Economy Shock

MB:According to Conference Board Reports done by HWOL “employer job demand picked up in August, rising 169,000 or 5%.  Advertised vacancies in Healthcare Practitioners and Technical occupations increased in August, and this group experienced the lowest supply/demand rate. 

“The August increase is good news showing what we hope will be a continued improvement in job demand this fall,” said Gad Levanon, Senior Economist at The Conference Board. August job demand data are in-line with The Conference Board’s recently released Consumer Confidence Index which also rose in August, largely reflecting consumers’ feelings that jobs were becoming easier to find.

Shocking: The August data also suggests that, “While all of this is good news, the gap between the number of unemployed and the number of advertised vacancies still remains at about 11 million, with over 4 unemployed for every online advertised job vacancy,” said Levanon.

http://www.conference-board.org/pdf_free/HWOnlineAug09_PR.pdf

Popularity: 2%

Apple has spent the last decade building and improving Mac OS X, fusing the classic Mac OS and technology acquired from Steve Jobs’s Next into an impressive mainstream operating system that’s widely considered the best in its class. But after a decade of constant advancement and regular operating-system upgrades, Apple has taken a pause with the release of Snow Leopard, also known as Mac OS X 10.6. Instead of adding hundreds of new features, Apple has chosen to use Snow Leopard to cut ties with the past, plan for the future, and take dead aim on its present competition.

The result is a Mac OS X update unlike any in recent memory, one that boosts speeds, reclaims disk space, tweaks dozens of features, and lays the groundwork for a new generation of computers that feature 64-bit multi-core microprocessors, ultra powerful graphics processors, and massive amounts of memory. These features, combined with the low upgrade price of $29, make Snow Leopard the biggest no-brainer of an upgrade since Mac OS X 10.1. (And that upgrade, the aged among us will recall, was completely free.)

Unlike previous editions of Mac OS X, which could be freely installed on any old Mac, Snow Leopard’s license specifically limits it to users who are already using Leopard, which has been shipping since October 2007. If you are a Leopard user, you can upgrade a single Mac for $29, or up to five Macs in one household with the Snow Leopard Family Pack for $49. Users of Tiger–essentially people who bought Intel Macs before Leopard was released, and never upgraded–are supposed to purchase the Mac Box Set, which includes Snow Leopard, iLife ‘09, and iWork ‘09, for $169. (Snow Leopard doesn’t run at all on PowerPC-based Macs.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/26/AR2009082603925.html

Popularity: 2%

MB: A report released today from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the national unemployment rate for July was 9.7%.  Unemployment amongst youth ages 16-24 years old increased by 1.6 million to 19.3 million.  Shocking! Though youth unemployment rates tend to by higher during the summer months by an increased fluctuation in youth labor (supply); this year the pro-portion of young people which were employed in July was 51.4%, the lowest July rate on record (which began in 1948).  Is the poor economic environment to blame for the increase in youth unemployment?  Adults looking for work could be stealing much of the summer work that is available, resulting in large youth unemployment rates.

Popularity: 3%

NEARLY 5,000 people below the age of 21 die because of excessive alcohol consumption each year. Oddly, this has triggered a new movement to lower the drinking age. In America, young people can vote, drive, marry, divorce, hunt and go to war before alcohol is legally allowed to touch their lips. Many states once set their minimum drinking-age at 18. But in 1984 Ronald Reagan oversaw the passage of the “21 law”, which requires states to set 21 as the minimum drinking-age or risk losing 10% of their highway funds. Now campaigners want to move it back.

In the past, states have been too fiscally timid to challenge the 21 law. But calls for change are growing louder. Two local magistrates in South Carolina recently ruled that banning 18- to 20-year-olds from drinking or possessing alcohol is unconstitutional. Public officials, including the former attorney general of South Dakota, have called the 21 law a failure. The about-face of Morris Chafetz, a doctor who served on the commission that recommended increasing the drinking-age to 21, has also raised eyebrows. This week he called it the most regrettable decision of his career.

http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displayStory.cfm?story_id=14258833&source=hptextfeature

MB: My early college years were at times a bit of a blur.  Like many Freshman the first breath of freedom can be overwhelmingly exciting, drinking with my new friends resulted in some of the best times of my life.  Half of the fun from drinking was breaking the law, and doing stupid things, I am not sure drinking would have been as fun if it were legal.  When I turned 21 and became legally able to consume alcohol the thrill was no longer the same.

One suggested solution to the problem of alcohol related deaths in the States is to grant 18 year old high school grads who have a clean record complete an alcohol-education program.  Once completed the new adults would be able to apply for a drinking license. 

Popularity: 6%

New statistics released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis show that economic growth slowed in most states and regions of the U.S. in 2008 as economic growth overall slowed. Real GDP growth slowed in 38 states, with downturns in construction, manufacturing, and finance and insurance restraining growth in many states.  Growth in real U.S. GDP by state slowed from 2.0 percent in 2007 to 0.7 percent in 2008.

MB: To no surprise real GDP (economic growth) slowed in all eight BEA regions.  What was however a bit shocking were the states that grew faster than the nation and were in the highest quintile, “these states included WA, WY, CO, NM, ND, SD, IA, KS, OK, WV and DC (notice the low populations of these states).  A contributing factor to the growth in GDP for these states was increases in agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting, and mining. 

http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/regional/gdp_state/gsp_newsrelease.htm

Popularity: 3%