Over the last week and a half, many area restaurants have taken advantage of the hundreds of thousands who attended the Taste Of Buffalo and the Sorrento Cheese Buffalo Italian Heritage Festival, and the tens of thousands who traveled to both.
Setting up shop at the festivals typically leads to profits on the days where it's not pouring rain (a problem both festivals dealt with during this unsettled summer.) But the real rewards come after the fact, when customers who have tried a restaurant at a festival follow up and eat there, or have an event catered. Many lesser-known restaurants try to raise their profile, and even some chain restaurants attempt to attract to new customers.
Do you eat at restaurants that you first found out about at an area festival? When you go to Taste or Italian Festival, do you look for food at restaurants you know, or seek out new options?
A look at the latest unemployment statistics from the New York Labor Department, showing record high numbers for the state and the Buffalo-Niagara region, discloses at least one dog that didn't bark. It's in the article Jobless rate rises to 8.9% in June from this morning's Buffalo News Business Today section. A glimmer of hope could be found in the numbers released Thursday, however, as normal seasonal increases in the construction and service sectors, though smaller than normal, appeared on schedule, and jobless levels here still are below the national average. The state's pretty detailed press release is here. With links to variousdetails broken down by region, county and metro area. From the Things Are Tough All Over Dept., news reports on unemployment stats from: - The New York Times: Throughout the recession, New York City has appeared to be holding up better than the rest of the country. But by one important measure — the official unemployment rate — that is no longer true. - The Boston Globe: Massachusetts employers cut more than 2,000 jobs last month as the state unemployment rate jumped to its highest level in nearly 17 years, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported yesterday. -The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The state Department of Labor reported Wednesday that the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate jumped half a percentage point to 10.1 percent in June, the highest rate ever recorded. The rate had been 9.6 percent in May. -The Lawrence Journal-World: Kansas jobless rate pressures state aid - The Arizona Republic: Arizona's unemployment rate jumped half a percentage point to 8.7 percent in June, but a surprising rise in construction jobs offered hope that the sector slammed the hardest during the recession could be improving. - The Lexington Herald-Leader: Kentucky's unemployment rate jumped again in June, reaching a high not seen in nearly 26 years. - The Chicago Sun-Times: The unemployment rate in Illinois climbed to 10.3 percent in June, up from 10.1 percent in May, but the pace of job loss slowed for the third straight month, the Illinois Department of Employment Security said today. - The Seattle Times: Washington lost an additional 10,500 nonfarm jobs in June, and the state's unemployment rate rose to 9.3 percent, the Employment Security Department said today. - The Greenville News: South Carolina’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 12.1 percent for June, an indicator one state official said this morning of a possible bottom in the state’s jobless numbers. - The Star-Tribune:Minnesota's unemployment rate rose to 8.4 percent in June, state officials said Thursday, as employers slashed 16,700 jobs during the month -- wiping out the last of the jobs the state gained since the 2001 recession. Etc. Etc. Etc. Hit it, Tom. -- George Pyle/The Buffalo News
Judging by the heavy turnout at Wednesday's conference on wind power manufacturing, hosted by Buffalo Niagara Enterprise, there's a lot of interest from the business community in tapping into that sector. Experts at the meeting said Buffalo Niagara has a lot of the resources that would be a good fit wind power-related manufacturing, but they note other parts of the country are competing for the same investments.
What do you think of the region's potential for attracting wind-power related production? Do you see it as a worthwhile area to focus on?
More interesting stuff from The Buffalo News Business Today section:
- A hot month for home sales in June According to the latest figures from the Buffalo Niagara Association of Realtors, 1,169 homes sold last month, up 1 percent from 1,152 in June 2008. That’s the highest closed sales level for June in more than 15 years, and the highest monthly tally since August 2007.
- Riding the wind to new jobs Patrick J. Timon, an official with GE Drivetrain Technologies in Erie, Pa., said domestic suppliers are well suited to serve the wind turbine market in North America, even though a number of the manufacturers come from overseas.
- Selling kids on cybersecurity The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects two of the top five jobs by 2016 will call for such tech-related skills. Yet nationwide, computer science enrollments are down by half since 2000, according to the Computing Research Association. Oh, and something from UB prof David Murray about al-Qaida training manuals being hidden in a photograph?
My contribution to today's Business Today section: - Health insurance vanishing for families When it comes to losing their family health insurance coverage, New Yorkers haven’t had it as bad as those in some other large states. But the authors of a new study believe it’s only going to get worse for everyone if Congress doesn’t act soon.
Clearly, whoever it was who thought up the Independent Health Association's ad campaign -- You Deserve the RedShirt Treatment -- was not a Trekkie. Anyone who is would not be surprised by the lead story in today's Buffalo News Business Today section. - Independent Health cuts 50 jobs Independent Health Association said Tuesday that it is laying off 50 employees, outsourcing some technology and telecommunications jobs, and selling the majority of its third-party administration business to a local industry veteran. In Star Trek lore, most of the characters who wear red shirts are dead before the first commercial. Wikipedia's got a whole page about it and it's a huge joke among even the most casual fans. Often, those wearing red Star Fleet uniforms are the stories' cannon fodder, previously unknown characters, usually security officers, who get blown up, sucked dry or otherwise pulverized so as to demonstrate that the major characters, most of them wearing gold and blue shirts, are in grave danger. It's a tradition that is even carried into the latest Star Trek movie -- in a way all the fans saw coming a parsec away. Engineer Scott and Communications Officer Uhura were the notable exceptions. But they, like a lot of the other redshirts, are in "technology and telecommunications jobs," the ones Independent Health is zapping. Star Fleet outsourcing?
From the Business Today section of today's Buffalo News:
- Allstate study ranks Buffalo as less safe for accidents Drivers in Buffalo are more likely to experience an accident than in other cities of upstate New York or other parts of the country on average, though not as much so as in New York City or Yonkers, according to a new study by insurer Allstate Corp. The company's press release is here. The list of stats [opens a pdf] is here. Reporters and headline writers around the country had some fun with this story. I couldn't find more than a Web blurb in the Washington or Baltimore papers, even though those cities ranked the worst. But Philly writers weren't shy: - The Philadelphia Daily News: We're No. 1, yo. Unfortunately, not just in baseball. Philadelphia is also home to the worst drivers among the country's top 10 cities, according to the 2009 "Allstate America's Best Drivers Report." And we ranked 6th overall among 200 U.S. cities, if you're apt to call Sioux Falls, S.D., a "city." - The Philadelphia Inquirer: Everyone who buys auto insurance in Philadelphia knows it. So does everybody frightened by the Schuylkill Expressway's merge-or-die ramps, Lincoln Drive's snakelike twists, or Roosevelt Boulevard's multilane madness. Philadelphia is a risky place to drive. - The Las Vegas Sun: If you’ve ever thought Las Vegas drivers are worse than their counterparts in many other parts of the country, you were right. - Los Angeles Times: Surprise: Los Angeles does not rank as safest in driving report. - The Colorado Springs Gazette: Springs drivers ranked among nation's safest. Really. - A little sibling rivalry from The Lincoln (Neb.) Journal-Star: Lincoln moves up, tops Omaha in best drivers study. - And, from the city that finished first, with no snark at the losers, even in Philly, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.
If you are reading this at work, then you work for one of the employers that sees the value of allowing their workers to have full access to the Internet. Or it doesn't have the resources to stop you. In today's Business Today section, the story Young workers pushing bosses for more Web access explains the situation. Ryan Tracy thought he’d entered the Dark Ages when he graduated college and arrived in the working world. His employer blocked access to Facebook, Gmail and other popular Internet sites. He had no wireless access for his laptop and often ran to a nearby cafe on work time so he could use its Wi- Fi connection to send large files. Sure, the barriers did what his employer intended: They stopped him and his colleagues from using work time to goof around online. But Tracy says the rules also got in the way of legitimate work he needed to do as a scientific analyst for a health care services company.
Related article reminds us how employers may be monitoring your at-work Internet and e-mail use, even cell phone use if you have a company phone.
The Business Today section of today's Buffalo News leads off with a story about how two of the nation's biggest banks are making an end run around the new law governing credit card charges by introducing variable rates on more of their cards. -Some credit card issuers say goodbye to fixed rates Two of the biggest issuers in the nation — Bank of America and Chase — say they’re switching some fixed rate cards to variable rates to manage costs in light of the sweeping new reforms to the credit card industry. The interest on variable-rate cards is tied to the rise and fall of the prime rate. The banks' Web sites already have some disclosure information posted including the variable rates and how they are figured. Chase is here. BoA is here. More from LA Times finance columnist David Lazarus. Frightening related story from The Concord (Vt.) Monitor about how credit card companies are, well, monitoring your purchases. If they see transactions that they think indicate you are having financial trouble -- charging groceries or medical bills, shopping at pawn shops or second hand stores -- they can lower your limit and raise your interest rate. [What about those ads that encourage you to charge everything to earn points or cash back?]
General Motors has completed its trip through bankruptcy far faster than experts expected. Did its bankruptcy status deter you from buying a GM vehicle? What do you think its prospects are now as a new company with fewer brands?
