Purpose of Assignment
The purpose of this assignment is so students may look at the microeconomic data and other sources for better understanding of trends and determinants of the labor market.
We will look at the microeconomic data and other sources for better understanding of trends and determinants of the labor market. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) website provides public with an easy access to different statistical tools and different types of data presentation.
Assignment Steps
Select one of the following surveys as a team, from the
BLS Current Employment Statistics survey (National)
:
- Manufacturing Employment – CES3000000001
Retrieve and save a Microsoft® Excel® file and the graphs to your desktop for analysis. You will have to check the “include graph” box along the top of the page to see the graph, and you will need to copy and paste the graph separately into your Microsoft® Excel® document.
Tutorial help on Excel® and PowerPoint® functions can be found on the Microsoft® office website. There are also additional tutorials via the web that offer support for office products.
Consider the following two articles, located in the
Week 4 Electronic Reserve Readings
, discussing actor salaries and hedge fund executives’ average salaries:
- “Robert Downey Junior is Hollywood’s Highest-Paid Actor”
- “In Tough Year, Hedge Fund Leaders Still Paid Well: Average Salary of $467M Was Half 2013, Report Says”
Prepare and present a 1- to 2-slide Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentation-analysis.
Include the following content in the presentation:
- What factors affected the demand and supply for this labor group during the last 10 years? Research and report data available from Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and other peer reviewed sources.
- What jobs do you think have the best mix of salary and other characteristics that individuals care about?
Cite a minimum of one peer-reviewed source, not including the textbook and required economic data.
Format consistent with APA guidelines.
BLS Data Series
Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the Current Employment Statistics survey (National) | |||||||||||||||
Original Data Value | |||||||||||||||
Series Id: | CES3000000001 | ||||||||||||||
Seasonally Adjusted | |||||||||||||||
Series Title: | All employees, thousands, manufacturing, seasonally adjusted | ||||||||||||||
Super Sector: | Manufacturing | ||||||||||||||
Industry: | |||||||||||||||
NAICS Code: | – | ||||||||||||||
Data Type: | ALL EMPLOYEES, THOUSANDS | ||||||||||||||
Year | 2008 | 2018 | |||||||||||||
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | ||||
13725 | 13696 | 13659 | 13599 | 13564 | 13504 | 13430 | 13358 | 13275 | 13147 | 13034 | 12850 | ||||
2009 | 12561 | 12380 | 12208 | 12030 | 11862 | 11726 | 11668 | 11626 | 11591 | 11538 | 11509 | 11475 | |||
2010 | 11460 | 11453 | 11489 | 11525 | 11545 | 11561 | 11553 | 11563 | 11562 | 11585 | 11595 | ||||
2011 | 11621 | 11654 | 11675 | 11704 | 11713 | 11727 | 11746 | 11764 | 11769 | 11780 | 11770 | 11802 | |||
2012 | 11838 | 11860 | 11898 | 11916 | 11927 | 11936 | 11964 | 11960 | 11954 | 11961 | 11950 | ||||
2013 | 11983 | 11996 | 11999 | 12000 | 12004 | 11984 | 1 | 2014 | 12032 | 12056 | 12079 | 12083 | |||
12082 | 12105 | 12121 | 12135 | 12147 | 12171 | 12190 | 12206 | 12224 | 12256 | 12282 | 12291 | ||||
2015 | 12296 | 12301 | 12313 | 12318 | 12336 | 12340 | 12355 | 12346 | 12345 | 12358 | 12354 | 12360 | |||
2016 | 12384 | 12367 | 12348 | 12357 | 12371 | 12347 | 12337 | 12339 | 12351 | ||||||
2017 | 12369 | 12390 | 12400 | 12410 | 12414 | 12428 | 12424 | 12463 | 12469 | 12489 | 12519 | 12540 : * preliminary |
|||
12555 : * preliminary |
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics Generated on: February 10, 2018 (01:46:12 AM)
Sheet1
Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the Current Employment Statistics survey (National) |
Series Id: CES3000000001 |
Seasonally Adjusted |
Series Title: All employees, thousands, manufacturing, seasonally adjusted |
Super Sector: Manufacturing |
Industry: Manufacturing |
NAICS Code: – |
Data Type: ALL EMPLOYEES, THOUSANDS |
Robert Downey Junior is Hollywood’s highest-
paid actor
Calnan, Marianne . Employee Benefits ; London (Aug 7, 2015).
ProQuest document link
FULL TEXT
Something for the weekend…
Robert Downey Junior has been named Hollywood’s highest-paid actor by Forbes magazine, with average earnings
of Pounds 51.2 ($80) million per film.
Also topping the list are Jackie Chan, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper and Adam Sandler.
The top 15 highest-paid actors are:
1. Robert Downey Junior (pictured): Pounds 51.2 million.
2. Jackie Chan: Pounds 32 million.
3. Vin Diesel: Pounds 30 million.
4. Bradley Cooper: Pounds 26.5 million.
5. Adam Sandler: Pounds 26.2 million.
6. Tom Cruise: Pounds 25.6 million.
7-joint. Amitabh Bachchan and Salman Khan: Pounds 21.4 million.
9. Akshay Kumar: Pounds 20.8 million.
10. Mark Wahlberg: Pounds 20.5 million.
11. Dwayne Johnson (‘The Rock’): Pounds 20.1 million.
12. Johnny Depp: Pounds 19.2 million.
13-joint. Leonardo Di Caprio and Channing Tatum: Pounds 18.5 million.
15-joint. Daniel Craig and Chris Hemsworth: Pounds 17.3 million.
At Employee Benefits, we are wondering if employers will follow suit and introduce salaries in line with those of
Hollywood and Bollywood’s biggest stars, even if we do lack their acting ability…
Credit: Marianne Calnan
DETAILS
Publication title: Employee Benefits; London
Publication year: 2015
Publication date: Aug 7, 2015
Section: News
Publisher: Centaur Communications Ltd.
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Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics–Personnel Management
ISSN: 13668722
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1747604844
Document URL: https://search.proquest.com/docview/1747604844?accountid=35812
Copyright: Copyright 2015 Centaur Media Plc. and licensors
Last updated: 2015-12-11
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- Robert Downey Junior is Hollywood’s highest-paid actor
Pfeiffer, Sacha; Healy, Beth . Boston Globe ; Boston, Mass. [Boston, Mass]08 May 2015: C.3.
ProQuest document link
ABSTRACT
The Massachusetts state pension fund has 9 percent of its $61 billion in hedge funds, even as the nation’s largest
public pension fund, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, last year said it would exit the sector
entirely.
FULL TEXT
In the hedge fund world, even a mediocre year can be a very lucrative one.
Last year, the world’s top 25 hedge fund managers earned roughly half their 2013 income and the smallest amount
since the 2008 financial crisis. But that still translated into astronomical paychecks: their collective income was
$11.6 billion.
Consider the estimated 2014 paycheck for Jonathon S. Jacobson, founder of Boston-based Highfields Capital
Management. The former Harvard University endowment manager accustomed to rock star status in his field
made $50 million, according to an annual list published this week by Institutional Investor’s Alpha, a trade
publication.
Jacobson’s compensation may seem spectacular, but it amounted to just one-tenth of the $500 million he is
estimated to have made the previous year. And Highfields, which manages $12.5 billion, produced a percentage
return only in the low-single-digits.
Among the top 25 hedge fund managers, the average pay was $467 million last year, down from $846 million in
2013, according to Institutional Investor’s calculations. Three earned more than $1 billion last year. Jacobson just
barely made the top 50, coming in last on the list.
The only other Massachusetts investor on the roster was Seth Klarman, chief executive of Baupost Group, one of
Boston’s largest hedge fund firms, with $28.5 billion under management. Klarman ranked number 26, with
estimated pay of $170 million last year.
Klarman is considered a value investor who looks for bargains and unusual investments. As energy investments
tanked last year, for instance, Baupost started looking for deals, according to a Bloomberg News
report.
The firm delivered returns of 7 to 8 percent last year, according to a person briefed on the results.
That may sound modest to ordinary investors, who typically gauge their returns against the Standard &Poor’s 500
index of large stocks, which rose 13.7 percent last year. But that’s not the only measuring stick many hedge fund
clients use.
Industrywide, the average hedge fund return last year was 2.9 percent, according to the Barclay Hedge Fund Index,
which gathers data from thousands of firms. Within that universe hedge fund managers produce varying results
with many approaches, from betting that stocks will rise or fall to investing in bonds, commodities, market sectors,
and numerous other styles. Many of those funds struggle in periods when stocks are rising sharply.
“The equity market has been having quite a nice run. Almost anything that diversifies away from that will be lower
[in returns] by definition,” said Robert J. Waid, a managing director at Wilshire Associates Inc., a Santa Monica,
Calif., investment consulting firm.
Historically, many hedge fund managers have become famous, and wealthy, with aggressive strategies that
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produced big returns. Investors have been willing to pay their large fees — typically, 2 percent of assets plus 20
percent of profits — in the search for substantial gains.
But many institutional investors, like pension funds and endowments, allocate a portion of their money to hedge
funds for an entirely different reason: to protect them when the market falls.
The Massachusetts state pension fund has 9 percent of its $61 billion in hedge funds, even as the nation’s largest
public pension fund, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, last year said it would exit the sector
entirely.
Michael Trotsky, executive director of the Massachusetts fund and a former hedge fund executive himself, said he
looks for hedge fund returns to come out somewhere between those of bonds and stocks. More than anything, he
wants them to be less risky than stocks.
“Hedge funds are not as volatile as stocks — or as the S&P 500 — nor should they have the same returns,” Trotsky
said.
He said there are some “great hedge funds” that don’t go up and down in ways tracking stock market performance.
“We’re willing to pay for that,” Trotsky said.
The Institutional Investor’s rankings, now in their 14th year, are estimates based on such factors as the hedge
funds’ rate of return and the fees they charge investors. Neither Klarman nor Jacobson would comment on the
report.
Despite last year’s relatively low return numbers, investors are still putting money in hedge funds because they
think they’ll outperform other investors over time, according to Institutional Investor’s editor, Michael Peltz.
“They’re looking at net returns after fees,” Peltz said. “And more often than not, these top managers over time have
net returns better than the overall market.”
Sacha Pfeiffer can be reached at pfeiffer@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter at @SachaPfeiffer.
Credit: By Sacha Pfeiffer and Beth Healy Globe Staff
Illustration
Caption: Michael Trotsky (right), head of the Massachusetts pension fund, said he looks for hedge fund returns to
come out somewhere between stocks and bonds. Aram Boghosian for the Boston Globe/File 2010
DETAILS
Subject: Hedge funds; Investment advisors; Pension funds; Institutional investments; Stock
exchanges
Location: Massachusetts
Publication title: Boston Globe; Boston, Mass.
Pages: C.3
Publication year: 2015
Publication date: May 8, 2015
Section: Business
Database copyright 2018 ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved.
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Publisher: Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC
Place of publication: Boston, Mass.
Country of publication: United States, Boston, Mass.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals–United States
ISSN: 07431791
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1679357720
Document URL: https://search.proquest.com/docview/1679357720?accountid=35812
Copyright: (c) The Boston Globe May 08, 2015
Last updated: 2017-11-22
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- In tough year, hedge fund leaders still paid well