Ball State University economist Michael Hicks says the August employment situation summary contains the worst economic news this year despite 169,000 new jobs being added. “First, the estimates from the previous month was revised downwards by 40 percent, with the economy having seen 60,000 fewer jobs in July than previously reported. Earlier months were revised by more than 10,000 jobs. But, it is the August numbers which are downright scary.”
“While the top line data report of 169,000 new jobs sounds rosy the composition of new jobs is horrible,” says Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) at Ball State. “All the new net job growth led by agricultural workers, which is a distinctly seasonal boost. Non-agricultural workers saw jobs plummet by 218,000, but even that is a mirage. Government jobs grew by 324,000. So, non-agricultural private sector employment actually declined by 542,000 jobs, but there is still more bad news, since part time employment for economic reasons grew by 156,000. So, in August, we lost 542,000 private sector, non-farm jobs, and another 156,000 turned from full to part time due to weaker economic conditions. This is a white-knuckle loss of employment opportunities for one month.
“We have to face the fact that the economy is growing slowly, while businesses shed workers at an astonishing rate. If the government and farm sectors had not added jobs, many economists would now be predicting a new recession. We should be creating more than 400,000 permanent private sectors jobs per month to ease out of this slump. Instead we just lost more than a half million.”
At this rate, it will take us at least until 2020 to bring the unemployment rate down to 5 percent. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, when middle class workers lose their jobs and find new ones at lower wages, over the next 25 years they’ll earn an average of 11 percent less than workers who kept their jobs. And since our so-called recovery started, almost 40 percent of new jobs have come in low-wage areas like food service, retail and clerical jobs.
Read: https://seekingalpha.com/article/40535-interpreting-the-employment-data
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1:00 - 5:00 pm
Over 70% of Executives Surveyed Agree: Many Strategic Planning Efforts Lack Systematic Approach Tips for Enhancing Your Strategic Planning Process
Executives expressed frustration with their current strategic planning process. Issues include:
Steve Rutan and Denise Harrison have put together an afternoon workshop that will provide the tools you need to address these concerns. They have worked with hundreds of executives to develop a systematic approach that will enable your team to make better decisions during strategic planning. Steve and Denise will walk you through exercises for prioritizing your lists and steps that will reset and reinvigorate your process. This will be a hands-on workshop that will enable you to think about your business as you use the tools that are being presented. If you are ready for a Strategic Planning tune-up, select this workshop in your registration form. The additional fee of $695 will be added to your total.
2:00 - 5:00 pm
Female leaders face the same issues all leaders do, but they often face additional challenges too. In this peer session, we will facilitate a discussion of best practices and how to overcome common barriers to help women leaders be more effective within and outside their organizations.
Limited space available.
10:30 - 5:00 pm
General’s Retreat at Hermitage Golf Course
Sponsored by UBS
General’s Retreat, built in 1986 with architect Gary Roger Baird, has been voted the “Best Golf Course in Nashville” and is a “must play” when visiting the Nashville, Tennessee area. With the beautiful setting along the Cumberland River, golfers of all capabilities will thoroughly enjoy the golf, scenery and hospitality.
The golf outing fee includes transportation to and from the hotel, greens/cart fees, use of practice facilities, and boxed lunch. The bus will leave the hotel at 10:30 am for a noon shotgun start and return to the hotel after the cocktail reception following the completion of the round.
