US Jobs by City

Visualizing U.S Job Market Growth (and Decline) in a 3D Map, 2/29/16

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently released its data on non-farming employees by metropolitan area for 2015. In a recent statement released by the White House, unemployment has reached 4.9% and over the past two years, U.S. businesses have added more jobs than any time since the 1990s!

We built a map to provide a visualization of the number of jobs added by metropolitan area, seen below. The higher the cone rising out of the map, the greater the number of jobs added in that area. Based on the data, over 2.4 million jobs were created across states from 2014 to 2015! The state with the highest number of jobs created was California (464,200) and the state with the largest decline in jobs was North Dakota (-19,000).

 

Metropolitan Areas with the Largest Number of Jobs Created

Take a look at the top 5 metro areas with the largest increase in jobs:

New York-Newark-Jersey City had the highest increase in jobs for any metropolitan area in the country with 156,400 new jobs.

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA came in second with 135,100 jobs.

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX was third with 98,900 jobs.

Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA came in fourth with 77,800 jobs.

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria rounded out the top five with 68,500 jobs.

 

Metropolitan Areas with the Largest Decline in Jobs

Take a look at the top 5 metro areas with the largest decreases in jobs:

Lafayette, LA had the highest job decline for any metropolitan area with 5,500 less jobs in 2015.

Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IL had the second highest job decline with 4,500 less jobs.

Houma-Thibodaux, LA came in third with 3,600 less jobs.

Shreveport-Bossier City, LA came in fourth with 3,000 overall job decline.

Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA rounded out the bottom five in job decline with 2,800 jobs lost between 2014 and 2015.

 

Metropolitan Areas with the Highest Overall Growth Rate

Take a look at the top 5 metro areas with the highest job growth rate:

Idaho Falls, ID had the highest job growth for any metropolitan area in the country at 4.5%.

Salisbury, DE came in second with 4.45% job growth.

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA was third in job growth at 4.44%.

Another Idaho metro area, Coeur d’Alene, came in a close fourth with 4.44% job growth.

Lima, OH rounded out the top five with 4.16% growth.

 

Metropolitan Areas Experiencing Job Decline

Of the 386 metro areas represented in the BLS dataset, 93 experienced job decline while 13 did not experience growth at all. Take a look at the 5 metro areas with the largest decline in jobs.

Pine Bluff, AR had the highest job decline rate for any metropolitan area with a 7.0% decline in jobs.

Cape Girardeau, MO had the second highest job decline rate with -3.8% job growth

Williamsport, PA came in third with -3.7% job growth rate.

Houma-Thibodaux, LA came in fourth with 3.5% overall job decline rate.

Casper, WY rounded out the bottom five in job growth with a 3.0% decline rate in jobs.

 

Highest Growth Rate in Top Metro Areas by Jobs

The Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell metropolitan area had the highest job growth at 3.0% out of the top 10 metro areas by number of jobs.

The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area had the second largest job growth of the top ten metro areas with 2.9%.

The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metropolitan area was third with job growth of 2.3%.

The Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metropolitan area had the lowest job growth in the top ten metropolitan areas at just 0.6%.

 

Widespread Growth Across U.S.

The BLS numbers showed that the number of jobs grew in 280 of the 386 metropolitan areas. This growth was fueled by over 2.4 million new jobs, with over 500,000 from five metropolitan areas (New York-Newark-Jersey City, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria). Three metropolitan areas in Louisiana had one of the top 5 largest job declines. Although some metropolitan areas experienced job decline, there were more jobs created than lost in the U.S. overall!

Originally posted on HowMuch, a cost-information website.

http://affluentinvestor.com/2016/02/visualizing-u-s-job-market-growth-and-decline-in-a-3d-map/

Comments

Once again, excessive immigration has wiped out all the job growth for the year, even in North Atlanta Metro, Sandy Springs, Roswell. State Farm and Mercedes Benz US have relocated here, but I see little evidence of an additional 77,800 jobs.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

Still No Global Warming

Hiatus confirmed as scientists finally admit climate model fail by Michael Bastasch, 2/26/16

A group of scientists recently put out a new study confirming the 15-year “hiatus” in global warming. That study made headlines, but what went largely unnoticed was a major admission made by the paper’s authors: the climate models were wrong. “There is this mismatch between what the climate models are producing and what the observations are showing,” John Fyfe, Canadian climate modeler and lead author of the new paper, told Nature. “We can’t ignore it.” “Reality has deviated from our expectations – it is perfectly normal to try and understand this difference,” Ed Hawkins, co-author of the study and United Kingdom climate scientist, echoed in a blog post.

This is a huge admission by climate scientists and a big victory for skeptics of man-made global warming who have for years been pointing to a mismatch between climate model predictions and actual temperature observations. “Overall, the paper is an admission by prominent members of the ‘mainstream’ scientific community that the earth’s surface temperature over the past two decades or so has not evolved in a way that was well-anticipated by either the scientific community and/or the climate models they rely on,” Chip Kappenberger, climate scientist at the libertarian Cato Institute, told The Daily Caller News foundation.

“Something that the skeptic have been pointing out for years,” Knappenberger said.

Knappenberger and fellow Cato climate scientist Patrick Michaels have been prominent critics of climate models relied upon by “mainstream” scientists because they say the models have not accurately predicted global temperature rises for the past six decades.

In a recent paper, Michaels and Knappenberger compared observed global surface temperature warming rates since 1950 to predictions made by 108 climate models used by government climate scientists. What they found was the models projected much higher warming rates than actually occurred.

Michaels and Knappenberger aren’t alone. Satellite-derived temperature readings have shown a “hiatus” in global warming for at least the last 18 years, despite rising carbon dioxide emissions. While some scientists have tried to discredit satellite readings, they have been unable to explain the lack of significant warming in recent years. “When a theory contradicts the facts” you need to change the theory, climate scientist John Christy told Congress in January hearing. “The real world is not going along with rapid warming. The models need to go back to the drawing board.” Christy and his colleague Roy Spencer compile satellite-derived temperature readings at the University of Alabama, Huntsville. Their satellite data has shown no warming for about two decades, and has been cited by researchers skeptical of claims of catastrophic global warming.

“The bulk atmospheric temperature is where the signal is the largest,” Christy said in the hearing, referring to the greenhouse gas effect. “We have measurements for that — it doesn’t match up with the models.” “Because this result challenges the current theory of greenhouse warming in relatively straightforward fashion, there have been several well-funded attacks on those of us who build and use such datasets and on the datasets themselves,” Christy said.

Now, skepticism seems to have won the day — at least in terms of convincing other scientists there’s a big problem with climate models. Fyfe’s study — which was co-authored by Michael Mann of “hockey stick” curve fame — contradicts a study by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists claiming there was no global warming hiatus. “Overall, there is compelling evidence that there has been a temporary slowdown in observed global surface warming,” Hawkins wrote in a blog post about the study, noting “the most recent observed 15-year trends are all positive, but lower than most previous similar trends in the past few decades” which is a “clear demonstration that the rate of change has slowed since its peak.”

But even with the admission, some skeptics are still critical because the study’s authors employed research methods they have been critical of in the past. “All of this said, the authors used techniques to demonstrate a slowdown, that when employed by the skeptics, are harshly criticized,” Knappenberger said. “This seems to me to indicate that the mainstream community gives a free pass to some researchers more so than others.”

Follow Michael on Facebook and Twitter This article originally appeared in The Daily Caller

http://www.cfact.org/2016/02/26/hiatus-confirmed-as-scientists-finally-admit-climate-model-fail/?utm_ source=CFACT%20Updates &utm_campaign=dfc3c8d636-Scientists_ confirm_ warming_hiatus_ Models2_26_ 2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a28eaedb56-

GA School Takeover Amendment

Georgia State Intervention in Failing Public Schools Amendment (2016) From Ballotpedia

The Georgia State Intervention in Failing Public Schools Amendment is on the November 8, 2016 ballot in Georgia as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment. The measure, upon voter approval, would empower the state "to assume the supervision, management, and operation of public elementary and secondary schools which have been determined to be failing through any governance model allowed by law."^[1]

Approval of the amendment by voters would trigger the implementation of Senate Bill 133. SB 133 would provide for three governance models of schools under an "Opportunity School District" (OSD) agency. The three models would be (1) direct management by the OSD, (2) shared governance between the OSD and local board of education and (3) transformation of the school into a charter school. The OSD would also have the power to close schools as the “intervention of last resort.”^[2]

The Athens Banner-Herald said the amendment is modeled after the Recovery School District in Louisiana.^[3]

Text of measure

Ballot title

The proposed ballot title is:^[1]

“

Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended to allow the state to intervene in chronically failing public schools in order to improve student performance? ( ) Yes ( ) No[4]

”

Constitutional changes

See also: Article VIII, Georgia Constitution

The proposed amendment would add a Paragraph VIII to the end of Section 5 of Article VIII of the Georgia Constitution. The following text would be added by the proposed measure's approval:^[1]

Paragraph VIII. Opportunity School District. Notwithstanding the provisions of Paragraph II of this section, the General Assembly may provide by general law for the creation of an Opportunity School District and authorize the state to assume the supervision, management, and operation of public elementary and secondary schools which have been determined to be failing through any governance model allowed by law. Such authorization shall include the power to receive, control, and expend state, federal, and local funds appropriated for schools under the current or prior supervision, management, or operation of the Opportunity School District, all in the manner provided by and in accordance with general law.^[4]

Senate Bill 133 (SB 133) is an act dependent upon voter approval of the Georgia State Intervention in Failing Public Schools Amendment. The act will go into effect on January 1, 2017, if voters approve the amendment, or will be repealed on January 1, 2017, if voters defeat the amendment.^[2]

Since the proposed constitutional amendment would allow the state to govern failing schools "through any governance model allowed by law," SB 133 was designed to provide three different governance models. The models would be housed under the authority of an "Opportunity School District" (OSD) agency. The Georgia Governor would appoint a superintendent to head the OSD agency, and the superintendent would report directly to the governor.

The OSD superintendent would be authorized to waive State Board of Education rules, regulations, policies, procedures and provisions for OSD schools, but not federal, state or local government rules or court orders. The OSD would be able to select, approve or remove the OSD schools' principals, transfer teachers, control the schools' budgets and modify education content.^[5]

The OSD would be authorized to add 20 schools to the OSD program in any single school year and would have no more than 100 schools under its supervision at any given time. The selection of schools to be added to the OSD program would be based on "an analysis of performance over the three-year period with emphasis on student growth and progress and other considerations."^[2]

The following four intervention plans, the first three of which may be classified as governance models, would be allowed:^[2]

·       Direct management of the school by the OSD.

·       Shared government of the school by the OSD and the local board of education pursuant to a contract in which the board of education operates the school and the OSD superintendent has the power to direct changes to be made at the school.

·       Transformation of the school into an OSD charter school in which the OSD agency works with the State Charter Schools Commission to establish the school as a charter school.

·       Closure of the school if the school is not enrolled at full capacity. This would be the "intervention of last resort."

The OSD superintendent would implement a process for gaining community feedback to inform his or her decision regarding the most appropriate intervention model for a particular school.

Senate Bill Resolution 828

Georgia State Senator Vincent Fort (D-39) has introduced Senate Bill Resolution 828, which calls for a revision of the ballot question to read as follows:

“

Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended to allow an appointee of the Governor to take over local school operation, buildings, and control of all federal, state, and local funding if a school has low scores on standardized tests or for any other reason a future legislature may allow?[4]

”

Fort, when discussing the use of the phrase "to intervene" in the measure, said "The public ought to at least have truthful language when they go to the ballot this November." Fort has introduced Senate Resolution 828 in order to use the words "take over" and "to control" instead.^[6]

The following legislators sponsored the measure:^[1]

·       Sen. Butch Miller (R-49)

·       Sen. Lindsey Tippins (R-37)

·       Sen. Rick Jeffares (R-17)

·       Sen. Freddie Powell Sims (D-12)

·       Sen. Steve Gooch (R-51)

·       Sen. Jeff Mullis (R-53)

Other officials supporting the measure include:

·       Gov. Nathan Deal (R)^[5]

·       Sen. Bill Cowsert (R-46)^[7]

Organizations

·       StudentsFirst Georgia^[8]

Arguments

Gov. Nathan Deal was described by the Atlanta Journal Constitution as seeing the amendment as "his signature education legislation and his legacy to Georgia’s student." Gov. Deal contends:

“	While Georgia boasts many schools that achieve academic excellence every year, we still have too many schools where students have little hope of attaining the skills they need to succeed in the workforce or in higher education. We have a moral duty to do everything we can to help these children. Failing schools keep the cycle of poverty spinning from one generation to the next. Education provides the only chance for breaking that cycle. When we talk about helping failing schools, we’re talking about rescuing children. I stand firm on the principle that every child can learn, and I stand equally firm in the belief that the status quo isn’t working.[4]	”
—Gov. Nathan Deal[5]

Opposition to this Amendment

Opponents

·       Rep. Spencer Frye (D-118)^[7]

·       Valarie Wilson, executive director of the Georgia School Boards Association

Organizations

·       Georgia Association of Educators^[5]

·       Georgia Parent‑Teacher Association

Arguments

Rev. Frank Brown, president of Concerned Black Clergy of Metropolitan Atlanta, and Verdaillia Turner, president of the Georgia Federation of Teachers, deemed the amendment "hype," saying, "Our kids deserve a great, high-quality public education that is based on proven strategies, not hype." The pair elaborated:

“	Gov. Nathan Deal is promoting legislation to create a so-called Opportunity School District that would turn over control of struggling schools to the state or to private companies that operate charter schools. Deal is basing his design on other state takeovers, especially Louisiana’s takeover of New Orleans schools... The only thing that is trapping kids in low-performing schools is a resistance to using proven programs that will help turn around schools and give all kids a great, high-quality public education. Let’s fix struggling schools with proven programs, not close them, farm them out or privatize them. Let’s look at New Orleans, the highly touted supposed miracle on the Gulf on which Deal’s proposal is based. Practically every public school there has become a charter school since Hurricane Katrina. Here are the facts. No doubt about it, New Orleans public schools were struggling before Hurricane Katrina, but the main reason is that they were starved for resources. Yet, research has found that test scores for New Orleans public schools were rising before Katrina hit. Today, after the drastic privatization changes, student achievement in New Orleans schools continues to be near the bottom of all the parishes in the state of Louisiana...[4]	”
—Rev. Frank Brown and Verdaillia Turner[5]

The two went on to offer a few alternative solutions:

“	Failed policies won’t fix our schools. There is a better way. Take New York City. Years ago, the teachers union worked closely with the school district to create the Chancellor’s District, an initiative focused on the lowest-performing schools. Through reduced class sizes, increased instructional time, after-school programs, professional development for teachers and other supports, the Chancellor’s District was able to significantly improve student outcomes. Sadly, this innovative and successful model was disbanded when Mayor Michael Bloomberg came into office. His strategy of mass school closures, turning to charters and a fixation on testing failed to improve the public schools. In Austin, Texas, Reagan Early College High School was slated for closure, but educators, parents and other community members fought back. The school became a community school, offering not just wraparound services for its low-income students but college-level courses that enable students to graduate with scores of college credits. Since 2008, Reagan’s graduate rate has soared from 48 percent to 85 percent. In Cincinnati, every school was turned into a community school, providing students with access to strong academics and programs and services addressing kids’ health, social and emotional needs. Cincinnati is now the highest-performing urban school district in Ohio. Let’s do what works, not what “sounds” good. We can do it if lawmakers are willing to show some fortitude, grit and backbone to stand up for our kids’ best interest.[4]	”
—Rev. Frank Brown and Verdaillia Turner[5]

Other arguments against the amendment include:

·       Philip Lanoue, superintendent of Clarke County School District, argued, "Educators, school boards and local school communities have the ultimate responsibility for providing engaging learning environments that ensure all students achieve. To change the Georgia Constitution to take away that responsibility will fragment communities across the state, and sets a very dangerous precedent for future decisions in educating all Georgia students."^[3]

·       Sid Chapman, president of the Georgia Association of Educators, referring to the possibility of the OSD transforming a school into a charter school, said, "These schools belong to each community. They do not belong to outside entities that want to come in and make a profit off of them."^[9]

·       Valarie Wilson, executive director of the Georgia School Boards Association, has called the debate over the measure "a war...being waged for our children, for our state," and stated that the number of schools that qualify as failing represent only four percent of schools in the state, making it a relatively narrow problem that might not be worth a change the constitution to fix.^[7]

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing ballot measures in Georgia

A two-thirds vote in both chambers of the Georgia Legislature is required to refer this amendment to the ballot. Georgia is one of 16 states that require a two-thirds supermajority.

The Georgia Senate approved the amendment on March 5, 2015, with 38 senators voting yea and 15 voting nay.^[1] On March 25, 2015, the Georgia House of Representatives narrowly approved in a 121 to 47 vote.^[10]

·       Georgia 2016 ballot measures

·       2016 ballot measures

·       Public education in Georgia

https://ballotpedia.org/Georgia_State_Intervention_in_Failing_Public_Schools_Amendment_(2016)