Looking for a Job in CT? Start in Fairfield County, Analysis Shows

If you are looking for a job in Connecticut, Fairfield County would be a solid place to begin the search, according to a new data analysis released by the Zippia career information website. In ranking Connecticut municipalities with the best job opportunities, communities in Fairfield County earned six of the top 10 slots, with Weston ranked in first place and Wilton and Fairfield following in second and third places.

Stamford, Norwalk and Shelton came in sixth, eighth and 10th places, respectively.  The only communities outside of Fairfield County to reach the top ten were Oxford at #4, Madison at #5, Avon at #7, and Woodbury at #9.

The survey limited its site selection to locations with populations of 5,000 and higher, and the results seemed to favor smaller towns and cities, with Stamford as the only top 10 listing with a six-digit population.   Danbury was 28^th, Middletown placed 31^st, and Bridgeport was 34^th on the list.

The other larger Connecticut cities ranked toward the bottom of the scale, with Bridgeport in 34th place (the lowest ranking for a Fairfield County location), Hartford in 44th and Waterbury in 45th. (New Haven was not included, although Zippia did not indicate the reason.)

The second ten communities among the best places for jobs were Monroe, Branford, Mansfield, Seymour, Ellington, Hamden, Farmington, Wallingford, Canton and Derby.

Zippia first researched detailed data “on all places in Connecticut. However, in order to properly compare places in an apples-to-apples manner, we set a minimum population threshold of 5,000 people.”  That left 46 places in Connecticut to analyze.

Each community was then rated across a number of criteria, including unemployment rate, recent job growth, future job growth and median household income.  Sources used include the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Sperling’s Best Places, according to Zippia.

Financial Cost to Connecticut Smokers Among Highest in the Nation

The financial cost of smoking in Connecticut is higher than just about anywhere in the United States.  The total cost over a lifetime per smoker is $2,183,204, the third highest in the nation, and the annual cost per year per smoker of $42,808, is also third highest in the nation, just behind New York and Massachusetts. The lifetime health care cost per smoker, $274,272 in Connecticut, is higher than every state but one, (Massachusetts), and the out-of-pocket cost per smoking individual of $170,513 for smokers living in Connecticut is third highest in the nation.

The data was compiled by the financial website WalletHub, where analysts calculated the potential monetary losses — including the cumulative cost of a cigarette pack per day over several decades, health-care expenditures, income losses and other costs — brought on by smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke. 

Emphasizing that “the negative physical and financial effects of smoking can be significant,” WalletHub noted that Connecticut’s rankings placed it as among the most costly in every category.

Over a lifetime, the financial opportunity cost for smokers living in Connecticut was $1.436,335 and the income loss per smoker was calculated at $286,950.  Other costs per smoker, such as not being able to qualify for homeowner’s insurance discounts for non-smokers, were $15,133.  In each instance, the costs in Connecticut were among the three highest among the 50 states and District of Columbia.

Annual income loss for Connecticut smokers is calculated at $5,626.  Only Maryland, Alaska, New Jersey and D.C. were higher, according to the analysis. Attributable factors included absenteeism, workplace bias or lower productivity due to smoking-induced health problems.  The website also noted that according to a recent study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, smokers earn 20 percent less than nonsmokers, 8 percent of which is attributed to smoking and 12 percent to other factors.

For the calculations, WalletHub assumed an adult who smokes one pack of cigarettes per day beginning at age 18, when a person can legally purchase tobacco products in the U.S., and a lifespan thereafter of 51 years, taking into account that 69 is the average age at which a smoker dies. Data used in developing the ranking were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Insurance Information Institute, NYsmokefree.com, Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), Kaiser Family Foundation and the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America.

In 2016, the American Lung Association gave Connecticut an “F” grade in its spending of tobacco prevention and control funds.  The ALA points out that 40 states and Washington D.C. spend less than half of what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends on their state tobacco prevention programs.  Overall, states spend less than two cents of every dollar they get from tobacco settlement payments and tobacco taxes to fight tobacco use.  Each day, more than 2,600 kids under 18 try their first cigarette and about 600 kids become new, regular smokers, according to nationwide data from ALA.

A report on Connecticut's spending on tobacco prevention just over a year ago found that the state was being outspent over 67 times by tobacco companies' marketing efforts - due in large part to the state spending only a small portion of tobacco settlement funds on anti-smoking efforts.

The report, “Broken Promises to our Children: A State-by-State Look at the 1998 State Tobacco Settlement 17 Years Later," said the state was spending $1.2 million in FY 2016 to fight tobacco use. That's compared to an estimated marketing investment of $80.4 million by tobacco companies in Connecticut that year. The national average shows a margin of 20.1 to 1.  At that time, Connecticut ranked 38th in spending on a percentage basis.  The state has consistently spend less than the CDC has recommended.

The annual report was developed by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK), a coalition that includes the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the American Lung Association, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights, and the Truth Initiative.

A year later, the next report ranked Connecticut last, as Connecticut’s projected spending on smoke cessation and tobacco prevention efforts for FY 2017 dropped to zero.  The report found that 13.5 percent of adult state residents are smokers, and 10.3 percent of high school students smoke.  Just under 5,000 deaths each year are caused by smoking in Connecticut, and 27 percent of cancer deaths are attributable to smoking.  Connecticut’s cigarette excise tax, $3.90 per pack, is the second highest in the nation. It was estimated that the state would collect $519.7 million in revenue this year from the 1998 state tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, but will spend none of it on tobacco prevention programs.

Was Holocaust News in Connecticut As It Happened? Historians Seek to Find Out

What could Americans have known – in Connecticut and across the country - about the Nazi threat from reading their local newspapers in the 1930s and 1940s? The Connecticut League of History Organizations (CLHO) is looking for some research help to find out. CLHO is participating in History Unfolded, a project of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. It asks students, teachers, and history buffs throughout the United States what was possible for Americans to have known about the Holocaust as it was happening and how Americans responded. “

Participants look in local newspapers for news and opinion about 31 different Holocaust-era events that took place in the United States and Europe, and submit articles they find to a national database, as well as information about newspapers that did not cover events. History Unfolded raises questions for scholars and will inform the Museum’s initiative on Americans and the Holocaust.

CLHO and Connecticuthistory.org are teaming up to introduce this project to Connecticut. On January 26, 2017, (the day before the United Nations Holocaust Remembrance Day) “citizen historians like you can register to join ‘Team Connecticut’ as we explore Holocaust history.”  Research volunteers will learn how to use primary sources in historical research, and challenge assumptions about American knowledge of, and responses to, the Holocaust.

Officials stress that no experience is needed to participate. Individuals may get involved on their own using online newspaper archives, at local libraries or participating museums, or in groups working as members of a research team.

Data from History Unfolded: U.S. Newspapers and the Holocaust will be used for two main purposes: to inform the upcoming exhibition on Americans and the Holocaust at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and to enhance scholarly research about the American press and the Holocaust. Information captured in the general database will be available as a research source for generations to come.

As of January 9, 2017, 920 participants from across the country had submitted more than 6,300 articles from their local newspapers. The articles were published in newspapers located in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and represent news articles, editorials, letters to the editor, political cartoons, and advertisements. Individuals are urged to check with their local museum, historical society, or library to see if they will be hosting a research group. A classroom or school, a temple or church, a museum or library, or other community organizations can participate. Individuals can also participate.  Organizations can email Liz Shapiro at liz@clho.org or Gregg Mangan, at gmangan@cthumanities.org for additional information.  For more about the national project, visit the project at https://newspapers.ushmm.org/

Median Income for Students Who Attended College in CT Exceeds National Average

Median student earnings among those who attended college in Connecticut and received federal financial aid is between $27,500 and $74,200 ten years after enrollment, with most institutions students’ well above the national average, according to data included in the U.S. Department of Education’s (USDOE) College Scorecard. The earnings data is compiled 10 years after the students enrolled, as part of the College Scorecard that appears on the USDOE website. CT by the Numbers reviewed the data for schools that offer a four-year bachelor’s degree, a view that includes nearly two dozen colleges located in Connecticut.

Nationally, the median earnings for students is $33,400.

Connecticut’s top ten:  Yale University ($74,200); Fairfield University ($68,500); St. Vincent’s College ($61,800); Quinnipiac University ($57,700); Trinity College ($54,700); University of Connecticut ($54,000); Sacred Heart University ($53,900); Albertus Magnus ($52,100); Connecticut College ($51,700); and University of Saint Joseph ($49,500).

The next ten include Wesleyan University ($48,400), University of New Haven ($48,300); University of Hartford ($46,100); Central Connecticut State University ($44,300); Eastern Connecticut State University ($43,400); Western Connecticut State University ($43,400); University of Bridgeport ($42,700); Southern Connecticut State University ($40,700); Charter Oak State College ($39,200) and Post University ($38,600).  Also included in the College Scorecard among bachelor’s degree granting institutions are Lincoln College of New England ($31,800); Mitchell College ($30,400); and Goodwin College ($27,500).

According to the university’s website, 51 percent of Yale students receive need-based financial aid from the University. At Fairfield University, 46 percent of full-time undergraduates receive some kind of need-based financial aid, at Quinnipiac University it is 61 percent, according to U.S. News. Approximately 40 percent of Trinity College students receive need-based financial assistance from the institution; more than 80 percent of UConn students receive some form of financial assistance, with 33 percent of UConn's fall incoming freshmen class receiving a merit-based scholarship, the university website points out.

The College Scorecard, recently updated by the federal agency, is designed “to ensure that students and families have the most up-to-date, comprehensive, and reliable information available on colleges, all in an easy-to-understand format.” The website allows visitors to sort and filter search results to compare schools to assist students in deciding “which college makes the most sense when considering the typical costs, average student loan amount, students’ ability to repay their loans, and their future earnings,” the website materials explain.

The site notes that “experts say that by 2020, two-thirds of all jobs will require a postsecondary education; and college graduates are likely to earn a lot more and experience lower unemployment than those with only a high school diploma.”

PERSPECTIVE: Connecticut Must Act to End Traffic-Related Deaths and Injuries

by Adina Gianelli We have a problem in the state of Connecticut, a problem as stunning as it is abhorrent, as urgent as it is fixable. That problem is one of road safety.

According to the Connecticut Crash Data Repository, an estimated 311 car crash-related fatalities occurred throughout our state in 2016, a four year high. These crashes disproportionately affect people who are walking or biking. This is cause for alarm and a call to action.

Some may think: “I don’t ride a bike, and I don’t really walk anywhere, either. Why should this matter to me?”

Streets are the most fundamental of public spaces. And whether you think of yourself as a pedestrian or cyclist, we all require safe access to our streets.

Complete streets benefit cyclists and walkers, a broad and diverse category that includes, among many others, children who bike to school and seniors who walk for exercise, commuter cyclists and those who travel via public transportation, triathletes and people with mobility limitations (and triathletes with mobility limitations). It benefits people when they get out of the car, as motorists inevitably do. And yes, complete streets benefit drivers, as well. When it comes to street safety, policies that improve conditions for walkers and cyclists benefit us all.

Humans are not invincible. We remain especially vulnerable to the dangers of cars, as the 311 vehicular crash-related deaths in Connecticut in 2016 reveal. But even one death to a cause wholly preventable is one too many. This is why Vision Zero, which strives to end all traffic-related death and injury, is so important, and has been implemented in NYC and a growing number of cities nationwide.

I wish I could devote this piece to highlighting the joys and pleasures of biking, which confers myriad benefits to well-being and community health. I’d love to tell you about the advantages of walking, which Dr. Thomas Frieden, Director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), describes as “the closest thing we have to a wonder drug”.

In a perfect world, I wouldn’t have to tell you that there were 32,166 fatal motor vehicle crashes in the United States in 2015, resulting in 35,092 deaths. I wish I didn’t feel compelled to tell you that traffic fatalities represent the leading cause of death for teenagers nationwide, or that 4500 people are killed crossing the street in the United States each year, a disproportionate number of whom are children, seniors, and people of color. But as a matter of conscience, it is imperative to share this data. These statistics are harrowing and reveal necessary truths about the critical need for action on the part of the Connecticut General Assembly.

How might we move forward to improve road safety for all of Connecticut, and our most vulnerable users in particular? The problem is massive, but the solutions are all but laid out before us. We simply need to implement them.

Complete streets—and the resource allocation necessary to implement this infrastructure—are essential. Education represents another cornerstone, and a critical component of lasting cultural change. By adopting and implementing a statewide, evidence-based cycling education program—such as the one developed by Bike Walk Connecticut—in our public schools, we can keep our children healthy and safe.

Connecticut must strengthen its crosswalk legislation to align with best practices for public health and safety. As a state, we would be well served to revisit our vulnerable user laws, increasing penalties for motorists who injure or kill walkers or cyclists. Ours is one of only 10 states that doesn’t require motorists to refrain from opening a vehicle door until conditions are safe; this, too, must change. Boston, Massachusetts recently implemented a 25 MPH default speed limit; there is no reason that Hartford—and other Connecticut municipalities—shouldn’t do the same. Adopting Vision Zero is an imperative. The work has never been more urgent, and the need has never been more clear.

Arudhati Roy once wrote that “[a] new world is not only possible, but she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” On a quiet day, I can see her biking and walking, safe on beautiful and complete streets.

____________________________________

Adina Gianelli is Executive Director of Bike Walk Connecticut, a member-supported non-profit organization changing the culture of transportation through advocacy and education to make bicycling and walking safe, feasible, and attractive for a healthier, cleaner Connecticut.

State’s First Law Incubators Set to Launch in Hartford, Bridgeport

Connecticut’s first law incubators are due to open early this year at the Center for Family Justice, a Bridgeport-based nonprofit, and at UConn School of Law,  being established to provide affordable legal services to people who need them and help lawyers establish solo practices. The Connecticut Community Law Center, an initiative of the law school and the Hartford County Bar Association, aims to help people who have traditionally been underserved by the justice system: low- and moderate-income clients who don’t qualify for legal aid but can’t afford standard legal fees, the UConn School of Law announced this month.

“Too many people face legal problems concerning essential human needs without proper representation because they fall into the growing access-to-justice gap, between the very poor who qualify for legal aid and those with the financial means to pay a private lawyer,” said attorney Mark Schreier, who was appointed director of the Connecticut Community Law Center. “Standing alone and without professional guidance, those individuals enter our justice system at a tremendous disadvantage.”

The incubator is set to open in February in William F. Starr Hall on the UConn Law campus in Hartford. In addition to the services of the director, the law school will provide office space and support – including training, guidance, and legal research resources – for up to six solo practitioners. The Hartford County Bar Association and the law school faculty will provide mentors, and Greater Hartford Legal Aid will help with training and referrals.

The subsidized working environment will allow participating lawyers to provide legal services at a modest cost that is lower than standard legal fees, with each lawyer setting the fee on a case by case basis. Schreier said he expects cases to involve a wide range of legal problems, including family, consumer, probate, housing, bankruptcy, employment, immigration, and other general civil matters.

In Bridgeport, the Center for Family Justice, a Bridgeport-based nonprofit that provides services to trauma survivors affected by domestic violence, sexual assault or child abuse, will house the incubator.

The Center is working with Connecticut law schools to help build the center’s legal apparatus, Fairfield County Business Journal reported, with several professors from Quinnipiac University on the steering committee to help develop the parameters of the program.  Four attorneys are being sought.

Lawyers in the incubator program at the Center will provide the legal advices services and representation needed by victims of domestic violence, including restraining orders, divorce proceedings, child custody and support, housing and immigration issues.  An Open House was held in September to interest local attorneys in participating.

“A legal incubator is like a business incubator,” Jennifer Ferrante, who joined the Center for Family Justice staff as the coordinator for the new service, told the Journal.  At the center’s office at 753 Fairfield Ave., “We are going to be housing four attorneys here on site,” she said. Two of the first attorneys who applied and were accepted in the program are recent law school graduates.

The American Bar Association counts more than 60 lawyer incubators around the country, three-fourths of them established since 2014. The Connecticut Community Law Center and the Justice Legal Center at the Center for Family Justice in Bridgeport, will be the first in Connecticut.

Participating lawyers will spend 18 to 24 months at the Connecticut Community Law Center before moving on with their practices. The training and experience they receive will not only help them jump-start their practices, it will spread seeds of innovation in the delivery of legal services at an affordable cost, UConn Law Dean Timothy Fisher said.

Clients who qualify for services at the Hartford incubator will be those whose incomes exceed the limits for legal aid but fall within three times the federal poverty level. For a family of four, this would mean a maximum household income of $72,900. Clients wishing to apply for services may do so beginning in February, when information will be available at the center’s website: cclc.law.uconn.edu.

“I think it will give the low- and moderate-income community a real chance in getting their legal needs met and ending their cycles in abuse and poverty,” Ferrante said of the new Bridgeport center.

Planning for the legal incubator has been ongoing since 2009. Although the Center for Family Justice is focused on serving six Fairfield County municipalities – Bridgeport, Easton, Fairfield, Monroe, Stratford and Trumbull – it also welcomes those seeking help from elsewhere in the state, officials said.

CT Council Urges Change in Focus to Combat Human Trafficking in State

Recognizing that the sex industry – especially when it involves underage children – is a form of human trafficking, the Connecticut Trafficking in Persons Council (TIP) is making several legislative recommendations aimed at shifting the onus for the crime of prostitution from the prostitute to “the demand side” – the buyers of sex. On National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, the TIP Council released its Annual Report and recommendations for the state legislature, and launched a new initiative and website, www.enddemandct.org.

“Conversations about sex trafficking almost exclusively disregard the role of the individual buying sex—the ‘john,’” says Jillian Gilchrest, chair of Connecticut’s Trafficking in Persons Council and Director of Health Professional Outreach at the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence. “The sex trafficking of Connecticut’s women, men, and children is driven by demand for the commercial sex acts they perform. Put simply, without ‘buyers’ to purchase sex there would be no sex-for-pay industry. So, we are embarking on an ‘End Demand’ campaign to bring much needed attention to those buying sex who create the demand that fuels sex trafficking.”

The TIP report questions why, since Connecticut enacted the felony crime of patronizing sex from a minor in 2013, there have been no arrests or convictions for the felony. Significantly, DCF has seen an increase in the trafficking of children; currently, there are 456 referrals for children at high risk of trafficking.

The report also calls on Connecticut lawmakers, state agencies, and advocates to work together to better understand the demand side of sex trafficking in order to effectively prevent this crime from happening. This begins, the report explains, with creating awareness, since more often than not, those buying sex are left out of conversations about human trafficking. With the use of social media, traditional media, and advertising, the TIP Council indicated it aims to raise public awareness about the individuals in our state who choose to pay to sexually abuse children and exploited individuals.

The report indicates that law enforcement and State’s prosecutors argue that those buying sex with children and exploited adults can be charged with other crimes, such as sexual assault in the second degree or risk of injury. The Council will be looking into this, the report notes, to better understand if buyers of sex are being arrested, and if not, why.

In addition, the report outlined that with over 100 members, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) Human Anti-trafficking Response Team (HART) comprises multi-department, multiagency partners, various levels of law enforcement, the provider community, faith-based network, among others. In 2015, DCF received 133 referrals of youth who were at risk or confirmed victims of human trafficking. As of September 2016, DCF has received 151 referrals of youth who were at risk or confirmed victims of human trafficking, the report indicated.

Tammy Sneed, Director of Gender Responsive Adolescent Services at Department of Children and Families and co-chair of DCF’s Human Anti-Trafficking Response Team, said: “Reports of children suspected to be victims of domestic minor sex trafficking are increasing every year -- and, in 2016, there were just under 200 such referrals. For every child victim, the number of buyers on a given day in Connecticut is unfathomable. Some children report 10 to 15 buyers per night, which leads us to estimate that a minimum of 2,000 buyers in Connecticut bought sex from children last year.”

In the report, the Council recommends:

• the Connecticut Sentencing Commission, Special Committee on Sex Offender, Subcommittee on Sex Offender Sentencing consider whether to include 53a-192a. Trafficking in persons and 53a-83(c), Patronizing a prostitute when such other person is under the age of 18, to the Registration of Sex Offender statutes;
• further discussion and inquiry on why there have not been any convictions under Sec. 53a-83(c), Patronizing a prostitute under the age of 18, effective 2013;
• further discussion on increasing the penalty for Sec. 53a-83(c), patronizing a prostitute under the age of 18, to align with similar sexual crimes against children; and
• further discussion on revising Sec. 53a-192a, Trafficking in persons, to include recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act and increasing penalties to recognize the severity of the crime.

The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Council is convened by the Commission on Women, Children and Seniors and chaired by the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence (CCADV). The Council was formerly run by the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women. The council consists of members from a diversity of backgrounds, including representatives from state agencies, the judicial branch, law enforcement, motor transport and community based organizations that work with victims of sexual and domestic violence and immigrants and refugees, and address behavioral health needs and social justice and human rights.

“Demand keeps sexual exploitation and trafficking profitable,” says Beth Hamilton, associate director of the Alliance to End Sexual Violence (formerly CONNSACS). “We’ve started seeing the criminal justice system hold traffickers responsible, but we do not often see the people who purchase sex being held accountable for their role in keeping the industry thriving.  If we want to end commercial sexual exploitation, we need to focus on ending demand and creating survivor-centered services.”

In Connecticut, a person is guilty of trafficking in persons when such person compels or induces another person to engage in sexual contact or provide labor or services by means of force, threat of force, fraud or coercion. Anyone under the age of 18 engaged in commercial sexual exploitation is deemed a victim of domestic minor sex trafficking irrespective of the use of force, threat of force, fraud or coercion.

The report points out that “For many people, sex and labor trafficking bring visions of foreign places and people, but this idea is false. In reality, sex and labor trafficking are happening in the state, to Connecticut residents.”

College Debt Continues to Climb; Connecticut Students Graduate with 3rd Highest Loan Debt in US

Nearly two-thirds of students who graduated from public and nonprofit colleges in Connecticut in 2015 had student loan debt averaging $34,773, the third highest level in the nation.  The state ranked 14^th in the percentage of students graduating with debt, according to data compiled by The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS). Student debt continues to rise for new graduates, across the country and in Connecticut.  Student debt at graduation ranged from $15,521 for Yale University graduates to $47, 715 at Sacred Heart University and $47,873 at Quinnipiac University.

At public and nonprofit colleges in 2015, seven in 10 graduating seniors (68%) had student loans. Their average debt was $30,100: up four percent compared to the Class of 2014. About one-fifth of 2015 graduates’ debt (19%) was in private (non-federal) loans, which are typically more costly and provide far fewer consumer protections and repayment options than federal student loans, the Institute pointed out.

At institutions across the country, state averages for debt at graduation in 2015 ranged from $18,850 to $36,100, and new graduates’ likelihood of having debt ranged from 41 percent to 76 percent.

In 12 states, including Connecticut, average debt was more than $30,000 – up from six states the year before. High-debt states remain concentrated in the Northeast and Midwest, with low-debt states mainly in the West. Average debt at the college level varies even more, from a low of $3,000 to a high of $53,000, and the share graduating with loans ranges from seven percent to 100 percent.

“Student debt is still rising, and the typical college graduate now leaves school with over $30,000 in loans,” said TICAS president Lauren Asher. “We need to make college more affordable and debt less burdensome for students and families.”

The states with the highest debt levels for graduating students, according to the TICAS study, are New Hampshire ($36,101); Pennsylvania ($34,798); Connecticut ($34,773); Delaware ($33,849) and Rhode Island ($32,920).  At the other end of the spectrum, students graduation from colleges in Oklahoma have the lowest average debt ($24,849), followed by Washington, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii.

CT Seen As Hiding Bad Budget News

In an article headlined “Bad Budget News? Some States Just Bury It.” Connecticut is one of two states selected as a poster child for what a national publication describes as “hindering transparency.” The Connecticut policy that brought the unwelcome attention was put in place last year.  As Governing explains:

“Connecticut ended its practice of current services projections. That’s a boring-sounding way of talking about how much programs will cost over time, assuming there are no policy changes. It’s a baseline against which to compare any proposed cuts or increases in spending.”

Ben Barnes, Connecticut’s budget director (Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management), said last year that it didn’t make sense to project shortfalls or surpluses into the future, Governing explains. “There’s no such thing, in my view, as a deficit or a surplus in years in which there is no appropriation in place,” said Barnes, whose photo accompanies the article.

Some legislators complained that the new rules would be a blow against transparency in the budget. The change was adopted anyway, the publication noted, adding that a majority of states already choose not to publish current services projections.

“There is kind of a tendency for policymakers to focus on the immediate and not the future,” Liz McNichol of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, told Governing. “This reduces the outside pressure to look beyond one year.”

The publication’s report notes that Connecticut “will have to fill a shortfall of more than $1 billion in its budget this year.”

The other state highlighted in the article is Kansas, where a state task force recommended that the department stop releasing monthly budget reports after numerous reports indicated that the state had fallen short of anticipated revenues.   The Governor’s administration also “decided to kill a quarterly economic report that was also habitually filled with bad numbers.”

Governing is the nation's leading media platform covering politics, policy and management for state and local government leaders.

Career Services Grows in Importance to College Students, Survey Finds

While 52 percent of U.S. college graduates report visiting the career services office at least once during their undergraduate experience, they are equally likely to say their experience was "not at all helpful" (16%) as they are to say it was "very helpful" (16%), according to a new national survey of college graduates.  Overall, just under eight in 10 graduates who visited a career services offices describe the experience as “very helpful,” "helpful" or "somewhat helpful." The findings are outlined in the Gallup-Purdue Index Report 2016, released last month, based on more than 11,000 interviews with U.S. adults aged 18 and older with at least a bachelor's degree, conducted Aug. 22-Oct. 11, 2016. The study was conducted as part of the third year of the Gallup-Purdue Index -- a nationally representative survey that has interviewed 70,000 different college graduates over three years.

The survey found that graduates who recall having a high-quality experience with their career services office are markedly more likely to rate their college experience positively. For example, graduates who rated their experiences with career services as very helpful are 5.8 times more likely to strongly agree that their university prepared them for post-collegiate life, nearly three times more likely to "strongly agree" that their education was worth, and 3.4 times more likely to recommend their alma mater.

The campus Career Services office has grown increasingly important to students.  The survey found that recent college graduates are more likely than those who graduated earlier to report visiting their school's career services office. Sixty-one percent of graduates who received their degree since 2009 say they visited the career services office at least once during their undergraduate experience, while 32 percent report they did not (7 percent were unsure).

The results could stem from substantial changes in college students' interactions with career services over time and the fact that colleges' career services' offerings have evolved dramatically in past decades. It is also possible that a larger percentage of earlier graduates may be unable to recall their experience with the career services office, Gallup points out.

Gallup notes that Americans with a bachelor's degree can expect to earn about $1 million more than those with a high school diploma over the course of their careers. However, the unemployment rate for college graduates in the U.S. aged 25 and older is now nearly double what it was in 2000, compared with an overall employment rate that is only one percentage point higher in 2016 than it was in 2000.

As a result, the Gallup organization observes, “schools must adopt new programs and policies to better prepare their graduates for a changing and competitive job market.”  Career services are apparently an increasingly important part of that changing landscape.

Career services offices often provide this support, which can include stimulating student interest in disciplines they had previously not considered, helping students select a major field of study, helping students secure employment while enrolled in college, and preparing students for finding a job upon graduation through mock interviews and resume workshops.