Off the Charts explains how federal spending on entitlement programs that serve low-income Americans, other than those related to health care, is projected to fall as a share of GDP in coming years.
(Via The Atlantic) New research from the Grapevine project at Illinois State University identifies the 38 states that reduced funding for public higher education between fiscal years 2008 and 2013.
From the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond’s latest survey of manufacturing activity in the South Atlantic (District of Columbia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia):
Manufacturing activity in the central Atlantic region declined in January following two months of modest expansion, according to the Richmond Fed’s latest survey. Nearly all broad indicators of activity fell into negative territory. Other indicators also suggested additional softness. Capacity utilization turned negative as did the gauge for delivery times, while backlogs continued its downward trend. In addition, finished goods inventories grew at a slightly quicker pace.
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Looking ahead, assessments of business prospects for the next six months were somewhat more optimistic in January. An increasing number of contacts anticipated faster growth for new orders, capacity utilization, vendor lead-time, average workweek and capital expenditures, pushing up those indicators.
The PBS documentary program Frontline explores why no senior Wall Street executives have been prosecuted for fraud in relation to the mortgage and financial crises.
Watch The Untouchables on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.
For the benefit week ending on January 5, 2013, some 23,432 North Carolinians filed initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits and 124,361 individuals applied for state-funded continuing benefits. Compared to the prior week, there were fewer initial and fewer continuing claims. These figures come from data released by the US Department of Labor.
Averaging new and continuing claims over a four-week period — a process that helps adjust for seasonal fluctuations and better illustrates trends — shows that an average of 20,210 initial claims were filed over the previous four weeks, along with an average of 115,748 continuing claims. Compared to the previous four-week period, the average number of initial claims was higher, as was the average number of continuing claims.
One year ago, the four-week average for initial claims stood at 19,939, and the four-week average of continuing claims equaled 129,096.
In recent months covered employment has increased and now exceeds the level recorded a year ago (3.8 million versus 3.7 million). Nevertheless, there are still fewer covered workers than there were in January 2008, which means that payrolls are smaller today than they were five years ago.
The graph shows the changes in unemployment insurance claims measured as a share of covered employment in North Carolina since the recession’s start in December 2007. 
Both new and continuing claims appear to have peaked for this cycle, and the four-week averages of new and continuing claims have fallen considerably. Yet continuing claims remain at an elevated level, which suggests that unemployed individuals are finding it difficult to find new positions.
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