Archive for May, 2009

South Carolina college uses new tool for program evaluation, job-placement services

May 27th, 2009 | Filed under Case Studies, EMSI News, Featured, Page Content, Workforce Development

With manufacturing sites shutting down and the unemployment rate approaching 14%, the need for career and job-placement services has become vital in the Pendleton, SC, area. To help meet this demand and refine its own program evaluation process, Tri-County Technical College (TCTC) is using Job Finder, a new career exploration tool from EMSI that [...]

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Client Snapshot: Jay Pryor, Heartland Works, Inc. (KS)

May 22nd, 2009 | Filed under Case Studies, Featured, Page Content

Jay Pryor
Business Consultant
Heartland Works, Inc.
Topeka, Kansas
Jay Pryor uses EMSI’s labor market and impact analysis when he has data requests from agencies in the Topeka area and adjoining counties that require a timely response. Recently a regional chamber of commerce approached Pryor looking for economic impact assessments of three bids for a highway construction project in [...]

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Measuring the nation’s economic stress, county by county

May 21st, 2009 | Filed under EMSI News, Featured

The Associated Press has generated a neat interactive map that gives a look at unemployment, foreclosure, and bankruptcy rates for every county in the U.S. The AP has combined all the figures to come up with an Economic Stress Index for each county, as of March 2009. The map also benchmarks the numbers to October [...]

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Green Jobs, Part 5: Conclusion

May 21st, 2009 | Filed under Uncategorized

Read Chapter two here
CONCLUSION
I. Entrepreneurism and Green Jobs
In his Earth Day address in Newton, IA, the President said (in reference to the ARRA and tax credits for environmental improvements),
“And these steps will spur job creation and innovation as more Americans make purchases that place a premium on reducing energy consumption. Businesses across the country [...]

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Labor Department releases guidance for ARRA green jobs training grants

May 20th, 2009 | Filed under EMSI News, Featured

When the Recovery Act was passed into law, it contained $500 million in competitive grants for “projects that prepare workers for careers in the energy efficiency and renewable energy sectors” (i.e. green fields). Last week, the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration released a Training and Employment Notice that describes the initial plans for [...]

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Green Jobs, Part 5: How to Prepare Jobseekers for the Green Economy

May 20th, 2009 | Filed under EMSI News, Featured, Page Content, Whitepapers, Workforce Development

Summary:
This paper is meant as a practical guide to help workforce, education, economic development professionals (and any other sort of career counselor) understand green jobs and be able to offer solid advice to young people and jobseekers so they can get on the right track and in the context of the demands of the [...]

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Green Jobs, Part 5: Chapter Two

May 20th, 2009 | Filed under Uncategorized

Read Chapter one here
CHAPTER TWO
I. Understanding the Green Clusters and Associated Training

First, let’s review the status of two primary industry areas that will be affected by the green movement. These two industry sectors are Engineering and Construction (manufacturing will be, but manufacturing taken as a industry sector is too wide and disparate and the [...]

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Green Jobs, Part 5: Chapter One

May 20th, 2009 | Filed under Uncategorized

Read the introduction here
CHAPTER ONE
I. The Importance of the Occupational Perspective

A big part of our approach thus far has been to look at green jobs through occupation data. Once we match green jobs (a.k.a. job descriptions or projects) to actual occupations we can begin to understand a much broader range of industry characteristics, skills and [...]

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Blue collar men taking the brunt of the recession

May 19th, 2009 | Filed under Featured

Unlike the 2001 recession, most of the job loss in this latest economic swoon is centered around adult men, particularly those with low and middle skills. Here’s a report from Reuters that offers some interesting numbers.
One statistic that stands out in America’s recession-stung economy is the unemployment rate for adult men: in April for the [...]

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Case Study: Virginia community college uses labor market data to bolster output of nurses

May 18th, 2009 | Filed under Case Studies, EMSI News, Education, Featured, Page Content

For administrators at Tidewater Community College, taking a careful look at regional labor market trends and projections has become an essential element of program development. A prime example is TCC’s nursing school, which got a significant boost thanks to a foundation that was convinced through timely data to donate $1.4 million.
For a PDF of the [...]

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