Students in the North Country are bypassing liberal arts degrees and planning to study more applied fields, reports Susan Mende at the Watertown Daily Times:
In August, Miss [Katherine] Hanks plans to start her freshman year at the University of Vermont, where she'll major in speech pathology. She also considered studying dentistry at the University at Buffalo. Area high school guidance counselors say a growing number of high school students are factoring in the shaky job market as they make their post-graduation plans. "I want to be in the medical field because you're always be able to find a job," Miss Hanks said. "Kids in our generation know it's harder to find a job than in the past. We're thinking about job availability."
The Internet is all about interactive unemployment maps these days. NPR's Planet Money lets you mouse over to check out your state's data (New York: 7.9 percent) while the Wall Street Journal's Real Time Economics lets you scroll through the past two years to watch how rates have changed (New York, January 2010: 8.6 percent, January 2011: 8.2 percent).
Meanwhile Traci DeLore reports at the Greater Binghamton Business Journal that the state's jobs rate also didn't change much between April and May:
The state's economy lost more than 21,000 private sector jobs between April and May, but the state has gained more than 23,000 non-farm jobs and nearly 98,000 private sector jobs since last May.
And finally, Chris Isidore at CNN Money has a ray of hope for American manufacturing: some businesses are starting to build stuff in the U.S.:
This trend of reshoring or insourcing is likely to grow in the coming years, as the cost gap between building overseas and building at home narrows. It's an encouraging sign in a job market where hiring has stalled in recent months. "Based on the number of calls I'm getting, I think a lot of people are taking a long hard look at what's gone on in recent times," said Peter Dorsman, the senior vice president of Global Operations at [ATM manufacturer] NCR.
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