People Who Are Not in the Labor Force: Why Aren\u27t They Working?

People who are neither working nor looking for work are counted as “not in the labor force,” according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since 2000, the percentage of people in this group has increased. Data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) and its Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) provide some insight into why people are not in the labor force. The ASEC is conducted in the months of February through April and includes questions about work and other activities in the previous calendar year. For example, data collected in 2015 are for the 2014 calendar year, and data collected in 2005 are for the 2004 calendar year. In the ASEC, people who did not work at all in the previous year are asked to give the main reason they did not work. Interviewers categorize survey participants’ verbatim responses into the following categories: ill health or disabled; retired; home responsibilities; going to school; could not find work; and other reasons. This Beyond the Numbers article examines data on those who were not in the labor force during 2004 and 2014 and the reasons they gave for not working. The data are limited to people who neither worked nor looked for work during the previous year

Measuring the export potential of urban regions: A case study from Appalachia, USA

The economic benefits from exporting can be very significant for a region. New research shows U.S. export-related jobs pay 20 percent above the national average, productivity growth is three times the national average, and export-related jobs provide the best long-run security. The Southern Appalachian region of the U.S. provides an excellent case study. It has an economic base rich in the production of agricultural, mining, and manufactured goods which are easily exported. This paper investigates the extent to which the local population is benefiting from exporting of these products. Foreigh trade zones are a special legal status granted to airports, warehouses and manufacturing plants. This status provides a wide range of cost and administrative benefits to firms engaged in international commerce. The U.S. government has recently released two studies on export-related employment and the value of exports originating in metropolitan areas. These data sources will be used to measure the export performance for several MSAs within the Southern Appalachia. Site visits will be done for two MSAs - Tri-Cities, TN-VA and Huntsville, AL. The measures of export potential developed from data provided from the new studies can identify regions where export activity continues to hold signifcant potential or where the current level of exports may be at their maximum. Supplemented by site visits, this preliminary information can be verified or revised. The greatest benefits attached to the operation of an FTZ were found to be indirect rather than associated with the operation of the FTZ itself. The major impact of the FTZ is felt through the creation of a Customs service office and the creation of Subzones. FTZs may hold significant promise for the promotion of export activity in interior cities of Europe as well. This study was recently funded as "An Emerging Issues Paper" by the Appalachian Regional Commission, Washington, D.C.

A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Higher Education in Tennessee

In 1993, Professor Barry Bluestone published his innovative cost-benefit study on the economic impact of the University of Massachusetts at Boston.  His benefit calculations were based on the additional income earned and taxes paid by college graduates.  In 1998 the Tennessee Board of Regents conducted a similar study on higher education in Tennessee.  The present paper uses the Bluestone methodology to estimate the benefits of higher education, and with the main focus on the financial return to the state government.  The study finds that every dollar invested by Tennessee in higher education returns nearly two dollars in additional tax revenue.  At a time of structural deficits in the state budget, it is important to understand that higher education can best be considered an investment of scarce state resources rather than a spending category with no discernable return to state coffers

Hearing Adam: Gender Relationships in the Short Fiction of Caroline Gordon.

Writer and critic Caroline Gordon has been a participant on the Southern literary scene since the early 1930s, yet her works have been neither studied nor appreciated as frequently as the works of her male contemporaries. Her novels and short fiction never received the critical acclaim that they merited due to the perpetuation of the erroneous idea that women have little to say. While at the time other female writers were exploring their emancipation, Gordon retreated to the consistent confines of male-dominated tradition and created fiction embodying her conservative philosophy. This thesis will examine five pieces of her short fiction, \u27The Petrified Woman, Tom Rivers, One More Day, The Brilliant Leaves, and The Presence, to explore gender relationships and how Gordon\u27s background and personal beliefs impacted her body of work

Design acceleration in chemical engineering

Nowadays, Chemical Engineering has to face a new industrial context with for example: the gradually falling of hydrocarbon reserves after 2020-2030, relocation, emerging of new domains of application (nano-micro technologies) which necessitate new solutions and knowledges… All this tendencies and demands accelerate the need of tool for design and innovation (technically, technologically). In this context, this paper presents a tool to accelerate innovative preliminary design. This model is based on the synergy between: TRIZ (Russian acronym for Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) and Case Based Reasoning (CBR). The proposed model offers a structure to solve problem, and also to store and make available past experiences in problems solving. A tool dedicated to chemical engineering problems, is created on this model and a simple example is treated to explain the possibilities of this tool