Heldrich Center Chief Economist William Rodgers III participated in Squawk Box's (of CNBC) monthly panel on labor on June 5, previewing and discussing the release of May's job report. The monthly unemployment statistics report a decline of 345,000 nonfarm payrolls, well below the Squawk Box panel's predictions which ranged from 500,000 to 525,000. The unemployment rate, however, soared to 9.4%, significantly higher than the panel's foretelling of 9.2%. These numbers translate to 14.5 million unemployed individuals.

The next day, Rodgers also appeared on CNN's Your Money to discuss the bittersweet findings of the previous day's unemployment report. Aside from pointing out the slow progress of the labor market, he also underlined some reasons why the unemployment rate is substantially higher among African-American and Hispanic workers. For more, please read the program's transcript.

Preview prior to release of monthly job report.

Commentary upon release of report.

On April 26-28, Cleary presented a poster with key study findings during a workshop on nanotechnology education held at the University of Southern California.  The event was sponsored by the Center for Nanotechnology and Society at the University of California, Santa Barbara, which is funded through a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).  On May 11, Cleary presented the poster at an NSF site visit at the Center for Nanotechnology and Society at Arizona State University.  Cleary also delivered an interactive presentation of the study findings at a session of the Nanotech 2009 conference in Houston, Texas, the largest nanotechnology event in the world.

The study, which identified over 50 formal degree programs with the term “nano” in the title, found that degree programs are, like the technology itself, in an emerging phase.  Programs are highly variable in terms of structure and content, and are not generally situated in areas of high nanotechnology research and patenting activity.  Rather, programs cluster in response to state and local policy initiatives.  Since other studies have revealed that employers prefer to hire nanotechnology workers who have earned degrees in traditional disciplines, the value of these new degrees in the current labor market is uncertain, though they may become more relevant as the field of nanotechnology matures.

On April 29, 2009 Jennifer Cleary and Allison Kopicki delivered a webinar on the role that foundations can play in supporting green jobs initiatives to members of the Council of Foundations. The presentation provided an overview of the factors driving green job growth, promising programs around the country, and specific areas where foundations can be helpful in complementing government and private efforts to move low-income workers into green work.

Jennifer Cleary presented the Heldrich Center’s research on green jobs on May 6, 2009 to over 600 workforce professionals at a plenary session of the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL-ETA) Region 4 Re-Employment Summit in Dallas, Texas.  Cleary described how workforce organizations can build effective partnerships to track green jobs policy developments and to build employer-responsive green jobs training efforts that benefit One-Stop Career Center customers.