Ten years ago, MDC's report, "The State of the South 2007: Philanthropy as the South's 'Passing Gear,'" (ED519455) examined how philanthropy can accelerate progress toward a South that is both equitable for all its residents and competitive with other regions of the country. A decade later, our second iteration, commissioned by the…

Since the 1980s there has been a decline or stagnation in public expenditure on agriculture in most developing countries (Akroyd & Smith, 2007). Likewise, the proportion of official development assistance (ODA) going to agriculture is estimated to have declined from around 20 per cent in 1979 to a low of 3.7 per cent in 2006, and has remained…

ACT has conducted over 20,000 job analyses for occupations across a diverse array of industries and occupations since 1993. This report highlights the levels of career readiness for various subgroups of ACT Work Keys® examinees in the United States and provides career readiness benchmarks for selected ACT WorkKeys cognitive skills by career…

During the recent economic downturn, media and industry reports of skill shortages in the trades continued to appear. The intent of this paper is to examine the evidence for skill shortages in the trades persisting during the economic downturns over the last 20 years, using various indicators. These include employment growth, vacancy rates,…

As Australia's economy recovers from the economic downturn, attention is turning once again to skills shortages. To gain insights into the labour market for tradespeople, this report investigates changes in supply, demand and how adjustment occurred through the varied economic conditions of the past 20 years. It concludes that there was no overall…

Information on the current and projected supply of and demand for graduates of higher education in the food and agricultural sciences is presented, based on federal data bases. The supply data are aggregated by 11 educational clusters, and employment demand data are aggregated by eight occupational clusters. Analysis reveals imbalances in the…

The handbook, representing results of phase 1 of the National Agribusiness Manpower Project, identifies and defines occupations and industries requiring agribusiness competencies in the southeastern States. Occupational data presented in the employment tables are separated into three sections which comprise the major portion of the document. The…

Increased farm size, improved technology, and competing demands for farm land resulted in substantial decline in farm acreage and consequent declines in farm employment. Remaining farm operators are more likely to be white, highly educated, and have larger, capital-intensive farms. (SK)

This report summarizes some selected characteristics of the feed manufacturing industry based on the results of a mail survey of U.S. feed manufacturing establishments to obtain information about structural characteristics of the industry in 1984. These characteristics are compared with those reported earlier from the 1975 survey to provide…

This report contains 56 tables that provide an overview of the operating and financial characteristics of farms in the United States in 1985. The report provides information on farms and land in farms; farm acreage purchased, sold, and rented; farm labor and wages; capital investments and improvement; farm production expenses; farm and nonfarm…

This report contains 44 tables and 23 figures, along with narrative summaries, that provide an overall view of the farm sector in the United States in 1986. Some of the findings highlighted in the report are the following: (1) farmers spent less to produce their crops and livestock in 1986; (2) government payments to farmers increased, but prices…

This final report summarizes Phase II of the study of employment demand data for agriculture/agribusiness in New York State. Analysis, procedures, findings, recommendations, and products of the study are reported. During Phase II, the final eight months of the study, the data collection was completed; procedures were implemented for conducting…

Selected characteristics of the United States' farm population for 1973 are presented. The farm population consists of all persons living in rural territory on places of: (1) 10 or more acres if as much as $50 worth of agricultural products were sold from the place in the reporting year and (2) under 10 acres if as much as $250 worth of…

Farm and farm-related industries account for almost 18 percent of total U.S. employment in 1988. This share is based on a broad definition of the agricultural sector, including not only farm production but also industries that mine, manufacture, and sell farm inputs; process commodities; and sell consumer goods. Many jobs in industries that…

Over 20.7 million jobs, or 19 percent of total U.S. employment, were classified as farm and farm related in 1987, but many were only peripherally related to agriculture. Almost 71 percent of these jobs were in metropolitan areas. Gains in total agricultural employment were limited to farm-related industries, whereas farm production jobs continued…