Michel Cournoyer

Middle-Skill Jobs in US – Lobs lost in the last recession have not returned says New York Fed Pres.

Millions of U.S. teaching, construction and other middle-skill jobs lost in the last recession have not returned, exacerbating the already high unemployment that has been a drag on the U.S. recovery, New York Federal Reserve officials said on Wednesday.  These middle-skill jobs, which pay roughly $25,000 to $50,000 annually, suffered the heaviest losses in the … Continue reading →

MBA Jobs in US – A 30% increase in hiring since the height of the financial crisis in 2009

What financial crisis? Leading MBA employers plan to hire more MBA graduates this year, according to a new recruiter survey from the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC).  In a further sign of a return to economic prosperity, 80% of business school recruiters plan to hire MBAs this year, according to GMAC. The new data shows … Continue reading →

Taiwan – April unemployment lowest in 6 years

Thanks to the improved economy, Taiwan’s unemployment rate was pegged at 3.91 percent, the lowest point in about six years, according to a report released by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) yesterday.  It was the first time for the unemployment rate to go below 4 percent since the financial crisis. While companies … Continue reading →

Latin America and the Caribbean – Urban unemployment fell to historic lows in 2013 ILO reports

In 2013, the urban unemployment rate in Latin America and the Caribbean once again fell to historic lows. The ILO estimates that the rate will reach 6.3% at the end of the year. This is good news for a region that had a double-digit unemployment rate a decade ago (11.1% in 2003). However, the impact … Continue reading →

Job vacancies in Canada – 7.0 Unemployed people for every job vacancy in February, up from 6.3 one year earlier

There were 194,000 job vacancies among Canadian businesses in February, a decline of 21,000 compared with February 2013. There were 7.0 unemployed people for every job vacancy, up from 6.3 one year earlier. This increase in the ratio of unemployment to job vacancy was mostly the result of the decline in job vacancies. The national job vacancy rate was 1.3% in February, down from 1.5% a … Continue reading →

Canada – The baby boomer generation is starting to retire RBC report says

A new Royal Bank analysis suggests the Canada’s labour market is already starting to feel the impact of the aging workforce. The RBC paper notes that, given soft job growth in the past year and the corresponding decline in the labour participation rate, it is easy — and likely inaccurate — to jump to the … Continue reading →

Entrepreneurial Activity in US – Declines again in 2013 according to Kauffman Report

As the nation’s employment rate continued to improve, America’s overall business creation rate fell again in 2013. According to the annual Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, released today, the rate declined slightly from 0.30 percent of American adults per month starting businesses in 2012 to 0.28 percent in 2013. That translates into approximately 476,000 new … Continue reading →

US in Maps – The biggest immigrant groups by state

The data used to create the map are from the Department of Homeland Security. In 2012, slightly more than 1 million people were granted legal permanent resident status in the U.S. (Legal permanent residents may also be referred to as “permanent resident aliens” or “green card holders.”) About 15 percent of these new immigrants are … Continue reading →

Lloyds Banking – To cut 645 jobs

Lloyds Banking Group is to cut 645 jobs in its consumer finance, retail and commercial banking departments as part of a strategic review. It said there would be 580 actual reductions as 65 new roles will be created across Lloyds Banking Group + Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Lloyds Banking Group … Continue reading →

Another reason to fear a Chinese housing crash: 14% of China’s urban jobs are in real estate

Heinz – 250 jobs safe at Leamington

The H.J. Heinz Co. has completed the sale of its Leamington plant. The food giant said in a statement released early Wednesday that it has sold it’s 105-year-old tomato processing plant to Highbury Canco, which will begin operating the plant on June 27. Highbury Canco will take over “all aspects of the operation,” according to … Continue reading →

College Education in US – 64% of hiring managers would still consider a candidate who hadn’t even attended college survey finds

Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting firm, and Beyond.com, The Career Network focused on helping people grow and succeed professionally, today announced the results of a study entitled, “The Multi-Generational Job Search.” Following a national survey of job seekers and HR professionals, 43% of the 2,978 respondents said that “cultural fit” was the … Continue reading →

Conflicts at the Workplace – Most aren’t due to personality

Conflict happens everywhere, including in the workplace. When it does, it’s tempting to blame it on personalities.  But more often than not, the real underlying cause of workplace strife is the situation itself, rather than the people involved. So, why do we automatically blame our coworkers? Chalk it up to psychology and organizational politics, which cause … Continue reading →

US – A study on the effects of military service on earnings and education

Estimating the effect of military service is complicated by the fact that veterans are likely to differ from nonveterans in ways that are correlated with subsequent economic outcomes but are not observable to the researcher. This report builds on earlier work to understand how military service affects earnings, especially how these effects differ by the … Continue reading →

The Economics of Minimum Wages – There has been a large shift in the weight of academic opinion

A generation ago, the vast majority of economists would have said that a rise in the minimum wage inevitably costs jobs. This has changed, with two strands of research having the biggest impact. In the United States, the work of David Card and Alan Krueger, then both at Princeton University, shattered the cosy consensus and argued that the actual evidence linking the minimum wage … Continue reading →