Louisville’s creative crowd to talk start-ups at Forge event tonight Louisville entrepreneurs are getting together tonight over Falls City beer to talk about how to strengthen the local start-up community. It’s the second event of the year for Forge, a local group that has been around since 2007 but had fizzled for a while before being revived last year. (Get all the details here). The group is led by Adam Fish, a University of Louisville MBA grad who is working on a start-up tech company called Roobiq. Fish said Forge is open not just to the tech crowd, but also to artists and “anyone who is going after scalable innovations.” Tonight’s speaker is Mike Bott, general manager of The Brandery in Cincinnati — an “accelerator” ... Continue reading →
Kentucky economist: Baby boomers leaving the job market The number of people in Kentucky’s labor force fell last month. Economists usually assume that’s because people get discouraged and temporarily give up looking for work until the job market improves. But something slightly different is going on in Kentucky and nationally, according to Manoj Shanker, an economist with the state Office of Employment & Training. In a press release today about Kentucky’s unemployment rate falling to 8.3 percent, Shanker said: “Demographic evidence shows that the number of Baby Boomers retiring is higher than the number of young workers entering the labor force. The diminished inflow of net new workers lowers the labor force.” In a follow-up interview, Shanker said it’s not that all Baby Boomers are ... Continue reading →
Big job fair Thursday at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium in Louisville About 50 employers and colleges will participate in a job fair Thursday at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium. (Find all the information here). The event is free and open to the public. It’s sponsored by JobNewsLouisville.com and Time Warner/Insight. According to a press release: “Opportunities range from entry-level to management and are in a wide variety of industries, including manufacturing, IT, sales, marketing, retail, hospitality, collections, financial planning, engineering, transportation, management, education, warehouse and more.” Here is the list of employers, including several temporary staffing agencies, and colleges: Adecco Staffing Advantage Staffing Aflac Airgas USA, LLC ALSAC/St. Jude America’s Windows Banker’s Life & Casualty Brown Mackie College Burger King Campbellsville University Daymar College DeVry University ... Continue reading →
Louisville home sales | Realtors say multiple offers bolstering prices Are bidding wars for homes becoming common again in Louisville? In their monthly report, Louisville Realtors cite “an increase in multiple offers for properties” as one factor helping to bolster prices, which are running 4 percent higher in 2012 versus the same period in 2011. But this month the association did not include — as it typically does — a measure of how long it would take to sell off all the homes listed for sale. If that figure is above six months, it indicates the market is tilted toward buyers. If it’s below six months, that means there are fewer properties for buyers to choose from, giving sellers the upper hand. Lately, inventory has ... Continue reading →
Pew report: It’s harder to climb the economic ladder in Kentucky A new study by the Pew Charitable Trusts lists Kentucky as one of nine states where economic mobility is worse than the national average. “Economic mobility” measures of how an individual moves up or down the income ladder over time (see video above from Pew). It’s important, conceivably, to everyone. Are our wages keeping pace with the cost of living? Are we better off than we used to be? Mobility concerns have been even more relevant lately as the growing gap between the affluent and the poor has become a prominent issue. The Pew study measured both absolute mobility (average earnings growth over time) as well as relative mobility (people’s rank on the ladder ... Continue reading →
Documents | Paul Coomes’ recent presentation on downtown Louisville University of Louisville economist Paul Coomes has graciously shared the slides from his presentation earlier this week updating the state of downtown Louisville (Read the CJ coverage). Coomes’ presentation highlights strong downtown investment in recent years and a good concentration of employment downtown compared to peer cities. But it also shows how Louisville lags in downtown retail and housing, especially owner-occupied units. About Chris Otts Chris Otts covers business topics for The Courier-Journal. Get your local newspaper delivered daily or weekends to your door. Click here for subscription information and special deals. Continue reading →
University of Louisville trustees are set to vote Thursday on tuition increases of 6 percent for undergraduate students beginning in the fall semester.The increases � along with the enrollment of 100 additional freshmen this fall � are expected to bring in an additional $24.8 million to offset a $14.6 million decrease in state funding, according to documents presented to the trustees.Under the university�s proposal, tuition will rise by 6 percent for undergraduate and graduate students, regardless of their state residency status; by 7 percent for in-state law, dentistry and medical students; by 6 percent for out-of-state law students; by 3.2 percent for out-of-state dentistry students and by 4.5 percent for out-of-state medical students.The increase would bring in-state undergraduate tuition to $4,733 per semester, or $9,466 ... Continue reading →
Forecast: Louisville home prices to fall 1.5 percent in 2012 file photo by CJ's Kylene Lloyd House prices in the Louisville-Southern Indiana metro area fell 1.1 percent in 2011 and will fall another 1.5 percent by the end of 2012, according to the latest projections from the Fiserv Case-Schiller Indexes. David Stiff, Fiserv’s chief economist, said the elevated number of homes on the market in Louisville will keep prices down, even as the area’s the job market has expanded a decent clip in the last few months. Stiff cited Greater Louisville Association of Realtors’ figures showing that there were 8.3 months of supply (or homes for sale) at the end of March. While that number has been coming down, it is still high. A normal ... Continue reading →
