Data, Tools, & Models

Construction industry's relationship to unemployment

2012-02-09T12:27:00.001-08:00

[from the Economic Policy Institute] We often hear that our high unemployment is the result of the housing boom and the need to shift unemployed construction workers into new fields, which takes time and training. Construction employment has fallen dramatically since the housing bubble burst, but construction worker unemployment is neither what raised the unemployment rate nor what prevents it from falling as rapidly as we would want. The graph makes this clear by showing the overall unemployment rate and the unemployment rate excluding construction.

In the early aftermath of the housing collapse in 2007, the unemployment rate was 4.6 percent, just one-tenth of a percentage point higher than if there were no construction sector. By 2011, the unemployment rate had risen to 8.9 percent and would have been 8.6 percent without construction. The rise in unemployment from 2007 to 2011 was 4.3 percentage points (going from 4.6 percent to 8.9 percent) and would have risen 4.1 percentage points without any construction sector (from 4.5 percent to 8.6 percent). Thus, just 0.2 percentage points of the overall 4.3 percentage-point rise in unemployment can be attributed to higher construction worker unemployment; that is, construction-sector unemployment is responsible for less than 5 percent of the overall rise in unemployment between 2007 and 2011.

Report examines America's Poor

2012-02-06T06:17:00.001-08:00

[from Philanthropy News Digest] In the aftermath of the Great Recession, the ranks of the long-term unemployed have swelled to more than four million, the highest since the number first was tracked in 1948, a report from the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs finds. The report, At Risk: America's Poor During and After the Great Recession (40 pages, PDF), examined trends by state, age, race/ethnicity, family structure, education, and employment and found that the proportion of U.S. residents living in poverty rose by 27 percent — to 46.2 million — between 2006 and 2010, with higher rates of increase among Latinos/Hispanics and African Americans, children, female-headed households, and lower-skilled adults between the ages of 18 and 34. The report also notes that while safety-net programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicaid, and unemployment insurance have responded effectively to the increase, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and federal housing assistance have not. And given the likelihood of additional cuts in safety-net programs, the authors write, the working poor, the near poor, and the long-term unemployed "new poor" are at substantial risk for at least the next five years.

Manufacturing grows, gov't jobs shrink

2012-02-06T05:59:00.000-08:00

[from the Commonwealth Foundation] The Bureau of Labor Statistics has updated their employment data by state through the end of 2011 (subject to revision). Looking at December job data ("not seasonally adjusted") over the past couple decades reveals some interesting trends:

2011 saw the largest one-year growth in private sector jobs in Pennsylvania since 1999, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
Manufacturing job growth in Pennsylvania was higher than any year since 1990.
From 2000 to 2010, the private sector lost 116,400 jobs, while government jobs grew by 30,800.
In 2011, government jobs declined by 20,200, but the private sector grew by 79,000 jobs

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Off the Charts blog also reported on this trend, noting "Local governments — mostly school districts — cut another 11,000 jobs last month. Total job losses at the state and local government levels have reached 668,000 since employment in this category peaked in August of 2008."

PA Corrections Spending

2012-02-06T05:54:00.000-08:00

When the Pew Center on the States looked at prisoners released in Pennsylvania between 1999-2002 and 2004-2007, it found the rate of prisoners returning to prisons increased. [from The Commonwealth Foundation - "Is State Corrections Spending Sustainable?"]

2012-02-02T05:32:00.000-08:00

The Occupational Outlook Quarterly Online has released new projections for 2010-2020. The report includes occupational trends, industry projections, and several other data that help individuals, education providers, and workforce development specialists consider the future when planning for career pathways.

Global STEM trends report

2012-02-02T05:17:00.000-08:00

Science and Engineering Indicators, 2012. This nearly 600-page biennial report of the National Science Foundation, released January 17, 2012, is a treasure trove of all one needs to know about STEM trends in the U.S, and in comparison with the rest of the world. It has 8 chapters, many figures and tables, as well as colorful presentation slides, all downloadable from the website. The chapters range from STEM education, to the labor force, to R&D (national trends + international comparisons), academic R&D, to industry, technology & the global marketplace, to public attitudes about science and technology, and finally, state indicators. Of greatest interest to AACTE members is likely Chapter 1: "Elementary and Secondary Math and Science Education," with a section on Math and Science Teachers, including well-referenced data on the characteristics of high-quality teachers and on school factors contributing to teachers' effectiveness. [The Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA) is highlighted on Page 1-21.] A few of the report's broader findings are the following:

China's engineering degrees were about 10 times higher than those of the U.S. in number and represented a much larger share of all bachelor's degrees (30%) than in the United States (5%).
Asia is outpacing the U.S. in the number of science and engineering degrees awarded. China, in particular, has seen an explosion in the number of students studying engineering. In 2008, U.S. students earned about 4% of the world's engineering degrees, while students in Asia accounted for 56%.
Almost one-third of all undergraduate degrees earned in China were in engineering.
In 2009, 44% of American doctorates in the natural sciences and engineering were awarded to temporary visa holders, and 57 percent of engineering doctorates were awarded to foreign students.

Science and Engineering Indicators, 2012 data are downloadable from:http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind12/

Career Clusters Forecast

2012-02-02T05:16:00.001-08:00

Career Clusters: Forecasting Demand for High School through College Jobs, 2008-2018.This report was released in Washington on November 14, 2011 by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce in collaboration with the National Research Center for Career and the Technical Education and the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education. It is intended to find the best education pathways out of jobless recovery. The report identifies 16 career clusters which represent the full array of related occupational opportunities and education requirements. Findings show that for those with high school diplomas, decent jobs still exist but there are not enough to go around. Only one in three of high school-level jobs will pay wages of $35,000 or more; although in some cases, with experience, these jobs can provide up to $50,000. High school-level jobs are found in four male dominated career clusters: manufacturing, construction, transportation, and hospitality. Of these four clusters, only jobs in manufacturing and construction still pay relatively good wages; particularly for those who obtain on-the-job-training. The study confirms that women need postsecondary education to earn the same wages as men with only a high school diploma. In many industries the overall number of jobs will decline through 2018 but openings will still be available due to retirement. For example, the study finds that there will be 181,000 fewer manufacturing jobs over the decade but there will be 3 million job openings in manufacturing by 2018. Middle-skill jobs have promise for those who acquire some level of postsecondary education or training but not a Bachelor's degree. One in two of these middle jobs provide career pathways leading to median wages of roughly $40,000. Workers with Bachelor's and graduate degrees have the most positive outlook. Five out of six jobs available for workers with Bachelor's pay more than $35,000 a year and average $60,000. Seventy-two percent of jobs available for workers with a Bachelor's degree or better are found in nine occupational clusters. Yet at this education level, all career clusters are essentially accessible. In addition to the full national report, Career Clusters contains a state-level analysis of jobs by career cluster. These documents are available online at http://cew.georgetown.edu/Clusters. Hard copies can be obtained by contacting the Center at cewgeorgetown@georgetown.edu. The full report is found at: http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/clusters-complete-update1.pdf

Health and unemployed adults

2012-01-30T10:09:00.000-08:00

[from Be Spacific] Health and Access to Care Among Employed and Unemployed Adults: United States, 2009–2010, Key data:

Unemployed adults had poorer mental and physical health than employed adults; this pattern is found for insured and uninsured adults.
Unemployed adults were less likely to receive needed medical care due to cost than the employed in each insurance category.
The unemployed were less likely to receive needed prescriptions due to cost than the employed in all insurance categories.
Uninsured adults were less likely to receive needed medical care and prescription drugs due to cost than those with public or private insurance, regardless of employment status.

Enhancing Workforce Leadership Tools

2012-01-25T09:08:00.001-08:00

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) has announced the availability of resources developed through the Enhancing Workforce Leadership technical assistance initiative.

This initiative was designed to document new leadership approaches. This project identified the key characteristics of workforce leaders in today`s rapidly evolving economy. These key characteristics are necessary to address the intersection of economy, changing technology and social media platforms, and shared community and regional problems that place demands on leadership. The acquisition of these characteristics significantly builds the capacity of workforce leaders to address the challenges and opportunities they foresee in their communities and organizations. After an extensive literature review and input from over 500 workforce development practitioners and leaders, the initiative has produced an emerging framework on leadership.

The framework describes six practices of high-performing workforce leaders and policymakers that offer new approaches to advancing workforce development goals in communities. Training and Employment Notice 24-11 provides additional background on the initiative and the thoroughly details the framework. The TEN notes a number of resources and tools available through the Enhancing Workforce Leadership Project Gateway.

A graphic depiction of the Enhancing Workforce Leadership Framework describes the six practices of workforce leaders and serves as an introduction to the guide.
The Leadership Guide offers a comprehensive overview of the six practices of leadership. Included in this is a Social Media Guide, which features social innovation opportunities and strategies, such as Gov 2.0, crowdsourcing, and gaming.
Hear perspectives on change, innovation, and why leadership matters from five national workforce leaders in the Project Video Collection.
Use the Workforce Leader Simulations to stimulate conversations about leadership in communities and in businesses. Simulation toolkits, containing facilitator guides, sample letters, introductory videos, and a designer`s checklist, are available for download.
Over 30 additional resources and web links used by workforce leaders to enhance their leadership skills and cultivate other leaders are also included.

2012 Employment Forecast from US Conference of Mayors

2012-01-25T09:06:00.000-08:00

[reposted from Be Spacific] U.S. Metro Economies - 2012 Employment Forecast and the Impact of Exports, U.S. Conference of Mayors, January 2012

The median real income for US households in 2010 was $49,455. This is 7.1% lower than median real household income in 1999, which was $53,252 (in 2010 dollars). This decline has been even steeper for those in lower income groups, leading to increased income inequality and deteriorating financial stability for many Americans. From 1999 to 2010, income values for the bottom 10% of American earners declined by 12.1%...The trend of the past decade of declining median income and increasing income inequality has continued during the recovery from the Great Recession. Median income declined 2.3% from 2009 to 2010. Those in the bottom two-fifths of the income distribution also had a smaller share of aggregate income in 2010 than 2009. In 2010, the bottom 20% of households received 3.3% of the income, down from 3.4% in 2009, 3.6% in 2000, and 4.1% in 1970. These income trends are worrisome for the health and growth of the economy. As lower-income households spend a greater portion of their incomes as consumption, the constraint in their spending power retards consumer demand, adding to the sluggish performance of the national economy."

5 things you probably didn't know about Food Stamps

2012-01-25T09:05:00.000-08:00

[from Off the Charts]
1) A large and growing share of SNAP households are working households(see chart). In 2010, more than three times as many SNAP households worked as relied solely on welfare benefits for their income.

The share of SNAP households with earnings has continued growing in the past few years — albeit at a slower pace — despite the large increase in unemployment.

One reason why SNAP is serving more working families is that, for a growing share of the nation’s workers, having a job has not been enough to keep them out of poverty.

See additional data here.

Nonprofits Added Jobs Faster Than Businesses Last Decade, Study Finds

2012-01-24T10:12:00.001-08:00

[from Philanthropy News Digest] By Noelle Barton

Nonprofits added jobs at an average annual rate of more than 2 percent from 2000 to 2010, while for-profit jobs were cut by 0.6 percent each year on average, according to a new study.

Even during the recession years of 2008 and 2009, charities increased their employment by nearly 2 percent, while for-profit jobs declined by nearly 4 percent, according to the report, which was based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

The study, by the Center for Civil Society Studies at Johns Hopkins University, also found that nonprofits are the third largest type of private employer in the United States, behind only retail trade and manufacturing. Nonprofits employed nearly 10.7 million workers in 2010, which is just over 10 percent of the country’s work force, not counting government employees. More than half of all nonprofit employees have jobs at health-care organizations, while 15 percent work at colleges and other educational institutions.

Although nonprofit organizations added jobs at a higher rate than their for-profit counterparts in general, there were exceptions in some parts of the economy: For example, in the social services, employment grew by an average of only 2.2 percent at nonprofits but by an average of 5.4 percent at for-profits. During that period, the share of social-service jobs held at nonprofits dropped from 62 percent to 54 percent. Similar declines were seen in education and health care.

Politics of Economic Opportunity audio conference

2012-01-12T11:10:00.000-08:00

Live Audio Conference—
The Politics of Economic Opportunity:
Will Growing Poverty Affect Election 2012?

Tuesday, January 17, 2012, 9:30 a.m. – Noon ET

If you are unable to attend Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity’s upcoming forum in person, you can now join the forum by live audio conference. The event, sponsored by Spotlight with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, will examine how the struggles facing growing numbers of low-income families will affect the 2012 elections. The forum will also include the release of new polling data from Spotlight that looks at how voter concerns about growing poverty are influencing perceptions about candidates.

Maureen Bunyan of ABC 7 News and a founder of the National Association of Black Journalists will serve as emcee. The forum will present two panel discussions featuring major national pollsters, political analysts and members of the media. Sterling Speirn, president and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Patrick McCarthy, president and CEO of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, will provide remarks.

CLICK HERE to register for the live audio conference.

McGraw-Hill Research Foundation Policy Paper Addresses Growing Demand for a Skilled and Educated Global Workforce

2012-01-12T11:07:00.001-08:00

Authors call on business and educational communities to collaborate to decrease widening skills gap; career and technical education viewed as solution

NEW YORK, Dec. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A policy paper released by The McGraw-Hill Research Foundation calls for greater collaboration between the business and education communities to create a coordinated, institutionalized system that prepares the workforce of today and tomorrow for the demands of an increasingly high-tech and more competitive global economy.

In the paper, titled "Developing Human Capital: Meeting the Growing Global Need for a Skilled and Educated Workforce," authors Janet Bray, executive director of the Association for Career and Technical Education; Ron Painter, CEO of the National Association of Workforce Boards; and Mitch Rosin, director of adult education and workforce initiatives for McGraw-Hill Education, point out that the goals and accountability systems of business and education do not align – but can. The current lack of integration is a major barrier to creating a steady supply of employees who are well suited to succeed in the changing global job market, whether they work on the factory floor or in a C-suite.

"There has traditionally been a disconnect between the business people who create jobs and the education professionals who provide high school students and others with the knowledge and skills they need to be successful employees," the authors observe.

For example, many of today's business leaders believe academia is not adequately producing highly skilled candidates with the three primary qualities they seek in new-hires:

A global mindset – the ability to work in an international, multi-cultural society
Systematic thinkers with problem-solving, higher-order analytical and collaborative skills, also known as "21^st century skills"
An appreciation for the needs and benefits of lifelong learning

Increasingly, employers are also looking for workers with industry-recognized credentials, and are far less concerned with the current gold standard measurements of success in education, such as course credits and seat time.

Nearly three years of a job-seekers ratio above 4-to-1

2012-01-12T05:44:00.000-08:00

To put this figure in context, the highest this ratio ever got in the early 2000s downturn was 2.8-to-1, and in December 2000, the month the JOLTS survey began, the ratio was 1.1-to-1. While the job-seekers ratio has slowly been improving since it peaked at 6.9-to-1 in the summer of 2009, today’s data release marks two years and 11 months—152 weeks—that the ratio has been above 4-to-1. A job-seekers ratio of more than 4-to-1 means that there are no jobs for more than three out of four unemployed workers, no matter what job seekers do. Furthermore, the lack of job openings relative to unemployed workers is in no way limited to particular industries such as construction—unemployed workers dramatically outnumber job openings across the board, in every major industry.

[from Economic Policy Institute] [The] Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the number of job openings decreased by 63,000 in November 2011, to 3.2 million; also, October’s job openings were revised down by 43,000. In November, there were 13.3 million unemployed workers, an improvement from 13.8 million in October (unemployment figures come from the Current Population Survey and can be found here). Therefore the ratio of unemployed workers to job openings was 4.2-to-1 in November, a slight improvement from the revised October ratio of 4.3-to-1.

Full story here.

Erie shows wage gains

2012-01-12T05:39:00.000-08:00

According to a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data release, Erie was one of the top wage gainers for percentage increase over 2010-11. See page 3 here. Wage and employment information for other large counties is also made available in the new release.

Measuring Long-Term Hardship in the Labor Market

2012-01-10T05:42:00.000-08:00

[reposted from Be Spacific] Down and Out: Measuring Long-Term Hardship in the Labor Market, January 2012, John Schmitt and Janelle Jones - Center for Economic and Policy Research

"From peak to trough, the United States lost almost nine million jobs in the most recent economic downturn. What was completely unprecedented about the most recent recession, however, was the explosion in long-term unemployment. The depth and length of the recession pushed the long-term unemployment rate – the share of unemployed workers who have been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer – to over 40 percent throughout the entirety of 2010 and 2011. The official concept of “long-term unemployment,” however, is incomplete and, in some cases, even potentially misleading. As tracked by government statistics, the long-term unemployed are only a relatively small part of the population facing extended, sometimes permanent, spells without work. This paper proposes rethinking our understanding of long-term unemployment in two ways. First, we encourage shifting from a narrow focus on long-term unemployment toward a broader concept of “long-term hardship” in the labor market. Many workers or potential workers who do not fit the official definition of long-term unemployment – including “discouraged” and “marginally attached” workers and those involuntarily working part-time jobs – face long-term hardship in the labor market, but are not captured in the standard measure of long-term unemployment. Second, we suggest complementing the standard measure of long-term unemployment, which reports the share of the unemployed who have been out of work for six months or more, with an alternative measure, which reports the share of the total labor force that has been unemployed for six months or more. This alternative measure avoids some counter-intuitive properties of the standard statistic and is better for making comparisons across demographic groups."

Unemployment Rate by Occupation

2012-01-10T05:41:00.000-08:00

[reposted from Be Spacific] WSJ - 2011 Jobs Snapshot - Unemployment Rate by Job

"The national U.S. unemployment rate is 8.5%, but that varies widely by what profession you might be in. The below chart shows the size of select industries and their unemployment rates. The table below shows all the occupations within those industries and their unemployment rates.Search the list to find what the unemployment rate is for your job."

Competitiveness and Innovative Capacity of the U.S.

2012-01-10T05:39:00.001-08:00

The U.S Department of Commerce has delivered to Congress a comprehensive report on “The Competitiveness and Innovative Capacity of the United States.” The report makes three important findings:

Federal investments in research, education and infrastructure were critical building blocks for American economic competitiveness, business expansion and job creation in the last century;
Failures to properly invest in, and have comprehensive strategies for, those areas have eroded America's competitive position; and,
In a constrained budgetary environment, prioritizing support for these pillars are imperative for America's economic future and provide a strong return on investment for the U.S. taxpayer.

The report was mandated as part of the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, which was signed into law by President Obama in January last year. The report addresses a diverse range of topics and policy options, including: tax policy; the general business climate in the U.S.; barriers to setting up new firms; trade policy, including export promotion; the effectiveness of Federal Research and Development policy; intellectual property regimes in the U.S. and abroad; the health of the manufacturing sector; and science and technology education.

The full report, as well as additional resources, can be found online at www.commerce.gov/competes.

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The President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness will meet on January 17, 2012, at the White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington, DC, beginning at 2 p.m. Eastern Time.

The meeting will be open to the public via live webcast at http://www.whitehouse.gov/live.

The purpose of this meeting is to discuss initiatives and policies to strengthen the economy, promote and accelerate job growth and bolster America's competitiveness around the world. The President will continue the discussion focused on identifying practical ways the government and business can work together to foster growth and create jobs.

Hard Times, College Majors, Unemployment and Earnings: Not All College Degrees Are Created Equal

2012-01-06T05:34:00.001-08:00

[reposted from Be Spacific]

News release: "Unemployment figures show the jobless rate for recent college graduates with Bachelor’s Degrees has been running at an unacceptable 8.9 percent. But, a new study, Hard Times, College Majors, Unemployment and Earnings: Not All College Degrees Are Created Equal, from the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce finds that unemployment among job seekers with no better than a high school diploma is a catastrophic 22.9 percent – and an almost unthinkable 31.5 percent among high school dropouts. So, is college still worth it? A major conclusion of the new report is that it all depends on your major. And while a college degree gives job seekers a formidable advantage over those without, the study points out, not all degrees are created equal, and there are a number of factors that prospective students should consider before sending off their college applications."

ETA Certification Finder Tool

2012-01-03T07:09:00.001-08:00

As part of efforts to promote credential attainment, the Department of Labor-sponsored CareerOneStop electronic tool has launched enhancements to the Certification Finder database and search tool that highlights certain credentials with icons indicating that were recognized, endorsed, or accredited by specific third-party organizations:

Accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
Accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA)
Endorsed by a third-party industry organizations—such as National Association of Manufacturers
Affiliated with a Job Corps training program

Additional icons will be added in coming quarters.

The Certification Finder tool can be searched by industry, occupation, or keyword to find relevant personnel/workforce certifications that can help an individual qualify for employment and advancement.

Training Industry Report

2012-01-03T07:02:00.001-08:00

[reposted from Be Spacific] "Now in its 30th year, The Industry Report is recognized as the training industry’s most trusted source of data on budgets, staffing, and programs. This year, the study was conducted by an outside research firm in May/June 2011, when members from the Training magazine database were e-mailed an invitation to participate in an online survey. Only U.S.-based corporations and educational institutions with 100 or more employees were included in the analysis. Agencies of the state, local, and federal government were not included in the analysis. The data represents a cross-section of industries and company sizes...The economic roller coaster ride continues, but training appears to be on an upswing: Total 2011 U.S. training expenditures—including payroll and spending on external products and services—jumped 13 percent to $59.7 billion. Some 32 percent of respondents reported that their training budget increased—up from 24 percent last year. Likewise, training payroll increased substantially, from $25.7 billion to $31.3 billion, and spending on outside products and services jumped more than $2 billion to $9.1 billion."

Pew Foundation on long-term unemployment

2012-01-03T07:01:00.001-08:00

Pew’s analysis of unemployment data for the third quarter of 2011, based on data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, illuminates the scope of the United States’ long-term unemployment challenge. Between the third quarter of 2009 and the third quarter of 2011, the percentage of workers who had been jobless for a year or longer nearly doubled from 16 percent (2.5 million) to 31.8 percent (4.4 million). Read the full addendum here.

Erie makes gains among "best performing cities"

2012-01-03T06:21:00.000-08:00

Erie has climbed from last year's spot of 147 to now rank 133 among the top 200 metro areas...

The 2011 Milken Institute Best-Performing Cities Index ranks U.S. metropolitan areas by how well they are creating and sustaining jobs and economic growth. The components include job, wage and salary, and technology growth. In most years, these give a good indication of the underlying structural performance of regional economics. The full report can be downloaded here.

Women in the Labor Force data

2011-12-30T05:41:00.001-08:00

[reposted from Be Spacific] Women in the Labor Force: A Databook, 2011 Edition

The past several decades have been marked by notable changes in women’s labor force activities. Women’s labor force participation is significantly higher today than it was in the 1970s, particularly among women with children under 18 years of age. A larger share of women work full time and year round than in the past. In addition, women have increasingly attained higher levels of education: Among women aged 25 to 64 who are in the labor force, the proportion with a college degree roughly tripled from 1970 to 2010. Women’s earnings as a proportion of men’s earnings also have grown over time. In 1979, women working full time earned 62 percent of what men did; in 2010, women’s earnings were 81 percent of men’s. This report presents historical and current labor force and earnings data for women and men from the Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS is a national monthly survey of approximately 60,000 households conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau..."

Pennsylvania Economic Report

2011-12-27T06:57:00.000-08:00

This new report (December 2011) created by the Center for Workforce Information and Analysis outlines key factors and trends for Pennsylvania's economic situation. It includes industry and employment data, along with other labor market information.

Demographics of low-paid workers

2011-12-27T06:55:00.001-08:00

http://stateofworkingamerica.org/charts/the-characteristics-of-poverty-wage-workers-2009/

This chart outlines who represents the lower-paid workers in the United States.

OECD Factbook 2011-2012 Economic, Environmental and Social Statistics

2011-12-27T06:54:00.000-08:00

The December 2011 OECD Factbook shows international comparisons for factors such as education, employment, costs per student for education, and other factors. Indicators show growth, decline, and other trends across countries.

Challenges in higher education

2011-12-27T06:52:00.000-08:00

[reposted from Be Spacific] What Can We Learn from Law School? Legal Education Reflects Issues Found in All of Higher Education, Julie Margetta Morgan, Center for American Progress, December 2011

"This report explores the field of legal education with the hope that putting a magnifying glass to this small part of higher education will help us better understand the problems that face all colleges. It details the steady rise in law school enrollment, despite high tuition rates and a heavy reliance on student loan debt. And it describes the unpleasant surprise that awaits law students upon graduation: Though a few lucky grads will make more than $130,000 per year, most new lawyers can expect annual salaries of around $63,000. With monthly loan payments near $1,000, graduates are finding that membership in the legal profession is not the golden ticket they thought it would be. These observations show that in legal education — as in the rest of higher education — forces such as rising tuition and limited availability of jobs are changing the value proposition of earning a degree. Schools, students, and policymakers, however, are slow to respond."

GAO outlines recommendations for Dept. of Labor programs

2011-12-27T06:30:00.000-08:00

Enhancing Employment and Training Programs

The GAO also lists potential cost-saving measures to education and training programs through reducing duplication and overlap:

http://www.gao.gov/ereport/gao-11-318sp/overview

New study on the long-term unemployed and underemployed

2011-12-27T05:48:00.000-08:00

As the country grapples with the lingering effects of the Great Recession, many Americans continue to feel the impacts of the ailing economy in very real ways. One group that has been particularly hard‐hit are those who have been out of work or getting by with only part‐time work for an extended period of time. The Kaiser Family Foundation/NPR Long‐Term Unemployed Survey seeks to describe the experiences of these individuals, including their outlook on the future, attitudes toward government, and the financial and health‐related consequences of long‐term joblessness and underemployment.

Some of the key findings:
 The long‐term un‐ and underemployed are less likely than full‐time workers to hold a college degree, and their previous jobs were not high‐paying (more than half earned less than $30,000 a year at their last job).

 While six in ten of the long‐term un‐ and underemployed feel they have all the education and skills they need in order to be competitive in the current job market, fewer than four in ten are very or somewhat confident they’ll be able to find a job with the pay and benefits they need to get by.

 Many of those who have been jobless or without full‐time work for an extended period of time report facing a long list of financial problems. Majorities say that in the past two years, they have taken money out of savings or retirement funds to help pay bills (59 percent), been contacted by a collection agency (53 percent), sold personal belongings (51 percent), or borrowed money from relatives or friends (51 percent). Almost half report problems paying for housing (47 percent) and food (44 percent), and a third (33 percent) say they’ve changed their living situation, such as moving in with relatives or friends in order to save money. Nearly a quarter (23 percent) say they’ve had their utilities turned off, and nine percent report losing their home due to eviction or foreclosure.

Aligning Community Colleges to Their Local Labor Markets

2011-12-19T10:16:00.000-08:00

David Altstadt, September 2011

The U.S. economy will emerge from the Great Recession radically transformed from what it was a generation ago. Changes are afoot affecting which occupations and industry sectors will produce employment growth, as well as what education credentials, competencies, and skills will be required to do those jobs.

Community colleges already take steps to address the workforce needs of local employers, but their efforts often are hampered by a lack of detailed, up-to-date information about occupations and skills in demand. A promising, yet still-evolving solution to that problem can be found within the large pool of job openings posted on the Internet.

This paper discusses new sophisticated “spidering” and artificial intelligence technologies that can aggregate and analyze these online job ads and provide a more comprehensive, “real-time” source of information about the hiring and skill needs of local employers. If proven accurate and reliable, analyses of online job ads could complement traditional ways that community colleges determine labor market demand for program and course offerings.

Full report from Jobs For the Future.

PA Scores highly for performance on TANF Emergency Fund programs

2011-12-19T09:37:00.001-08:00

[from Be Spacific] Subsidizing Employment Opportunities for Low-Income Families - A Review of State Employment Programs Created Through the TANF Emergency Fund. Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) Report 2011-38. December 2011. Administration for Children and Families, Health and Human Services. Key Findings:

"While states and localities often had less than one year to create or expand their subsidized employment programs, many were able to mount relatively large-scale efforts. In all, 15 states placed over 5,000 people in jobs. Four of those states — California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Texas — each placed more than 25,000 people, accounting for over half of the national total. Nationwide, about half the placements were summer jobs for youth.
Responding to the flexibility allowed under the Emergency Fund, states and localities implemented a wide range of programs. Programs differed in the participants targeted (most were not limited to TANF recipients), the type of employers recruited, the structure of the subsidy, and the size of the program.
In many programs, participants worked for private employers, who were reimbursed for all or part of participants’ wages. This model contrasted with that of most earlier subsidized employment initiatives, which placed participants in nonprofit or public agencies.
After funding ended, many of the programs also ended, and others sharply reduced the number of people served. Only a few states continued to operate at the same levels as previously, and these were states that, for the most part, were operating subsidized employment programs using TANF funds before ARRA was enacted."

County Compensation by Industry

2011-12-19T09:31:00.001-08:00

[reposted from Be Spacific] County Compensation by Industry, 2010: "Compensation increased in 2,480 counties and declined in 633 counties in the U.S. in 2010, as the average annual compensation per job increased 2.7 percent to $58,451, according to statistics released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). Total compensation of U.S. workers increased 2.2 percent in 2010, as net job losses partially offset compensation growth. Inflation grew 1.8 percent, as measured by the national price index for personal consumption expenditures."

PA Economic Development programs score poorly in new study

2011-12-19T09:13:00.000-08:00

[from Third & State, Posted by Christopher Lilienthal on December 15, 2011] A new national study sizing up hundreds of state-level tax credit, cash grant and other economic development subsidies has some bad news for Pennsylvania.

The commonwealth scored a D and ranked 40th place among the states in the Good Jobs First report, Money for Something: Job Creation and Job Quality Standards in State Economic Development Subsidy Programs. Some of the five Pennsylvania programs reviewed by researchers lack job creation requirements and wage standards for workers at subsidized companies. None of the programs required companies receiving state tax dollars to provide health benefits to workers in jobs or facilities funded by the subsidy.

Researchers looked at Pennsylvania's Film Production Tax Credit, Job Creation Tax Credit, Keystone Opportunity Zone (KOZ) Program, Opportunity Grant Program, and Research and Development Tax Credit. Combined, these programs cost state taxpayers $181 million a year.

Learn more about the Pennsylvania findings here.

The Good Jobs First study confirms the Keystone Research Center’s 2010 study which found that nine major Pennsylvania business subsidy programs had low or no job quality standards.

Hopefully, lawmakers in Harrisburg get the message and take steps to improve economic development accountability. Senator Pat Browne has proposed legislation in past sessions to address these issues. Remarking on the Good Jobs First study, he said in a Keystone Research Center press release yesterday: “Certainly, the overall process would be improved by setting clearly defined accountability standards for all of the various economic development programs in Pennsylvania.”

Using temporary workers to forecast PA's economy

2011-12-05T05:46:00.001-08:00

[from Third & State] The employment services industry provides a variety of human resources services, including most notably supplying temporary workers to other businesses. Because of the unique characteristics of this industry, economists often use its job market trends as an economic forecasting tool. The reason is simple: When the economy starts to slide, the first workers to go are usually the temporary employees, but when the economy begins to pick up, businesses will hire temporary workers first.

Read Third & State's analysis of Pennsylvania's employment services industry and job trends here.http://thirdandstate.org/2011/november/using-temporary-workers-forecast-pa-economy

One Percent of Pennsylvania Businesses Contribute 74 out of 100 New Jobs

2011-11-07T06:22:00.000-08:00

Team PA commissioned an extensive study of all Pennsylvania companies to help identify the net job producers over a multi-year period of time. The report revealed that employment growth is highly concentrated among a surprisingly small number of companies, and that those companies are almost exclusively not the companies sending out press releases with big job numbers.

From 2000-2006, 74 of every 100 net new jobs created in Pennsylvania’s private sector were generated by less than 1 percent of the state’s businesses. Click here for full details on the HiGro report.

From 2000-2006, 74 of every 100 net new jobs created in Pennsylvania’s private sector were generated by less than 1 percent of the state’s businesses. These high-growth companies (or HiGros) are amazingly diverse—located throughout every region of the state and in nearly all industries—and generate the most new jobs for the widest possible range of skills and professions.

Student Debt Report

2011-11-07T06:20:00.000-08:00

[reposted from Be Spacific]

News release: "Two-thirds of college seniors graduated with loans in 2010, and they carried an average of $25,250 in debt. They also faced the highest unemployment rate for young college graduates in recent history at 9.1%. The new report, Student Debt and the Class of 2010, includes average debt levels for the 50 states and District of Columbia and for more than 1,000 U.S. colleges and universities."

PA: The cost of education failures

2011-11-07T05:44:00.000-08:00

[reposted from the Commonwealth Foundation]

The Alliance for Excellent Education has compiled some startling facts on the cost of education failures in Pennsylvania.

High school drop-outs hurt our economy. More than 34,300 students from Pennsylvania's "class of 2010" did not graduate high school. The lost lifetime earnings for that class alone totals over $8.9 billion. If the high school dropouts who currently head households had earned their diplomas, the state's economy would have benefited from an additional $2.9 billion in wealth accumulated by families.

High school drop-outs are more likely to be on Medicaid and other welfare programs. Pennsylvania could save an estimated $505 million in health care costs over the lifetimes of each class of dropouts, had they earned their diplomas.

Colleges are paying for the remediation of high school graduates. If Pennsylvania's high schools graduated all of their students ready for college, the state could save as much as $125 million a year in college remediation costs.

High school drop-outs are more likely to go to prison. Pennsylvania's economy could see a combination of crime-related savings and additional savings of about $288 million each year if the male high school graduation rate increased by just 5 percent.

Employment-based visas map

2011-11-07T05:29:00.001-08:00

The Employment and Administration has launched a new interactive map to assist in the analysis of Employment-Based visas. The map appears on the main page at http://www.foreignlaborcert.doleta.gov/.

The selection of a State will bring up the applications processed and certified and other key data for FY 2010. The profile also presents the “top three (originating) cities” in each State by category, and summarizes the top five occupations/agricultural commodities forPERM, H-1B, H-2B and H-2A.

PA Prevailing Wage Law Lifts Skills, Productivity, Safety, Keystone Research Finds

2011-10-31T06:15:00.000-07:00

[from Keystone Research Center] States without such laws have worse jobs, not lower costs. To lower public construction costs, PA should time projects to the market trough

Read the Full Policy Brief

Read a Fact Sheet (PDF)

Download the Press Release (PDF)

HARRISBURG, PA (October 3, 2011) — With the Pennsylvania House Labor and Industry Committee scheduled to vote today on seven proposals to weaken Pennsylvania’s construction sector prevailing wage law, the Keystone Research Center today released a policy brief summarizing research on the impact of these laws. The research shows that prevailing wage laws do not raise construction costs on public projects but do increase investment in skills, improve health and safety, and lower dependence of construction workers on safety net programs.

“The research shows that there’s one surefire way to lower public construction costs,” said KRC labor economist and briefing paper co-author Dr. Mark Price, “and that is to do more construction when unemployment is high. When the market is soft, contractors bid 20% or more below prices at the market peak.”

Rural children in poverty

2011-10-31T06:02:00.000-07:00

[reposted from Be Spacific] "The authors of this brief examine child poverty rates using decennial census data from 1980, 1990, and 2000, as well as American Community Survey five-year estimates between 2005 and 2009, to identify those counties where child poverty has persisted. They find persistent child poverty in nearly twice as many U.S. counties as those that report high persistent poverty across all age groups. In all, 342 counties have experienced persistently high levels of poverty across all age groups during the past twenty-nine years. In contrast, more than 700 counties experienced persistent child poverty over the same period. Rural areas are disproportionately likely to have persistent high child poverty; 81 percent of counties with persistent child poverty are nonmetropolitan while only 65 percent of all U.S. counties are nonmetropolitan. Overall, 26 percent of rural children reside in counties whose poverty rates have been persistently high. This compares with 12 percent of urban children. Counties with persistent child poverty cluster in Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta, other areas of the Southeast, parts of the Southwest, and in the Great Plains. The authors comment that the overwhelming urban focus of welfare programs means policymakers often overlook needy families in rural areas. In addition to the high unemployment and low education levels that they document in the brief, the physical and social isolation associated with rural poverty create problems different from those in densely settled urban areas. They conclude that the reductions in government spending likely to result from the Great Recession, coupled with two decades of the devolution of policymaking responsibility from the federal to the state level (and occasionally to municipal governments), may have significant implications for children and fragile families in these persistently poor rural counties."

BLS Regional & State Unemployment

2011-10-24T05:41:00.000-07:00

In September, nonfarm payroll employment decreased in 25 states, increased in 24 states and the District of Columbia, and was unchanged in 1 state. The largest over-the-month decrease in employment occurred in North Carolina (-22,200), followed by Ohio (-21,600) and Pennsylvania (-15,800).

Pennsylvania's unemployment rate is still well below many other state rates though, currently at 8.3%, while many places are still experiencing double-digit unemployment numbers. Full report available here: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/laus.pdf

Erie Schools - Extreme violence

2011-10-19T06:34:00.000-07:00

[from The Commonwealth Foundation]

OCTOBER 18, 2011 | by NATHAN BENEFIELD

Today, the Commonwealth Foundation releasedan analysis updatingviolence statistics from failing public schools. These 141 schoolswith data available all rank in the bottom-5 percent based on academic performance.The nearly 82,000 students enrolled in these failing schools witnessed morethan 4,500 acts of violence in 2009-10, including more than 100indecent or sexual assaults and 225 indecent exposure and nearly 2,600assaults on students and staff.

For the fullspreadsheet of violence data on all 141 schools, click here. You canalso get data on anyschool in Pennsylvania from the Department of Education.

--------

In the spreadsheet, see the extremely high rate of incidents per 100 students for Burton Elem. and Wayne MS.

Pay Wizard

2011-10-17T05:15:00.001-07:00

[from Third and State] Posted by Christopher Lilienthal on October 13, 2011

At a conference a few weeks ago, I learned about an intriguing effort to bring more transparency to the global labor market. The project, known as WageIndicator.org, was started about 10 years ago by researchers, journalists and trade unionists in The Netherlands. Today the project can be found in 55 countries, including the U.S. where it is called Paywizard.org.

What is it exactly? It's a web site with oodles of information and tools that allow you to share and compare wages, access basic information on the minimum wage and labor rights, and look up the salaries of politicians, CEOs and Hollywood stars. You can also take an anonymous online salary survey, which is how the project has built its vast database of jobs and salaries.

The idea behind it is to create a more transparent labor market where workers can easily understand their rights and check to see if they are getting paid a fair wage for the work they're doing. The project is overseen by the Wage Indicator Foundation, established by the University of Amsterdam.

So take a minute and check out the salary calculator to see how your pay stacks up against others in your field. You can also help them expand their database by taking theonline survey.

Then take a peak at the paychecks of your favorite Hollywood power couple. So who's raking in more: Beyonce and Jay-Z or Brangelina? And for our friend and fellow blogger, Stephen Herzenberg, the salaries of the most famous cricketers.

Report: More U.S. Companies Having Difficulty Attracting Critical-Skill Employees, Towers Watson Survey Finds

2011-10-13T07:08:00.001-07:00

According to the survey, nearly six out of 10 U.S. companies (59%) reported problems attracting critical-skill employees this year. That is an increase from 52% last year and 28% in 2009. Forty-two percent also reported difficulty attracting top-performing employees. Additionally, more than one-third (36%) reported difficulty retaining critical-skill employees, an increase from 31% last year and 16% in 2009. Overall, only one in 10 companies is having difficulty attracting or retaining employees generally.

Global School Report Card- See your district's performance

2011-10-13T07:02:00.001-07:00

[from the Commonwealth Foundation] The George W. Bush Institute has a new "Global Report Card" looking at test scores for each school district in the United States against students around the world on international exams.

Districts across Pennsylvania have a lot of work to do to catch up.

The average Philadelphia student does worse than 80% of students worldwide in math; Harrisburg students do worse in math than 93% of their international competitors. Duquesne City students rank only at the 13th percentile in reading and math results. This probably won't shock most readers, as we've written frequently on failing schools across Pennsylvania.

But the results also show that our "best" districts aren't among the elite. The average student in Lower Merion—one of the wealthiest, and highest spending districts in the state—is only at the 66th percentile among students worldwide in math (better in reading, at the 79th percentile). About 40 percent of international students do better than the average Derry Township student in math, and 30% do better in reading. Fox Chapel students in suburban Pittsburgh score at the 66th percentile in math and 77th in reading.

You can look up your school district or charter school here.

Industry Cluster Tool

2011-10-13T06:59:00.001-07:00

EDA Announces Registry to Connect Industry Clusters Across the U.S.; Harvard Business School Tool Designed to Assist Innovators and Small Business in Spurring Regional Economic Growth
Oct 11, 2011

The U.S. Commerce Department's Economic Development Administration (EDA), along with the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard Business School, today announced the launch of the beta version of the U.S. Cluster Mapping Web site, a new tool that can assist innovators and small business in creating jobs and spurring regional economic growth.

The site, accessible at www.clustermapping.us, provides cluster initiatives and other economic development organizations an opportunity to register in a national database. The registry allows initiatives to showcase their activities and events to a wider public, search for appropriate partners across the nation, and learn from best practice examples of their peers. The site also provides free access to a rich database on the profile and performance of clusters and regional economies.

Over time, the site will add a range of further functionalities, including geographic maps of cluster initiatives, data on regional business environments, and tools and case studies on the use of cluster data and concepts in economic development practice. It will provide users with multiple opportunities to upload their own data and conduct analysis based on their particular needs. The cluster registry will evolve towards a tiered-structure, with specific criteria on data availability, underlying cluster strength, and other performance indicators differentiating between the tiers. This will provide effective information for firms and cluster organizations looking for qualified partners and help federal, state, and local government agencies in their work to support cluster organizations.

Unemployment in PA hits all education levels

2011-10-03T05:37:00.001-07:00

[from Third & State]

Pew - Downward Mobility from the Middle Class: Waking Up from the American Dream

2011-10-03T05:32:00.001-07:00

[from Be Spacific]

"The Economic Mobility Project's report, Downward Mobility from the Middle Class: Waking Up from the American Dream, examines potential factors that cause some Americans who grow up in the middle class to fall down the economic ladder as adults. Authored by Gregory Acs during his tenure at the Urban Institute, the report finds that a middle-class upbringing does not guarantee the same status over the course of a lifetime. Marital status, education, test scores and drug use have a strong influence on whether a middle-class child loses economic ground as an adult. Race and gender also are factors in who falls out of the middle class. The racial gap in downward mobility is driven by a disparity between white and black men, and the gender gap in downward mobility is driven by a disparity between white men and white women."

New report on college completions

2011-10-03T05:29:00.000-07:00

[from Philanthropy News Digest] The longer college students stay in school, the less likely they are to earn a degree or certificate, a new report from Complete College America finds. The report, Time Is the Enemy: The Surprising Truth About Why Today's College Students Aren't Graduating...And What Needs to Change (248 pages, PDF), found that part-time students rarely graduate, even when they are given twice as long to complete a certificate or degree. Based on data on both full- and part-time students at public colleges and universities in thirty-three states, the study found that students who are poor, older, or of color fare even worse. While more of these students are enrolling in college today than ever before, few end up with a certificate or diploma.

To help more students graduate, the report recommends that states set state- and campus-level goals and uniformly measure progress and success; ensure that graduation, not just enrollment, is the goal and restructure programs to help part-time students — the new majority — balance jobs, families, and school; reduce the time it takes to get a degree or certificate; and transform remediation so students get into full-credit classes and on track toward completion. The report also provides state-by-state profiles of degrees and certificates awarded as well as graduation rates, disaggregated by race, age, income, average length of time to degree, transfer rates, and remedial education enrollment. The report also found that 25 percent of students at public colleges attend full-time and live on campus, while 75 percent juggle jobs, school, and commuting to class.

“Groundbreaking Report: 'Time Is the Enemy of Today's College Student.” Complete College America Press Release 9/27/11.

Meadville sees sharp increase in poverty rates

2011-09-23T05:44:00.000-07:00

Nearly one in five Pennsylvania children live in poverty

September 22, 2011

The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center and Keystone ResearchCenter jointly issued the following press release on the Census Bureau's reporton poverty at the state and local level.

HARRISBURG, PA (September 22, 2011) — Poverty has risen sharply in most regions of Pennsylvania, highlighting the widespread impact of the recession and the need for policymakers to protect struggling families and invest in building a stronger economy.

In urban areas of Pennsylvania, poverty rose to 14.7% in 2010 with 1,360,202 urban residents currently living in poverty, according to the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey. That is up from 12.7% in 2007, before the recession started. The picture is similarly bleak in rural Pennsylvania where 9.5% of residents (287,982 people) lived in poverty in 2010, up from 8.1% in 2007.

“Many families in all parts of Pennsylvania are feeling the worst effects of this economy,” said Mark Price, PhD, Labor Economist for the Keystone Research Center. “Our state leaders have responded by cutting our kids’ education and affordable health care for working Pennsylvanians. That is making life harder for struggling families and undermining economic growth.”

Overall poverty in Pennsylvania rose by a statistically significant margin, going from 11.6% in 2007 to 13.4% in 2010. The number of Pennsylvanians living in deep poverty — the share of the population with incomes below half the poverty line — rose to 5.9% (726,102 people) in 2010, a statistically significant increase.

Most Pennsylvania metro areas also saw statistically significant increases in poverty from 2007 to 2010.

The number of Pennsylvania children living in poverty continued to increase last year amid the recession, according to the Census data. In 2010, 18.8% of Pennsylvania kids lived in families that fell below the poverty line, up from 15.9% in 2007. The Pennsylvania rate was lower than the national child poverty rate of 21.2%.

Poverty has risen in most parts of PA (2007 to 2010)
	Poverty Rates (%)
Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas	2007		2010
Pennsylvania	11.6%	*	13.4%
Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ	8.0	*	11.7
Altoona, PA	13.7		12.3
Bloomsburg-Berwick, PA	12.4	*	16.5
Chambersburg, PA	7.8		9.2
DuBois, PA	15.8		16.4
East Stroudsburg, PA	8.7	*	13.6
Erie, PA	14.5	*	17.4
Gettysburg, PA	7.4	*	10.2
Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA	8.7	*	10.9
Indiana, PA	20.8		18.8
Johnstown, PA Metro Area	13.9		12.9
Lancaster, PA	8.7	*	10.5
Lebanon, PA	8.6		10.9
Meadville, PA	13.8	*	20.7
New Castle, PA	14.3		16.6
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD	11.5	*	12.7
Pittsburgh, PA	11.2	*	12.2
Pottsville, PA	12.0		12.7
Reading, PA	11.3	*	14.1
Scranton--Wilkes-Barre, PA	11.9	*	14.9
Somerset, PA	10.3	*	14.4
State College, PA	15.1	*	20.9
Sunbury, PA	12.9		15.1
Williamsport, PA	12.9	*	18.0
York-Hanover, PA	8.9		9.2

Note. *Poverty rate is statistically different at the 90 percent confidence level from the 2010 poverty rate.

Source. Keystone Research Center and Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center calculations based on the American Community Survey 2007-2010

Rural poverty research

2011-09-19T06:01:00.001-07:00

[from Be Spacific] USDA - Rural Income, Poverty, and Welfare

Economic Research Service, updated September 17, 2011: "ERS research in this area focuses on the economic, social, and demographic factors that affect the income and poverty status of rural residents and their participation in Federal assistance programs, including food assistance programs. The industrial sources of earned income vary widely across rural areas. Social Security and other retirement programs play a large role in the economic status of rural retirees and the areas in which they are concentrated. Changes in welfare programs may disproportionately affect high-poverty rural areas. ERS conducts research at the family (micro) and area (macro) levels to provide policymakers with a detailed picture of rural income, poverty, and welfare-program conditions."

PA employment drops sharply

2011-09-19T05:33:00.000-07:00

[reposted from a Third & State post from Mr. Mark Price] The weak national economy is being felt in Pennsylvania as the unemployment rate climbed from 7.8% to 8.2% in August, according to the state Department of Labor and Industry's August jobs report.

As I noted in a media statement, declining public-sector employment is continuing to be a drag on the economy, as private-sector job growth limps along. This chart illustrates just how much public-sector employment has dropped off over the past year.

The August report clearly demonstrates the need for a jobs plan to meet the vast challenges our economy faces. On that point, my colleague, Stephen Herzenberg, will be on WITF-TV's Smart Talk at 8 pm tonight discussing that very issue. Tune in if you can, or watch it later online.

Poverty levels at all time highs

2011-09-19T05:31:00.000-07:00

[reposted from Third & State] The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has a stunning table showing that poverty levels in 2010 were the worst in many years, if not decades, by several measures. The share of adults (18-64) and suburbanites living in poverty are at their highest levels since the 1960s. The total number of Americans in poverty is the largest on record, and the poverty rate overall and for children is the worst since 1993.

Check out the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' full analysis of the new Census data. The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center also has an analysis of the Census data.

K-12 Budget Cuts

2011-09-12T05:16:00.000-07:00

[from Third & State] Kids are back in school across Pennsylvania and the nation, but many of them are likely seeing the fallout from education funding cuts.

Pennsylvania ranked among the top 10 states to cut school funding this year, according to a recent analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The Center found that 21 of 24 states for which data are available (including Pennsylvania) are providing less funding per student to elementary and high schools than last year (after adjusting for inflation). These states account for about two-thirds of the nation’s school-age population.

Pennsylvania ranked sixth among the 24 states, with an 8.8% cut in per-student, inflation adjusted spending. Only Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, California and Ohio cut school funding more.

Overall, Pennsylvania is doing better than many of the other states, where funding cuts this year come on top of other cuts in state K-12 funding since the recession hit. As the Center’s Phil Oliff wrote:

As a result, 17 of the 24 states studied are providing less funding per student than they did in 2008. (See second graph.) In ten of these states, funding is down more than 10 percent since 2008, and in South Carolina, Arizona, and California, it is down more than 20 percent.

These cuts have serious consequences for students and the broader economy. They slow the economic recovery, hurt education reform efforts, damage the nation’s long-term competitiveness and leave school districts with few choices for restoring the lost state aid.

PA loses from movers

2011-09-06T06:01:00.001-07:00

[from the Commonwealth Foundation]

When it comes to interstate migration, Pennsylvania is among the biggest losers of residents and the income they earn, according to a Tax Foundation map using IRS data. Between 1999 to 2009, Pennsylvania lost $4.9 billion in net annual income from residents who moved to states, most with lower taxes, less regulation and greater job growth.

20 Facts about inequality / poverty

2011-09-06T06:00:00.001-07:00

[reposted from Be Spacific] "The Stanford Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality (CPI) seeks answers to two questions: 1. Why is the United States so unequal and poverty-stricken? 2. What can or should be done about it? The facts are simple...

Income inequality is extreme and increasing: The top 1% of Americans control nearly a quarter of all the country's income, the highest share controlled by the top 1% since 1928.
The U.S. is exceptionally unequal: The U.S. ranks #3 among all the advanced economies in the amount of income inequality.
The poverty rate is high: The U.S. poverty rate, according to the new Supplemental Poverty Measure, is estimated at 15.7 percent.
The poverty rate is higher than in peer countries: Only one advanced economy, Mexico, has a higher relative poverty rate.
20 Facts About U.S. Inequality that Everyone Should Know - Click an image to learn more about a fact

$4.5 Billion in Earnings, Taxes Lost Last Year Due to the High U.S. College Dropout Rate

2011-08-26T06:48:00.001-07:00

News release: "As students across the country prepare to start their freshman year of college, more than 40 percent of them will not graduate within six years – costing billions of dollars in lost earnings for the students and millions of dollars in lost tax revenue, according to a new analysis by the American Institutes for Research (AIR). AIR conducted a study that examined the more than 1.1 million full-time students who entered college in 2002 seeking bachelor degrees. Of that total, almost 500,000 did not graduate within six years – costing a combined $4.5 billion in lost income and lost federal and state income taxes. The AIR analysis found that the 493,000 students who started college in 2002 but did not earn a degree within six years lost a total of approximately $3.8 billion in income in 2010 alone. The lost income would have generated $566 million in federal income tax revenue, while states would have collected more than $164 million in state income taxes. “These findings represent just one year and one graduating class. Therefore, the overall costs of low graduation rates are much higher since these losses accumulate year after year,” explained Mark Schneider, a vice president at AIR who co-authored the report, The High Cost of Low Graduation Rates: How Much Does Dropping Out of College Really Cost?, with Lu (Michelle) Yin. “This is just the tip of the iceberg. While this report focuses on only one cohort of students, losses of this magnitude are incurred annually by each and every graduating class.”

Youth labor force participation rate at 59.5% in July 2011 - lowest July rate on record

2011-08-26T06:45:00.000-07:00

[from Be Spacific] News release: "From April to July 2011, the number of employed youth 16 to 24 years old rose by 1.7 million to 18.6 million, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This year, the share of young people who were employed in July was 48.8 percent, the lowest July rate on record for the series, which began in 1948. (The month of July typically is the summertime peak in youth employment.) Unemployment among youth increased by 745,000 between April and July, more than last year’s increase of 571,000, but well below the levels seen in 2008 and 2009 (1.2 and 1.1 million, respectively). (Because this analysis focuses on the seasonal changes in youth employment and unemployment that occur each spring and summer, the data are not seasonally adjusted.)"

Two new reports on youth

2011-08-18T05:19:00.000-07:00

[from Philanthropy News Digest] Over the past decade, the economic well-being of low-income children has returned to the same level as the early 1990s, a new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation finds. According to the foundation's annual KIDS COUNT Data Book (88 pages, PDF), the official child poverty rate — a conservative measure of economic hardship — increased some 18 percent from 2000 to 2009, which means the number of children living in poverty grew by 2.4 million during the decade. While the Data Book found that five of the ten indicators of child well-being have improved since 2000 — including infant mortality rate, child death rate, teen death rate, teen birth rate, and the percentage of teens not in school and not high school graduates — three areas saw declines, including the percentage of babies born underweight, the child poverty rate, and the percentage of children living in single-parent families.

Pennsylvania ranks 10th best in the nation for child well-being in the report.

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[from Be Spacific] News release: "America’s children have fallen further behind in the last year in a range of leading indicators according to The State of America’s Children 2011, a new report from the Children’s Defense Fund. With unemployment, housing foreclosures, and hunger at historically high levels, children’s well-being is in jeopardy. In the United States one in five children is poor and children are our poorest age group. In 2009, millions of children fell into poverty due to the economic downturn, an increase of almost 10 percent, the largest single year rise since 1960. Today, 15.5 million children are adrift in a sea of poverty and every 32 seconds another child is born poor. Two-thirds of poor children live in families in which at least one family member works. The gap between rich and poor families has continued to grow. Income gains for the bottom 90 percent were completely wiped out by the recession, leaving the average income for the bottom 90 percent at its lowest level in more than a decade."

More Americans Drawing Income from Unemployment, Social Security

2011-08-05T04:56:00.000-07:00

Nationally, the personal income of 20% of Americans comes from the government through programs like Social Security and unemployment benefits, according to a report in The New York Times. The percentage is even higher in the economically worst-off states – like Florida, Michigan, Ohio, and Arizona.

The data in this report shows the change in percentage of income comprised of transfer payments by county in Pennsylvania from 2007 to 2009 (the data is sorted by the percent change in transfers). While some of this change can be attributed to naturally aging populations, much is undoubtedly the result of higher unemployment rates.

Framework for K-12 Science Education

2011-07-26T05:43:00.000-07:00

[reposted from Be Spacific] "Science, engineering, and technology permeate nearly every facet of modern life and hold the key to meeting many of humanity's most pressing challenges, both present and future. To address the critical issues of U.S. competitiveness and to better prepare the workforce, A Framework for K-12 Science Education:
Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas proposes a new approach to K-12 science education that will capture students' interest and provide them with the necessary foundational knowledge in the field. Framework for K-12 Science Education outlines a broad set of expectations for students in science and engineering in grades K-12. These expectations will inform the development of new standards for K-12 science education and, subsequently, revisions to curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development for educators. This book identifies three dimensions that convey the disciplinary core ideas and practices around which science and engineering education in these grades should be built. These three dimensions are: cross-cutting concepts that unify the study of science and engineering through their common application across these fields; scientific and engineering practices; and core ideas in four disciplinary areas: physical sciences, life sciences, earth and space sciences, and engineering, technology, and the applications of science. The overarching goal is for all high school graduates to have sufficient knowledge of science and engineering to engage in public discussions on science-related issues; be careful consumers of scientific and technological information; and have the skills to enter the careers of their choice."

Report on Sources of Unemployment

2011-07-26T05:42:00.000-07:00

New Evidence on Cyclical and Structural Sources of Unemployment - Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, May 2011 - Working Paper 2011-17

[reposted from Be Spacific] "We provide cross-country evidence on the relative importance of cyclical and structural factors in explaining unemployment, including the sharp rise in U.S. long-term unemployment during the Great Recession of 2007-09. About 75% of the forecast error variance of unemployment is accounted for by cyclical factors—real GDP changes (“Okun’s Law”), monetary and fiscal policies, and the uncertainty effects emphasized by Bloom (2009). Structural factors, which we measure using the dispersion of industry-level stock returns, account for the remaining 25 percent. For U.S. long-term unemployment the split between cyclical and structural factors is closer to 60-40, including during the Great Recession."

Cost of College

2011-07-04T05:40:00.000-07:00

[from New York Times] Students and families can compare colleges’ tuitions, the pace at which they are rising and the net cost of attending each college on a new Web site the Department of Education made public on Thursday, fulfilling a legislative mandate.

The new lists, required by the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, show the institutions with the highest and lowest tuitions, the highest and lowest percentage tuition increases over the last two years, and the highest and lowest net price — that is, the actual price full-time students pay, including room and board, after financial aid like grants and scholarships are taken into account.

The average tuition at public four-year colleges was $10,747. Pennsylvania State had the highest tuition ($14,416), Northern New Mexico College the largest percentage increase (51 percent) and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio the highest net price ($24,192).

Among public two-year colleges, the average tuition was $2,527, the University of Pittsburgh-Titusville charged more than four times that ($10,430), making it the most expensive in the group. And Sanford-Brown College had the highest tuition ($45,628) among four-year for-profit schools, where the average was $15,661.

In another effort to expand consumer information about higher education, the government will require career and vocational colleges’ promotional materials to show their tuition and fees, and their students’ median debt load, along with rates of graduation and job placement.

Full article here.

County Health Rankings

2011-07-04T05:36:00.000-07:00

[from Be Spacific] "The County Health Rankings show us that where we live matters to our health. The health of a community depends on many different factors - ranging from health behaviors, education and jobs, to quality of health care, to the environment."

Local Employment Projections

2011-06-16T05:29:00.003-07:00

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) has issued Internet Links for State and Local Employment Projections. State and local employment projections are primarily funded by ETA, while national employment projections are produced by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Employment projections are the most frequently-requested type of workforce statistic besides the unemployment rate. Projections are used for career counseling; to plan employment, education and training programs; for economic development and other state or regional planning; as supporting documentation to apply for Federal grants; and for many other purposes.

This new resource includes direct links to

all published industry and occupational projections for the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico;
long-term (usually 10 years) and short-term projections (usually 2 years), including the dates of the projections;
statewide and local projections, including an explanation of the type of locality;
each state's employment projections Web page (if available;
a statistical table summarizing the availability of different types of projections;
each state's primary labor market information Web site; and
the key BLS employment projections Web sites.

Job Creation report

2011-06-16T05:29:00.001-07:00

[from Be Spacific]

An economy that works: Job creation and America's future, June 2011

"For the United States to return to full employment—finding work for the currently unemployed and accommodating new entrants into the labor force this decade—the US economy will need to create 21 million jobs by 2020, according to MGI's analysis. To understand how this might happen, MGI launched a research project that combines extensive sector analysis, interviews with human resource executives, a proprietary survey of 2,000 business leaders, and our own scenario analysis and modeling. The research analyzes the causes of slow job creation in the period before the recession and during the recovery and the implications of these forces for future job growth. The research projects how the US labor force will evolve over the next ten years and creates different scenarios for job growth based on extensive analysis of sector trends. MGI's central finding is that a return to full employment will occur in only the most optimistic job growth scenario. This will require not only a robust economic recovery, but also a concerted effort to address other factors that impede employment, including growing gaps in skill and education."

Value of College

2011-06-16T05:28:00.001-07:00

[from Be Spacific]

What's it Worth? The Economic Value of College Majors - Anthony P. Carnevale, Jeff Strohl, Michelle Melton - Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, May 2011

"When considering the question of whether earning a college degree is worth the investment in these uncertain economic times, here is a number to keep in mind: 84 percent. On average, that is how much more money a full-time, full-year worker with a Bachelor’s degree can expect to earn over a lifetime than a colleague who has no better than a high school diploma. Clearly, for most students, when asked whether to go to college, the answer should be a resounding “yes.” And statistics show that Americans are drawing that conclusion in ever-growing numbers. Since 1992, the proportion of workers with Bachelor’s degrees in the U.S. labor force has grown from 28 percent to 34 percent...Our report finds that different majors have different economic value. While going to college is undoubtedly a wise decision, what you take while you’re there matters a lot, too. On average, as we stated, Bachelor’s degree holders earn 84 percent more than those with a high school diploma. However, returns to majors run a wide gamut. At the extreme, the highest earning major earns 314 percent more at the median than the lowestearning major at the median."

Distressed geographies

2011-06-08T02:53:00.000-07:00

Agencies release list of distressed or underserved nonmetropolitan middle-income geographies "The federal bank and thrift regulatory agencies today announced the availability of 2011 list [and lists from previous years] of distressed or underserved nonmetropolitan middle-income geographies where revitalization or stabilization activities will receive Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) consideration as "community development." "Distressed nonmetropolitan middle-income geographies" and "underserved nonmetropolitan middle-income geographies" are designated by the agencies in accordance with their CRA regulations. The criteria for designating these areas are available on the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) website. The designations reflect local economic conditions, including triggers such as unemployment, poverty, and population changes. As with past releases, the 2011 list will incorporate a one-year lag period for geographies designated as distressed or underserved in 2010, but not designated as such in the 2011 release. Geographies subject to this one-year lag period are eligible to receive consideration for community development activities for 12 months after publication of the 2011 list."

Warren and Forest Counties in Pennsylvania made the list.

Jail Inmates report

2011-06-08T02:48:00.000-07:00

Jail Inmates at Midyear 2010 - Statistical Tables, Todd D. Minton, April 14, 2011 NCJ 233431

"Presents data on numbers of jails as well as analyzes patterns of growth and decline in jail populations. These statistical tables include data on rated capacity of jails, percent of capacity occupied, and capacity added. They provide estimates of admissions to jails and detail the volume of movement among the jail population. This web document also includes total numbers for jail inmates by sex, race, and Hispanic origin. Standard errors for jail estimates are included. Highlights include the following:

Between midyear 2009 and midyear 2010, the confined inmate population in county and city jails (748,728) declined by 2.4% (18,706 inmates).
On June 30, 2010, adults represented 99% of all jail inmates. Males accounted for 87.7%, and females accounted for 12.3%.
The estimated rated capacity for all jail jurisdictions at midyear 2010 reached 866,974 beds, an increase of 2.0% (17,079 beds) from midyear 2009."

PA rank for business climate

2011-05-18T10:56:00.001-07:00

[from the Commonwealth Foundation website]

Chief Executive Group released its annual Best/Worst States for Business report, bestowing another undesirable state ranking on Pennsylvania.

The commonwealth ranked 39^thout of the 50 states, dropping seven spots since 2010. This decline continues Pennsylvania's five year slump from 27^th to its present rank.

Business leaders grading the states expressed concerns of excessive taxation and regulation. Also among top concerns were environmental regulations and labor laws preventing businesses from deciding terms of hiring and employee compensation.

Here are some more facts about Pennsylvania's business climate and taxes:

Pennsylvania's 9.99 percent tax rate is the 2^nd highest of the 50 states, behind only Iowa.
Combined with the federal rate, Pennsylvania has the second highest corporate tax rate in the world. (In fact, Japan recently cut its corporate tax rate by 5 percent, so the U.S. federal rate is the highest. Pennsylvania's rate is on top of that).
The Capital Stock and Franchise Tax is also among the highest in the nation, and only 10 states impose both a corporate income tax and a capital stock tax.
Studies show that higher state corporate income tax rates result in lower wages for workers.
Pennsylvania offers about $750 million per year in grants, loans, and tax breaks to attract or retain businesses, ranking the Commonwealth as the 2^nd highest state in amount of economic development incentives. This of course involves picking favorites in the economy, while imposing higher taxes on all other businesses.
The Tax Foundation ranks PA 26^th in "State Business Tax Climate"—the state scores well on individual income tax (flat rate, relatively low), but poorly on corporate taxes, unemployment insurance taxes and property taxes.
PA ranks near the bottom of the nation in long-term economic growth, lost jobs during Gov. Rendell's tenure and, notably, lost a Congressional seat in this cycle of redistricting.

For ideas on how to improve Pennsylvania's economy, check out CF's 80 Ideas for a Prosperous Pennsylvania.

ETA Publishes Seven Research Papers on Workforce Issues Prepared by Doctoral and Post-Doctoral Students

2011-05-18T09:29:00.001-07:00

May 11, 2011

The Employment and Training Administration has published seven Occasional Papers prepared by doctoral and post-doctoral students with competitively awarded funding as part of the ETA Research Papers Program.

Training and Employment Notice 38-10 provides additional background on the authors and development process, and offers a synopsis of each paper.

More women with bachelor's degree

2011-05-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

News release: "Among the employed population 25 and older, 37 percent of women had attained a bachelor's degree or more as of 2010, compared with 35 percent of men, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau. In contrast, among all adults 25 and older, 29.6 percent of women and 30.3 percent of men had at least a bachelor's degree. The data come from tabulations on Educational Attainment in the United States: 2010 and not only examine gender differences in attainment but also provide the most detailed information on years of school completed ever presented by the Census Bureau, showing for each level of attainment exactly how many years of education adults have. In 2010, 36 percent of the nation's population 25 and older left school before obtaining a degree. This includes 15 percent of the population that didn't earn a regular high school diploma — a group sometimes labeled "dropouts." Among this group were about 1 percent of the population who reached the 12th grade, 2 percent who reached the 11th grade but still did not graduate, and 2 percent who earned a GED." [reposted from Be Spacific]

New Workforce Development Report: PA included in study

2011-05-04T05:34:00.000-07:00

In 2009, the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) received additional program funds to allocate through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). The increase in Federal spending through a number of provisions was intended to result in rapid economic stimulus nationwide, particularly in terms of providing jobs, employment services, and retraining for millions of unemployed workers through the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Adult and Dislocated Worker programs, Wagner-Peyser Employment Service (ES), and Unemployment Insurance (UI). Almost all of the Recovery Act outlays occurred during the fiscal years 2009 and 2010.

The Recovery Act also substantially altered the nation?s Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program by including the Trade and Globalization Adjustment Assistance Act (TGAAA) as part of the Recovery Act. The TGAAA provisions in the Recovery Act added service sector workers, expanded services to include assessment and counseling, and placed more emphasis on training. The new TAA provisions also affected workers whose eligibility occurred after enactment of the new law.

ETA has now published the Recovery Act "early implementation report." Prepared by National Association of State Workforce Agencies, the report presents findings from the first round of site visits to 16 of the 20 states selected for the study and two local workforce investment areas within each state. The first rounds of site visits were made between December 2009 and August 2010, and included interviews at the state and local levels. The 20 states were selected purposely to provide diversity on factors such as population size, unemployment rate, the extent to which Wagner-Peyser services were provided in One-Stop Career Centers, TAA regions, UI recipiency rate, and relative UI trust fund solvency. States visited were operating the new and old TAA programs simultaneously and half of the states had increases of 50 percent more in petitions and participants.

The interim report identifies major accomplishments by states to date and describes challenges encountered by the states. Findings regarding the UI provisions will be presented in the final Recovery Act report, but the last chapter of this interim report provides a progress report on the research plan for the UI provisions.

Training and Employment Notice provides a brief summary of these accomplishment and challenges, and offers additional background and "next steps."

Career Pathways Community Online

2011-05-02T06:33:00.001-07:00

Workforce2One has launched a new resource called the Career Pathways Initiative, which provides tools, best practices, and an online "community" discussion area.

Google MapMaker

2011-05-01T07:44:00.001-07:00

Google Launches Map Maker for the United States Google Map Maker: "Google Map Maker lets you add to and update the map, for millions of people to see in Google Maps and Google Earth. You can add your local knowledge for over 180 countries and regions. Get started mapping the places you know." See also Learn more about using Map Maker

BEA Local Area Personal Income

2011-05-01T07:42:00.000-07:00

[from Be Spacific] BEA: Local Area Personal Income, 2009

"Today, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released estimates of personal income at the county level for 2009. Among large counties (those with a population of more than 250,000) the change in personal income from 2008 to 2009 ranged from an 8.1 percent decline (in Oakland County, Michigan) to a 4.2 percent gain (in Loudoun County, Virginia). Growth slowed in all but one of the nation’s 255 large counties. For the nation, personal income fell 1.7 percent in 2009 after growing 4.0 percent in 2008. Per capita personal income (personal income divided by population) in large counties in 2009 ranged from $20,509 in Hidalgo County, Texas to $105,554 in New York County, New York (Manhattan). Among small counties, those with populations less than 50,000, swings in farm income accounted for much of the change in personal income from 2008 to 2009...A narrative for each county describing personal income using current estimates, growth rates, and a breakdown of the sources of personal income is available here."

Industries where women earn less than men

2011-04-18T10:19:00.001-07:00

[from Be Spacific]

The Atlantic: 10 Industries Where Women Earn Less Than Men - "Women continue to struggle for equal pay in the workplace. For at least two decades, they have earned 80% of the wages of men doing equivalent jobs. That should be a shock to most people, since the feminist movement is several decades old. Sadly though, the financial gains that women have made have eroded in recent years. "The ratio of women's and men's median annual earnings was 77.0 for full-time, year-round workers in 2009, essentially unchanged from 77.1 in 2008. (This means the gender wage gap for full-time, year-round workers is now 22.9 percent.) This is below the peak of 77.8 percent in 2007," according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research."

The Gender Wage Gap: 2010 (Updated April 2011) - by Ariane Hegewisch, Claudia Williams, Amber Henderson (April 2011)

Profile of the Working Poor

2011-04-18T10:18:00.001-07:00

[from Be Spacific] "In 2009, according to the Census Bureau, about 43.6 million people, or 14.3 percent of the Nation’s population, lived at or below the official poverty level.1 Although the poor were primarily children and adults who had not participated in the labor force during the year, 10.4 million individuals were among the “working poor,” 1.5 million more than in 2008. The working poor are persons who spent at least 27 weeks in the labor force (that is, working or looking for work) but whose incomes still fell below the official poverty level. In 2009, the working-poor rate—the ratio of the working poor to all individuals in the labor force for at least 27 weeks—increased to 7.0 percent, up by 1.0 percentage point from the previous year’s figure." Report available here.

OECD employment database

2011-04-18T10:17:00.001-07:00

[from Be Spacific] "About one in three people of working age does not have a job in the OECD area. Faced with ageing populations, increasing employment rate has become crucial. And a further key challenge is to help companies and citizens to cope successfully with rapid technological change and globalisation. Our online Employment database allows to assess labour market performances of OECD countries, as regards employment and unemployment, job duration, working time and earnings. It also gives a picture of labour market policies and institutions through various indicators such as, expenditures on labour market policies, strictness of employment protection legislation, minimum wage and union membership."

What's the Wage Gap in Your State?

2011-04-18T10:15:00.000-07:00

[from Be Spacific] National Partnership for Women & Families - What's the Wage Gap in Your State? - Use this map to download an equal pay fact sheet for your state.

Poverty and Literacy report

2011-04-18T10:10:00.000-07:00

[from Philanthropy News Digest]

According to a longitudinal study of nearly four thousand students, one in six children who do not read proficiently by third grade — and one in four who are both poor and struggling readers — fail to graduate from high school.

Funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the report, Double Jeopardy: How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation (15 pages, PDF), found that 16 percent of third-grade students who did not read at grade level either dropped out or failed to finish high school on time, compared with 4 percent of proficient readers. The report also found that of those who had lived in poverty for at least a year, 22 percent did not graduate, compared with 6 percent of those who had never been poor, while among third-grade students who were both poor and struggled as readers, the rate rose to 26 percent — and was highest among African-American and Latino/Hispanic students, at 31 percent and 33 percent, respectively. Indeed, the risk of failing to graduate was nearly twice as high for African-American and Latino/Hispanic children as for white children with similar reading skills and experiences of poverty.

Children from poor families are caught in a double jeopardy, the report argues, in that they are more likely to live in areas with low-performing schools, lack access to quality health care, and/or frequently miss school, all of which contribute to lower reading scores. Moreover, even when they are proficient readers, they are less likely than their more affluent peers to graduate from high school. The report recommends aligning high-quality early education programs with primary-grade curricula and standards, focusing more attention on children's health and developmental needs, and providing job training and other programs designed to help lift families out of poverty.

“National Study Shows Students Who Don't Read Well in Third Grade Are More Likely to Drop Out or Fail to Finish High School.” Annie E. Casey Foundation Press Release 4/08/11.

New Report Defines Economic Security, Shows Families Struggling to Reach American Dream

2011-04-05T10:44:00.001-07:00

[reposted from Be Spacific]

News release: "As Congress works to meet the April 8 deadline for a final budget deal for fiscal year 2011, a new report on family economic security details the challenges that many Americans face in covering their basic expenses and the additional hardships families could suffer as a result of proposed budget cuts. The national Basic Economic Security Tables TM (BEST) Index, developed by Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW), a national organization that works to achieve economic independence for women and their families, finds that single workers need $30,012 a year – nearly twice the federal minimum wage – to cover basic expenses. Single-parents require nearly twice the income ($57,756) to support two children, while dual-income households with children require $67,920."

"The Basic Economic Security Tables™ Index (BEST) is a measure of the basic needs and assets workers require for economic security throughout a lifetime and across generations. The BEST follows on a long history of research defining families’ spending and income needs, but reflects a modern economy and contemporary understanding of how families achieve financial stability. The BEST addresses the several pieces of the larger basic economic security picture—basic needs, savings and employment-based benefits—and allows a broad and complete view of worker needs and families’ prospects for achieving the economic security so critical to their futures and to their communities.

State Competitiveness Reports

2011-04-05T10:13:00.000-07:00

State Competitiveness: Creating an Economic Strategy in a Time of Austerity
Michael Porter's presentation at the
National Governors Association Winter Meeting
Washington, D.C.
February 26, 2011

Pennsylvania report available here.

(Thank you to Susan for sharing--)

New county-level health ranking map

2011-04-05T10:04:00.000-07:00

See county-level data on health rankings via the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/pennsylvania

Self-sufficiency -- A report to watch for in the future?

2011-04-05T09:44:00.000-07:00

Abt Associates in Bethesda, Maryland, has announced an $8 million grant from the Open Society Foundations to support its efforts to identify effective models for helping low-income, low-skilled people become economically self-sufficient.

The grant will be used to enhance Abt Associates' work on the Innovative Strategies for Increasing Self-Sufficiency (ISIS) project, which the Administration for Children and Families commissioned to evaluate exemplary career pathway programs across the country. ISIS targets populations that face multiple barriers to self-sufficiency, such as low literacy, debt, limited resources for additional schooling, and lack of child care and transportation.

The programs selected for expansion and evaluation are working to lift as many people as possible out of poverty. Many take a holistic approach to helping people find jobs with strategies and support, including education, job training, child care, and other resources and skill-building tools.

"Our hope is that the results of this project will increase opportunities for the most vulnerable populations," said Mimi Corcoran, director of the Special Fund for Poverty Alleviation at the Open Society Foundations. "Everyone deserves a chance to reach his or her greatest potential and become a more active citizen. When more people are fully participating in our democracy, it's good for all of us."

“Open Society Foundations Awards $8 Million to Help Move Americans From Poverty to Self-Sufficiency.” Abt Associates Press Release 4/04/11.

Delaying Retirement?

2011-04-05T09:41:00.000-07:00

[reposted from Be Spacific]

How many workers are delaying retirement, and what are their reasons for doing so? [4 April 2011]

"Twenty percent of workers in the 2011 Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS) say the age at which they expect to retire has increased in the past year. Statistically, this is similar to the percentage indicating they were planning to postpone retirement in 2010 (24 percent). The poor economy (36 percent) and a lack of faith in Social Security/government (16 percent) are the most frequently cited reasons for postponing retirement, followed by changes in employment situation (15 percent) and can’t afford to retire (13 percent)."

"44% of Americans born between 1946 and 1965 are not confident that they'll have enough money to live comfortably in retirement, according to a new Associated Press-LifeGoesStrong.com poll. More than half (57%) say they lost money during the recent economic downturn and many who were affected (42%) say that's why they're delaying their retirement."

Some new unemployment reports

2011-03-27T06:22:00.000-07:00

Manufacturing sees largest gains since 2000: (from Keystone Research Center) Pennsylvania's unemployment rate took a significant dip in January, down three-tenths of a percentage point as the state compiled its fifth straight month of job gains.

The state Department of Labor and Industry reported that employers only increased payrolls by about 6,000 jobs, despite the substantial drop in unemployment to 8.2 percent.Labor economist Mark Price of the Harrisburg-based Keystone Research Center said the household survey that produces the unemployment rate may be catching up to stronger payroll growth that employers reported in the months leading up to January.Pennsylvania's unemployment rate after the recession began in December 2007 peaked at 9.3 percent in July.The national unemployment rate is was last listed as 8.9 percent. Pennsylvania's payrolls are at 5.65 million, about 180,000 behind the peak in 2008.Pennsylvania’s seasonally adjusted civilian labor force –- the number of people working or looking for work -- was up 18,000 in January to 6,344,000.Resident employment rose by 30,000 to 5,821,000, while the number of unemployed residents fell 12,000 to 523,000, its lowest level since June 2009.Pennsylvania’s labor force was down 3,000 from its January 2010 level.Seasonally adjusted total non-farm jobs in Pennsylvania increased 6,100 from December to 5,646,000.The largest gains were in construction and manufacturing, each up 4,100 in January.Manufacturing’s addition of 4,100 jobs was the supersector’s largest increase since June 2000.Education and health services showed the largest decline of any supersector in January, down 4,400.Mining and logging was up 400 to 29,400, the highest level since 1990.

---------

(Keystone Research Center) HARRISBURG, Pa. - 2010 was nothing close to a banner year for Pennsylvania's economy, but the state did manage to create more jobs than most, according to a new report from Keystone Research Center. Executive director Stephen Herzenberg says Pennsylvania added more than 65,000 jobs last year, third-highest among all states.

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Employment Characteristics of Families - 2010: (reposted from Be Spacific) "In 2010, 12.4 percent of families included an unemployed person, up from 12.0 percent in 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The proportion of families with an unemployed member in 2010 was at its highest level since the data series began in 1994. Of the nation's 78.2 million families, 80.0 percent had at least one employed member in 2010, down from 80.4 percent in 2009. These data on employment, unemployment, and family relationships are collected as part of the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly sample survey of approximately 60,000 households. Families are classified either as married-couple families or as families maintained by women or men without spouses."

Lower-skilled individual access to postsecondary education

2011-03-27T05:07:00.000-07:00

More than half of jobs created by 2018 are projected to require some form of postsecondary education. For lower-skilled individuals with basic skills deficiencies, maintaining employment may become a challenge. Forty-five percent of adults have a high school diploma or less. Those hoping to earn a family-sustaining wage may need to attain a postsecondary credential or certificate to increase their job prospects.

A recent report from the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) explains that, while federal programs can increase lower-skilled individuals’ access to postsecondary education, state and local policy decisions influence student success and completion in higher education.

CLASP’s report, Beyond Basic Skills: State Strategies to Connect Low-Skilled Students to an Employer-Valued Postsecondary Education, suggests that states implement these strategies to help lower-skilled individuals attain postsecondary credentials:

Instructional strategies – to provide low-skilled individuals with occupational skills
Acceleration strategies – to help students complete programs and degrees at a faster pace
Funding formulas
Assessment policies
Other administrative policies

By using the above strategies, states can connect basic skills education with postsecondary education to meet the needs of lower-skilled individuals and the state’s labor market demands.

For more information on the suggested strategies, related challenges, and program examples, please read CLASP’s full report here.

Open Data Search: finding useful datasets, worldwide

2011-03-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

[from Be Spacific]

[The following post is from Friedrich Lindenberg, who is a developer at the Open Knowledge Foundation working on CKAN, PublicData.eu and Open Spending.]

"Recently, there has hardly been a week in which there hasn’t been an announcement of a new local, regional or national open data initiative – including ever more extensive catalogues of data that is being opened up (CKAN alone now runs in 20 or more places). While this is great news for those of us interested in re-using the data, it also means it becomes increasingly hard to keep a good overview of what kind of data are available for which places. To get a better overview we’ve now started a meta search engine for open data, opendatasearch.org. opendatasearch.org is a global version of the prototype publicdata.eu site we announced in January: it’s an aggregator for datasets, providing a simple and unified search interface to all of the catalogues contained."

WIA "Lower Living Standard Income Levels"

2011-03-22T05:54:00.001-07:00

Under Title I of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998, the Secretary of Labor annually determines the Lower Living Standard Income level (LLSIL) for uses described in the law. WIA defines the term "Low Income Individual" as one who qualifies under various criteria, including an individual who received income for a six-month period that does not exceed the higher level of the poverty line or 70 percent of the LLSIL.

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) has published the Secretary's annual LLSIL for 2011 in the March 21, 2011 FEDERAL REGISTER.

The LLSIL is used for several purposes under WIA. Specifically, WIA Section 101(25) defines the term "low income individual" for eligibility purposes, and Sections 127(b)(2)(C) and 132(b)(1)(B)(v)(IV) define the terms "disadvantaged youth" and "disadvantaged adult" in terms of the poverty line or LLSIL for State formula allotments. The Governor and State/local workforce investment boards (WIBs) use the LLSIL for determining eligibility for youth and eligibility for adults for certain services.

ETA enncourages the Governors and State/local WIBs to consult WIA regulations and the preamble to the WIA Final Rule (published at 65 FR 49294 August 11, 2000) for more specific guidance in applying the LLSIL to program requirements. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published the most current poverty-level guidelines in the January 20, 2011 FEDERAL REGISTER. The HHS 2011 Poverty guidelines may also be found on the Internet at http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/11poverty.shtml.

HRSA in your state

2011-03-22T05:51:00.001-07:00

Looking for real time data and information about HRSA funded programs across all U.S. States and territories? Then check out HRSA’s newly developed tool “HRSA in Your State”!

http://hrsainyourstate.hrsa.gov/.

The tool offers overviews of HRSA programs and current information such as the number and amount of grants awarded down to the County level. You can also find the number of health centers, National Health Service Corps members and the communities they serve, and the number of eligible providers through the 340B program in each state. The tool is interactive and linked to different pages on the HRSA website to provide further information about programs.

The data included are pulled from the Data Warehouse on a nightly basis.

To find out more about “HRSA in Your State,” go to: http://hrsainyourstate.hrsa.gov/.

Census - Manufacturing / Construction Sectors

2011-03-18T05:49:00.000-07:00

Census Bureau – 2012 Economic Census Covering the Manufacturing Sector
Census Bureau – 2012 Economic Census Covering the Construction Sector

HUD and USDA Analyze the Impact of the Recovery Act on Cities and Rural Communities

2011-03-18T05:34:00.001-07:00

The Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Agriculture recently released reports on the impacts of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: From Recovery to Reinvestment: The Impact of the Recovery Act on American Cities and The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Working for Rural Communities.

New Census data

2011-03-18T05:05:00.000-07:00

[from Be Spacific]

"2010 Census Local-Level Data — Since February, we have begun to see the portrait of America take shape, as each state receives local-level 2010 Census data on race, Hispanic origin, the voting age population and housing units. As required by law, the Census Bureau provides these key demographic data to the states (on a state-by-state flow basis) so state governments can redraw the boundaries of their congressional and state legislative districts. The data began rolling out the first week of February, with announcements about which states will be included in the following week's data releases. States to be released the week of March 14: Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota and Tennessee.

For further details, see our Redistricting Data, First Look at Local 2010 Census Results

2010 Census Interactive Maps — As the 2010 Census redistricting files are issued, the Census Bureau is also releasing interactive state maps showing county-level population change from 1960 to 2010, as well as state-level data on race and Hispanic or Latino origin for 2010. The widget can be embedded on your website and will update as additional states are released. It can be found here."

Commonwealth State of Manufacturing Study

2011-03-14T19:00:00.000-07:00

In 2010, researchers examined the past three years of manufacturing industry data collected by Pennsylvania’s Industrial Resource Centers, state offices and other relevant research groups to figure out exactly how manufacturing has impacted the Commonwealth, and to develop recommendations on what policymakers can do to foster the industry.

Called the “Pennsylvania’s True Commonwealth: State of Manufacturing – Challenges and Opportunities,” the study was publicly released on February 15, 2011, and was led by one of the nation’s foremost thought leaders on manufacturing, Dr. Edward W. Hill.

The “State of Manufacturing” encompasses both quantitative and qualitative data, and will help us work toward our goal of growing the industry to its fullest potential.

To download the study, please click on one of the following links:

HHS Poverty guidelines

2011-03-11T13:05:00.001-08:00

[reposted from Be Spacific]

The 2011 HHS Poverty Guidelines One Version of the [U.S.] Federal Poverty Measure

IT skills report

2011-03-11T13:04:00.001-08:00

Closing the IT Skills Gap: 2011 SHARE Survey for Guiding University & College IT Agendas

[reposted from Be Spacific] "In a new survey of 376 employers, a majority report that they depend on the educational sector—universities and colleges—to provide graduates with specific IT skills in enterprise programming languages and mainframe administration skills, as well as business skills such as problem-solving and communications abilities. However, few companies are entirely satisfied with the readiness of graduates coming out of campuses. View the Executive Summary, which is available for public viewing."

Data, Tools, & Models

Construction industry's relationship to unemployment

Report examines America's Poor

Manufacturing grows, gov't jobs shrink

PA Corrections Spending

Global STEM trends report

Career Clusters Forecast

Health and unemployed adults

Enhancing Workforce Leadership Tools

2012 Employment Forecast from US Conference of Mayors

5 things you probably didn't know about Food Stamps

Nonprofits Added Jobs Faster Than Businesses Last Decade, Study Finds

Politics of Economic Opportunity audio conference

McGraw-Hill Research Foundation Policy Paper Addresses Growing Demand for a Skilled and Educated Global Workforce

Authors call on business and educational communities to collaborate to decrease widening skills gap; career and technical education viewed as solution

Nearly three years of a job-seekers ratio above 4-to-1

Erie shows wage gains

Measuring Long-Term Hardship in the Labor Market

Unemployment Rate by Occupation

Competitiveness and Innovative Capacity of the U.S.

Hard Times, College Majors, Unemployment and Earnings: Not All College Degrees Are Created Equal

ETA Certification Finder Tool

Training Industry Report

Pew Foundation on long-term unemployment

Erie makes gains among "best performing cities"

Women in the Labor Force data

Pennsylvania Economic Report

Demographics of low-paid workers

OECD Factbook 2011-2012 Economic, Environmental and Social Statistics

Challenges in higher education

GAO outlines recommendations for Dept. of Labor programs

Enhancing Employment and Training Programs

New study on the long-term unemployed and underemployed

Aligning Community Colleges to Their Local Labor Markets

David Altstadt, September 2011

PA Scores highly for performance on TANF Emergency Fund programs

County Compensation by Industry

PA Economic Development programs score poorly in new study

Using temporary workers to forecast PA's economy

One Percent of Pennsylvania Businesses Contribute 74 out of 100 New Jobs

Student Debt Report

PA: The cost of education failures

Employment-based visas map

PA Prevailing Wage Law Lifts Skills, Productivity, Safety, Keystone Research Finds

Rural children in poverty

BLS Regional & State Unemployment

Erie Schools - Extreme violence

Pay Wizard

Report: More U.S. Companies Having Difficulty Attracting Critical-Skill Employees, Towers Watson Survey Finds

Global School Report Card- See your district's performance

Industry Cluster Tool

Unemployment in PA hits all education levels

Pew - Downward Mobility from the Middle Class: Waking Up from the American Dream

New report on college completions

Meadville sees sharp increase in poverty rates

Poverty has risen in most parts of PA (2007 to 2010)

Rural poverty research

PA employment drops sharply

Poverty levels at all time highs

K-12 Budget Cuts

PA loses from movers

20 Facts about inequality / poverty

$4.5 Billion in Earnings, Taxes Lost Last Year Due to the High U.S. College Dropout Rate

Youth labor force participation rate at 59.5% in July 2011 - lowest July rate on record

Two new reports on youth

More Americans Drawing Income from Unemployment, Social Security

Framework for K-12 Science Education

Report on Sources of Unemployment

Cost of College

County Health Rankings

Local Employment Projections

Job Creation report

Value of College

Distressed geographies

Jail Inmates report

PA rank for business climate

ETA Publishes Seven Research Papers on Workforce Issues Prepared by Doctoral and Post-Doctoral Students

More women with bachelor's degree

New Workforce Development Report: PA included in study

Career Pathways Community Online

Poverty has risen in most parts of PA
(2007 to 2010)