Finance topics

October 18, 2011

US stock futures slip on earnings, French debt

Filed under: economics, news — Tags: , , , — Gogo @ 9:32 am

U.S. stock futures are slipping after disappointing corporate earnings and another sign that Europe’s credit crisis isn’t solved.

Moody’s warned late Monday that it may downgrade France’s top-notch credit rating in the next three months. That country’s finance minister said Tuesday that the French economy may grow at a slower pace than expected.

In the U.S., International Business Machines Corp. fell 4 percent in premarket trading after missing Wall Street’s revenue estimates last quarter free online credit report.

Goldman Sachs, Apple and Intel will release earnings by the end of the day.

Two hours before the market opened, Dow futures fell 34 points, or 0.3 percent, to 11,267. S&P 500 futures lost 2, or 0.2 percent, to 1,191. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 7, or 0.3 percent, to 2,327.

Source

October 15, 2011

New iPhone launch turns into remembrance for Jobs

Filed under: Finance, economics — Tags: , , , — Gogo @ 3:56 am

It wasn’t just the latest iPhone that drew people to Apple stores Friday.

Many consumers waited in lines for hours _ sometimes enduring chilly temperatures and overnight thunderstorms _ to remember Steve Jobs, Apple’s visionary who died last week.

The company’s first iPhone release since Jobs’ death turned into another tribute. Some customers even joked that the new model 4S stood “for Steve.”

Tony Medina, a student from Manhattan, stood outside Apple’s flagship store on New York’s Fifth Avenue for nine hours, waiting through rain. He had originally planned to order the phone online but decided to join a crowd of about 200 people to honor Jobs.

“For loyalty, I felt I had to do the line,” he said. “I had to say thank you.”

The new phone, which went on sale Friday in seven countries, is faster than the previous model and comes with better software and an improved camera. Yet the unveiling comes at a time when Apple is finding it difficult to maintain the excitement of previous iPhone introductions.

For starters, the phone is more widely available than in the past. In addition to Apple stores, it’s also sold by three wireless carriers: AT&T Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Wireless. Some Best Buy, Target and Walmart stores also carry the phones, as do authorized resellers.

Buyers were also able to preorder the phone on Apple’s website and have it shipped to their homes or offices.

Many diehard Apple fans and investors were disappointed that Apple did not launch a more radically redesigned new model _ an iPhone 5. It’s been more than a year since Apple’s previous model was released.

That also may have contributed to smaller gatherings at some Apple locations.

“People are not as excited about this version as they might have been if a (iPhone) 5 came out,” said Charles Prosser, a retired teacher and computer technician from Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Even so, hundreds of buyers camped out in front of stores for hours to be among the first to get an iPhone 4S.

Steve Wozniak, who created Apple with Jobs in a Silicon Valley garage in 1976, was first in line at a store in Los Gatos, Calif., having arrived on his Segway the afternoon before.

Wozniak, who typically waits in line for new Apple products, said he barely slept Thursday night as he was busy chatting with Apple fans, taking photos and giving autographs. Wozniak pre-ordered two new iPhones. He bought two more Friday Payday advance.

“I just want to be part of an important event, so I feel it more deeply,” he said.

Many said the event resembled a remembrance to Jobs, who died a day after Apple Inc. announced the new phone.

Emily Smith, a Web designer, checked in to the line in New York on the location-centric social network Foursquare. She got a virtual Steve Jobs badge that read: “Here’s to the crazy ones. ThankYouSteve.”

In Chicago, Nicole Pacheco dragged her brother and a friend out to buy Apple’s latest gadget.

“I wanted to see how it was, to come out here for once,” she said as she looked at the line that stretched past her. “We’re kind of a memory for Steve Jobs. It’s one of his last inventions. It kind of motivated me to get the next one.”

Apple and phone companies started taking orders for the iPhone 4S last Friday. Apple said Monday that more than 1 million orders came in, breaking the record set by last year’s model, which was available in fewer countries and on fewer carriers.

Jobs’ death could be helping sales. Marketing experts say products designed by widely admired figures such as Jobs usually see an upsurge in sales after their death.

The base model of the iPhone 4S costs $199 in the U.S. with a two-year contract. It comes with 16 gigabytes of storage. Customers can get 32 gigabytes for $299 and 64 gigabytes for $399. The phones come in white or black.

The phones also debuted Friday in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Britain. They are coming to 22 more countries by the end of the month.

Besides a better processor and camera, the new phone has a new operating system that allows users to sync content without needing a computer. It also includes a futuristic, voice-activated service that responds to spoken commands and questions such as “Do I need an umbrella today?”

The new features appealed to Dina Nguyen, who came to the Apple store in Palo Alto, Calif., the same location where Jobs was known to show up on sale days. She and her brother, Kennedy, picked up four iPhones for their family.

The siblings said it was a bit sentimental to get the phones now, right after Jobs’ death.

“He left a good legacy. He had a good life. He wanted to make people happy,” Kennedy Nguyen said. “It’s good to support that.”

Source

October 5, 2011

Ford to add 5,750 US jobs as part of new contract

Filed under: economics, management — Tags: , , , — Gogo @ 2:28 am

Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday it will add 5,750 jobs and invest $4.8 billion in its U.S. factories as part of a new contract deal with the United Auto Workers union.

The four-year deal was reached early Tuesday after eight straight days of bargaining. UAW leaders were expected to release further details of the contract later Tuesday at a meeting of union leaders in Detroit. The deal is subject to a vote by union members.

John Fleming, Ford vice president of manufacturing, said most of the new hires will be paid a lower wage than Ford’s older workers. The agreement is expected to lower Ford’s labor costs, which are the highest in the U.S. auto industry.

“The tentative agreement will enable us to improve our overall competitiveness here in the United States,” Fleming told reporters at Ford’s headquarters in Dearborn.

Fleming would not give details about where the new jobs would go. He said the jobs are in addition to 7,000 new positions that Ford announced earlier this year. The $4.8 billion in investments is also in addition to $1.4 billion previously announced.

Ford likely matched some of the provisions in the General Motors Co. agreement that was reached last month. The GM deal gives workers $5,000 signing bonuses, $1,000 a year for three years to cover inflation and at least $3,500 in profit-sharing this year. GM was able to avoid a pension increase for the first time since 1953, and Ford’s terms are expected to match that.

The pact still must be approved by Ford’s 41,000 UAW members, who work at 27 plants and other facilities around the country. Voting is expected next week. Approval could be a problem because many expected the company to restore pay raises and other benefits they sacrificed to help Ford through tough financial times starting in 2007.

UAW leaders said the contract keeps Ford’s costs and prices competitive but increases profit sharing.

“UAW members sacrificed when the company was struggling and now will share in Ford’s prosperity,” UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles said in a statement.

Up next is Chrysler Group LLC, where the talks could be more contentious. The company isn’t making as much money as Ford and GM and probably can’t afford the same deals.

The UAW talks are watched closely because they set wages for more than 112,000 workers in the auto industry and set the bar for pay at auto parts makers and foreign-owned automakers.

Ford shares fell 22 cents to $9.15 a share in morning trading Tuesday after sinking to a 52-week low of $9.05 earlier in the session.

Source

September 1, 2011

Katia now a hurricane; too early to talk threat

Filed under: Uncategorized, economics — Tags: , , , — Gogo @ 5:28 am

Katia became the second named hurricane of the season in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday, but forecasters said it was too soon to determine where it might head.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami cautioned the public _ still recovering along parts of the East Coast from Irene _ not to stress over the storm. It is over warm waters and in a low wind shear environment, two ingredients that could propel it to become a major hurricane, likely by the weekend. But it’s too soon to tell if it will ever come near land.

“It’s got a lot of ocean to go. There’s no way at this point to say if it will make any impacts, let alone when it might make them,” said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist and spokesman at the National Hurricane Center. “There’s a reason we don’t do forecasts more than five days in advance _ the information just isn’t good. The error beyond that just isn’t acceptable.”

As of 11 p.m., Katia was still centered about 1,800 miles (3,000 kilometers) east of the Leeward Islands and was moving west-northwest near 20 mph (32 kph).

Maximum sustained winds were 75 mph (121 kph).

Also becoming an area of concern is a thunderstorm cluster over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico. It has a high chance of becoming a tropical storm in the next two days, the hurricane center said instant payday loans.

National Weather Service meteorologist Fred Zeigler said the system could bring rain to coastal Mississippi and Louisiana but it’s too early to tell whether it will mean anything worse.

Most models used to track such systems are struggling to predict whether it will move toward Brownsville, Texas, or the Florida Panhandle, he said.

As for Katia, some models show it veering away from the East Coast. But Feltgen said it’s simply too soon for coastal residents to tell.

“Folks along the East Coast shouldn’t be getting a lot of heartburn over this _ not yet,” he said.

The storm’s name replaces Katrina in the rotating storm roster because of the catastrophic damage from the 2005 storm that devastated New Orleans and the coast. The World Meteorological Organization maintains six rotating lists of storm names, but it strikes names associated with storms that were catastrophically deadly or costly.

Meantime, a tropical depression in the Pacific has fallen apart over southwestern Mexico with winds dropping and the hazard dissipating.

Source

August 10, 2011

Cameron: UK won’t let ‘culture of fear’ take over

Filed under: Uncategorized, economics — Tags: , , , — Gogo @ 10:16 pm

Britain will not let a “culture of fear” take over its streets, Prime Minister David Cameron insisted Wednesday, saying police have drawn up contingency plans to use water cannon if necessary to remove rioters from the streets.

Thousands of extra police officers on the streets kept a nervous London quiet after three nights of rioting, but looting flared in Manchester and Birmingham, where a murder probe was opened after three men were killed in a hit-and-run reportedly as they took to the streets to deter potential rioters.

“We will do whatever is necessary to restore law and order onto our streets,” Cameron said in a somber televised statement. “Nothing is off the table” _ including water cannon, commonly used in Northern Ireland but never deployed in mainland Britain.

Cameron has recalled Parliament from its summer recess for an emergency debate on the riots Thursday.

An eerie calm prevailed in the capital Wednesday, where hundreds of shops were shuttered early or boarded up Tuesday night as a precaution, but unrest spread across England on a fourth night of violence by brazen crowds of young people.

Scenes of ransacked stores, torched cars and blackened buildings have frightened and outraged Britons just a year before their country is to host next summer’s Olympic Games, bringing demands for a tougher response from law enforcement. Police across the country have made almost 1,200 arrests _ including 800 in London _ since the violence broke out in the capital on Saturday.

Armored vehicles and convoys of police vans backed up some 16,000 officers on duty _ almost triple the number who were out Monday night. The show of force seems to have worked _ there were no reports of major trouble in London on Tuesday night, although there were scores of arrests.

“What happened in London last night was, when community leaders and the police came together, there were significant arrests,” said police deputy assistant chief constable Stephen Kavanagh. “Some looters were taken away before they got into doing anything, but it was that joint action that made the difference.”

London courts worked through the night to process all those charged. Defendants appearing Wednesday included a 31-year-old primary school worker who admitted looting an electronics store, and a 15-year-old boy originally from Ukraine accused of throwing stones at police.

The violence has revived debate about the Conservative-led government’s austerity measures, which will slash 80 billion pounds ($130 billion) from public spending by 2015 to reduce the country’s swollen budget deficit.

Cameron’s government has slashed police budgets as part of the cuts. A report last month said the cuts will mean 16,000 fewer police officers by 2015.

London mayor Boris Johnson _ like Cameron, a Conservative _ broke with the government to say such cuts are wrong.

“That case was always pretty frail and it has been substantially weakened,” he told BBC radio. “This is not a time to think about making substantial cuts in police numbers.”

Outside the capital, more looting was reported Tuesday night but not on the scale of Monday’s violence in London.

Some 250 people were arrested after two days of violence in Birmingham, and police launched a murder investigation into the deaths of three men hit by a car. Residents said the dead men, aged 20 to 31, were members of Birmingham’s South Asian community who had been patrolling their neighborhood to keep it safe from looters.

“They lost their lives for other people, doing the job of the police,” said witness Mohammed Shakiel, 34. “They weren’t standing outside a mosque, a temple, a synagogue or a church _ they were standing outside shops where everybody goes. They were protecting the community.”

Chris Sims, chief constable of West Midlands Police, said a man had been arrested on suspicion of murder.

“The information we have at the moment would support the idea that the car was deliberately driven,” he said, appealing for calm. “My concern would be that that single incident doesn’t lead to a much wider level of distress and even violence between different communities.”

In the northwestern city of Manchester, hundreds of youths rampaged through the city center, hurling bottles and stones at police and vandalizing stores. A women’s clothing store on the city’s main shopping street was set ablaze, along with a disused library in nearby Salford.

Manchester assistant chief constable Garry Shewan said it was simple lawlessness.

“We want to make it absolutely clear _ they have nothing to protest against,” he said. “There is nothing in a sense of injustice and there has been no spark that has led to this.”

Britain’s soccer authorities were talking with police to see whether this weekend’s season-opening matches of the Premier League could still go ahead in London. A Wednesday match between England and the Netherlands at London’s Wembley stadium was canceled.

Britain’s riots began Saturday when an initially peaceful protest over a police shooting in London’s Tottenham neighborhood turned violent. That clash has morphed into a general lawlessness in London and several other cities that police have struggled to halt.

While the rioters have run off with goods every teen wants _ new sneakers, bikes, electronics and leather goods _ they also have torched stores apparently just to see something burn. They were left virtually unchallenged in several neighborhoods, and when police did arrive they often were able to flee quickly and regroup.

Some residents stood guard to protect their neighborhoods _ Sikhs protected their temple in Southall, west London, and some 1,000 far-right members reportedly took to the streets to deter rioters.

In the central England city of Nottingham, police said rioters hurled firebombs though the window of a police station, and set fire to a school and a vehicle. Some 90 people were arrested.

In the northern city of Liverpool, about 200 youths hurled missiles at police and firefighters in a second night of unrest, and 44 arrests were reported.

There also were minor clashes in the central and western England locations of Leicester, Wolverhampton, West Bromwich, Bristol, and Gloucester.

In London, hundreds of stores, offices, pubs and restaurants closed early Tuesday. Normally busy streets were eerily quiet and the smell of plywood filled the air as business owners rushed to secure their shops before nightfall.

In east London’s Bethnal Green district, convenience store owner Adnan Butt, 28, said the situation was still tense.

“People are all at home _ they’re scared,” he said.

Source

August 2, 2011

Stocks now down for year as economic concerns grow

Filed under: economics, marketing — Tags: , , , — Gogo @ 3:36 pm

A sell-off is erasing all of the year’s gains in the stock market.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 lost 2.6 percent Tuesday as investors grew increasingly concerned about the economy. The benchmark index is now at its lowest point of the year.

A report that consumers cut their spending in June for the first time in two years added to a series of weak economic indicators have pushed stocks lower for seven straight days.

The S&P is closing down 33 points to 1,254 payday loans. The Dow Jones industrial average is down 266, or 2.2 percent, to 11,867. The Nasdaq is down 75, or 2.8 percent, to 2,669.

Four stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was higher than average at 5.3 billion shares.

Source

July 23, 2011

Drilling down to dental discounts

Filed under: economics, technology — Tags: , , , — Gogo @ 11:40 pm

Here’s something to sink your teeth into: discounted rates for dental work.

That’s the promise of Brighter.com, a new Santa Monica, Calif.-based online company that offers discounts of up to 60 percent off everything from root canals to teeth whitening. Even your kid’s braces.

Launched in May, it’s aimed at giving consumers more choices when choosing

July 12, 2011

Debt crisis spreads to shake Europe’s core

Filed under: economics, legal — Tags: , , , — Gogo @ 6:52 pm

The debt crisis shook Europe’s core on Tuesday as market fears grew over the stability of Spain and Italy, forcing a rethink of the currency union’s strategy to restore trust in its future.

Markets took a nosedive on worries that the eurozone’s third and fourth biggest economies _ both too expensive to save with Europe’s rescue funds _ may become the crisis’ next victims.

On the one hand, investors are concerned by the EU’s determination to get banks to share the burden of bailouts, even at the cost of triggering a Greek default. On the other, they see in EU disagreements over giving Greece more aid the ominous signs of a drop in commitment to the currency union.

The mix of uncertainty proved toxic for markets. The sell-off extended to Italy, one of Europe’s stable core economies, which despite its high debt had so far escaped the turmoil that has crippled the eurozone for a year and a half.

The contagion “could mark the beginning of the end for the single currency union in its current form,” Jonathan Loynes, economist at Capital Economics.

As so often before, the eurozone finance ministers were pushed into action only when the markets gave them no choice.

Italy’s government sped up approval of its austerity plan and the EU opened the door for a complete overhaul of the region’s bailout fund, which has so far focused on handing out rescue loans to countries on the brink of collapse in return for high interest rates and painful austerity measures.

The pledges calmed market nerves _ for the day, at least. The euro bounced back above $1.40 from as low as $1.3885 in the morning and Milan’s stock index swung to a 1.2 percent gain after being down as much as 4.4 percent.

“We said we are ready to test, whether, as part of the private sector involvement, an expansion of the toolkit is necessary and appropriate _ such as prolonging (loan) maturities and lowering interest rates,” said German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble. “Everything can help to improve debt sustainability and defend the euro as a whole.”

Schaeuble did not exclude new powers for the eurozone’s rescue funds, such as buying up the bonds of troubled countries on the open market, which could lower the debt weight and help stem market jitters, especially for a country like Greece, which few economists believe can stand on its own feet again without substantial additional support.

Until very recently, Germany, the eurozone’s largest economy and the biggest contributor to the region’s bailout fund, had firmly ruled out such expanded powers.

Schaeuble indicated that the heightened market panic may have led to a change in opinion. “We never before had such an intensive and honest debate over the real issues,” he told journalists at the end of a two-day meeting with his counterparts in Brussels Business Card Holders.

But while the promises of more support stabilized European markets by the close of the day on Tuesday, sentiment remains fragile as the eurozone’s top officials _ once again _ remained thin on details and appeared to disagree among themselves.

Calm will return to markets only if “all the countries of the eurozone assume their responsibility, in particular the most powerful countries,” Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told reporters in Madrid.

The comment seemed to be a direct rebuke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose reluctance to anger taxpayers at home has blocked previous efforts to get ahead of the debt crisis.

Because of the heightened tensions, this week could become crucial to the eurozone’s ability to survive the crisis. EU President Herman Van Rompuy said there may be a special summit of EU leaders in Brussels Friday, the same day as the results of long anticipated bank stress test will be revealed.

While the finance ministers struggled in Brussels, Italy worked to restore confidence in its ability to tackle its debt pile, some 120 percent of economic output and one of the biggest in the eurozone.

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said the government will bring forward the timetable it has for a raft of austerity measures, which are now meant to pass through parliament by Sunday, instead of waiting until August.

Berlusconi said in a statement that the turmoil in Italian financial markets in recent days has prompted the government to accelerate and strengthen the measures, so that the country can have a balanced budget by 2014.

“It is necessary to eliminate every doubt on the efficiency and credibility of the austerity measures,” Berlusconi said in his first public comments since speculators started pushing up the interest rates Italy pays on its debt.

Berlusconi, who has been weakened in recent local elections and referendums on his policies as well as a sex scandal, expressed confidence that the government and opposition would work together “to defend the country.”

The comments helped the Italian 10-year yield drop back down to 5.55 percent from above 6.0 percent earlier, while the Milan stock index turned positive to trade 1.2 percent higher _ its first rise in days.

____

Barry reported from Milan. David McHugh in Brussels, Maria Grazia Murru in Rome and Daniel Woolls in Madrid contributed to this story.

Source

July 11, 2011

Lonza buying Arch Chemicals for $1.2B in cash

Filed under: Business, economics — Tags: , , , — Gogo @ 7:16 am

Swiss specialty chemicals and biotechnology company Lonza Group Ltd. says it will buy Arch Chemicals Inc., a maker of antibacterial products, for $1.2 billion in cash.

The deal values the Norwalk, Conn., company at $47.20 per share. Lonza says it will start a tender offer for Arch Chemicals shares by Friday, and it expects to complete the acquisition later in 2011.

Lonza said it will have about $1.6 billion in annual revenue from sales of bacteria-killing products, making it one of the leaders in that market short term personal loans. It said Arch Chemicals reported $1.2 billion in sales of those products in 2010, and $1.4 billion in total revenue.

Shares of Arch Chemicals surged in recent days, and the stock gained $4.23, or 10 percent, to $46.40 in premarket trading.

Source

June 30, 2011

‘Skills gap’ leaves firms without worker pipeline

Filed under: economics, marketing — Tags: , , , — Gogo @ 12:52 pm

John Russo’s chemical lab in North Kingstown has been growing in recent years, even despite a deflated economy, and he expects to add another 15 to 20 positions to his 49 employees over the next year.

But the president of Ultra Scientific Analytical Solutions has found himself in a vexing spot, struggling to fill openings that require specialized training in a state where the jobless rate is close to 11 percent, the third-highest in the nation.

“It’s very difficult to find the right person, and there’s all walks of life trying to find jobs. I honestly think there’s a large swath of unemployable,” said Russo, whose firm manufactures and supplies analytical standards. “They don’t have any skills at all.”

He’s talking about the so-called skills gap, a national problem that has left businesses without a crucial pipeline of the skilled workers they need in a rapidly changing economy.

States from Rhode Island to Washington are taking steps to address the gulf. Michigan launched a “No Worker Left Behind” initiative, allowing unemployed or low-wage workers to get up to $10,000 in free tuition for community college study or other training. Several legislatures passed bills creating “lifelong learning accounts,” which, like a 401(k), help workers save for education, training or apprenticeships. The Aspen Institute is spearheading a national campaign that aims to do something that hasn’t happened nearly enough: get community colleges and employers talking.

The need for such efforts, experts say, is enormous.

In a major report in February, Harvard University highlighted what it called the “forgotten half” of young adults who are unprepared to enter the work force. Some drop out of high school. Some who finish can’t afford college. And some who can afford it find that what they’ve learned in college or vocational programs doesn’t match employers’ demands.

“Our system for preparing young adults is broken,” said William Symonds, director of the Pathways to Prosperity Project at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. “We’re not saying that the system is failing everybody, but it is leaving a lot of young people behind.”

Educators and business leaders say that a “college for all” mentality is no longer realistic, if ever it was. Many positions _ known as “middle-skill” jobs _ don’t require a degree from a four-year institution. The Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce estimates there will be 47 million job openings in the decade ending in 2018. Nearly half will require only an associate’s degree.

Career and technical education programs, once derided as being for those who couldn’t cut it academically, offer one path. But growing those programs has not been a national priority and their quality is inconsistent at best. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has called career and technical education the “neglected stepchild” of education reform.

U.S. Rep. James Langevin, D-R.I., who co-chairs the bipartisan Career and Technical Education Caucus in Congress, wants to change that. He has pushed to expand federal funding for such programs so they can access state-of-the-art technology and equipment. He notes that Perkins Act funding has remained stagnant over the last decade even though demand for career and technical education programs has increased. The funding was cut in the current fiscal year.

The caucus co-chairman, U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., points to the story of Tricia Reich, 18, who graduated this month from the Central Pennsylvania Institute of Science and Technology. The school trains students in everything from heavy equipment operation and dental assisting to building construction and landscape design Online payday loans.

In the automotive technology program, Reich learned everything there is to know about how a car works. She spent her third and final year not in the classroom but working at an auto dealership, at first earning $8 an hour as a service writer. She’s now employed at another dealership that sells and services Mercedes, Volvos and Audis, saving money in hopes of attending community college.

Reich said programs like hers give students “a leg up” once they get in the real world. “It’s definitely a big plus,” she said.

Rhode Island has been hit harder by the recession than many states, undergoing a difficult transition from an economy historically made up of low-tech, low-skill manufacturing and service jobs to a “knowledge” economy centered on IT, bioscience and health care and other such fields.

Take the old Jewelry District in downtown Providence. It’s been rebranded the Knowledge District, envisioned as a life sciences hub. But fulfilling that vision is years off.

Keith Stokes, executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp., notes that the 19-acre parcel is a stone’s throw from south Providence, home to the kind of lower-income, minority population that’s been disproportionately affected by the skills gap. But it might as well be “on the other side of the Grand Canyon,” Stokes said.

“We held on too long to these low-wage, low-skill industries, and we didn’t make the strategic long-term investments in education,” he said. “We’re playing a bit of catch-up. It’s critical for us to be able to catch up and accelerate.”

Part of the problem is the dropout rate. In Rhode Island, for every 100 students who start high school, only 73 will graduate, according to Ray DiPasquale, president of the Community College of Rhode Island. That puts the state slightly above the national average of about 72 percent.

But of those 73 who graduate in Rhode Island, 40 will enter college. And of that number, just 21 earn a degree.

At CCRI, the on-time graduation rate is only 9.8 percent, in part because the vast majority of its nearly 18,000 students require remedial coursework. The national rate is 15 percent.

The skills gap is already taking an economic toll. Some businesses spend tens of thousands of dollars to “skill up” new employees. Leaving positions unfilled is hardly better. Understaffed firms, particularly small ones, can’t deliver goods as fast as they need to or take on new customers.

The problem is likely to become even more acute as the economy picks up.

“If we don’t address this skills problem, American businesses will lack the world-class work force needed to compete at a global level, and many Americans will remain out of work, instead of accessing the high quality jobs of today and tomorrow,” said Penny Pritzker, a Chicago business executive who is advisory board chair of the Aspen Institute’s skills gap campaign.

It took Ultra Scientific’s Russo more than half a year to fill one of those jobs. Until recently, he couldn’t find anyone to operate a specialized piece of equipment that performs high-pressure liquid chromatography, a technique that separates compounds in a solution.

But his firm’s gain represents an economic loss to the state: The Ph.D. Russo is hiring is coming from Thermo Fisher Scientific, which is shuttering its manufacturing facility in east Providence.

Source

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