South By North Strategies, Ltd.

The Employment Service In Rural North Carolina

Established in 1935, the North Carolina State Employment Service (ES) provides publicly-funded labor exchange services to all interested workers—both those with and without jobs—and to all interested firms in North Carolina. Services are delivered remotely and through a network of 90 local offices. Besides providing labor exchange services, the ES manages unemployment insurance claims at the local level on behalf of the Division of Employment Security, administers the “work test” required of insurance claimants, and serves as a mandated partner in the state’s network of JobLink Career Centers, 63 percent of which are housed in ES offices.

To better understand the role that the ES played in rural communities during the height of the “Great Recession,” the Employment and Training Administration of the US Department of Labor, commissioned South by North Strategies to study the performance of the ES in rural communities between 2010 and 2011.  Attention centered on the argument advanced by state policymakers that local ES offices ensure equal access to workforce investment services in rural communities. To that end, the study broke the argument into six distinct hypotheses and subjected each one to quantitative and qualitative examination.  Specifically, the project documented the evolution of North Carolina’s service model, analyzed administrative data pertaining to service usage, and solicited stakeholder perspectives through semi-structured interviews.  The study concluded by offering program recommendations and sketching avenues for future inquiry.

All of the findings are contained in a report entitled The Employment Service in Rural North Carolina: Insights from the “Great Recession,” which was released in August 2012.

The Economics Of Banning Supersized Sodas

James Surowiecki of The New Yorker consider the economic logic behind banning supersized soft drinks in New York City.

Many economists would say that, if we want to discourage soda consumption, taxing it—the way we do alcohol and tobacco—would be more efficient than a ban. Some European countries do have such taxes, but the idea has been a political non-starter in New York. In any case, perhaps the most cunning aspect of Bloomberg’s proposed ban is that it would function as a kind of stealth tax on consumption, while leaving average-sized sodas untouched. Currently, on a per-ounce basis, large drinks are much cheaper than smaller ones—which encourages people to supersize. The soda ban should shift this. Two sixteen-ounce servings are bound to be more expensive than one thirty-two-ounce serving, which creates another disincentive to drink more.
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If all this sounds as if New York’s soda consumers were about to become the subjects of an elaborate social-science experiment designed to reshape their behavior and desires, well, that’s kind of true. But then we’ve been the subject of just such an experiment, run by beverage and fast-food companies, for the past forty years. If Bloomberg has his way, we may start feeling like we’re white rats in a maze, but at least there’s a good chance we’ll be thinner rats.

Picturing Policy Failures

A nifty infographic from the Center for American Progress depicts how “supply-side [economics] doesn’t work.”

Around The Dial – August 6, 2012

Economic policy reports, blog postings, and media stories of interest:

• Simon Johnson debunks some popular myths about banks.

American Cities And Income Segregation

The PBS NewsHour reports on increasing income segregation in American cities.

Watch More Americans Live in Economically Segregated Neighborhoods on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.