Question of the Day: Does a worker's level of education become MORE or LESS important during an economic slowdown (recession)?
This sharp and sudden economic downturn demonstrates how impacts on employment are felt differently based on the level of education.
Answer: More important
In just two months between February and April 2020, watch how unemployment rates varied dramatically based on level of education:
Unemployment analysis (source: FRED)
Questions
What is the relationship between level of education and unemployment rates?
Why do you think this relationship exists? Why does more education tend to...
Chart of the Week: What industries are most impacted by the economic shutdown due to coronavirus?
Questions:
What 3 industries had the largest NUMBER of unemployed persons in April?
What 3 industries have the LOWEST unemployment rates in April? Why do you think those industries were least impacted by the coronavirus?
In analyzing the change in unemployment rates between March and April, do you think this pandemic has impacted narrow sectors of the economy or had more widespread impact?
The report indicates that about 80% have identified themselves as being...
Reading List for May 8-10
By Beth Tallman
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May 08, 2020
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Current Events, Employment, Economics, Investing, Student Loans, Personal Finance
The country took time to recognize some VIPS this week: Teachers and Nurses, and Mothers will have their day on Sunday. “Thank You” seems an inadequate expression of our gratitude, especially now! You (teachers) inspire me with your energy, creativity, and agility in providing quality instruction and heartfelt support for your students during this challenging time.
And now for the reading list:
Unemployment
Unemployment reached historic levels in April of 14.7%....
NEW! NGPF Economics Resource Directory
Thanks to NGPF Fellow James Redelsheimer of Robbinsdale Armstrong High School (Plymouth, Minnesota) for his work creating this comprehensive directory for teachers looking for NGPF resources that weave Economics and Personal Finance together. By categorizing 150 NGPF resources into 11 Economic topics, this directory makes it easy for Economics teachers to find activities that are current, relevant and engaging for students.
Here's the table of contents (click to go directly to the...
Reading List for April 24-26
Happy Weekend! Hope you all will enjoy spring weather, while here in the Cleveland area we have seen snow flurries for the last three days!
Economics/Employment
Pick your medium for info on the new unemployment claims figure yesterday from Yahoo Finance: Video, or an article on unemployment explaining “continuing claims”—which lags by one week.
Have we bottomed out? (Will things stop getting worse, even if they don’t get better?) (Yahoo Finance)
USA...
Chart of the Week: What jobs will be most impacted by the coronavirus?
From McKinsey:
Questions:
Thinking about the companies/industries in your community, how much of an impact will COVID-19 have on your local economy?
There were about 159 million jobs in the U.S. economy in February. McKinsey has provided a range of overall jobs that are vulnerable at the top of the chart. What percent of overall jobs in the economy are considered vulnerable?
McKinsey indicates that 2-3 million new jobs will be created in the short-term. What types of jobs do you think...
Chart of the Week: What is this chart measuring?
Chart of the week now in presentation form with a chart, some questions and references. Enjoy!...
Interactive Monday: Fastest Growing Jobs since 1970
From Flowing Data comes a chart showing trends in job growth and decline over the past 4 decades. As you move the cursor over the graph, you can see what jobs correspond to the lines on the graph.
Here's a snapshot (click to go to the interactive chart)
Questions:
Three fastest growing jobs since 1970? Three jobs that have seen greatest decline?
What jobs were most impacted by the Great Recession of 2008-09? Have they recovered to their pre-recession levels?
Focus on the last...
Question of the Day: What percent of job seekers lie during the hiring process?
Answer: 78%
Here were their five most common lies:
Mastery of skills they barely use (like Excel or a foreign language) - 60%
Working at company longer than they did to omit another employer - 50%
Having a higher GPA by 1/2 a point: 49%
Title inflation: 41%
Earning a degree from a prestigious university when they were a few credits short: 39%
Questions:
Do you think it's ok to lie about your skills if you really, really want a job? Does it depend on what you are lying about?
What's the...
[Update] Question of the Day: What’s the current unemployment rate for 22-27 year-olds who graduated from a four-year college?
Answer: 3.9%
Questions:
What is the difference today in unemployment rates for those 22-27 year olds with a bachelor’s degree and those without?
What was this difference in 2010 following the Great Recession? Has the gap narrowed or widened between those with/without degrees?
Why do you think that having a college degree impacts an individual’s probability of getting a job?
Overall, what has been the trend in unemployment across all types of workers since 2010?
Click here...
Interactive Monday: Career Outcomes by College Major
What are the employment prospects for the major that I am interested in?
How much can I expect to earn right after college based on my major?
What earnings can I expect in the middle of my career?
Will I need a graduate degree in the field I'm interested in?
These are just a few of the questions that students might ponder as they consider their college major. This interactive from the NY Fed provides this data and more on 70+ majors. Here's a sampling of the information provided...
Interactive Monday: Visualizing salaries for hundreds of occupations
A series of interactives from Flowing Data will help your students visualize how salaries vary between and within occupation groups. Useful for your career unit and also will work with math as it includes concepts such as median, percentiles and distributions.
The first interactive ranks occupations by median salary and provides a sense of the number of people within an occupation by the size of the bubble (click below to go directly to the interactive which allows you to scroll over each bubble...
Interactive Monday: What's the Unemployment Rate in Your County?
The Census Bureau puts out some great data visualizations on a county-by-county level here.
Here's the Employment Status visualization which measures Unemployment Rate here (click on map for interactivity):
Questions:
Study the legend to determine how the shading corresponds to the unemployment rate.
What are 2-3 patterns you see when you look at the map of the United States?
Are there specific states where you see that unemployment is extremely high or extremely low? ...
Reading List for January 10-12
Your (Financial) Health
If you only have time to read one of these articles this week, make it this eye-opening piece from the Atlantic that digs into a research paper by economics from the St. Louis Fed on the college wealth premium—different from the income premium. (St. Louis Fed)
And then find a few minutes for this important read on how mental health issues can severely mpact your financial health. (Business Insider)
Economics
Is the Fed running out of tools to deal with a...
Chart of the Week: Manufacturing jobs require more skills!
From WSJ article:
Specialized job requirements have narrowed the path to the middle class that factory work once afforded. The new, more advanced manufacturing jobs pay more but don’t help workers who stopped schooling early. More than 40% of manufacturing workers have a college degree, up from 22% in 1991.
“The workers that remain do much more cognitively demanding jobs,” said David Autor, an economics professor at MIT.
Looking ahead, investments in automation will...
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