NYS Agricultural Exports: 2001-2010

Just a snapshot of agricultural exports from New York State to the rest of the world over the last decade. Who knew wheat was one of the top three exports from New York State ? Or that soybeans were the second fastest growing agricultural commodity exported from New York over the past ten years ?

2010 National Teen Birth Rates From the CDC

There is interesting piece about teen pregnancy from the Centers for Disease Control on Yahoo News, and it does have some good news: teen births are at their lowest level in more than 60 years. The CDC reported that the U.S. teen birth rate dropped 9% from 2009 to 2010, reaching a historic low of 34.3 births per 1,000 teens aged 15 to 19. This is 43% below their peak in 1970. It attributed the drop to several factors, including strong pregnancy-prevention messages aimed at teens and increased use of contraception. But the geographic variation is substantial.

Teen birthrates are highest in Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arkansas, and New Mexico,. There are slightly lower concentrations in the neighboring states of Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Arizona. On the other end of the equation, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, and Massachusetts have the lowest rates of teen births.

Grandparents in the Herkimer and Oneida Counties ACS Data

The general consensus is that we, as a region, are growing grayer, which is a nice way to say are getting older. With the aging of the baby-boomer generation, we certainly expect to see our median age continue to rise. Since 1970, the median age for Herkimer and Oneida Counties has risen by about 11 years – from 31.1 years old to 42.1 in Herkimer County, and from 29 to 40.8 in Oneida County.

So it seems pretty reasonable to assume that people over the age of 65 are becoming a larger part of our makeup. The data, however, don’t show that to be quite true.

Let’s start first with the actual numbers. It IS true that if you look back, let’s say, 50 years ago to the 1960 Census, there were fewer elderly people (those age 65 or older) living in either county. In Herkimer County the number has risen from about 8,300 elderly living there in 1960 to nearly 11,000 in 2010. Similarly, Oneida County has seen a rise from about 29,000 people age 65 or older in 1960 to more than 38,000 in the most recent census. But those numbers are a little misleading.

ALL of the increase in numbers of elderly came prior to 1990. Between 1960 and 1990, Herkimer County saw its older population grow by about 2,700; in Oneida County it rose nearly 10,000. But in the twenty years since then, both counties have seen a decline in the actual numbers of elderly – roughly 200 fewer elderly were counted in the 2010 Census in Herkimer County, and about 600 fewer in Oneida County.

When we look at the percentage of the population people age 65 and over represent, it shows a similar pattern – a steady rise from 1960 through 1990, and then a flattening out of this age group as a proportion of our population. In 1960 older persons (age 65+) made up about 11% or 12% of the population. Now they represent about 16% to 17%. That proportion however, hasn’t changed much in the last 20 years. In Herkimer County it has remained dead flat at 16.8%; in Oneida County it as hovered around 16%.

So does this mean that the baby-boomers are not going to have the impact that we thought in our region ? Hardly. If we look at the working age population that is within 20 years of retirement age (assuming retirement age is 65 years old), we can see how the number of people that will soon be joining the ranks of the elderly is much different now than it was 20 years ago. In 1990, there were almost 60,000 people between the ages of 45 and 65 that were poised to move toward retirement. In 2010, we have more than 85,000 people in that latter stage of the “working age” range. So have no fear, the Baby Boomers are just around the corner from having their full impact felt.

So who are our present age 65+ seniors? Well, many of them are grandparents. The American Communities Survey now collects data about grandparents and their changing roles in our communities. To see both Herkimer and Oneida Counties data on grandparents (including their demographics, income, and living conditions) view the pdf from the 2010 Five Year ACS profile on Grandparents.

Profile America: Tax Day 2012

The US Census Bureau has a daily update they call Profile America. It typically has a daily clip that gives a snap shot of the history, as well as current state, of some relevant daily topic. Being April 16th, or the day that federal taxes are due, today's clip deals with tax collection and preparation in the US. You can go here for the audio file, or read the transcript below for today's topic.

Profile America -- Monday, April 16th. Debate about income tax rates ebbs and flows through the years, but has been especially heated during this presidential election year. Federal income taxes have been around since 1913, when the 16th Amendment to the Constitution gave Congress the right to levy such taxes. The first year, fewer than 360,000 returns were filed. Now, some 142.5 million returns are submitted annually. For those who don't like to compute their own taxes, there are nearly 112,000 tax preparation offices around the nation. Of these, close to 87,000 are single person businesses. We spend nearly $7 billion a year to have our taxes prepared. You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at www.census.gov.

For other clips, visit the Profile America page at the Census website.

The Happiest (and Unhappiest) Jobs in America

When you think of a cheerful job, you probably don’t think of loan officer, warehouse manager, or accountant. But it turns out these are some of the happiest careers in America, according to online jobs site Careerbliss.com. CareerBliss is a career community dedicated to helping people “find happiness in the workplace and therefore in life”. In essence they are career counselors and help people find jobs.

CareerBliss compiled a list of the happiest, and unhappiest, jobs based on analysis from more than 100,400 employee-generated reviews between February 2011 and January 2012. Employees were asked to rate 10 factors that affect workplace happiness, including one’s relationship with the boss and co-workers, work environment, job resources, compensation, growth opportunities, company culture, company reputation, daily tasks, and control over the work one does on a daily basis.

The employees valued each factor on a five-point scale, and also indicated how important it was to their overall happiness at work. The numbers were combined to find an average rating of overall employee happiness for each respondent, and then sorted by job title to find which occupations had the happiest workers. A minimum of 50 employee reviews was required to be considered for CareerBliss’ Happiest Jobs in America, and executive level jobs, like chief executive, were excluded from the study.

Below are the 10 Happiest and Unhappiest jobs found by CareerBliss in the country.