before that, as pandemic recovery transitions into organic growth.

The education and health sector gained the most jobs

Change in jobs in May 2024, by sector

Education and health

+86,000 jobs

Leisure and hospitality

Business services

Construction

Manufacturing

One reason job growth surpassed forecasts was government employment, which has been recovering quickly but was expected to slump as federal pandemic relief funding runs dry. The sector instead added 43,000 jobs in May. But a slowdown may still be in the offing.

It’s already apparent to Peter Finch, the superintendent of West Valley School District, which is outside Yakima, Wash. Funding in the American Rescue Plan Act had allowed him to add staff members like mental health counselors and tutors, but now he’s no longer filling positions as people leave.

“It’s a difficult time in education,” Dr. Finch said. “If you have less resources, you cannot deliver the same services you had in the past — that’s the reality.”

The labor market’s impressive run has been fueled both by a rebound in legal immigration and by an influx of millions of migrants with temporary status, many of whom have found work with the aid of accelerated work permits. According to calculations by the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, hiring has fallen sharply for native-born workers, but it has held up for those born outside the country.

That impact may also fade as President Biden’s executive order limiting asylum seekers at the southern border takes effect.

One favorable sign about the work force: The share of people between the ages of 25 and 54 who are working or looking for work reached its highest level since early 2002, at 83.6 percent. Women in that age bracket have led the way, and in May reached their highest participation rate on record.

The picture is not as rosy for adults in their early 20s, whose participation rate dropped in May. As employers hold on to their workers and fewer leave voluntarily, there is less room for those with little work experience, who have been finding jobs at lower rates .

Workers over 55 have also not returned to the work force in large numbers — their participation rate remains two full percentage points below where it was before the pandemic. But some people have been driven back as costs have risen and retirement funds haven’t quite been able to cover them.

Take John Refoy, 67, who retired from the Navy after 33 years as a maintenance technician. He moved to Flagstaff, Ariz., to be closer to his sister during the pandemic. As rent and food costs rose — and a Subaru Outback cost more than he had expected — Social Security and a civil service pension no longer paid the bills. So late last year, he applied for a job at Walmart.

Working full time in the bakery and deli department — a job that now pays $20 an hour, after years of wage increases — has doubled his income.

“It makes all the difference,” Mr. Refoy said. He will probably leave the job next year when the car is paid off, he said, but he enjoys the social interaction. “It’s a great group of people,” he added, “and it’s been really beneficial for me to get back out there to work.”

Mr. Biden chose to focus on the job-creation side of the report. “On my watch, 15.6 million more Americans have the dignity and respect that comes with a job,” he said in a news release. But in a nod to deep concerns about stubborn inflation, Mr. Biden also emphasized his efforts to bring down prices.

The path of the labor market heading into the fall carries deep implications for the coming election. And while most forecasters see growth fading, the likelihood of an outright recession is as low as it has been in several years, barring some external event like an escalation of wars or an unforeseen financial crisis.

“We could be just teetering along right where we’d want to be at a steady equilibrium,” said Brad Hershbein, deputy director of research at the Upjohn Institute, “where things are mostly hunky dory, inflation continues to come down, the labor market returns to a place where we’d be expecting between 150,000 and 175,000 jobs per month.”

An earlier version of this article misstated an economic decline in the first quarter. It was the growth rate of gross domestic product, not G.D.P. itself, that fell.

How we handle corrections

Lydia DePillis reports on the American economy. She has been a journalist since 2009, and can be reached at [email protected]. More about Lydia DePillis

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Meaning of report in English

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report verb ( TELL )

• tell My friend told me you were looking for me.
• let someone know Let me know if you'd like to come.
• give Can you give the message to Jo?
• communicate A 60-second TV commercial isn't always the best way to communicate a complex medical message.
• inform The relatives of the injured have been informed of the accident.
• notify The school has to notify parents if their children do not arrive at school.
• Witnesses reported seeing a huge orange fireball as the oil refinery exploded .
• Shortly before the crash the pilot had reported a malfunction of the aircraft's navigation system .
• Her disappearance was reported to the police department's Missing Persons Bureau.
• Do you have anything to report?
• Several journalists have been killed or injured by stray bullets while reporting on the civil war .
• dream sequence
• narratively
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Report noun [c] ( description ).

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report noun [C] ( NOISE )

• bang She slammed the door with a bang.
• slam The window closed with a slam.
• clash I can still hear the clash of metal against metal during the car crash.
• clank My mechanic asked me to describe the clanks that my engine makes.
• clang The jail door closed with a resounding clang.
• thump He dropped his suitcase with a loud thump and sprinted up the steps.
• bang around

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New Report Reviews Evidence on Long COVID Diagnosis, Risk, Symptoms, and Functional Impact for Patients

• A formal COVID-19 diagnosis or positive test is not necessary to consider Long COVID diagnosis.
• Long COVID can cause more than 200 symptoms and affects each person differently. Long COVID is associated with a wide range of new or worsening health conditions impacting multiple organ systems. These can include cardiovascular, respiratory, mental health, gastrointestinal, nervous system, and metabolic symptoms. The report includes a full listing of all symptoms and conditions that have been associated with Long COVID.
• The risk of Long COVID increases with the severity of COVID-19 illness. The report estimates that people whose infection was sufficiently severe to necessitate hospitalization are 2 to 3 times more likely to experience Long COVID than are those who were not hospitalized, and among individuals who were hospitalized, those requiring life support in an intensive care unit may be twice as likely to experience Long COVID. However, people with mild disease can also develop Long COVID, and given the much higher number of people with mild versus severe disease, they make up the majority of people with Long COVID.
• There is no curative treatment for Long COVID. Management of the condition is based on current knowledge about treating its symptoms and health effects. As with other complex chronic health conditions, medical treatment for Long COVID is focused on managing symptoms and optimizing quality of life and function.
• Recovery from Long COVID varies among individuals, and the data on recovery trajectories are rapidly evolving. While there is evidence that many people with Long COVID symptoms have improved by 12 months, data beyond that time frame is limited but suggestive that recovery might plateau or progress at a slower rate.
• Socioeconomic status, geographic location, health literacy, and race and ethnicity all affect access to health care — and have contributed to disparities in access to COVID-19 testing, vaccination, and therapeutics, including treatments for acute infection and specialized rehabilitation clinics for Long COVID.  
• Complex, infection-associated chronic conditions are not new, and Long COVID shares many features with conditions like myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and fibromyalgia.
• Although the majority of children, including adolescents, recover fully from COVID-19, some develop Long COVID and experience persistent or intermittent symptoms that can reduce their quality of life. This can result in increased school absences and decreased participation and performance in school, sports, and other social activities. The trajectory for recovery in children and adolescents is better than in adults. More research is needed to understand Long COVID in children, as information from adult studies may not be directly applicable.

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Long-Term Health Effects of COVID-19: Disability and Function Following SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Since the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in early 2020, many individuals infected with the virus that causes COVID-19, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), have continued to experience lingering symptoms for months or even years following infection. Some symptoms can affect a person ability to work or attend school for an extended period of time. Consequently, in 2022, the Social Security Administration requested that the National Academies convene a committee of relevant experts to investigate and provide an overview of the current status of diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of long-term health effects related to Long COVID. This report presents the committee conclusions.

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The state of AI in early 2024: Gen AI adoption spikes and starts to generate value

If 2023 was the year the world discovered generative AI (gen AI) , 2024 is the year organizations truly began using—and deriving business value from—this new technology. In the latest McKinsey Global Survey  on AI, 65 percent of respondents report that their organizations are regularly using gen AI, nearly double the percentage from our previous survey just ten months ago. Respondents’ expectations for gen AI’s impact remain as high as they were last year , with three-quarters predicting that gen AI will lead to significant or disruptive change in their industries in the years ahead.

About the authors

This article is a collaborative effort by Alex Singla , Alexander Sukharevsky , Lareina Yee , and Michael Chui , with Bryce Hall , representing views from QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey, and McKinsey Digital.

Organizations are already seeing material benefits from gen AI use, reporting both cost decreases and revenue jumps in the business units deploying the technology. The survey also provides insights into the kinds of risks presented by gen AI—most notably, inaccuracy—as well as the emerging practices of top performers to mitigate those challenges and capture value.

AI adoption surges

Interest in generative AI has also brightened the spotlight on a broader set of AI capabilities. For the past six years, AI adoption by respondents’ organizations has hovered at about 50 percent. This year, the survey finds that adoption has jumped to 72 percent (Exhibit 1). And the interest is truly global in scope. Our 2023 survey found that AI adoption did not reach 66 percent in any region; however, this year more than two-thirds of respondents in nearly every region say their organizations are using AI. 1 Organizations based in Central and South America are the exception, with 58 percent of respondents working for organizations based in Central and South America reporting AI adoption. Looking by industry, the biggest increase in adoption can be found in professional services. 2 Includes respondents working for organizations focused on human resources, legal services, management consulting, market research, R&D, tax preparation, and training.

Also, responses suggest that companies are now using AI in more parts of the business. Half of respondents say their organizations have adopted AI in two or more business functions, up from less than a third of respondents in 2023 (Exhibit 2).

Gen AI adoption is most common in the functions where it can create the most value

Most respondents now report that their organizations—and they as individuals—are using gen AI. Sixty-five percent of respondents say their organizations are regularly using gen AI in at least one business function, up from one-third last year. The average organization using gen AI is doing so in two functions, most often in marketing and sales and in product and service development—two functions in which previous research  determined that gen AI adoption could generate the most value 3 “ The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier ,” McKinsey, June 14, 2023. —as well as in IT (Exhibit 3). The biggest increase from 2023 is found in marketing and sales, where reported adoption has more than doubled. Yet across functions, only two use cases, both within marketing and sales, are reported by 15 percent or more of respondents.

Gen AI also is weaving its way into respondents’ personal lives. Compared with 2023, respondents are much more likely to be using gen AI at work and even more likely to be using gen AI both at work and in their personal lives (Exhibit 4). The survey finds upticks in gen AI use across all regions, with the largest increases in Asia–Pacific and Greater China. Respondents at the highest seniority levels, meanwhile, show larger jumps in the use of gen Al tools for work and outside of work compared with their midlevel-management peers. Looking at specific industries, respondents working in energy and materials and in professional services report the largest increase in gen AI use.

Investments in gen AI and analytical AI are beginning to create value

The latest survey also shows how different industries are budgeting for gen AI. Responses suggest that, in many industries, organizations are about equally as likely to be investing more than 5 percent of their digital budgets in gen AI as they are in nongenerative, analytical-AI solutions (Exhibit 5). Yet in most industries, larger shares of respondents report that their organizations spend more than 20 percent on analytical AI than on gen AI. Looking ahead, most respondents—67 percent—expect their organizations to invest more in AI over the next three years.

Where are those investments paying off? For the first time, our latest survey explored the value created by gen AI use by business function. The function in which the largest share of respondents report seeing cost decreases is human resources. Respondents most commonly report meaningful revenue increases (of more than 5 percent) in supply chain and inventory management (Exhibit 6). For analytical AI, respondents most often report seeing cost benefits in service operations—in line with what we found last year —as well as meaningful revenue increases from AI use in marketing and sales.

Inaccuracy: The most recognized and experienced risk of gen AI use

As businesses begin to see the benefits of gen AI, they’re also recognizing the diverse risks associated with the technology. These can range from data management risks such as data privacy, bias, or intellectual property (IP) infringement to model management risks, which tend to focus on inaccurate output or lack of explainability. A third big risk category is security and incorrect use.

Respondents to the latest survey are more likely than they were last year to say their organizations consider inaccuracy and IP infringement to be relevant to their use of gen AI, and about half continue to view cybersecurity as a risk (Exhibit 7).

Conversely, respondents are less likely than they were last year to say their organizations consider workforce and labor displacement to be relevant risks and are not increasing efforts to mitigate them.

In fact, inaccuracy— which can affect use cases across the gen AI value chain , ranging from customer journeys and summarization to coding and creative content—is the only risk that respondents are significantly more likely than last year to say their organizations are actively working to mitigate.

Some organizations have already experienced negative consequences from the use of gen AI, with 44 percent of respondents saying their organizations have experienced at least one consequence (Exhibit 8). Respondents most often report inaccuracy as a risk that has affected their organizations, followed by cybersecurity and explainability.

Our previous research has found that there are several elements of governance that can help in scaling gen AI use responsibly, yet few respondents report having these risk-related practices in place. 4 “ Implementing generative AI with speed and safety ,” McKinsey Quarterly , March 13, 2024. For example, just 18 percent say their organizations have an enterprise-wide council or board with the authority to make decisions involving responsible AI governance, and only one-third say gen AI risk awareness and risk mitigation controls are required skill sets for technical talent.

Bringing gen AI capabilities to bear

The latest survey also sought to understand how, and how quickly, organizations are deploying these new gen AI tools. We have found three archetypes for implementing gen AI solutions : takers use off-the-shelf, publicly available solutions; shapers customize those tools with proprietary data and systems; and makers develop their own foundation models from scratch. 5 “ Technology’s generational moment with generative AI: A CIO and CTO guide ,” McKinsey, July 11, 2023. Across most industries, the survey results suggest that organizations are finding off-the-shelf offerings applicable to their business needs—though many are pursuing opportunities to customize models or even develop their own (Exhibit 9). About half of reported gen AI uses within respondents’ business functions are utilizing off-the-shelf, publicly available models or tools, with little or no customization. Respondents in energy and materials, technology, and media and telecommunications are more likely to report significant customization or tuning of publicly available models or developing their own proprietary models to address specific business needs.

Respondents most often report that their organizations required one to four months from the start of a project to put gen AI into production, though the time it takes varies by business function (Exhibit 10). It also depends upon the approach for acquiring those capabilities. Not surprisingly, reported uses of highly customized or proprietary models are 1.5 times more likely than off-the-shelf, publicly available models to take five months or more to implement.

Gen AI high performers are excelling despite facing challenges

Gen AI is a new technology, and organizations are still early in the journey of pursuing its opportunities and scaling it across functions. So it’s little surprise that only a small subset of respondents (46 out of 876) report that a meaningful share of their organizations’ EBIT can be attributed to their deployment of gen AI. Still, these gen AI leaders are worth examining closely. These, after all, are the early movers, who already attribute more than 10 percent of their organizations’ EBIT to their use of gen AI. Forty-two percent of these high performers say more than 20 percent of their EBIT is attributable to their use of nongenerative, analytical AI, and they span industries and regions—though most are at organizations with less than $1 billion in annual revenue. The AI-related practices at these organizations can offer guidance to those looking to create value from gen AI adoption at their own organizations.

To start, gen AI high performers are using gen AI in more business functions—an average of three functions, while others average two. They, like other organizations, are most likely to use gen AI in marketing and sales and product or service development, but they’re much more likely than others to use gen AI solutions in risk, legal, and compliance; in strategy and corporate finance; and in supply chain and inventory management. They’re more than three times as likely as others to be using gen AI in activities ranging from processing of accounting documents and risk assessment to R&D testing and pricing and promotions. While, overall, about half of reported gen AI applications within business functions are utilizing publicly available models or tools, gen AI high performers are less likely to use those off-the-shelf options than to either implement significantly customized versions of those tools or to develop their own proprietary foundation models.

What else are these high performers doing differently? For one thing, they are paying more attention to gen-AI-related risks. Perhaps because they are further along on their journeys, they are more likely than others to say their organizations have experienced every negative consequence from gen AI we asked about, from cybersecurity and personal privacy to explainability and IP infringement. Given that, they are more likely than others to report that their organizations consider those risks, as well as regulatory compliance, environmental impacts, and political stability, to be relevant to their gen AI use, and they say they take steps to mitigate more risks than others do.

Gen AI high performers are also much more likely to say their organizations follow a set of risk-related best practices (Exhibit 11). For example, they are nearly twice as likely as others to involve the legal function and embed risk reviews early on in the development of gen AI solutions—that is, to “ shift left .” They’re also much more likely than others to employ a wide range of other best practices, from strategy-related practices to those related to scaling.

In addition to experiencing the risks of gen AI adoption, high performers have encountered other challenges that can serve as warnings to others (Exhibit 12). Seventy percent say they have experienced difficulties with data, including defining processes for data governance, developing the ability to quickly integrate data into AI models, and an insufficient amount of training data, highlighting the essential role that data play in capturing value. High performers are also more likely than others to report experiencing challenges with their operating models, such as implementing agile ways of working and effective sprint performance management.

About the research

The online survey was in the field from February 22 to March 5, 2024, and garnered responses from 1,363 participants representing the full range of regions, industries, company sizes, functional specialties, and tenures. Of those respondents, 981 said their organizations had adopted AI in at least one business function, and 878 said their organizations were regularly using gen AI in at least one function. To adjust for differences in response rates, the data are weighted by the contribution of each respondent’s nation to global GDP.

Alex Singla and Alexander Sukharevsky  are global coleaders of QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey, and senior partners in McKinsey’s Chicago and London offices, respectively; Lareina Yee  is a senior partner in the Bay Area office, where Michael Chui , a McKinsey Global Institute partner, is a partner; and Bryce Hall  is an associate partner in the Washington, DC, office.

They wish to thank Kaitlin Noe, Larry Kanter, Mallika Jhamb, and Shinjini Srivastava for their contributions to this work.

This article was edited by Heather Hanselman, a senior editor in McKinsey’s Atlanta office.

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FACT SHEET: President   Biden Announces New Actions to Secure the   Border

New actions will bar migrants who cross our Southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum Biden taking action as Congressional Republicans put partisan politics ahead of national security, twice voting against toughest reforms in decades

Since his first day in office, President Biden has called on Congress to secure our border and address our broken immigration system. Over the past three years, while Congress has failed to act, the President has acted to secure our border. His Administration has deployed the most agents and officers ever to address the situation at the Southern border, seized record levels of illicit fentanyl at our ports of entry, and brought together world leaders on a framework to deal with changing migration patterns that are impacting the entire Western Hemisphere.  Earlier this year, the President and his team reached a historic bipartisan agreement with Senate Democrats and Republicans to deliver the most consequential reforms of America’s immigration laws in decades. This agreement would have added critical border and immigration personnel, invested in technology to catch illegal fentanyl, delivered sweeping reforms to the asylum system, and provided emergency authority for the President to shut down the border when the system is overwhelmed. But Republicans in Congress chose to put partisan politics ahead of our national security, twice voting against the toughest and fairest set of reforms in decades. President Biden believes we must secure our border. That is why today, he announced executive actions to bar migrants who cross our Southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum. These actions will be in effect when high levels of encounters at the Southern Border exceed our ability to deliver timely consequences, as is the case today. They will make it easier for immigration officers to remove those without a lawful basis to remain and reduce the burden on our Border Patrol agents. But we must be clear: this cannot achieve the same results as Congressional action, and it does not provide the critical personnel and funding needed to further secure our Southern border. Congress still must act. The Biden-Harris Administration’s executive actions will:   Bar Migrants Who Cross the Southern Border Unlawfully From Receiving Asylum

• President Biden issued a proclamation under Immigration and Nationality Act sections 212(f) and 215(a) suspending entry of noncitizens who cross the Southern border into the United States unlawfully. This proclamation is accompanied by an interim final rule from the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security that restricts asylum for those noncitizens.
• These actions will be in effect when the Southern border is overwhelmed, and they will make it easier for immigration officers to quickly remove individuals who do not have a legal basis to remain in the United States.
• These actions are not permanent. They will be discontinued when the number of migrants who cross the border between ports of entry is low enough for America’s system to safely and effectively manage border operations. These actions also include similar humanitarian exceptions to those included in the bipartisan border agreement announced in the Senate, including those for unaccompanied children and victims of trafficking.

Recent Actions to secure our border and address our broken immigration system: Strengthening the Asylum Screening Process

• The Department of Homeland Security published a proposed rule to ensure that migrants who pose a public safety or national security risk are removed as quickly in the process as possible rather than remaining in prolonged, costly detention prior to removal. This proposed rule will enhance security and deliver more timely consequences for those who do not have a legal basis to remain in the United States.

Announced new actions to more quickly resolve immigration cases

• The Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security launched a Recent Arrivals docket to more quickly resolve a portion of immigration cases for migrants who attempt to cross between ports of entry at the Southern border in violation of our immigration laws.
• Through this process, the Department of Justice will be able to hear these cases more quickly and the Department of Homeland Security will be able to more quickly remove individuals who do not have a legal basis to remain in the United States and grant protection to those with valid claims.
• The bipartisan border agreement would have created and supported an even more efficient framework for issuing final decisions to all asylum seekers. This new process to reform our overwhelmed immigration system can only be created and funded by Congress.

Revoked visas of CEOs and government officials who profit from migrants coming to the U.S. unlawfully

• The Department of State imposed visa restrictions on executives of several Colombian transportation companies who profit from smuggling migrants by sea. This action cracks down on companies that help facilitate unlawful entry into the United States, and sends a clear message that no one should profit from the exploitation of vulnerable migrants.
• The State Department also imposed visa restrictions on over 250 members of the Nicaraguan government, non-governmental actors, and their immediate family members for their roles in supporting the Ortega-Murillo regime, which is selling transit visas to migrants from within and beyond the Western Hemisphere who ultimately make their way to the Southern border.
• Previously, the State Department revoked visas of executives of charter airlines for similar actions.

Expanded Efforts to Dismantle Human Smuggling and Support Immigration Prosecutions

• The Departments of State and Justice launched an “Anti-Smuggling Rewards” initiative designed to dismantle the leadership of human smuggling organizations that bring migrants through Central America and across the Southern U.S. border. The initiative will offer financial rewards for information leading to the identification, location, arrest, or conviction of those most responsible for significant human smuggling activities in the region.
• The Department of Justice will seek new and increased penalties against human smugglers to properly account for the severity of their criminal conduct and the human misery that it causes.
• The Department of Justice is also partnering with the Department of Homeland Security to direct additional prosecutors and support staff to increase immigration-related prosecutions in crucial border U.S. Attorney’s Offices. Efforts include deploying additional DHS Special Assistant United States Attorneys to different U.S. Attorneys’ offices, assigning support staff to critical U.S. Attorneys’ offices, including DOJ Attorneys to serve details in U.S. Attorneys’ Offices in several border districts, and partnering with federal agencies to identify additional resources to target these crimes.

Enhancing Immigration Enforcement

• The Department of Homeland Security has surged agents to the Southern border and is referring a record number of people into expedited removal.
• The Department of Homeland Security is operating more repatriation flights per week than ever before. Over the past year, DHS has removed or returned more than 750,000 people, more than in every fiscal year since 2010.
• Working closely with partners throughout the region, the Biden-Harris Administration is identifying and collaborating on enforcement efforts designed to stop irregular migration before migrants reach our Southern border, expand investment and integration opportunities in the region to support those who may otherwise seek to migrate, and increase lawful pathways for migrants as an alternative to irregular migration.

Seizing Fentanyl at our Border

• Border officials have seized more fentanyl at ports of entry in the last two years than the past five years combined, and the President has added 40 drug detection machines across points of entry to disrupt the fentanyl smuggling into the Homeland. The bipartisan border agreement would fund the installation of 100 additional cutting-edge inspection machines to help detect fentanyl at our Southern border ports of entry.
• In close partnership with the Government of Mexico, the Department of Justice has extradited Nestor Isidro Perez Salaz, known as “El Nini,” from Mexico to the United States to face prosecution for his role in illicit fentanyl trafficking and human rights abuses. This is one of many examples of joint efforts with Mexico to tackle the fentanyl and synthetic drug epidemic that is killing so many people in our countries and globally, and to hold the drug trafficking organizations to account.

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• The State of the American Middle Class

Who is in it and key trends from 1970 to 2023

Table of contents.

• Acknowledgments

This report examines key changes in the economic status of the American middle class from 1970 to 2023 and its demographic attributes in 2022. The historical analysis is based on U.S. Census Bureau data from the Annual Social and Economic Supplements (ASEC) of the Current Population Survey (CPS). The demographic analysis is based on data from the American Community Survey (ACS). The data is sourced from IPUMS CPS and IPUMS USA , respectively.  

The CPS, a survey of about 60,000 households, is the U.S. government’s official source for monthly estimates of unemployment . The CPS ASEC, conducted in March each year, is the official source of U.S. government estimates of income and poverty . Our analysis of CPS data starts with the 1971 CPS ASEC, which records the incomes of households in 1970. It is also the first year for which data on race and ethnicity is available. The latest available CPS ASEC file is for 2023, which reports on household incomes in 2022.

The public-use version of the ACS is a 1% sample of the U.S. population, or more than 3 million people. This allows for a detailed study of the demographic characteristics of the middle class, including its status in U.S. metropolitan areas. But ACS data is available only from 2005 onward and is less suitable for long-term historical analyses. The latest available ACS data is for 2022.

Middle-income households are defined as those with an income that is two-thirds to double that of the U.S. median household income, after incomes have been adjusted for household size. Lower-income households have incomes less than two-thirds of the median, and upper-income households have incomes that are more than double the median. When using American Community Survey (ACS) data, incomes are also adjusted for cost of living in the areas in which households are located.

Estimates of household income are scaled to reflect a household size of three and expressed in 2023 dollars. In the Current Population Survey (CPS), household income refers to the calendar year prior to the survey year. Thus, the income data in the report refers to the 1970-2022 period, and the share of Americans in each income tier from the CPS refers to the 1971-2023 period.

The demographic attributes of Americans living in lower-, middle- or upper-income tiers are derived from ACS data. Except as noted, estimates pertain to the U.S. household population, excluding people living in group quarters.

The terms middle class and middle income are used interchangeably in this report.

White, Black, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander include people who identified with a single major racial group and who are not Hispanic. Multiracial includes people who identified with more than one major racial group and are not Hispanic. Hispanics are of any race.

U.S. born refers to individuals who are U.S. citizens at birth, including people born in the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories, as well as those born elsewhere to at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen. The terms foreign born and immigrant are used interchangeably in this report. They refer to people who are not U.S. citizens at birth.

Occupations describe the broad kinds of work people do on their job. For example, health care occupations include doctors, nurses, pharmacists and others who are directly engaged in the provision of health care. Industries describe the broad type of products companies produce. Each industry encompasses a variety of occupations. For example, the health care and social assistance industry provides services that are produced by a combination of doctors, managers, technology and administrative staff, food preparation workers, and workers in other occupations.

The share of Americans who are in the middle class is smaller than it used to be. In 1971, 61% of Americans lived in middle-class households. By 2023, the share had fallen to 51%, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of government data.

As a result, Americans are more apart than before financially. From 1971 to 2023, the share of Americans who live in lower-income households increased from 27% to 30%, and the share in upper-income households increased from 11% to 19%.

Notably, the increase in the share who are upper income was greater than the increase in the share who are lower income. In that sense, these changes are also a sign of economic progress overall.

But the middle class has fallen behind on two key counts. The growth in income for the middle class since 1970 has not kept pace with the growth in income for the upper-income tier. And the share of total U.S. household income held by the middle class has plunged.

Moreover, many groups still lag in their presence in the middle- and upper-income tiers. For instance, American Indians or Alaska Natives, Black and Hispanic Americans, and people who are not married are more likely than average to be in the lower-income tier. Several metro areas in the U.S. Southwest also have high shares of residents who are in the lower-income tier, after adjusting for differences in cost of living across areas.

• Change in income
• Share of total U.S. household income
• Race and ethnicity
• Marital status
• Veteran status
• Place of birth
• Employment status
• Metropolitan area of residence

Our report focuses on the current state of the American middle class. First, we examine changes in the financial well-being of the middle class and other income tiers since 1970. This is based on data from the Annual Social and Economic Supplements (ASEC) of the Current Population Survey (CPS), conducted from 1971 to 2023.

Then, we report on the attributes of people who were more or less likely to be middle class in 2022. Our focus is on their race and ethnicity , age , gender, marital and veteran status , place of birth , ancestry , education , occupation , industry , and metropolitan area of residence . These estimates are derived from American Community Survey (ACS) data and differ slightly from the CPS-based estimates. In part, that is because incomes can be adjusted for the local area cost of living only with the ACS data. (Refer to the methodology for details on these two data sources.)

This analysis and an accompanying report on the Asian American middle class are part of a series on the status of America’s racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. middle class and other income tiers. Forthcoming analyses will focus on White, Black, Hispanic, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander and multiracial Americans, including subgroups within these populations. These reports are, in part, updates of previous work by the Center . But they offer much greater detail on the demographic attributes of the American middle class.

Following are some key facts about the state of the American middle class:

In our analysis, “middle-income” Americans are those living in households with an annual income that is two-thirds to double the national median household income. The income it takes to be middle income varies by household size, with smaller households requiring less to support the same lifestyle as larger households. It also varies by the local cost of living, with households in a more expensive area, such as Honolulu, needing a higher income than those in a less expensive area, such as Wichita, Kansas.

We don’t always know the area in which a household is located. In our two data sources – the Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC) and the American Community Survey (ACS) – only the latter provides that information, specifically the metropolitan area of a household. Thus, we aren’t able to adjust for the local cost of living when using the CPS to track changes in the status of the middle class over time. But we do adjust for the metropolitan area cost of living when using the ACS to determine the demographic attributes of the middle class in 2022.

In the 2023 CPS ASEC data , which reports income for 2022, middle-income households with three people have incomes ranging from about $61,000 to $183,000 annually. “Lower-income” households have incomes less than $61,000, and “upper-income” households have incomes greater than $183,000.

In the 2022 ACS data , middle-income households with three people have incomes ranging from about $62,000 to $187,000 annually, with incomes also adjusted for the local area cost of living. (Incomes are expressed in 2023 dollars.)

The boundaries of the income tiers also vary across years as the national median income changes.

The terms “middle income” and “middle class” are used interchangeably in this report for the sake of exposition. But being middle class can refer to more than just income , be it education level, type of profession, economic security, home ownership or social and political values. Class also could simply be a matter of self-identification .

Households in all income tiers had much higher incomes in 2022 than in 1970, after adjusting for inflation. But the gains for middle- and lower-income households were less than the gains for upper-income households .

The median income of middle-class households increased from about $66,400 in 1970 to $106,100 in 2022, or 60%. Over this period, the median income of upper-income households increased 78%, from about $144,100 to $256,900. (Incomes are scaled to a three-person household and expressed in 2023 dollars.)

The median income of lower-income households grew more slowly than that of other households, increasing from about $22,800 in 1970 to $35,300 in 2022, or 55%.

Consequently, there is now a larger gap between the incomes of upper-income households and other households. In 2022, the median income of upper-income households was 7.3 times that of lower-income households, up from 6.3 in 1970. It was 2.4 times the median income of middle-income households in 2022, up from 2.2 in 1970.

The share of total U.S. household income held by the middle class has fallen almost without fail in each decade since 1970 . In that year, middle-income households accounted for 62% of the aggregate income of all U.S. households, about the same as the share of people who lived in middle-class households.

By 2022, the middle-class share in overall household income had fallen to 43%, less than the share of the population in middle-class households (51%). Not only do a smaller share of people live in the middle class today, the incomes of middle-class households have also not risen as quickly as the incomes of upper-income households.  

Over the same period, the share of total U.S. household income held by upper-income households increased from 29% in 1970 to 48% in 2022. In part, this is because of the increase in the share of people who are in the upper-income tier.

The share of overall income held by lower-income households edged down from 10% in 1970 to 8% in 2022. This happened even though the share of people living in lower-income households increased over this period.

The share of people in the U.S. middle class varied from 46% to 55% across racial and ethnic groups in 2022. Black and Hispanic Americans, Native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders, and American Indians or Alaska Natives were more likely than others to be in lower-income households .

In 2022, 39% to 47% of Americans in these four groups lived in lower-income households. In contrast, only 24% of White and Asian Americans and 31% of multiracial Americans were in the lower-income tier.

At the other end of the economic spectrum, 27% of Asian and 21% of White Americans lived in upper-income households in 2022, compared with about 10% or less of Black and Hispanic Americans, Native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders, and American Indians or Alaska Natives.

Not surprisingly, lower-income status is correlated with the likelihood of living in poverty. According to the Census Bureau , the poverty rate among Black (17.1%) and Hispanic (16.9%) Americans and American Indians or Alaska Natives (25%) was greater than the rate among White and Asian Americans (8.6% for each). (The Census Bureau did not report the poverty rate for Native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders.)

Children and adults 65 and older were more likely to live in lower-income households in 2022. Adults in the peak of their working years – ages 30 to 64 – were more likely to be upper income. In 2022, 38% of children (including teens) and 35% of adults 65 and older were lower income, compared with 26% of adults ages 30 to 44 and 23% of adults 45 to 64.

The share of people living in upper-income households ranged from 13% among children and young adults (up to age 29) to 24% among those 45 to 64. In each age group, about half or a little more were middle class in 2022.

Men were slightly more likely than women to live in middle-income households in 2022 , 53% vs. 51%. Their share in upper-income households (18%) was also somewhat greater than the share of women (16%) in upper-income households.

Marriage appears to boost the economic status of Americans. Among those who were married in 2022, eight-in-ten lived either in middle-income households (56%) or upper-income households (24%). In contrast, only about six-in-ten of those who were separated, divorced, widowed or never married were either middle class or upper income, while 37% lived in lower-income households.

Veterans were more likely than nonveterans to be middle income in 2022, 57% vs. 53%. Conversely, a higher share of nonveterans (29%) than veterans (24%) lived in lower-income households.

Immigrants – about 14% of the U.S. population in 2022 – were less likely than the U.S. born to be in the middle class and more likely to live in lower-income households. In 2022, more than a third of immigrants (36%) lived in lower-income households, compared with 29% of the U.S. born. Immigrants also trailed the U.S. born in the shares who were in the middle class, 48% vs. 53%.

There are large gaps in the economic status of American residents by their region of birth. Among people born in Asia, Europe or Oceania, 25% lived in upper-income households in 2022. People from these regions represented 7% of the U.S. population.

By comparison, only 14% of people born in Africa or South America and 6% of those born in Central America and the Caribbean were in the upper-income tier in 2022. Together they accounted for 8% of the U.S. population.

The likelihood of being in the middle class or the upper-income tier varies considerably with the ancestry of Americans. In 2022, Americans reporting South Asian ancestry were about as likely to be upper income (38%) as they were to be middle income (42%). Only 20% of Americans of South Asian origin lived in lower-income households. South Asians accounted for about 2% of the U.S. population of known origin groups in 2022.

At least with respect to the share who were lower income, this was about matched by those with Soviet, Eastern European, other Asian or Western European origins. These groups represented the majority (54%) of the population of Americans whose ancestry was known in 2022.

On the other hand, only 7% of Americans with Central and South American or other Hispanic ancestry were in the upper-income tier, and 44% were lower income. The economic statuses of Americans with Caribbean, sub-Saharan African or North American ancestry were not very different from this.

Education matters for moving into the middle class and beyond, and so do jobs. Among Americans ages 25 and older in 2022, 52% of those with a bachelor’s degree or higher level of education lived in middle-class households and another 35% lived in upper-income households.

In sharp contrast, 42% of Americans who did not graduate from high school were in the middle class, and only 5% were in the upper-income tier. Further, only 12% of college graduates were lower income, compared with 54% of those who did not complete high school.

Not surprisingly, having a job is strongly linked to movement from the lower-income tier to the middle- and upper-income tiers. Among employed American workers ages 16 and older, 58% were in the middle-income tier in 2022 and 23% were in the upper-income tier. Only 19% of employed workers were lower income, compared with 49% of unemployed Americans.

In some occupations, about nine-in-ten U.S. workers are either in the middle class or in the upper-income tier, but in some other occupations almost four-in-ten workers are lower income. More than a third (36% to 39%) of workers in computer, science and engineering, management, and business and finance occupations lived in upper-income households in 2022. About half or more were in the middle class.

But many workers – about one-third or more – in construction, transportation, food preparation and serving, and personal care and other services were in the lower-income tier in 2022.

About six-in-ten workers or more in education; protective and building maintenance services; office and administrative support; the armed forces; and maintenance, repair and production were in the middle class.

Depending on the industrial sector, anywhere from half to two-thirds of U.S. workers were in the middle class, and the share who are upper income or lower income varied greatly.

About a third of workers in the finance, insurance and real estate, information, and professional services sectors were in the upper-income tier in 2022. Nearly nine-in-ten workers (87%) in public administration – largely filling legislative functions and providing federal, state or local government services – were either in the middle class or the upper-income tier.

But nearly four-in-ten workers (38%) in accommodation and food services were lower income in 2022, along with three-in-ten workers in the retail trade and other services sectors.

The share of Americans who are in the middle class or in the upper- or lower-income tier differs across U.S. metropolitan areas. But a pattern emerges when it comes to which metro areas have the highest shares of people living in lower-, middle- or upper-income households. (We first adjust household incomes for differences in the cost of living across areas.)

The 10 metropolitan areas with the greatest shares of middle-income residents are small to midsize in population and are located mostly in the northern half of the U.S. About six-in-ten residents in these metro areas were in the middle class.

Several of these areas are in the so-called Rust Belt , namely, Wausau and Oshkosh-Neenah, both in Wisconsin; Grand Rapids-Wyoming, Michigan; and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Two others – Dover and Olympia-Tumwater – include state capitals (Delaware and Washington, respectively).

In four of these areas – Bismarck, North Dakota, Ogden-Clearfield, Utah, Lancaster and Wausau – the share of residents in the upper-income tier ranged from 18% to 20%, about on par with the share nationally.

The 10 U.S. metropolitan areas with the highest shares of residents in the upper-income tier are mostly large, coastal communities. Topping the list is San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California, a technology-driven economy, in which 40% of the population lived in upper-income households in 2022. Other tech-focused areas on this list include San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward; Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue; and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Connecticut, is a financial hub. Several areas, including Washington, D.C.-Arlington-Alexandria and Boston-Cambridge-Newton, are home to major universities, leading research facilities and the government sector.

Notably, many of these metro areas also have sizable lower-income populations. For instance, about a quarter of the populations in Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk; Trenton, New Jersey; Boston-Cambridge-Newton; and Santa Cruz-Watsonville, California, were in the lower-income tier in 2022.

Most of the 10 U.S. metropolitan areas with the highest shares of residents in the lower-income tier are in the Southwest, either on the southern border of Texas or in California’s Central Valley. The shares of people living in lower-income residents were largely similar across these areas, ranging from about 45% to 50%.

About 40% to 50% of residents in these metro areas were in the middle class, and only about one-in-ten or fewer lived in upper-income households.

Compared with the nation overall, the lower-income metro areas in Texas and California have disproportionately large Hispanic populations. The two metro areas in Louisiana – Monroe and Shreveport-Bossier City – have disproportionately large Black populations.

Note: For details on how this analysis was conducted,  refer to the methodology .

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The State of the Asian American Middle Class

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India election results

Results of the six-week-long election to the lower house of India’s Parliament started pouring in Tuesday morning

Results of the Indian general elections were out on Tuesday with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), winning a majority, even if their seat tally reduced significantly compared to the 2019 elections.

Stacked bar chart shows the number of seats won or led by the BJP and its allies, the Congress and its allies, and others, for 2024 and 2019.

Counting of over 640 million votes that were cast in the 2024 Indian general elections began early on Tuesday. The polling to elect 543 members of the Lok Sabha, lower house of the Indian parliament, concluded on June 1.

The ruling BJP along with its allies was competing for a third term under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership. The Indian National Congress (INC), which has the second largest national footprint after the BJP, helped stitch a new coalition called the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) last year, hoping to wrest power from Modi through a united opposition.

Elections were held in seven phases in constituencies spread across 36 states and federal territories.

Map shows the winner or leader in each of India’s 543 Lok Sabha constituencies

The BJP seized power from the Congress and its allies with a decisive victory in 2014, marking the first time in three decades that a single party achieved a majority of its own. Its strength increased in the subsequent 2019 election. However, the party did not end up with enough seats this year to form a majority by itself.

Its previous victories had come from the more populous northern and western parts of India. It lost some of that turf to the Congress-led alliance this year.

Four maps show winners or leaders in each of India’s 543 Lok Sabha constituencies in 2009, 2014, 2019 and 2024.

India's political landscape has significantly evolved over time. Until three decades ago, the Congress was the dominant force. However, the BJP began gaining substantial electoral strength and emerged as the leading party. Its wins in the 2014 and 2019 elections relegated Congress to historically low levels of influence, winning less than 10% of the seats each time. This year, however, the Congress almost doubled its tally.

Stacked bar chart shows seats won by BJP, INC and others in each general election from 1962 to 2019, and the results for 2024

All major exit polls had predicted a historic victory for the BJP, anticipating its best performance to date.

Some allies of BJP and INC have changed between 2019 and 2024.

Election Commission of India; Trivedi Centre for Political Data; DataMeet; Natural Earth

Simon Scarr, Anand Katakam and Raju Gopalakrishnan

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Trump is found guilty on 34 felony counts. Read the counts here

Ximena Bustillo

Hilary Fung

Jurors in the New York criminal trial against former President Donald Trump have convicted him of 34 felony counts of falsified business records.

4 takeaways from the historic felony conviction of Donald Trump

Legal experts say Trump's conviction is unlikely to lead to a prison sentence

This is the first time a former or sitting U.S. president has been convicted of criminal charges.

The jurors said they unanimously agreed that Trump falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.

Here are the details of those 34 felony counts: