Author Archives: Laura Hertzfeld

A new kind of summer job

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It’s easy to say that young people don’t care about the economy – that they are too busy starting their own music act or sending racy text messages to care about foreclosures, the stock market or health care reform.

But the economic downturn is affecting teens and recent college graduates in a profound way. It’s harder for teenagers to get summer jobs, some are seeing their parents cope with job losses, and still others are turning the bad times around by exploring opportunities older generations may not have the flexibility to try out.

Judy Woodruff reports on college graduates in Richmond, Va., who are helping older residents refine their resumes and re-enter the job market.

And in Detroit, Woodruff met a 25-year-old who’s encouraging community development by creating loyalty cards for local businesses.

The White House has also noted this spirit of entrepreneurship by using Recovery.gov funds to create summer jobs for students and is asking the public to share their summer job stories online.

“Less bad” or a true sign of recovery?

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Jobless rates are still rising, with states like Michigan and California reporting ranks of the unemployed exceeding ten percent for the first time since World War II. So how could things actually be slowly improving?

Looking at the NPR unemployment map, which organizes the May numbers released today state-by-state, the picture doesn’t look good. The entire Midwest is colored dark brown, meaning an unemployment rate of over 10%. The only states with any neutral or positive signs were Nebraska and Vermont.

But those official numbers are only for May – including statistics through last week in June, Patchwork Nation’s hardship index “uses key indicators – unemployment, foreclosures, and gasoline prices – to measure short-term changes in economic stress. Simply put, the index’s scores this month show some improvement,” Dante Chinni, the project director writes in a blog post this week. “The average U.S. score fell some seven points – from about 25 in May to roughly 18 in June.”

Marketplace’s Tamara Keith looks at unemployment insurance rates as an indicator of improvement, but warns that the good numbers we’re seeing this week really only mean things are getting “less bad.”

The people in your neighborhood

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We all wonder about our neighbors – whether it’s looking through lit up windows during a walk around the block, or getting curious about where and why they are moving when we see for-sale signs.

Patchwork Nation introduces us to 12 different types of communities and how they are coping with the recession. During the election, we were able to look at Patchwork Nation’s work to figure out how these places in America were voting – did military bastions really lean right and monied suburbs left? Just like politics, the recession looks different from place to place as you travel around the country.

In Lincoln City, Oregon, a Patchwork “Service Worker” community, blogger Kip Ward wrote recently about the economic lifeline of Highway 101 and the improvements he’s seen in the past few months.

“Economically, our local businesses are treading water. We have had a relatively good last couple of months after a year or more of progressively bleak economic conditions hitting us like winter squalls. That is very good news indeed.”

But in Plymouth, Massachusetts, hard times have already canceled this year’s July 4 parade.

““Every year we were able to pull a rabbit out of the hat. Not this year,” Ken Tavares, who heads the nonprofit group that stages the Independence Day events, said Monday. “We just simply ran out of money this year.”

When you type in my zip code, you get stories from Southern California, like this piece from KCET’s Southern California Connected on the disparity between the housing markets, noting a jump in defaults on loans and foreclosures.

On the Patchwork Nation map, you can also explore the different types of communities by looking at data, for example comparing the percentage of people who are uninsured to their level of education completed.

Try it out. What does the economy look like in your area? Are there success stories from your area? Share them here.

Digging in

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From building new infrastructure to laying the groundwork for hiring workers, there are various interpretations of the phrase “shovel ready” going around. More than three months after the stimulus bill passed through Congress, what is the status of these projects and who is benefiting?

On the Nightly Business Report blog Xchange, producer Dana Bate takes a look at what Shovel Ready means for the economy now — how ready are we to break ground on these projects?

“Well…”shovel ready” doesn’t really mean “ready for shovels” — at least not right away. It means the projects have all the paperwork in order — environmental impact studies, right of way clearance — and just need the money to bid on contractors,” Bate writes.

NBR’s Reviving the Economy site provides background and a video report follows the trail of stimulus funds from page to action.

While the larger projects take more time, smaller businesses have started putting funds to work. Back in March, NPR took a look at President Obama’s Shovel Ready list, and followed the story of a construction firm in Kalamazoo, Michigan and how they are planning to use stimulus money to stay afloat.

But the Kalamazoo story is just one of thousands of projects out there feeling the effects of the stimulus funds. At WNYC, the new project Shovel Watch is asking you to step outside and see what’s happening in your community – are there roads being repaired? Gardens being built? The Adopt-a-Stimulus Project database project lets you search by state, from the resurfacing of Lamar County Line in Marion, Alabama, to the building of a new fence in Sheridan, Wyoming. Share what you’re seeing in your neighborhood with ShovelWatch.org and read more about how the government’s plan is being implemented across the country.