Archive for October 1st, 2012

Where do MBA’s want to work?

October 1, 2012

Punch line: Google, KPMG, P&G, Microsoft and Deloitte top the list of MBA’s most sought after jobs.

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Excerpted from businessweek.com’s “Hot Jobs, Google, KPMG, P&G, Top 2012 Rankings”

The world’s college business students have spoken: The single, most coveted job in the world isn’t with some big-name consulting firm or high-flying investment bank.

For the fourth consecutive year, it’s with Google, whose incomparable perks and startup-like culture have catapulted the search giant to a seemingly permanent place atop Universum‘s annual list of the most highly desired employers.

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Top 10 Desired Employers for MBA Students:

  1. Google
  2. KPMG
  3. Procter & Gamble
  4. Microsoft
  5. Deloitte
  6. Ernst & Young
  7. Pricewaterhouse Cooper
  8. JPMorgan Chase
  9. Coca-Cola
  10. Goldman Sachs

What separates the winners from the losers is innovative products and services, a relaxed and creative work environment, global opportunities, benefits and perks, and the ability to advance one’s career and personal brand by working for a company.

Millennials are interested in the ‘me brand,’ and they are more concerned about their employ-ability.  They want a company with a good reputation. They want to say they work for a ‘cool’ company.  Each of the companies at the top of the list has different characteristics that make it cool.

Whole industries can benefit from the perception that that they can serve to advance careers, which is what seems to have happened with management consulting.  Consulting as a career is really interesting for people leaving college to develop a set of skills that are transferable to different industries. 

Nowadays, the hunt for talent revolves around understanding the unique needs of millennials.  At P&G, the company tries to give new college graduates a chance to try on different hats.  To increase brand awareness among young people, P&G has undertaken targeted marketing efforts such as the “Thanks, Mom” ad campaign, which aired during the 2012 Summer Olympics.  Microsoft, the other company on the rise with job hunters, hires several thousand undergraduates from around the world each year. Mostly discovered through the internship pipeline and on-campus recruiting, these young people are drawn to the company’s willingness to give them real responsibility from the start.

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Welfare: How much has been spent since LBJ declared the war on poverty?

October 1, 2012

Answer: About $17 trillion … but, there’s much more to the story.

There has been so much talk about welfare recently that I did some digging … not to judge good or bad, simply to to get some facts.

You can draw your own conclusions …

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Overview

According to Congressional testimony given by the Heritage Foundation, “welfare” refers means-tested federal programs providing cash, food, housing, medical care, social services, training, and targeted education aid to poor and low income Americans.

Means-tested programs are anti-poverty programs: they are intended to increase the living standards of improve the capacity for self-support among the poor and near-poor.

Means-tested welfare spending or aid to the poor consists of government programs that provide assistance deliberately and exclusively to poor and lower-income people.

For example, food stamps, public housing, Medicaid, and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families are means-tested aid programs that provide benefits only to poor and lower-income persons.

Non-welfare programs provide government benefits and services for the general population — all income levels.

For example, Social Security, Medicare, police protection, and public education are not means-tested per se.

But, Social Security benefit pay-out rates are lower for higher income people and Medicare premiums are higher for higher income people

There are 69 means-tested welfare programs operated by the federal government:

  • 12 programs providing food aid;
  • 10 housing assistance programs;
  • 10 programs funding social services;
  • 9 educational assistance programs;
  • 8 programs providing cash assistance;
  • 8 vocational training programs;
  • 7 medical assistance programs;
  • 3 energy and utility assistance programs; and,
  • 2 child care and child development programs.

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Spending

Since the beginning of the War on Poverty, government has spent $15.9 trillion (in inflation-adjusted 2008 dollars) on means-tested welfare.

In FY2011, federal spending on means-tested welfare, plus state contributions to federal programs, were about $940 billion.

Combined federal and state means-tested welfare is now the second largest category of overall government spending in the nation.

Means-tested welfare is  exceeded only by the combined cost of Social Security and Medicare.

Welfare spending is greater than the cost of public education and is greater than spending on national defense.

Total means-tested spending in 2008 was $708 billion … about $7,700 to $17,100 in means-tested spending for each poor American (depending on the estimating method) … on average, around $30,000 to $33,000 for a family of four … with about 1/3 of the amount going to medical care.

In FY 2011, total means-tested spending going to families with children … was around $33,000 per low income family with children.

In recent years …

  • 52 percent of total means-tested spending went to medical care for poor and lower-income persons,
  • 37 percent was spent on cash, food, and housing aid.
  • 11 percent was spent on social services, training, child development, targeted federal education aid, and community development.

Roughly half of means-tested spending goes to disabled or elderly persons.

The other half goes to lower-income families with children, most of which are headed by single parents.

Most of these lower-income families have some earned income. Average earnings within the whole group are typically about $16,000 per year per family.

If average welfare aid and average earnings are combined, the total resources available come to between $40,000 and $46,000 for each lower-income family with children in the U.S. … about 15%  below the total population’s median household income.

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What’s up with Gallup?

October 1, 2012

Like most Romney supporters, I’m grabbing at straws to find hope in the recent polls.

Gallup has some recent numbers that have me scratching my head.

Last week, according to Gallup, Obama’s approval rating skyrocketed.

According to my analysis, Gallup had Obama’s approval jumping by an unprecedented 12 points in a single day.

Technical note: To isolate daily movements, I “unpacked” the 3 -day averages to see what the newest day’s score would have had to be to move the 3-day average.

Really?

The economy’s tanking and the Middle East is afire … and Obama’s approval jumps.

image

Just doesn’t pass the smell test.

So, I did a little digging.

Here’s an article I picked up from earlier in the month.

Senior Obama Campaign adviser David Axelrod reportedly contacted The Gallup Organization to discuss the company’s research methodology after their poll’s findings were unfavorable to the President.

After declining to adjust their methodology, Gallup was named in an unrelated lawsuit by the DOJ. 

Probably unrelated to the numbers, but sure looks funny.

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