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Youth unemployment and North Carolina's future workforce
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Guest columnist
Students in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at N.C. State University did not meet with potential employers at the regularly scheduled job fair last week. Due to low participation by employers, the fair was cancelled, and students graduating from the second largest college at the university will need to find other ways to find work.
N.C. State graduates aren't alone as young people across the country face the reality of an uncertain job market.
Assessments of the economic fallout have been largely silent about the impact on adolescents and young adults. As of November 2009, over a quarter of young people aged 16 to 24 were unemployed nationally -- a record high. From 2008 to 2009, the number of young people unemployed increased by nearly 750,000.
Why should policy address youth unemployment when education is the focus during adolescence? Youth employment provides an introduction to careers and allows young people to develop soft skills that employers seek in entry-level positions. It can also provide the motivation and funding necessary for continued education.
The return on youth employment is significant for young people and their communities. Research finds that early work experience raises earnings over a lifetime by up to 20 percent, and there is evidence that every $1 earned by a young person has a $3 accelerator effect in the local economy.
Jobs for young people are especially important for those who don't finish high school or who forego college. Employment can keep disadvantaged and at-risk young people connected to their communities and the broader economy. In communities where persistent unemployment and underemployment are the norm, young people are often without the opportunities and networks to connect to the mainstream economy. In the long term, this disconnect makes our state less competitive. Without the stability of an economically secure workforce or the promise of a skilled one, North Carolina's chances of attracting and growing new jobs are diminished.
A strong response to the current trend in youth unemployment is needed to stimulate the economy today and for the future. Congress should appropriate $1.5 billion through the Workforce Investment Act youth program to support year-round employment opportunities for the nation's young people, as proposed by the Youth Jobs Act of 2010. An additional investment in summer jobs and college work study programs through the Jobs for Main Street Act would provide more than 250,000 disadvantaged youth with work experience and prevent them from leaving college without a degree.
Private and non-profit institutions should partner with local Workforce Investment Boards to provide summer on-the-job training that can motivate young people to do well in school and continue their education. Employers should see their role in the place where they do business as one of investor in the future workforce -- paying taxes, conducting service activities and building partnerships with local schools are essential to that role. If these efforts are complemented with a commitment from local government to reduce youth unemployment, young people can begin their working life in service to the communities that reared them, helping to meet increased needs brought on by the current crisis. Employing our young people in jobs that are high-quality learning opportunities is an economic development strategy that makes sense.
Alexandra Forter Sirota us director of policy and research, Action for Children NC.
On the Web: "Families of the Recession: Unemployed Parents and their Children" is available online from First Focus at: http://www.firstfocus.net/pages/3663.
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Met opera seeks younger audience with live broadcasts
1 hr 36 mins ago | 18 views | 0 | 1 | |
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Bloomberg News
Sally Greenhill, who dreams of seeing the Metropolitan Opera in person one day, has found the next best thing: watching it live at a London movie theater.
A project by Met General Manager Peter Gelb to make opera cheaper, more accessible and appealing to younger people has turned into sold-out performances aired live in film theaters worldwide. With an average price of $25 a ticket, it's easier on the wallet: a top seat at the Met in Manhattan costs $375.
"I have never been to the Met and would love to go; however, the cinema version is a great second-best," said Greenhill, a semi-retired photographer who saw Tuesday's live transmission at a London cinema of Verdi's "Simone Boccanegra," with Placido Domingo in an unusual baritone role. "It's the backstage stuff and interviews with opera stars at the intervals that attracts me," Greenhill said.
The effort, which began in December 2006, has taken off with more than 30 shows beamed live to about 1,000 movie cinemas worldwide, subtitled in English, Spanish, French or German. The project has become a new source of revenue for opera companies and is a shot in the arm for cinemas that have been losing audiences to DVDs and online offerings.
"It's all about controlling content," Gelb said. "The Internet is thought of as free; movie theaters are not."
Opera companies in London, Barcelona, Milan and Paris have followed suit, with shows transmitted from London's Royal Opera House and Milan's La Scala to cinemas in Huntsville, Alabama; Kalamazoo, Michigan; Budapest and Johannesburg.
"It was a great deal of effort to convince the public and artists and unions as well that this could work," Gelb said. "A lot of people didn't believe the public would be interested in participating this way."
Gelb, who formerly ran the Sony Classical record label, said the Met in Manhattan operates at 88 percent capacity, from 76 percent when the live shows started. An estimated 10 percent of cinema-goers are new to the opera and new artists have signed up to star at the Met because they now have a worldwide audience, he said.
About $30 million of the Met's $290 million annual budget is spent on media activities such as filming the performances in-house in high-definition using 12 cameras, Gelb said.
Transmissions are sent by satellite from a truck outside the Met. Each live show costs about $1.25 million and the Met earns 50 percent of all box office revenue. Gelb said each of the shows makes money. Bizet's "Carmen" last month was the most successful, reaching 330,000 people.
Emerging Pictures, a New York-based distributor of digital transmissions of opera, ballet, and other events to 350 locations worldwide, works with venues such as La Scala, Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu and the Bolshoi and Mariinksy theaters in St. Petersburg, its managing partner, Giovanni Cozzi, said.
"The project is helping get people interested in operas," he said. "It's also good for opera houses because after seeing an opera in a cinema, the next logical step is going into an opera house."
Emerging Pictures ended a partnership with the Met after its first year of transmissions as many cinemas didn't want to air opera live on Saturday evenings, the busiest day for moviegoers. Cinemas get between 40 percent and 50 percent of the ticket revenue, with the rest divided among production companies, distributors and opera houses, he said.
Transmissions can produce revenue in other ways.
"Once you've invested in actually making the film let's say the Met could then recoup that money from cinemas, DVD sales, even CD sales as well as future income from digital downloads," said Costa Pilavachi, the former head of Universal Music's Decca record label and EMI Classics.
Cineworld Group Plc, a British cinema operator, has screened live Met and U.K. National Theatre performances as well as pre-recorded broadcasts from London's Royal Opera House, said Stephen Wiener, Cineworld's chief executive officer.
Performances are not yet "hugely profitable," Wiener said. "More important, though, than just boosting revenue is exposing people to more content and that's driving people to see events live." The picture and sound quality at cinemas makes them the ideal choice to screen live events.
"When I first went to the cinema, I knew the quality of the performance would be good coming from the Met, but it was so good it blew my socks off," said Michael Brownlee Walker, a pianist who has seen Met shows in London. "You see every expression on the actor's face because of the camera close-ups, which you don't see in the actual Met opera house."
The National Theatre started its first season of live transmissions last year with "Phedre," starring Helen Mirren, on more than 300 screens in Europe and the U.S., according to spokeswoman Lucinda Morrison.
"It's not paying for itself yet, though the motive for doing this is to take it to a far greater audience," she said. An average ticket costs $16.
Unlike the United States, where theaters and opera houses generally rely on donations, European institutions depend on taxpayer support. The annual 95 million-pound budget at London's Royal Opera House is about 25 percent funded by the U.K. Arts Council, said spokesman Christopher Millard.
Another British movie operator, Vue Entertainment Ltd., has been filling cinemas with people eager to see live concerts by "Take That" and "Genesis," according to Chief Executive Officer Tim Richards.
"With opera, it's about getting a whole new generation back to the cinema and it's filling a time slot that wouldn't otherwise be filled," he said.
U.S. TAKING ANOTHER LOOK AT SCOTLAND'S HAGGIS
2 hrs 41 mins ago | 18 views | 0 | 1 | |
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For The Associated Press
EDINBURGH, Scotland -- Just how risky is the Scottish national dish?
At the request of Scottish officials, the U.S. government will sort that out as it reviews its ban on haggis, a sort of sausage made by rolling cooked sheep's offal -- the liver, heart and lungs -- in oats and pepper, then stuffing it into beef intestine and boiling it.
Not that most Americans have exactly been clamoring for it. But word that the U.S. Department of Agriculture would reconsider its ban -- which dates to the U.K.'s mad cow disease scare of the late 1980s -- did stir some excitement with Scottish producers.
"This is long overdue and I'm glad the U.S. authorities are coming to their senses," said master butcher Neil Watt of Watt the Butcher in Montrose, on the east coast of Scotland. "The haggis you get in the States does not taste like proper haggis."
Of course, the lifting of the ban is far from certain. Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Lindsay Cole said reports that any decision had been made are incorrect. The latest science is being reviewed, but no timetable was set for a decision, she said in a statement.
Haggis got back on the table -- at least politically speaking -- after Scottish Rural Affairs minister Richard Lochhead wrote to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, asking for clarification of the ban.
Lochhead also asked that Vilsack extend the review to include some of Scotland's other products, including beef, lamb and venison.
"We want to allow American consumers to sample our world renowned national dish," he says. "They should be assured Scotland has an excellent reputation in animal disease surveillance and prevention."
Haggis is the traditional centerpiece of Burns' Suppers held by Scottish societies across the globe every January, when it is served with tatties (potatoes), bashed neeps (turnip, swede or rutabaga) and washed down with copious amounts of Scotch Whisky.
Long the food of the poor, haggis in recent years has enjoyed a resurgence in Scotland, where it is reworked into numerous modern interpretations, such as haggis samosas. At Angelus Restaurant near Buckingham Palace in London, head chef Martin Nisbet puts an Italian spin on it to create haggis tortellini.
"We believe there is a big market to be tapped as the government estimates there are 9 million Scottish Americans," says Jo Macsween, director of Macsween's Haggis in Edinburgh, who already exports to South Africa and across Europe.
"But who knows how long it will be before the ban is lifted. It could take years," he says. "Americans are inquisitive and eager to try our product when they visit. Once they've tasted it they generally love it and become enthusiasts.
"The worst part is telling them they can't take it home."
Well, not every American falls in love with it. During the G8 summit of 2005 at Gleneagles, former President George W. Bush said he was not keen to try the dish. "I was briefed on haggis," he said.
BEST BET: Kate Campbell to play benefit
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« justicia wrote on Tuesday, Feb 09 at 01:39 PM »
I believe it was the family that hired the psychic, not Durham LE.
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