Showing posts with label jobs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jobs. Show all posts
Robot harvesting strawberries
It's been a while since I posted anything (since 2010, in fact). So, via Ben Casnocha, here's a YouTube video of a robot harvesting strawberries. Here's a short advocacy documentary on migrant workers harvesting strawberries in California (and our robot is nowhere near ready for those conditions). Here's the AP study demonstrating that unemployed Americans don't want this job (notwithstanding, of course, that white people like to pick their own fruit). And here's Parke Wilde on the agricultural economics of strawberries, or why weather matters and yet sob stories should be taken with a grain of salt.
Chart of the Day: Jobs in America
Chris Blattman shares this great graphic, chronicling tectonic shifts in the American labor force. It looks like in 1850, 50% of Americans were still employed in agriculture. I'm actually surprised it wasn't more - it certainly is in many the rural areas of many developing countries today (maybe the cities balance it out).
Vietnam to build massive petchem complex
The chemicals industry is very job-intensive (in particular it has a very high employment multiplier compared to other industries), so it is no surprise that Vietnam is the latest country to announce a massive new petrochemical complex.
The Middle East (particularly Saudi Arabia) has been investing heavily in petrochemicals even in the economic downturn, because for them the economics are fantastic (much of the ethane, propane, and butane used as feedstock are essentially unused wastes of oil production) and job creation is high on the agenda. Vietnam doesn't have the same feedstock advantage, so clearly they find the job creation and import substitution development model alone compelling. And compelling enough to outweigh economic "rationality", in a sector which is facing overcapacity as GDP-linked global demand struggles to recover from its recession-driven fall. All of which is not good news for Western corporate petchem players (who aren't doing that well in the first place).
The Middle East (particularly Saudi Arabia) has been investing heavily in petrochemicals even in the economic downturn, because for them the economics are fantastic (much of the ethane, propane, and butane used as feedstock are essentially unused wastes of oil production) and job creation is high on the agenda. Vietnam doesn't have the same feedstock advantage, so clearly they find the job creation and import substitution development model alone compelling. And compelling enough to outweigh economic "rationality", in a sector which is facing overcapacity as GDP-linked global demand struggles to recover from its recession-driven fall. All of which is not good news for Western corporate petchem players (who aren't doing that well in the first place).
White House to create "many" green jobs
Via Environmental Capital:
The White House isn’t entirely sure what a “green job” really is, but by the time President Obama leaves office, the U.S. economy will have created “many” green jobs.More quantitative accountability would be politically suicidal, of course, but the lack of hard numerical targets by which to judge success or failure is still frustrating. At least the "many" green jobs will help us "create or save" 4 million jobs overall...
...
The report acknowledges the difficulties in defining just what a “green job” really is, and shies away from the huge numerical targets that marked candidate Obama’s campaign-trail rhetoric. But it also notes that plenty of occupations—such as laying new electricity-transmission lines—are part of the clean-energy economy, even if they aren’t “environmental” per se.
Calculus and misleading graphs
Andrew Sullivan titles this graph (from Modeled Behavior) "Over the Hump?". Let's all keep in mind that "new claims" is a first derivative. To me the hump is when unemployment starts to fall, not when it stops accelerating.
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