A troubling picture of clueless teenagers and frazzled parents
If I knew then what I know now
By RON LIEBER
The problem with a lot of the advice that teenagers and their families get about higher education debt is that it’s totally, utterly bloodless.The federal Department of Education takes its shot in its role as the de facto provider of advice to people borrowing their first federal student loans and repaying them. That counseling is mandatory for borrowers, but because the topic is dense and the department’s content is devoid of anecdotes, it’s tough to make the lessons stick.
So in my column last week, I asked readers to share their own stories and offer the most important thing they wish they had known before they borrowed money and began to repay it. The comments painted a troubling picture of clueless teenagers, frazzled parents and college administrators who may not always take students by the shoulders and question their debt levels.
Not one person suggested that college was a mistake (though a few regret going to law school). Borrowing too little is dangerous if it leads to dropping out or never attending in the first place, and undergraduates who borrow from the federal government without taking on additional private loans are unlikely to get in trouble if they manage the repayment process well.
There’s a BakeBot robot whipping up fresh cookies at MIT; hospitals are now employing medical robots to assist their doctors; and a robot named Baxter can beat any human at the popular logic game Connect Four, among many other tasks.
“Historically what we thought was that robots would do things that were the three D’s: dangerous, dirty, and dull,” explains Ryan Calo, professor at University of Washington School of Law with an expertise in robotics. “Over time, the range of things that robots can do has extended.”
Their abilities will only continue to expand. Ray Kurzweil, director of engineering at Google, anticipates that by 2029 robots will have reached human levels of intelligence.
Many people fear a jobless future — and their anxiety is not unwarranted: Gartner, an information technology research and advisory firm, predicts that one-third of jobs will be replaced by software, robots, and smart machines by 2025
Millennial workers have had it rough in recent years, coming of age during the Great Recession and experiencing higher levels of unemployment and underemployment than older generations.
A new study finds that Millennials, who will dominate the U.S. labor market for the next 50 years, may face another problem: They’re less prepared for today’s job market than many of their international peers, putting them (and the country) at a distinct disadvantage in an increasingly global economy.
A recent report by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) examined data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIACC), which showed that American millennials are badly lagging behind in numeracy, literacy and problem-solving skills. Experts can only speculate on the reason for the skills gap, but the report warns that the consequences of such relatively low scores could be serious for American competiveness and could have an impact on the U.S. both socially and politically.
The study shows that even our top-performing millennials are not measuring up to their counterparts overseas. Further, the gap between America’s highest- and lowest-performing workers is among the largest. The study suggests that such a disparity can lead to dire consequences, including “mistrust in government, decreased civic engagement, increased rates of incarceration, poor health, obesity, addiction and more”
“We did not do well across the board in all three of the skills that we looked into, particularly in numeracy,” said Madeline Goodman, director of research at the ETS and one of the study’s co-authors, adding that the report presents troubling implications for the future of American competiveness.
Nearly two-thirds of millennials scored below the minimum standard in math. “If these individuals are going to be trained for jobs that have remuneration … then they need to have basic skill level” she said.
Among the 22 participating countries, U.S millennials 18 to 34 years old ranked 21st in numeracy — only Spanish millennials had lower scores. In literacy, half scored below the minimum proficiency level, ahead of only Spain and Italy. For problem solving in technology-rich environments, 56 percent of American millennials met the minimum standards, behind every other nation.
That’s a problem for U.S. employers, more than two-thirds of whom look for communication, problem-solving and quantitative skills in their new hires, according to a report last year by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
Even so, employers expect to hire more new college grads this year than they did last year, according to a NACE report released earlier this month.
One of the central paradoxes of the ETS study is that the millennial generation is our most educated, and the study’s authors make the case that many post-secondary institutions are not adequately providing students with the skills necessary to be successful in the job market. The financial loan burden to pay for this education can also be crippling.
“These results are suggesting that a significant chunk of Americans will have trouble moving up in the labor market and getting out of lower-wage jobs,” says Harry Holzer, professor of public policy at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy.
The skills gap may be having an impact on productivity and growth, and federal educational programs such as No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top have not produced the needed results, Holzer says.
Holzer adds that Americans may need to revaluate the way they obtain these skills, and suggests that post-secondary education should not mean only a bachelor’s or associate’s degree. Upgrading America’s technical education schooling, including certificate programs in such high-demand fields as IT and health tech, may give young people entrée to high demand middle class jobs. He compares American millennials to Germans, where many high school graduates can already solve complex technical problems.
Mark Schneider, vice-president and Institute Fellow at The American Institutes for Research, is also critical of American universities, many of which he believes don’t equip students with the skills they need to function in the workplace or the wider community. He calls most college educations “too long, too expensive” and says the liberal arts skills that they provide are not marketable.
APRIL 29, 2015 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY MELANIE ANZIDEI
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
* More firms are for sale, but asking price is less than in 2014
More New Jersey small businesses may be on the market compared with last year, but asking prices for those businesses have declined.
A total of 1,867 small businesses in New Jersey were listed for sale during the first quarter, up from 1,801 in the same period last year, according to a quarterly report by online marketplace BizBuySell. The median asking price for the businesses, however, dropped to $265,000 this year from $269,000 in 2014, as median revenue for the companies rose to $445,778 from $420,000.
Though asking prices have fallen, business owners shouldn’t worry, according to Bob House, group general manager of BizBuySell.com.
“The decrease was only slight and shouldn’t be considered alarming,” House said in an email Tuesday. “It’s still good to see that the median revenue and cash flow of New Jersey small businesses increased slightly. These numbers indicate improving small business financial health.”
Goodwill is looking for sales-driven, customer focused retail professionals to join the team. Are you someone who has a retail work ethic and human services heart? If you’ve been searching for a workplace that inspires and rewards, we invite you to join us! We will be offering immediate interviews for Northern New Jersey stores.
This Thursday, April 30, we will hold a retail job fair at our Harrison Goodwill store from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Some positions include:
Store Managers
Assistant managers
Third Key/keyholder
Store Associates
Cashiers
Production Workers
All interested candidates must have a resume to interview at the job fair.
Harrison Goodwill
Thursday, April 30
11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
400 Supor Boulevard
Harrison, NJ 07029
APRIL 26, 2015, 10:58 PM LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, APRIL 26, 2015, 11:02 PM
BY HERB JACKSON
RECORD COLUMNIST |
THE RECORD
With New Jersey’s stubbornly high unemployment rate ranked seventh highest in the country, Governor Christie’s aspirations for higher office were always going to be weighed down by the state economy.
Though down sharply from the high point he hit in national polls after his reelection with 61 percent of the vote in 2013, Christie has not been counted out by presidential campaign veterans such as Arizona’s Sen. John McCain because of his ability to connect personally with voters, especially in early primary states where that kind of touch really matters.
But a report released last week by Congress’s Joint Economic Committee shows just how bad things are in the Garden State, compared with other states whose governors, or former governors, are also considering bids for the Republican presidential nomination.
New Jersey has logged a 5.6 percent increase in private-sector jobs since the economic low point of February 2010, but the increase has been 7.8 percent in Gov. Scott Walker’s Wisconsin, 9.7 percent in Gov. John Kasich’s Ohio, and a whopping 18 percent in Texas, where Rick Perry just left the governor’s mansion.
As for gross domestic product, New Jersey’s has grown by an average of 1 percent a year since 2009, compared with 1.8 percent in Wisconsin, 2.5 percent in Ohio and 4.4 percent in Texas. New Jersey’s recovery also trails Florida’s and Arkansas’, but Jeb Bush and Mike Huckabee had already left the governors’ offices for the time periods being compared.
APRIL 27, 2015 LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2015, 1:20 AM
BY HUGH R. MORLEY
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
n 3.8% rate in 2014, a drop from the previous year, was higher than all but six states
New Jersey had one of the highest rates of long-term unemployment in the nation in 2014, even as the state job market slowly improved, figures released last week showed.
The percentage of the state’s workforce out of work for 15 weeks or more in 2014 — on average, 3.8 percent — was higher than all but six states, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The national long-term jobless rate was 3 percent. New Jersey’s rate tumbled from an average of 5.1 percent in 2013.
Charles Steindel, former chief economist under Governor Christie and now a resident scholar at the Anisfield School of Business at Ramapo College, said the high rate of long-term unemployed reflects the sluggishness of the New Jersey economy, which has lagged behind the national revival.
“New Jersey has had a weak recovery, so it’s taking people longer to find a job,” he said.
He added that the state’s employment insurance payments are among the highest in the nation, and that may allow people to take longer to find the right job.
After giving a version of his stump speech to a mostly gray-haired crowd in Iowa, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin was pressed on Friday by two twenty-something Republicans about a percolating issue he did not mention: immigration.
Mr. Walker’s apparent hardening on immigration has inspired a flood of reporting and commentary. Most recently he told the radio host Glenn Beck that he favored restricting legal immigration in tough economic times, a position to the right of most other 2016 presidential hopefuls.
He repeated that view Friday after a speech in Cedar Rapids, when Eddie Failor, 24, expressed concern “as a young Republican” that the party must make inroads to new voter blocs, including by supporting a comprehensive overhaul of immigration.
Mr. Walker told Mr. Failor that his top priority would be securing the border. He also said he favored “making sure the legal immigration system is based on making our No. 1 priority to protect American workers and their wages.’’
Alexander Staudt, the treasurer of the University of Iowa College Republicans, also told Mr. Walker in the meet-and-greet line that he was concerned that by talking tough on immigration, Republican candidates would turn off Hispanics.
Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean Jr. called the bill package an “immediately attainable plan to help people find their long lost jobs and provide greater opportunities for families throughout this state.”
APRIL 23, 2015, 2:44 PM LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 2015, 4:19 PM
BY DUSTIN RACIOPPI
STATE HOUSE BUREAU |
THE RECORD
Senate Republicans on Thursday unveiled a 36-bill package aimed at creating jobs and expanding economic opportunities.
The bills focus on areas that legislators say have stymied job growth and limited economic opportunity, like cutting red tape, offering more work training and overhauling tourism.
None of the proposals would cost a dime to taxpayers, lawmakers said.
Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean Jr. called the bill package an “immediately attainable plan to help people find their long lost jobs and provide greater opportunities for families throughout this state,” adding that it “cannot fall victim to partisan politics.”
Republicans and the Democrats who control the Legislature have differing views on how to spur the state’s lagging economy, but 11 of the bills already have Democratic co-sponsors. Three bills have already passed the full Senate, and more than a dozen others are pending committees. Still, there is tension between the two parties over how the state can pull out of its economic slump.
“It is refreshing to see that the Republicans finally recognize that the governor has failed on the economy. New Jersey’s recovery has lagged far behind the country and our neighboring states because the governor has no plan to create jobs or to stimulate economic growth,” said Richard McGrath, spokesman for the Senate Democrats. “In fact, Democrats have sent the governor numerous job-creating bills but he has vetoed most of them. We will review these proposals to determine if they will help our economy. What’s needed is a far-reaching plan that spurs growth and invests in economic opportunities for everyone.” (editors note : try not to laugh on this one)
At a news conference Thursday morning to announce the package, legislators highlighted some of the problems that they said have stymied the state’s job growth.
For example, the state tourism council has not met in 12 years, said Sen. Robert Singer, R-Ocean. And although tourism generates $40 billion a year, the state has not done enough to promote what it has to offer, he said. A bill sponsored by Singer would overhaul tourism advertising and marketing, and it would create a mobile phone application to feature the state’s attractions.
There is also a skills gap in New Jersey, said Sen. Diane Allen, R-Burlington, who sponsors three of the four workforce development bills in the package. One of them would expand career and technical education, while another would help out-of-work casino employees get training for jobs in industries in South Jersey.
Legislators are also focusing on cutting red tape for businesses. One bill would create a task force whose goal is to digitize state permits, licenses and grants. Another bill would roll back “cumbersome” regulations on small business owners, while another would allow state agencies to offer online permitting “whenever possible” in order to move projects along faster.
The Republicans also defended New Jersey’s sluggish job growth. Although the state unemployment rate is at 6.5 percent, a percentage point higher than the national average of 5.5 percent, they said the state is adding jobs and moving in the proper
Economists have discovered how bad the economy really is
By Matt O’Brien April 21 at 8:00 AM
Unemployment is almost back to normal, but the economy isn’t.
That isn’t because the unemployment rate is a conspiracy to make things look better than they really are. It’s because even though the unemployment rate tells us the most about the labor market, it doesn’t tell us the full story. All it does is show us how many people who are actively looking for work can’t find it. But that leaves out the “shadow unemployed” who want full-time jobs but have either given up looking for them or can only find part-time ones. That usually doesn’t make that big a difference, but it does now, because, even six years after the crisis has ended, there still isn’t much that’s usual about this economy.
Now if you add it all up, this shadow unemployment means our jobs hole is more than three times as big as it looks. That, at least, is what economistsDanny Blanchflower and Andrew Levin found when they looked at how low the unemployment rate is versus how low we think it could go, how high the participation rate is versus how high we think it could go, and how many people can only find part-time jobs. That first part tells us how much further unemployment itself could fall, the second how many discouraged workers could come back, and the last how many people would work more if they could. In other words, it shows us the gap between how many full-time jobs we have and how many full-time jobs we need. The result, as you can see above, is that instead of being a million full-time jobs short, like the unemployment rate says we are, we’re about 3.5 million short.
APRIL 17, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY PAUL WISEMAN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS |
WIRE SERVICE
* After struggles spurred by the Great Recession, job picture brightens
WASHINGTON — The consulting and accounting firm EY is aggressively recruiting on college campuses this spring. The company formerly known as Ernst & Young plans to hire 9,000 graduates from U.S. universities this year, up from 7,500 in 2014. But recruiting isn’t as easy as it used to be.
“I’m seeing a lot more competition” from rival employers, said Dan Black, EY’s Americas recruiting leader.
That’s good news for college seniors and graduate students preparing to accept diplomas this spring, and a sign that new graduates will fare better than they did in 2014. The Labor Department reported on Thursday that the unemployment rate for Americans in their 20s who received a four-year or advanced degree last year rose to 12.4 percent from 10.9 percent in 2013.
“This is a real breakout year,” said Philip Gardner, director of Michigan State University’s Collegiate Employment Research Institute.
In a survey of employers last fall, the employment center found that hiring of graduates with four-year degrees will rise 16 percent this year.
“It’s led by the ones you would expect — engineering and business,” Gardner said. “But there seems to be a lot of room for everybody. … Even arts and humanities are making a comeback.”
Employers have more openings to fill because baby boomers are retiring and more workers are feeling confident enough about the economy to switch jobs. Overall, the United States generated 3.1 million jobs last year, the most since 1999. The overall unemployment rate has fallen to 5.5 percent in March from 6.7 percent at the end of 2013.
At Global Economic Gathering, Concerns That U.S. Is Ceding Its Leadership Role
By JONATHAN WEISMANAPRIL 17, 2015
WASHINGTON — As world leaders converge here for their semiannual trek to the capital of what is still the world’s most powerful economy, concern is rising in many quarters that the United States is retreating from global economic leadership just when it is needed most.
The spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank have filled Washington with motorcades and traffic jams and loaded the schedules of President Obama and Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew. But they have also highlighted what some see as a United States government so bitterly divided that it is on the verge of ceding the global economic stage it built at the end of World War II and has largely directed ever since.
APRIL 15, 2015 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY KATHLEEN LYNN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
* State authority approves sizable grants
New Jersey’s Economic Development Authority on Tuesday approved more than $130 million in tax credits aimed at convincing several companies to expand in New Jersey, rather than in nearby states. The action included two sizable grants in Jersey City.
“The assistance approved at today’s meeting illustrates the breadth of programs EDA offers to support the revitalization of our cities,” the authority’s chief executive officer, Melissa Orsen, said in a statement.
The EDA voted Tuesday to offer Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., a private bank, $19.4 million of tax credits over seven years to keep 435 jobs in Jersey City. The New York-based company also said it hopes to add 110 jobs, some through growth and some through relocations from New York City. The project would bring the state a net benefit of $193 million over 20 years, according to the authority.
The authority also approved a $33.9 million worth of tax credits over 10 years to New York Life Insurance Co. to move 325 jobs from Parsippany to 30 Hudson St. in Jersey City, where it would hire 300 more workers. Without the grant, New York Life would consider moving the Parsippany workers to Manhattan or Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. The New York Life project would bring the state a net benefit of $430.4 million over 20 years, the authority said.
There was not a single employee of the Ridgewood Public School System who could have been promoted to fill the principal’s position at Orchard?
What does that say about top District management and the BOE itself if we have no viable succession program?
From last night’s meeting agenda:
iv. Appointments
Administrator
FERRERI, Mary, K. – Principal of Orchard School, effective
July 15, 2015 through June 30, 2016.
Mrs. Ferreri credentials are as follows:
Montclair State University, Upper Montclair, New Jersey
Master of Arts in Educational Administration – 2005
The College of New Jersey, Ewing, New Jersey
Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education/History – 2002
Experience:
Westwood Regional School District; Principal, George
Elementary School – July 2010 to present
Westwood Regional School District; Acting Assistant
Principal, George & Ketler Schools/Supervisor of
Elementary Programs/District Head Teacher K-6 – January
2009 to June 2010
Westwood Regional School District; Third Grade Teacher –
2002 to 2009
Westwood Regional School District; First Grade Teacher –
2002 to 2009
And the bottom 20%? They get paid by Uncle Sam. We compare tax burdens as Tax Day approaches.
By
LAURA SAUNDERS
April 10, 2015 9:59 a.m. ET
Who pays what in income taxes? With April 15 just around the corner, filers may be curious about where they fit into the system as a whole.
The individual income tax remains the most important levy in the U.S., providing nearly half of federal revenue. This is unusual: On average, developed nations get only one-third of their revenue from income taxes. Typically they also impose national consumption taxes, such as a value-added tax, that raise as much revenue as their income tax.
The pressure on the U.S. income tax has prompted lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to seriously consider a national consumption tax. But liberals worry that such a levy could unduly burden the poor, while conservatives fear it would be too easy to dial up the rate and collect more revenue.
As a result, experts say, there is little chance of tax overhaul this year.
Meanwhile, these two tables offer a snapshot of who is paying what for the 2014 tax year.
