Did you know we have a youth unemployment problem? Employers of every size in every sector lament the lack of skills available to them in the talent pool. Whether you’re reading reports from McKinsey, the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, or countless other research organizations, the message is all too similar: our … Continue reading
First lady Michelle Obama on Monday will announce the launch of a credentialing program that the White House says will help members of the armed forces leaving military service earn the certification needed for many high-tech jobs in the private sector. Many departing service members have faced problems landing high-tech jobs in the private sector … Continue reading
‘The decline in the employment-population ratios for men and women over 2000–07, just before the Great Recession, represents a historic turnaround in U.S. employment trends’ writes Robert A. Moffitt in The Reversal of the Employment- Population Ratio in the 2000s: Facts and Explanations on brookings.edu. (Adapted chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor to follow) The decline is disproportionately concentrated among the less … Continue reading
‘Understanding the impact of job loss on student achievement has grown increasingly important given the widespread job loss that occurred during the Great Recession’ writes Andy Chiamopoulos in The Effects of Community-wide Job Loss on Student Achievement on dukespace.lib.duke.edu. (Adapted chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor to follow) The author evaluates the impact of the county-level job loss within North Carolina on 9 classes … Continue reading
When the Joint Economic Committee’s hearing on fixing the nation’s problem kicked off on Wednesday, April 24, only one lawmaker was in attendance: Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the Committee’s vice chair who was holding the hearing. (Niraj Chokshi) It stands to reason that lawmakers who often decry the high jobless rate would want to be seen … Continue reading
In the U.S., the percentage of high school graduates by state ranges from 62 percent (Nevada) to 88 percent (Iowa), with an overall average of 78 percent. What about the 22 percent of young people who drop out of high school? What are their prospects? From a historical perspective, this chart shows the economic impact … Continue reading
The balance of genders among top professions leans heavily toward men but women are making strides forward, U.S. employment firm CareerBuilder said. “While employers have made strides in equalizing compensation for both genders, historical gaps are still present in some organizations today,” Rosemary Haefner, vice president of Human Resources at CareerBuilder said in a statement. … Continue reading
Many older Americans and retirees are now working temporary and seasonal jobs as well as project assignments. There is a big demand in this area as employers generally do not have to pay benefits and the costs of off boarding are minimal by comparison to having to let a full-time person go. Any time employers … Continue reading
The Federal Reserve set the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 25 basis points in December 2008. It has remained there because the recovery in output and jobs has been so slow. The rate was set so low to stimulate aggregate demand and job growth (by lowering borrowing costs for consumers … Continue reading
Q: In terms of the evolution of America’s retirement health, we’ve moved from defined benefit programs, pensions, to defined contribution. … Describe what’s happening to our retirement health as these [different] instruments are introduced and the rush of people into mutual funds. … … In my new book, which is called The Clash of the … Continue reading
During the first two years of the nation’s economic recovery, the mean net worth of households in the upper 7% of the wealth distribution rose by an estimated 28%, while the mean net worth of households in the lower 93% dropped by 4%, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of newly released Census Bureau … Continue reading
The funding shortfall bedeviling the 100 largest U.S. corporate pension funds rose for a second straight year in 2012, as a strong stock market and hefty plan contributions failed to offset damage done by persistently low interest rates, according to an analysis by Towers Watson released on Monday. The gap between what these corporations, all … Continue reading
Up until about 15 years ago, you could have nicely employed this picture against your Luddite friends who complain about productivity killing jobs. Until then, the two lines largely grew together. Yes, we were more productive, but growth resulted in higher demand that fed back into the economy’s job-creation function in ways that boosted job … Continue reading
The growing disparity in wealth made the great recession worse and the recovery weaker than ever before. This nation’s wealth disparity widened more than ever before over the last five years because of the steep decline in the value of residential homes and stagnant wages for the lower and middle income groups in the U.S., … Continue reading
We’d be serving the present and the future. Here’s one example how: Today states are slashing budgets for community colleges, just when every good job requires more skill. That is truly cutting off our thumbs to lose weight. Last week, I interviewed Gary Green, the president of Forsyth Technical Community College, in Winston-Salem, N.C., with … Continue reading