U.S.News & World Report Tumblelog

Does logging onto social media sites make you more productive?

The study of 20,000 hourly workers finds “employees who actively used one or two social networking sites on a weekly basis, stay an average of nine days longer than those who don’t use social networks at all,” says Evolv. “Another indicator of attrition is familiarity with other employees at the company. The study shows that employees who know three or more people working at the company are more likely to stay than those who know none.”

Are the underachievers the happiest at their jobs?

A new study finds that, in 42% of companies, low performers actually report being more engaged – more motivated and more likely to enjoy working at their organization, for example – than middle and high performers do. The findings suggest many organizations are not holding employees accountable for their work, allowing the worst workers to skate by, says Mark Murphy, CEO of Leadership IQ, the Atlanta-based consulting firm that conducted the survey. “Low performers often end up with the easiest jobs because managers don’t ask much of them,” he said, so they’re under less stress and they’re more satisfied with their daily work lives.

Dare we call it a real recovery?

Why the October Jobs Report Is Even Better Than It Looks

Although every jobs report is subject to revisions, we’re getting a clear picture of a strengthening recovery beyond today’s headline. The margin of error for each jobs-added figure is 100,000 jobs. The BLS’s initial estimate for August was 96,000. Then it was revised to 142,000. Now it stands at 192,000. So, should we ignore today’s news? Not so fast. 170,000 isn’t just October’s first estimate. It’s also our new three-month average. And it’s considerably better than the year’s average. Things are getting better faster. Where is this new-look recovery coming from? It’s coming from the beginning of a real housing recovery and the end of government austerity. In 2010 and 2011, the economy lost 477,000 public sector jobs. This year, we’ve added 20,000. That’s made a huge difference.

Today’s report came with a side of crow for all of us Chicken Littles, because it showed, nearly unmistakably, that we’re in a slow, steady recovery — one that could and should be faster and less mistakable, but one with solid positive trajectory nonetheless. Mitt Romney’s campaign is saying that the report showed an economy at “a virtual standstill,” but they have to say that. In fact, nothing about today’s report says “stalled” except the headline unemployment rate, which is not as meaningful as what’s going on under the hood.

Examining the “squishy” math behind Romney’s jobs plan

Romney’s jobs plan revealed to be flim-flam

We asked the Romney campaign and the answer turns out to be: totally different studies … with completely different timelines. For instance, the claim that 7 million jobs would be created from Romney tax plan is a ten-year number, derived from a study written by John W. Diamond, a professor at Rice University. This study at least assesses the claimed effect of specific Romney policies. The rest of the numbers are even more squishy. For instance, the 3-million-job claim for Romney’s energy policies appears largely based on a Citigroup Global Markets study that did not even evaluate Romney’s policies. Instead, the report predicted 2.7 million to 3.6 million jobs would be created over the next eight years, largely because of trends and policies already adopted — including tougher fuel efficiency standards that Romney has criticized and suggested he would reverse.

Has 2012 become the “shoot the messenger” election?

The Unskewed Election

More of the 2012 cycle’s descents into fantasyland — the unskewing of polls and BLS paranoia most obvious among them — have featured Republicans than Democrats, prompting some on the left to argue that American conservatives have a particular hostility to reality. And certainly, the conservative movement has long nourished more skepticism of the mainstream media and of some forms of government authority than has the left. But there’s probably a simpler explanation for at least some of this: Mitt Romney has spent most of the year losing, and so the Republicans are the ones feeling compelled to re-imagine the polls. That Democrats share, at least, the impulse became clear Wednesday night when a CNN snap poll showed Romney winning overwhelmingly. The liberal twittersphere erupted with skepticism over a sample that, an easy misread suggested, was tilted toward Southern Whites. The progressive news site TalkingPointsMemo shared, then retracted, those doubts; others, like the enduring liberal blog Hullaballoo, which declared the poll “malpractice,” didn’t correct, and the episode prompted a wave of glee among conservatives who had watched the previous round of unskewing with some embarrassment.