Category: Labor and Workforce
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The Great Jobs-Skills Mismatch
by James A. Bacon Much of the unemployment in the United States is tied to cyclical economic factors like swings in housing starts and industrial production but some of it stems from a mismatch between the jobs available and the skills of unemployed workers, contends Brookings Institution scholar Jonathan Rothwell in a new article, “Education,…
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Forbes on Cutting Virginia’s Defense Sector
By Peter Galuszka A couple of days ago I went to my mailbox next to the brightly-bloomed crepe myrtles and there was a four-color brochure from my Congressman, Randy Forbes, whose district stretches from the military-saturated cities of South Hampton Roads to the southern part of Chesterfield County where I live. Randy Forbes is a…
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Forgetting Slavery for Baseball in Richmond
By Peter Galuszka In Virginia, it never ceases to amaze how the white elite finds it so easy to extract the painful history of slavery from whatever it is they are trying to do. In his first year in office, for instance, Gov. Robert F. McDonnell went astonishingly brain-dead when he completely forgot to mention…
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Beware Hedge Fund Traders Bearing Gifts
By Peter Galuszka As noted in previous postings, I have always been curious as to the role in the Teresa Sullivan flap of big money hedge fund traders who are University of Virginia alumni and live in a world beyond most of us. Of special curiosity is the role allegedly played by billionaire Paul Tudor Jones…
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Virginia Scores No. 5 in Creative Class Ranking
Economic geographer Richard Florida has published a new book, “The Rise of the Creative Class, Revisited,” and now that he’s blogging for The Atlantic, he’s publishing a lot of his data on his blog. Good news for fans of his creative-class analysis. I was pleased to see that the Old Dominion ranks fifth in the…
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A Birds-Eye View of a Medical Practice
By Peter Galuszka Reforming health care is perhaps the most important issue confronting Virginia and the country today and also one of the most contentious. One hears opinions and solutions of every ilk anywhere — on blogs like this one, television, newspapers and private conversations. One important turn came when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld…
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The Dangerous Online Education Craze
By Peter Galuszka Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell sure seems to love lobbyists. When it came time select someone to be co-chairman of a “summit” on education in August, he chose James W. Dyke Jr., a former state secretary of education who is now a registered lobbyist for the big-time online, for-profit companies as The…
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Richmond’s Buses To Nowhere
By Peter Galuszka Inner city issues seem to be a trend this week on the blog so here are a few more points about the so-called “under-class” as some define lower income, under privileged people. The locus is Richmond, the state capital that despite its pretensions is actually a working class town with plenty of…
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Infographic of the Day: Working Class Communities
In the mid-20th century, the “working class” — workers engaged in manufacturing, construction, transportation and maintenance — comprised half the nation’s workforce. Today, the number is down to one fifth. Of the country’s Metropolitan Statistical Areas, Elkhard-Goshen, Indiana, has the highest percentage working-class population, 46.0%. The highest in Virginia is Harrisonburg, ranked 17th in the…
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Virginia’s Slipping “Best To Do Business” Rating
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in Business and Economy, Demographics, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Property rights, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes, TransportationBy Peter Galuszka Old Dominion politicians and economic boosters love to tout the state’s typically high ranking in various surveys of the “best states to do business.” But the latest such ranking, by CNBC, shows Virginia dropping from first place to third. One reason is roads. “Infrastructure – specifically the state’s perpetually clogged highways –…
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Finally, Good News on Immigration
By Peter Galuszka Long-simmering immigration issues are starting to bubble over now that the U.S. Supreme Court has given a partial victory in opposing Arizona’s racist law. The ruling follows a bold action by President Barack Obama to allow law-abiding young people who happen to be undocumented aliens to stay in this country. The court…
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A Tale of Two Speeches
By Peter Galuszka Call it a Tale of Two Speeches. One was a clear and resounding defense of one of America’s most prized possessions: its university system. The other was Corporate-Speak – a kind of muddle of platitudes and lofty thoughts with little point that is so common among chief executive officers and company presidents…
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Maybe It’s Not “The Vision Thing” At All
By Peter Galuszka The sad demise of Teresa Sullivan as president of the University of Virginia poses many questions regarding what happened to her and how and why the Board of Visitors did what it did. Given the board’s lack of transparency and non-communicative nature at this prestigious, public university, much opinion and supposition have…
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We’re No. 4! We’re No. 4!
Virginia is the 4th best positioned of all the states to “grow, create jobs and prosper” in the coming five to 10 years, according to a new report, “Enterprising States: Policies that Produce,” published by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Old Dominion was surpassed by North Dakota, Utah and Texas. Virginia strengths were the…
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Ms. Dragas’ Greek Drama
By Peter Galuszka The antagonist in the drama against Teresa Sullivan is a rich real estate developer from Virginia Beach who holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Virginia, took over her construction firm from her father and is a major donor to political, mostly Democratic, causes. Helen E. Dragas, 50, president of…