Michel Cournoyer

Improving Higher Education – 8 Ideas

One of the biggest challenges states face is producing a workforce qualified to meet the needs of employers in today’s economy. In order to increase degree attainment and begin to close the skills gap that exists between workforce supply and industry demand, states should change the way they fund higher education. States have traditionally funded … Continue reading →

Law degree: how to pay for it?

Training to become a barrister or solicitor is a competitive and expensive business. The legal profession has made efforts to become more accessible to aspiring lawyers from all backgrounds and to increase the diversity of its members, but the financial cost remains an enormous barrier for many. Faced with paying university tuition fees, the ridiculously … Continue reading →

How The French Economy Will Become Bigger than the German

OFCE/Sciences Po Cornilleau writes: Overall, French fertility has generally been higher than German fertility in the post-war period, with the gap widening since the early 2000s. As a result, the number of births in France is now substantially higher than the number in Germany: in 2011, 828,000 compared with 678,000, i.e. 22% more births in … Continue reading →

Displaced workers are faster to find jobs at new employers

“The empirical literature on the relationship between job mobility and earnings dynamics emphasize two distinctly different patterns. On the one hand are findings that job mobility yields increases in earnings for workers” write Bruce Fallick, John Haltiwanger, and Erika McEntarfer in Job-to-Job Flows and the Consequences of Job Separations (Choosen excerpts by JMM to follow) This view emphasizes that, … Continue reading →

No evidence working older persons reduces the job opportunities of younger persons

Between December 2007 and May 2010, the employment rate dropped by 6 percent for men ages 25-54, but less than 1 percent for workers age 55 and older. The pattern for women was equally dramatic: the employment rate dropped by 3 percent for younger women and actually increased by almost 1 percent for older women … Continue reading →

Chinese investment in US between 2000 and 2012 had created 27,000 jobs

Foreign direct investment in the United States from China hit a record high through the first nine months of 2012 despite election-year rhetoric against the country and a congressional report casting national-security suspicions on two Chinese tech companies. During this year’s first three quarters, Chinese enterprises poured $6.3 billion in FDI in the US, according … Continue reading →

Italy – Brain Drain – The Education Employment Gap (video)

India – Literacy : TARA Akshar+, the fastest literacy programs in the world

“An India-focused adult literacy program has been short-listed for an international humanitarian prize for having taught nearly 60,000 women to read and write in 35 days, making it one of the fastest literacy programs in the world.” reports Margherita Stancati in India Literacy Program May Be World’s Fastest on blogs.wsj.com. And,“Although men can enroll, too, … Continue reading →

The effect of population growth on per capita GDP growth is negative in developing countries | Minh Quang Dao

Based on data from the World Bank and using a sample of forty-three developing economies, the author finds that the growth rate of per capita GDP is linearly dependent upon population growth, both the young and old dependency ratios, the mortality rate. Continue reading →

Higher Education – Women : 25 Countries Where Women Don’t Go To College

“In America and other well-developed countries, it’s easy to take education for granted. For most women, if you want to go to college, you can make it happen, whether it’s through student loans, scholarships, or alternative education. But around the world, millions of women and girls never have that opportunity, and often never even complete … Continue reading →

India – Business Scholls: Apart from the top, most are struggling to survive

“Apart from the top few, most business schools are struggling to survive.” writes Kalpana Pathak in Out of business on business-standard.com “The scary truth of business education, which not so long ago was a passport to a cushy corporate job, is finally out — there just aren’t enough takers. There are, at last count, over … Continue reading →

UK – Hiring secret agent’s apprentice

How’s this for a job title – secret agent’s apprentice? The British government is recruiting teenage apprentice spies and codebreakers without university degrees in a bid to deepen the talent pool of its intelligence services for the era of cyberterorrism and cyberwarfare. Foreign secretary William Hague announced the programme on Thursday in a speech at … Continue reading →

BC – Universities warn of jobs crisis

The province’s leading universities have fired a warning shot across the bow of Premier Christy Clark’s vaunted jobs agenda. Without increased government funding of postsecondary education and better financial aid for hard-pressed students, B.C. faces a bleak future of jobs going begging, according to a report presented Thursday to the legislature’s select finance committee. “This … Continue reading →

Europe not doing enough on jobs and growth

The national governments of Europe are not doing enough to create jobs and growth. The president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, delivered this message after meeting with representatives of employers and trade unions in Brussels. Barroso called for immediate action. The crisis is going on unabated. Average unemployment in the EU is over … Continue reading →

Manitoba – Motor Coach laying off 190

Bus manufacturer Motor Coach Industries is laying off 190 employees from its Winnipeg plant. A Motor Coach spokesperson confirmed the layoffs to CBC News late Thursday, citing decreasing customer demand. Glenn Tomchak, the local president with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said the company notified workers of the layoffs on Thursday afternoon. … Continue reading →