One reason college graduates and the unemployed cannot find jobs

May and June are graduation months. During this period, between 1.5 and 2.2 million students will be graduating from college with associates, bachelors, masters, and doctorate degrees.

In addition, between 6 and 8 million college age students will  be looking for summer employment.

At the same time, the politicians and news media are trying to paint a rosy picture of how the economy is improving. They cite that an average of 200,000 new jobs are being created monthly. This translates into 2.4 million new jobs per year.

But, when we compare the number of graduates who will be entering the workforce to the number of jobs being created, we find a net difference of only 200,000 to 900,000 new jobs over the year.

The problem facing young graduates is the pure size of  those graduating all at once. Of the total 1.5 to 2.2 million looking for work, only 200,000 jobs will be available in any one month. That leaves a large number who will not be employed right away. A Townhall article cites that only 16% of those graduating from college this year have already landed a job. That translates into 240,000 to 352,000 with jobs, which represents between 1 and 2 months of employment gain.

Making matters worse for the new graduates, is the fact that there is approximately 8 times more people who are currently unemployed and competing for new jobs (i.e. 10 to 12 million people).

Thus, at a time when jobs are hard to find, the new graduates only compound the unemployment situation. Using the current economic growth rate, it will take more than 10 years before everyone is absorbed into the workforce.

But, there are certain things that college graduates and others can do to improve their chances of finding a job. First, and foremost, is to consider moving to a region of the country where jobs are available. Several states where unemployment is lower than the national average are: Iowa, Minnesota, Wyoming, Kansas, Hawaii, Vermont, New Hampshire, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Texas.

While many graduates and their parents want their sons and daughters to remain home, very often there are not too many jobs available for those with your education. However, if you are willing to move, you may find that your specialty is in need somewhere else.

Now is the time for young graduates to make the move. Think of it as travel, an adventure. As a young person, you may not be tied down with a spouse or children. Second, you have a chance to get away. Third, if it doesn't work out, you can always move back home again.

Everything’s Bigger in Texas…Except the Unemployment Rate

Best of luck and congratulations to all!


Sources:

• Poll: More Than 40 Percent of College Grads are Underemployed…
• U.S. Adds 165,000 Jobs, Unemployment Rate Dips
• How many college students graduate every year?
• Unemployment Rate Down As Americans Give Up On Work
• Real Unemployment Rate: 5.5 Million Young People Are Out of Work, in a Major Crisis For the US
• 10 states with ridiculously low unemployment
• Unemployment Rates for States (Bureau of Labor Statistics)

2 Ravens (or Crows) attack a squirrel and carry it away

When I left work two weeks ago, I saw my first robin pecking at the ground. Ah, "Spring is here" I thought. The temperatures were warming up and most of the snow had melted.

The next morning, I was home, drinking a cup of coffee and looking out at the early Saturday morning sun.

A squirrel was in a tree building a nest in a nearby tree. Yes I thought, indeed "Spring is here".

The nest was quite large, about 2 feet in diameter (I guess) and was located in the crock of two branches about 20 feet above the ground. The squirrel would run and jump to adjacent branches, nibble off a twig, and then insert it into the nest. Every so often, the squirrel entered the nest and appeared to push everything into place.

After I watched the squirrel jump off to another branch, a big black bird landed about a foot away from the nest. It stood there, cocking its head, looking at the nest. At first I thought it was a crow, but it looked awfully large. So, I decided it must be a Raven.

As the squirrel returned to the nest, the raven hopped away. But when the squirrel ran off to get another twig, the raven boldly hopped over to the nest and looked into it. Then the squirrel returned and the raven backed away.

I thought it was odd that the squirrel ignored the bird, but it must not have felt threatened.

When the squirrel left the nest again, a second raven landed on an adjacent branch. "Two against one", I thought. But the both birds just stood on the branches, watching the busy squirrel.

When the squirrel returned one more time, and entered the nest, the two ravens attacked. With open wings, they hopped onto the nest. The first raven grabbed the squirrel by the neck, and the second raven took the tail. Then they flew off together with the squirrel trying to get free. I watched them fly until they disappeared over the trees.

"Wow" I thought! I didn't know that crows or ravens would attack a living squirrel. I knew they were scavengers and would eat a dead carcass, but I didn't know that they would hunt in pairs and kill their prey.

I told this story to my mother-in-law who is 85 years old. She grew up on a farm and told me "Oh yes, they do attack animals". She said that when she was young, her mother told her to watch the chickens and chase away any birds that would land. But, as she was watching, a big crow (or raven perhaps), swooped down from the sky, grabbed a small chicken, and flew away with it. Just like that!

So now when I look out my window and see that unfinished nest, I think about the poor squirrel who was just trying to make a summer home for itself and live in harmony with all the wild creatures. I guess "Spring is really here"!

Read more:
I found a very similar story titled: Wild Bird Wednesday

Why the U.S. economy will not improve under President Obama - Part I

People do what they know best. They also tend to stay away from topics (or subjects) about which they are least comfortable.

Thus, it is logical that President Obama promotes research and education, yet avoids economics and the mathematical fundamentals of stimulating the economy.

To best understand his positioning, one need only to listen to his campaign style speeches or read his past State of the Union addresses. In all, he continually promotes the need for more research and education for all. He repeatedly says that economic growth will be derived from an educated society and that research will lead to technological advances which will fuel future manufacturing demands.

This is all true. But unfortunately, the current state of the economy borders on another recession and GDP is at or below 0%. And since the benefits of education and research may not be realized for years, one may ask: Why does the President continue to promote these as cures to our faltering economy?

The answer to this question is found in Mr. Obama's own higher education. His undergraduate degree was a major in political science with an international relations focus. He then attended law school and earned a J.D.  Neither of these degrees are mathematically oriented which is important in understanding the fundamentals of economics.

Most people learn early in their education careers that they are better in either mathematics or in English. Those who are good in math tend to study engineering, economics, math, the sciences, or medicine. Those who are good in English tend to study English, history, political science, law. Rarely do students excel in both math and English.

Mr. Obama was good in English, and therefore gravitated to law. He is an excellent speaker and reads the teleprompter flawlessly.

However, he does not seem to be very good at mathematics. Thus he stays away from hard economic issues of how business influences economic growth which then translates into increased taxable income. But, he does focus on broad social issues and simply relies on raising taxes as the means of government income.

Mr. Obama does comprehend the important need for more governmental revenue in order to pay for the social programs he promotes.

But, he is not mathematically smart enough nor creative enough to think about how to raise governmental income. This is why President Obama's only solution is to raise taxes.

As long as the President maintains this singular solution, the U.S. economy will continue to sputter because the real problem of stimulating business growth has not been addressed.

In our upcoming future posts, we will discuss:

• Why it is wrong for the President to continually promote the "Middle Class",
• How Mr. Obama's education policy affects the unemployment problem, and
• Why Mr. Obama does not like the oil companies.

Sources:

• President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address -- As Prepared for Delivery
• Remarks by the President on Manufacturing -- Asheville, NC
• EDUCATION - Knowledge and Skills for the Jobs of the Future
• Profile of President Barack Obama
• Early life and career of Barack Obama
• Obama's transgender ex-nanny outcast in Indonesia

My Dynamic View Experience using Google's Blogger

We've heard the politicians tell us that the U.S. economy is recovering and that a lot of jobs are being created. But, every time we read the newspapers, watch TV, or listen to the radio, we hear about a major layoffs in various companies.

So, last December, I decided to start a new blog recording the major layoffs occurring in the United States that I've read or heard about. I figured that by doing this, it would be easier to judge whether the politicians were right or wrong.

Thus, I launched the blog US Corporate Layoffs using Blogger's Dynamic View template as shown below.

When using Dynamic Views, the visitor is offered a choice of views by which they can see your site. However, the author must choose a default, or master, view. I chose the Classic view template because it is more like the other standard Blogger templates in that it simply presents all the blog posts in single scrollable format.

I had several reasons for using the Dynamic View template. First, I just think it looks "cool". Second, a user can change the display format by himself, and see just Thumbnails, or lists of posts at a glance. Third, because of the nature of the content, I thought that a simple, uncluttered, structure would be the most appropriate.

Lastly, I thought that because Dynamic Views were nearly 2 years old, Google would have most of the bugs corrected.

However, I was wrong about Google's performance and found a few frustrating features inherent in Dynamic Views.

• Often, when the blog is initially loaded, the CSS heading and sidebar links fail to load. When this occurs, the selected color scheme is gone as well. The visitor is required to refresh the page 1 or more times in order to see the site properly.
• When writing and pressing the Preview button 2 times or more time, the resulting Preview often displays the wrong post and loses the s resultse CSS formatting.
• After the post Preview is shown, the overlay "Preview" banner in the upper left corner doesn't display. This leads to confusion as to whether the post has been published or not.
• When adding and placing images in a post, the published image placement may not be placed exactly where it shows in the post editor or the preview window. This then results in other formatting problems that may be seen in the published post.
• Embedded post images do not become Thumbnails display in the Flipcard, Magazine, Mosiac, Snapshot, or Timeslide views unless they (the images) were uploaded directly into the post. (They cannot be and not hosted by a 3rd party).
• Changing the blog default color scheme doesn't work unless you use IE browser.
• 3rd Party widgets such as nRelate, Feedjit, will not display.  

Below are samples of alternate layouts. The first is the Flipcard. As you will see, only one post has an image Thumbnail. The others only contain the post Title text. The reason for this is because I only embedded an image into the first post. All the others are links to other 3rd party locations.

The second layout  shows the Timeslide format. Again, because only the first post image is embedded, it is the only Thumbnail shown in the display. While all the other posts contain graphic images, they do not display as Thumbnails.

In summary, although I find some of the Dynamic View features lacking, I think that the overall effect of using Dynamic Views for this blog is most appropriate. However, if you are considering using Blogger's Dynamic Views, be fully aware of its limitations before beginning to use these templates.

How to delete (or change) a Blogger label

This post describes how to delete a Blogger label using the new Blogger interface.
 
I recently wanted to change one of the Blogger labels that I assigned to my posts.  To do this, I added the new replacement label which was rather easy. This was done by selecting the posts that I wanted, and selecting the "New label..." option from the labels pull down menu on my blog's Posts page.

But when I wanted to delete the old label, I could not find a "Delete label" choice.

I was lost. So I searched Blogger help and unfortunately could not find the correct answer. I found one answer that described how to do this with the old Blogger interface, so that was useless.

The second help answer described how to change the name of a label. Reading through that, I found that I was to select a  "Remove label" choice from the label actions menu.  But, that choice was not there.

So I experimented. I selected one of the posts that had the label I wanted to remove (by checking the box next to the blog post), and then, I selected the old label from the pull-down  label action menu. I found that this action worked as a toggle. If the label was already there, it was removed. But, if the label was not there, then it was added to the post.

I also learned that my approach to changing a Blogger label was correct.  From the Google Blogger help, changing a label is done by adding a new label and then deleting the old one.

In summary, if you are using Blogger and want to delete a label you must:

• Go to your blog's Posts page in Blogger
• Click the check boxes next to each post that contains the label you want to delete
• Then, click on the label inside the "Label Pull-down menu"
• If the label is already on that post, it will be deleted. (if it is not there it will be added)

Or, if you want to change a Label, you must

• First add a new label to all the posts to be changed
• And then, you must delete the old label using the method described above.

Hope this helps !!!

Your Taxes are going up in 2013 regardless of the Fiscal Cliff

At some point, the House of Cards will fall apart. 

America has been operating without a budget since 2011. During that year, the Congress, Senate, and President tried to negotiate a budget, but continually failed because President Obama and the Treasury Department wanted to raise the debt ceiling (Fear Not: the Federal Government has shutdown before and Social Security checks kept flowing). By August 2011, an agreement was reached. The debt ceiling was allowed to be raised to $16.3 trillion, and a "Super Committee" was formed to to address fiscal reform. In the event that the committee failed to agree on a solution, mandatory budget cuts in 2013 would take effect as a safeguard to our economy.

The Super Committee talks collapsed after a short while, and the economy has been running on auto pilot since then.

Now we are approaching the beginning of 2013 and the 2011 budget cuts, now called the Fiscal Cliff, are scheduled to go into effect. Although Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, and other economists were concerned that these cuts would trigger a new recession, our elected lawmakers have again failed to resolve this critical issue. President Obama's solution is to raise taxes on those individuals earning more than $200,000 per year and has requested the authority to increase the debt ceiling at his discretion, with an unlimited topside amount. Republicans in the House of Representatives do not want to raise taxes on anyone. And, conservatives want to limit entitlement spending.


In an attempt to bully the Republican Congressmen, the Democratic leadership has led a campaign against the Republicans, convincing the American public that it is the Republican Party who is responsible for failing to resolve the budget issue.

To complicate matters, the Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, warned that the U.S. budget ceiling would be reached on December 30th, 2012, just two days before the mandatory budget cuts are implemented. 

Needless to say, the Democrats are beginning to panic at the thought of being constrained by the required budget. This is why President Obama cut his Hawaiian Vacation short and returned to Washington DC yesterday. 

Mr. Obama had campaigned on raising the taxes on the rich. He carefully avoided informing the public that new ObamaCare taxes on all income earning Americans, regardless of income level, would also become effective in the beginning of 2013.

This means that everyone who generates income will be paying more in taxes beginning 2013. The only question is how much more will be paid. If the legislature fails to avert the "fiscal cliff", the Obama give-away program begin to come to an end while all those who are still working will help to reduce the national debt.

If a new budget agreement is reached, current taxpayers will begin to pay these new taxes in 2013 due to ObamaCare:

• Medical-device excise tax 2.3%, paid by elderly, sick, injured, needy
• Limited Flexible Spending Accounts (30 million working Americans) tax deductions for health care costs will be capped at $2,500 rather than unlimited
• Tax deduction for medical expenses exceeding 10% of annual income (up from 7.5 %)
• Increase in Medicare tax from 1.45% to 2.35%
• Tax increase of 3.8% on investment income for those earning $250,000 or more. Capital gains increase from 15% to 20%. Dividends tax rises from 15 to 39.6%. Plus, with ObamaCare, capital gains tax rate raised to 23.8% and dividends raised to 43.4%.
• Employer Payroll tax increase

However, if we do go over the fiscal cliff, all working taxpayers will be subjected to these additional taxes as well (see What falling ...)

• Income of $20,000 to $30,000: $1,064 average tax increase
• Income of $40,000 to $50,000: $1,729 average tax increase
• Income of $50,000 to $75,000: $2,399 average tax increase
• Income of $75,000 to $100,000: $3,688 average tax increase
• Income of $100,000 to $200,000: $6,662 average tax increase
• Income of $200,000 to $500,000: $14,643 average tax increase
• Income of $500,000 to $1 million: $38,969 average tax increase
• Income of more than $1 million: $254,637 average tax increase

So, in summary, our legislative and executive body struck a budget agreement in 2011 which will now become effective in 2013. Taxes are going up on everyone whether we go over the fiscal cliff or not. This goes beyond a Republican verses Democrat debate. The budget ceiling is reached and now the future is here for our President and congressional leaders to begin spending in a rational and responsible manner. The House of Cards is about to fall apart, but the only question is when it will collapse: Now or Later? 

Sources: ObamaCare Taxes

• Five major ObamaCare taxes that will hit your wallet in 2013
• Experts warn about impending Obamacare tax increases
• In 2013, Millions Of Americans Face Obamacare Tax Hikes
• Full List of Obamacare Tax Hikes
• The five tax hikes in Obamacare that most hurt seniors

Sources: Fiscal Cliff

• Reid: Time has run out on ‘fiscal cliff’
• Fiscal Cliff - News, Analysis and Opinion from POLITICO
• The Fiscal Cliff: A Primer
• What falling off the "fiscal cliff" means for you
• Fiscal Cliff 2013: A Timeline Of America's Long Stumble

xx

Merry Christmas. Christ is Born!

Two thousand twelve years ago, our Savior, Jesus Christ, was born in a manger in Bethlehem. Since that time, we have celebrated his birth. Originally religiously, we now remember this miraculous event in grandiose fashion. Christmas! A day of giving! A day symbolized by Santa Clause, Christmas trees, outdoor lighting, caroling, and feasting.

It is also a day for us to remember our lost ones. Jesus was born to die for our sins.

Even in black times, our spirits turn back to this marvelous event. A child is born. A child who will change the world. A child who will later die for us. A child who will receive our souls and give us eternal life in a spiritual world.

With hope of life, this young innocent child protects our spirit, and oversees our daily lives. He's there for us whenever we need him. He is there when we are born. He is there when we die.

So as we celebrate this holiday season, preparing our gifts for Christmas day, its time to remember the meaning of Christmas.

This has been a difficult year for many Americans. Natural disasters and human carnage have tested our faith. Many have lost their physical possessions. And, many have lost their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends and children.

But time marches on, and God is still with us. While we cannot understand the reasoning, our faith must remain strong.

We look to new life as the world will soon celebrate the birth of our Christ and renews our faith that God is still there.

Yes, Christ is born. Glorify him!

Merry Christmas to all!