U.S.

Skills and Productivity in Canada – Skills shortages explain 7 per cent of the gap between U.S. and Canadian productivity

Skills shortages hamper Canada’s productivity growth. If there had been no skills shortages over the past 20 years, Canada’s GDP would be 1.8 per cent, or $49 billion, larger. Key findings • Skills shortages hamper productivity growth. We estimate Canada’s GDP would be up to 1.8 per cent, or $49 billion, larger today if there … Continue reading →

Top 1% Earners / In What Field Do They Majored In ?

According to the Census Bureau’s 2010 American Community Survey, the majors that give you the best chance of reaching the 1 percent are pre-med, economics, biochemistry, zoology and, yes, biology, in that order. Below is a chart showing the majors most likely to get into the 1 percent (excluding majors held by fewer than 50,000 … Continue reading →

US / Birth Rate Falls to a Record Low, Worse Among Immigrants

The U.S. birth rate dipped in 2011 to the lowest ever recorded, led by a plunge in births to immigrant women since the onset of the Great Recession. The overall U.S. birth rate, which is the annual number of births per 1,000 women in the prime childbearing ages of 15 to 44, declined 8% from … Continue reading →

In The News | U.S. Unemployment Rises to 8.2% in May, Global Talent Pool in 2020, Layoffs at GM, Mazda, Bombardier Recreational, United Airlines and Windstream and Much More

Unemployment rises to 8.2% in May as job growth stalls again – latimes.com WASHINGTON — The nation’s unemployment rate rose for the first time in nearly a year, to 8.2% in May, as the economy added a disappointingly small number of jobs for the third straight month. The government said Friday that employers created on … Continue reading →

Three main reasons that this recovery isn’t generating enough jobs

There are three main reasons that this recovery isn’t generating enough jobs: 1. Overall economic growth has been subpar since this recovery started Six months after the last recession ended, the U.S. economy began growing at an annual rate of 3.8%, adjusted for inflation. And although it has slowed since then, real growth for the … Continue reading →

Long-term unemployment : almost 30% of jobless in U.S.

Once unemployed, more Americans are staying that way than before the recession, with 29.5% of jobless Americans now out of work for more than a year. In the first quarter of the year, 3.9 million of the nearly 13.3 million unemployed workers in the country had been jobless for all or most of 2011. That’s … Continue reading →

The U.S. Unemployment Map

Blueprint to Transform Career and Technical Education – U.S. Department of Education

Today U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will visit the Des Moines Area Community College in Ankeny, Iowa, to release the Obama Administration’s blueprint for transforming Career and Technical Education (CTE), by reauthorizing the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006. Secretary Duncan will hold a town hall to discuss how the … Continue reading →

Reshoring | More Than a Third of Large Manufacturers Are Considering Coming Back to Made in U.S.

More than a third of U.S.-based manufacturing executives at companies with sales greater than $1 billion are planning to bring back production to the United States from China or are considering it, according to a new survey by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Decision makers at 106 companies across a broad range of industries responded … Continue reading →

U.S. | Measuring the increase in income inequality before-tax and after-tax

Social scientists and philosophers have been concerned with issues surrounding the distribution of income or income inequality for over 200 years—the economist and philosopher Adam Smith discussed these issues as early as 1776. Academic writers have been writing on income inequality measurement issues for at least a century. Policy makers have also long been interested … Continue reading →

Education still matters for unemployment

Despite gains in employment, uneducated workers are still three times more likely to be unemployed than college-educated workers. According to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate was 8.2% in March, which is a large improvement over the near-record high of 10.2% two years ago.  While unemployment rates have improved for most workers, the … Continue reading →

U.S. | Businesses add a disappointing 120,000 jobs in March

U.S.  | BLS Commissioner’s Statement on the Employment Situation  (Adapted excerpts by Lab Market Monitor) Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 120,000 in March, and the unemployment rate, at 8.2 percent, changed little. Over the prior 3 months, nonfarm job growth had averaged 246,000 per month. Since a recent low point in February 2010, payroll employment has … Continue reading →

JCPenney to cut 900 jobs

J.C. Penney Co Inc said on Thursday that it will cut about 900 jobs, including roughly 600 at its headquarters, as it trims costs and tries to start running its 110-year-old business more like a nimble start-up. The Plano, Texas-based retailer, which has already overhauled its pricing strategy under new chief executive Ron Johnson, said … Continue reading →

‘Fix Young America’ aims to recruit Stephen Colbert

Fix Young America, a digitally crowd-funded movement which promotes youth entrepreneurship, is going after satirical talk-show host Stephen Colbert to act as its spokesperson, the Daily Beast reported. 28-year-old Scott Gerber, whose Young Entrepreneur Council and Gen Y Capital Partners non-profit groups aim to put an end to unemployment among young Americans, is the mastermind … Continue reading →

U.S. | Unemployment Extension | Summary of the changes

Federal extended unemployment benefits are in effect for 2012, however federal extended benefits for long-term unemployed workers will be gradually reduced to 73 weeks in the states with the highest rates of unemployment and 63 weeks elsewhere. Alison Doyle presents a summary of the changes @: via Unemployment Extension.