Recession

• This market experienced a modest downturn of approximately 7% in 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic recession.
• Here are some key insights and components of this comprehensive market analysis:
  Market Size and Growth: The self-improvement market is estimated to be worth $13.4 billion.
• Market Segments: The analysis covers various market segments, including weight loss/exercise, business/sales skills, business opportunities/investing, improving relationships, and general motivation.
• Market Trends: It highlights the latest trends in the self-improvement market and discusses the effects of the pandemic on the industry.

• LONDON and NEW YORK, Sept. 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- ICIS has announced the ICIS Top 100 Chemical Companies, a global listing of the leading producers of chemicals worldwide ranked by 2022 sales.
• Germany-based BASF is again the world's largest chemical company, with sales of $93.7bn in 2022, up 11.1% versus 2021.
• While most chemical companies generated sales growth in 2022 on higher oil and natural gas feedstock costs, margins were squeezed, particularly in the back half of the year.
• The ICIS Top 100 Chemical Companies includes sales as well as operating profits, net income, total assets, capital expenditures and R&D spending for the world's top producers.

• FTA and its affiliate First Trust Portfolios L.P. ("FTP"), a FINRA registered broker-dealer, are privately-held companies that provide a variety of investment services.
• An investment in a Fund involves risks similar to those of investing in any portfolio of equity securities traded on exchanges.
• The risks of investing in each Fund are spelled out in its prospectus, shareholder report, and other regulatory filings.
• However, unlike mutual funds, shares may only be redeemed directly from a fund by authorized participants in very large creation/redemption units.

• Today, there are more than 110 million people who have been forced from their homes and countries, the highest number on record.
• But despite this increased need for immigrants and refugees to find homes, they are often blocked from entering many countries because of security concerns, rising xenophobia and nativism.
• Since 1980, the U.S. has had one of the largest resettlement programs in the world.
• The federal government and 10 nonprofit organizations have worked together to give immigrants and refugees the services they need to resettle.

Community-based refugee sponsorship programs

• In the newly announced Welcome Corps program, for example, sponsors have to raise $2,375 for each refugee and commit three months of financial support, as well as up to 12 months of social support.
• Community sponsorship projects, similar to Welcome Corps, have been piloted in more than 40 states and 90 communities.

Resettlement program successes

• For example, throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the U.S. welcomed more than 1 million refugees from Southeast Asia through community sponsorship.
• But by the 1980s, an economic recession and shifts in public attitudes toward refugees reduced the popularity of community sponsorship.
• Around the same time, Congress passed the 1980 Refugee Act to standardize resettlement and shift from the community sponsorship model to the professional resettlement agencies that are still active.

Government and volunteer partnership

• Some scholars have criticized the program’s focus on self-sufficiency as inadequate to support refugees’ initial and long-term needs.
• And cities and states new to the program have been hobbled by their inexperience in resettling refugees.
• In the new Welcome Corps program, for example, sponsor groups raise private funds to provide services, reducing the need for federal funding.
• The federal government is trying to give community sponsor groups specific guidance about where to get the help they may need.
• Community sponsorship programs were intended to function alongside the traditional resettlement program – not to add to the workload of resettlement agencies.