US
(March 2013) We reported last month that the United States remains the leading host country for international students in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) fields, and the global competition for talent has intensified. A record number of STEM graduates - - both US residents and foreign nationals - - are entering the US labour market, and there is a renewed focus on creating additional immigration pathways for foreign professional workers in STEM fields. However, it is estimated that two-thirds of US workers with STEM degrees, are employed in non-STEM occupations even though the US Department of Commerce has said that “growth in STEM jobs was three times as fast as growth in non-STEM jobs” over the past 10 years. Despite the surplus of STEM graduates, high tech companies are lobbying for an expansion of the visas that should be available for immigrants with STEM qualifications. It is also argued that the so-called Startup Visa, which is targeted at entrepreneurs who would start businesses in the US, has the potential to add, conservatively, between 500,000 and 1.6m new jobs over the next 10 years.
(March 2013) US natural gas production will accelerate over the next three decades, new research indicates, providing the strongest evidence yet that the energy boom remaking America will last for a generation.
(February 2013) Wall Street cash bonuses for 2012 are forecast to rise by 8% to $20bn during this year’s bonus season.
(February 2013) "In all probability," William Stanley Jevons, a British economist, wrote in 1874, "the errors of the great mind exceed in number those of the less vigorous one." Making mistakes turns out to be a strangely generative process: it sends you down a new path, allows an interesting new connection to form in your mind.
(February 2013) US researchers who studied the software market say that during boom times, many lament “herding behaviour” among entrepreneurial companies, their backers, and other supporting institutions such as law firms and financial analysts. In these booms, reactions to salient vital events, like high-profile financings, can be extreme. On the flip side, slowdowns in organizing activity also appear to be exaggerated, and during such times nascent entrepreneurs complain that they are unable to mobilize support. High-profile business failures often render a market untouchable, triggering a cascade of mutually reinforcing reluctance among market players. However, an entrepreneur who bucks the consensus and enters a market after salient failures must endure considerable scrutiny, and so is likely have a strong fit to that market. Such a non-conformist will be spared from a passing fad, whereas an entrepreneur that follows trends is more likely to enter markets that are not a good fit for the organization. So non-conformity maybe the preferable approach.
(February 2013) The United States remains the leading host country for international students in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) fields, and the global competition for talent has intensified. A record number of STEM graduates - - both US residents and foreign nationals - - are entering the US labour market, and there is a renewed focus on creating additional immigration pathways for foreign professional workers in STEM fields. However, it is estimated that two-thirds of US workers with STEM degrees, are employed in non-STEM occupations even though the US Department of Commerce has said that “growth in STEM jobs was three times as fast as growth in non-STEM jobs” over the past 10 years.
(February 2013) The Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index Total Return was up by 2.40% in January. Overall, 18 out of 22 index constituents posted positive returns. Energy was the best performing sector, up 3.42%.
(February 2013) The Science of Innovation: From Thomas Edison's light bulb to Wilbur and Orville Wright's flying machine, inventors and inventions transform the way we communicate, travel and live our daily lives--thanks to the creative process of innovation. That process is highlighted in an educational video series released Monday in the US on the 165th birthday of one of America's greatest innovators, Thomas Edison. The National Science Foundation says innovation is defined by more than a single event or brilliant idea. It's about a process, a series of steps that anyone from a garage tinkerer to a federally funded scientist can take to discover new solutions that meet pressing needs or that add value in new ways to existing products, services or technologies.
(February 2013) Tuesday night President Barack Obama makes his fifth State of the Union and while the economy is improving, the story line isn't all that different to his previous four. Fourth-quarter company earnings rose 7.3% at the 339 members of the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index that have reported results, while revenue rose 5.9%, according to Thomson Reuters. GDP (gross domestic product) growth in 2013 is expected to exceed 2%.
(February 2013) Five years into the devastating Great Recession and its aftershocks, millions of employed and unemployed Americans are still badly and perhaps permanently damaged financially and deeply pessimistic about near -- and long-term prospects for the US economy. A majority of Americans say they think it will be at least six years before the economy is made whole again, if ever. Three in 10 said the economy would never fully recover from the Great Recession.
