General Motors stock acquired by the federal government in exchange for debt repayment is trading for about half the value used in the conversion calculation, while the stock market is significantly up for the year. If that stock were sold today, the taxpayers would lose $14 billion. Then there is Solyndra. Enough said. One year … Continue reading
While the One-Stop system has performed as best as it could during the recession and recovery, the system and its clients faced several challenges. The appropriate deployment of technology can address many of these challenges. Continue reading
The American economy was terrifyingly close to the brink in 2008 and 2009, and the impending collapse of General Motors and Chrysler threatened to be the final push. When the companies begged the federal government to save them from financial catastrophe, President George W. Bush and later President Obama ignored strong Republican objections, saving a … Continue reading
In recent weeks, area manufacturers have peppered veteran affairs offices and job training centers with requests for veteran job candidates, preferably people fresh from the fight in Iraq or Afghanistan. Cuyahoga County recently welcomed a veteran job specialist — becoming the first county in Ohio to do so — and some major employers are instructing … Continue reading
A top Boeing official recently shared this sobering statistic: that 50 percent of Boeing’s engineers will be eligible to retire by 2015. Similar and equally frightening statistics pertain to the growing need for engineers in the energy industry, the transportation systems sector, and the civil infrastructure arena. Another projection shows that by 2018 the state … Continue reading
Democratic governors joined President Barack Obama Friday in full 2012 campaign mode, defending the president’s record on the economy. The governors, who met with Obama while in town for this weekend’s National Governor’s Association conference, touted job creation — long considered Obama’s top political vulnerability — as a political strength. They pointed particularly to growth … Continue reading
You know that old saying, “When the U.S. sneezes, Canada catches a cold.” It still applies. The United States remains our biggest trading partner. What happens there affects everything from our tourism to our exports. But now, Canada is facing a bigger threat to its economic health. It’s called Dutch Disease — and it’s complicated … Continue reading
Yesterday the city announced a $479 million capital plan to support the city colleges’ “College to Careers” program, which, in part, would rebuild and expand Malcolm X College, “including a new Allied Health Academy that will strengthen ties to the Illinois Medical District.” As Deanna Isaacs of the Reader noted in its wake: According to … Continue reading
For years, India’s basic collegiate education had been segregated into three distinct academic islands: the masses pursued humanities, the ones with shining score cards took to the sciences and the rest who wanted to pick up the tools of trade, opted for commerce. Now students can venture into a fourth dimension: a bachelor’s in vocation … Continue reading
In a post at The Atlantic, Jordan Weissmann draws a couple interesting graphs using data from the BLS’s recently-released projections of job growth to 2020. Weissmann concentrates on those jobs that require only a high-school diploma or less, and points out the surprising stat that 63% of all US jobs created (12.8 million total) will be … Continue reading
A factory sits empty. It’s not in the Rust Belt, nor is it part of a manufacturing exodus that has cost the U.S. thousands of jobs. It is a factory in Shenzhen, China, and the American company that once employed Chinese workers is now packing up, coming home and bringing the jobs with them. John … Continue reading
It’s midnight on a Wednesday and I’m sitting at my keyboard after a 10-hour day trying to finish an article on whether Americans work too much. This is a prank, right? Sadly, it’s more like a typical day for most freelance writers, and we’re becoming part of the norm. With an increasingly competitive job market, … Continue reading
Seeking to make good on past threats in Congress to rein in the Federal Reserve’s powers, a prominent Republican lawmaker said on Thursday he will introduce legislation to focus the U.S. central bank on a single mandate to fight inflation and protect the dollar’s value. Representative Kevin Brady, vice chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, … Continue reading
After leading the nation in unemployment for four years, Michigan has finally dropped out of the Top 10. State unemployment slid to 9.3% in December, only a touch higher than the national rate, and a sharp decline from the 14.1% rate that Michigan hit in the fall of 2009. And last year was the first … Continue reading
Congress has passed and President Obama has signed extension of federal extended unemployment benefits programs and the payroll tax cut. 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. Here’s a summary of the changes: Extended Unemployment Tiers 2012 … Continue reading