Reuters Reports: Unemployment at a Near Three-Year Low

WRITTEN BY ALLISON WAY, SENIOR COPYWRITER & CHIEF EDITOR
Last week, Reuters reported that U.S. employment growth has accelerated this past month, resulting in a significant drop in the jobless rate.  This drop has led the U.S. to a near three-year low of 8.5% and is a strong piece of evidence that the economy is picking up its momentum.


But with every piece of good news comes a piece of not-so-good news.  In the Reuters report last week, both were sporadically incorporated.  So we'll ask you that ever-popular question: what do you want first--the good news or the bad news? 


THE GOOD NEWS

• The unemployment rate fell from a revised 8.7% in November to its lowest level since February 2009
• The dollar rose to a near 16-month high against the euro
• The economy added 1.6 million jobs last year (the most since 2006)
• The jobless rate has dropped .6% in the last four months (from its highest peak at 10% in October 2009)
• Private sector added 1.9 million jobs in 2011 
• Hourly earnings rose four cents 

THE BAD NEWS

• Employment remains approximately 6.1 million below its pre-recession level 
• It will take 2 and a half years to win those jobs back
• There are 4.3 unemployed people for every job opening
• 23.7 million Americans are either out of work or underemployed
• Government employment fell 280,000 in 2011

Industries have been recovering from the recession at drastically different speeds.  The construction industry, for instance has seen payroll increases as mild weather has boosted groundbreaking for new homes.  Transportation, warehousing, manufacturing and factory employment jumped significantly in 2011. Retail and temporary hiring, however, have experienced slowed payroll growth.  

What does all of this mean?  "The labor market is healing," says Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial.  "...but we still have a long way to go to recoup the losses we have endured.  We may be close to a tipping point where gains can become more self-feeding."  

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"Entrepreneurs Create Jobs, Build Economies and Support Communities." - Ernst & Young

Create jobs.  Strengthen the economy.  Build startups.  Incentivize entrepreneurs. 

We get the point.  These are all things that we need to do.  But how do we do it?  

Ernst & Young turned to entrepreneurs to find the answer.  After all, sometimes it’s best to go right to the source.  As one of the largest professional service firms in the world, EY has announced the development of Entrepreneurs speak out: a call for actionto G20 governments.  The report has been released just before the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Summit (G20 YES) which is to take place in France later this month.

“The key to a global economic recovery is to support entrepreneurs,” said Maria Pinelli, Global Vice Chair for Ernst & Young’s Strategic Growth Markets.  “Entrepreneurs create jobs, build economies and support communities.  There is a clear opportunity to support youth, through entrepreneurship in both developed and developing nations.”

The report states that G20 governments need more robust tools to measure entrepreneurship and increase innovation that will in turn, tackle the slowdown of hiring, the decline of job creation and the general rise in unemployment.

The report also issues 5 key pillars to build a successful enterprise environment:

1.      Entrepreneurship culture: strength breeds success

2.     Education and training: a broader scope is needed

3.     Access to funding: it is vital to tap into diverse sources

4.     Regulation and taxation: good progress, but regulation can improve to encourage innovation

5.     Coordinated support: time to team

The Ernst & Young report is one of those initiatives that get us fired up.  Improve the entrepreneurship culture?  We love that.  Educate and train today’s students about entrepreneurship? We’re all for it.  Provide better access to funding?  We couldn’t agree more.  This report is a testament to what we are trying to do from inside the Kansas City community (and beyond)—change the face of entrepreneurship, create more jobs and energize the startup community. 

Enough with the talking.  Let’s start doing.

Read more about Entrepreneurs speak out:a call for action to G20 governments on Business Wire.

Written by Allison Way
@AllisonThinkBig

Top 5 Things Google Fiber Can Do for Kansas City (And 5 It Can Do for the World)

A lot of excitement has been building up around the implementation of Google Fiber in Kansas City.  Organizations such as FiberKC.biz are being developed, discussions on sites such as KCMOmentum and Facebook are exploding, and challenges and competitions such as the Gigabit Challenge are formulating in anticipation of Google Fiber.  But when it all comes down to it, what is Google Fiber really doing for Kansas City?  And even more importantly, what is Google Fiber doing for the world? 

Top 5 Things Google Fiber Can Do for Kansas City:

1.  Assist Startups and Entrepreneurs

As one of the most well-known blogs in the Kansas City entrepreneurial spectrum, we cannot help but note first and foremost that Kansas City’s entrepreneurs and startup companies will benefit greatly from the implementation of Google Fiber.  Google is extremely interested in seeing what developers and entrepreneurs will create with ultra high-speeds; new apps, online businesses and other startups that we cannot even imagine yet are expected to explode in and around Kansas City. 

2.  Bring Big Business to Kansas City

Although Google Fiber is expected to bring in a plethora of new ideas, the initiative is also predicted to bring big business to Kansas City.  Already-established Kansas City businesses like Cerner and Garmin will flourish with the high-speeds provided by Google Fiber.  We are excited to see what other big businesses will decide to move or open in Kansas City in order to benefit from it as well. 

3.  Improve Home Networks

According to CBS, Kansas City is not the only place to receive Google Fiber.  Kansas City is just part of the experiment involving as many as half a million homes to improve ways to build a stronger network.   

4.  Create More Jobs

It’s obvious that Google Fiber will create more jobs in and around Kansas City.  But it’s not just the installation and maintenance of the fiber that will require more jobs (In fact, it has been noted that Google will bring in crews the company has used for other infrastructure builds instead.  Read more...).  But Google Fiber may create jobs in the online gaming, telecommunications, healthcare, and app development worlds just to name a few.  Plus, with the creation of more startups in Kansas City, more companies will be needing more assistance. 

5.  Put Kansas City on the IT map

A few months ago, The Wall Street Journal recognized Kansas City as an upcoming hub for information technology.  The city is booming with entrepreneurs, small business and technology.  In fact, in a study found by the TechAmerica Foundation, the number of Kansas City tech companies rose by 5% in 2009, trumping the growth rates of Silicon Valley, Boston and Austin. 

Top 5 Things Google Fiber Can Do for the World:

1.   Provide Faster Internet

Did you know that Comcast’s current cable service has an average speed of 13Mbps?  This is about 1/20^th of the speed that Google Fiber will provide.  Google Fiber will be the fastest Internet speed in the world and therefore, save people a significant amount of time.  Imagine downloading a high-definition, full-length feature film in under 5 minutes, watching a live 3D video of a university lecture, or sending an extremely large document across the world via email in a matter of seconds.  Google Fiber will make it possible. 

2.  Improve Education

When I attended Building the Gigabit City last week, much of the event focused on the benefits that the education sector would have by using the Google Fiber network.  The ideas that accumulated were numerous.  Students will have the chance to improve their learning capabilities by taking online classes, tuning into virtual 3D lectures from across the world, or downloading study applications in seconds.  Education is bound to improve with the implementation of Google Fiber—we are anxious to see how. 

3.  Generate New Deployment Techniques

Google’s Fiber website states that its goal is to experiment with new ways to help make Internet access better and faster for everyone.  That goal includes the implementation of new deployment techniques within the company.  Google is planning to test new ways to build fiber networks and seeks to inform and support deployments elsewhere.  In addition, Google will share key lessons that they learned throughout the world. 

4.  Create Next-Generation Apps

The world has become flooded with apps.  This leaves us thinking "what’s next?"  Google Fiber hopes to help answer that very question.  The world will begin to have access to next-generation apps and developers will have the chance to use ultra high-speeds for their latest creations; from creating bandwidth-intensive “killer apps” and services to other uses we can’t yet imagine. 

5.  Transform Business

Because Google Fiber will operate an “open access” network, users will be given the choice of multiple service providers.  That means that any business can transform the way that it operates without having to switch service providers.  This ease-of-use will allow businesses to change the way that they do business and make their inner-workings faster, better and stronger.  Google provides a great example at the top of its Project Overview page: “Imagine sitting in a rural health clinic, streaming three-dimensional medical imaging over the web, and discussing a unique condition with a specialist in New York.”  That’s thinking big...with a gig. 

Written by Allison Way

@AllisonThinkBig