Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Roanoke College Economics: New unemployment poll
Monday, December 6, 2010
Black Friday Spending Pegged at $45 Billion
http://www.televisionbroadcast.com/article/109880
Roanoke College Economics: And the winner is...
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Critique: Are Jobs Coming Back? Signs Point to Yes
Unemployment can be broken down into three subdivisions: frictional unemployment, structural unemployment, and cyclical unemployment. As a rule, frictional unemployment hovers around 4.5%, as these are just the people who are in between jobs, recession or no recession. Structural unemployment arises when there is a mismatch in skills. However I do not believe structural unemployment is playing a major role, but cyclical unemployment is I believe. Cyclical unemployment is directly related to the current business cycle, and one can see that cyclical unemployment is in effect, due to the massive amount of layoffs employers are having to make.
I think that the main reason that we saw such an increase in the labor force in the month of November was because of the expiration of the Federal Extended Unemployment Benefits at the beginning of December. With the 99 week extended benefit plan coming to an end at the beginning of the month, I presume that the labor force will peak in the coming month. This could mean that if Congress cannot pass a temporary extension to the benefits, then the unemployment figure could go through the roof. This is because individuals are typically given benefits for up to 27 weeks in a normal economy, but due to the recession that the country has been fighting over the past two years, benefits were extended over 70 more weeks. to collect insurance the unemployed person must be actively seeking work, so these individuals will be counted in the labor force either way, however other family members will most likely be entering the labor force. This is the only practical option for families who need to bring home money, and have family members whose unemployment benefits have recently expired. So I would presume that teenagers and otherwise stay at home moms may be making an entrance into the labor force in the coming month at a greater rate than jobs are being handed out at, which means that another jump in unemployment may be likely.
However because it is December and with the holidays coming up, many temporary retail jobs will be opening up, which might mitigate a jump in unemployment, however last year the unemployment figure stayed the same at 10.0% between November and December.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Are Jobs Coming Back? Signs Point to Yes
Is the job market getting better? That is what is being suggested in this article. In the report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for October stated that 151,000 new jobs had been created that month. The hope was that just as many jobs would be created during the month of November as well. One economist even suggested that there would be as many as 235,000 jobs added during November. The reason behind the thinking that the job market may be turning around is that monthly payroll numbers were up and less people have filed for unemployment. However, the increase in payroll numbers could simply be coming from an increase in temporary positions that have been created which will eventually end causing those people to become unemployed once again.
The article states that fewer people are relying on the benefits and that the four-week moving average has fallen to a two year low. Also, the people who are employed are on average working more during the week. If this trend continues then businesses may have to decide if they want to overwork their current employees or hire new ones. The hope is that the demand for new workers will soon rise high enough to really start making a dent in the unemployment rate.
Even though there has been an increase in the monthly payroll numbers, many jobs have still been cut, most of them from government agencies. In October almost 11,000 jobs were cut and they are predicting 48,711 job cuts during November. How can the job market be getting better if they are cutting almost 50,000 jobs in a month? With this many job cuts in a month it will only increase the unemployment rate causing the supply of workers for the labor force to increase drastically while the demand for workers will still be very low.
Ben Bernanke the Federal Reserve Chairman stated that the economy is not growing fast enough to really reduce the unemployment rate. Economists expect the unemployment rate to stay above 9% at least though 2009. Today the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly report concerning the unemployment rate for the month of November and it showed that unfortunately the unemployment rate that had been holding steady for the past few months at 9.6% had in fact increased to 9.8%. Also, the number of new jobs that had been created was nowhere close to what was predicted for the month. Seeing the report shows that maybe the job market is not moving in the right direction after all.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/02/news/economy/november_jobs_report_lookahead/index.htm
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Critique on Underwater Airplane
Critique on Underwater Airplane
I have chosen to critique the article about Richard Branson’s newest toy the Necker Nymph. Richard Branson is known for pushing the Virgin name to the limits. All of the stunts he partakes in is to create maximum publicity for his company. In order to get the Virgin name into every household Branson continues to push the limits. The extreme stunts he partakes in helps boost the amount of revenue his company is receiving because of the publicity it creates. Not many people haven’t heard of one of the more than 60 Virgin companies he has created.
Branson’s newest edition is adds to the already high profile vacation at Necker Island. I agree with the statement that renting out the Neckar Nymph may be hard due to the high prices, but anyone able to rent the Island for 300,000 dollars a week probably would not be worrying about an extra 25,000 for an underwater experience. Also, the Nymph is one of a kind for an easy underwater experience without having to rent out a submarine, which would be much more expensive than the Nymph rental. I believe the break even price even with the addition of all the variable costs such as the pilot, gas, repairs and insurance will not be difficult to reach. I believe that people who are renting out the island are looking for the ultimate beach and water experience and the Nymph greatly sweetens the deal. I believe Branson will be able to create much more profit for the rental of the island with this simple addition. If you follow Branson’s business moves they at times may be risky, but he is a very experienced entrepreneur and I believe that he has put much thought into the Nymph and its potential to easily increase the desire to rent out the Island.
As for Hawkes Ocean Technologies they have an extremely interesting product. I agree with the write that it will be hard for other companies to enter the market. They have a great product that can represent a status symbol such as a Bugatti or a Lamborghini. I agree with that there is low threat on other companies taking over this extremely hard market to enter. Even though the company has a monopoly on this particular product I believe that they will be able to increase revenue due to peoples desires for expensive status symbol products. Although there is only one underwater airplane as of now, they will not hold the monopoly for long. If the product creates large amounts of revenue there are always companies capable of competing in order to gain a share of the market.
With the addition of the Nymph Richard Branson continues to push the business world to the extreme. I believe that he will reap large rewards from this move due to the fact it greatly sweetens the deal to a millionaires dream island visit.