Drewing, Horton, Abridge Study the Effects of Increasing Minimum Wage

In this podcast, Shetasia Akridge, Lauren Drewing, and Christina Horton express their views and findings on the possibility or option of raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. Their main focus is on how small businesses, including the employers and the employees, will be negatively affected. They interviewed Raymond Good, a local small business owner, about his personal perspective on the issues concerning the minimum wage and how his company could be affected by it. Overall, these group members learned that raising the minimum wage could have more negative results for employees of small businesses that are in a field with less profit and benefit from using automated equipment. This topic shows that the factors that they thought would be a simple adjustment are more complicated and daunting than they could ever imagine. 

Resources:  http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000
http://www.nsba.biz/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Minimum-Wage.pdf
Articles:  http://manufacturingnews.com/news/10/0112/GM.html 
ohiolmi.com/ces/lmr.html
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2013/05/10/raising-the-minimum-wage-will-harm-economic-growth 

Melonie and Jake Look at Raising the Minimum Wage Above $10 Per Hour

In this podcast, Jake and Melonie investigate how raising the federal minimum wage above $10 would affect small business, their employees, and the Dayton area. While investigating, Jake and Melonie interview Dan Young, the owner Young's Dairy in Yellow Springs. Although they expected their results, Jake and Melonie realized how complex this issue really can be. 

Resources:  https://www.sba.gov/content/understanding-small-business-activity-state-level-0
https://www.sba.gov/category/advocacy-navigation-structure/frequently-asked-questions-about-small-business-finance
http://ohiolmi.com/laus/ColorRateMap.pdf
http://www.patchworknation.org/bankruptcies-per-1000-people,-2010_44
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/business/98-percent-of-ohio-businesses-are-small-businesses/njHQ4/ 

Ben, Connor, and Keshawn look at Raising Minimum Wage to $15 in Dayton and the Effect on Unemployment Rate.

The following is a podcast that covers the topic of raising the minimum wage to $15. We researched the following topic using these websites: http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/business/economy/brown-wants-to-raise-minimum-wage-to-15-but-doubts/npKmL/ and https://mises.org/library/yes-minimum-wages-still-increase-unemployment. To get thorough research and a good point of view on this topic, we interviewed a local dentists who owns his own dentistry. 

Research: http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2014/ted_20140403.htm
http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat44.htm

Articles:  http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/business/economy/brown-wants-to-raise-minimum-wage-to-15-but-doubts/npKmL/ 

https://mises.org/library/yes-minimum-wages-still-increase-unemployment

Kameryn Looks at Raising Minimum Wage in Dayton

In this podcast, Kameryn talks the minimum wage and how a change would affect the Dayton area. He does this by interviewing Ray Wilcoxson, a Dayton small construction business owner, in the local area. Kameryn gets more insight on how minimum wages really affect a small business owner in this economy and gets some great information from it. Kameryn ends up learning a lot from this experience.

Resources: http://ohiolmi.com/ces/lmr.htm
http://www.dol.gov/minwage/mythbuster.htm
http://money.cnn.com/interactive/economy/minimum-wage-since-1938/
http://www.npr.org/2012/07/08/156458470/raising-minimum-wage-a-help-or-harm

Orlando and Johnson look at Raising Minimum Wage to $15 in Dayton

In this podcast, Orlando and Alan discuss raising the minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour, as well as interview two custodial staff at DRSS and then discuss their point of view.

Research Link:  https://www.cbo.gov/publication/44995

News Articles: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/02/18/3303201/cbo-minimum-wage/ 
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/13/upshot/what-a-15-minimum-wage-would-mean-for-your-city.html?_r=2

Trey Guy how have gas prices affected consumer spending?

How has falling gas prices affected the revenue of a business? How has gas sales changed since gas prices fell? How has gas prices affected consumer spending on other products? In this podcast we will be looking into these very questions to try to find an answer during this podcast.

Celeste, Josh, and Ryan look at Amazon's effect on small business

In this podcast, Celeste, Josh, and Ryan look at Amazon's effect on small businesses. A number of local companies are being nearly put out of business by online purchases, which you might say isn’t all Amazon. But nearly 40% of online purchases are on Amazon or Amazon-owned companies. Amazon is chipping away the retail economy with their massive fulfillment centers that are around the country. They hold most of the various items seen on amazon and they are shipped from those centers to local post offices or UPS. Amazon is also greatly affecting the U.S. postal services with Amazon making deliveries on Sunday available to the populous. This is a problem because it costs a lot more for the postal service (which is already running low on funds) to do so because that is an additional day of pay for those delivering and they don’t get much back from this.

This is our research:

·         http://money.cnn.com/2013/09/04/smallbusiness/amazon-expansion/

http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/4-ways-amazons-ruthless-practices-are-crushing-local

·         http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/4-ways-amazons-ruthless-practices-are-crushing-local

·         http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/4-ways-amazons-ruthless-practices-are-crushing-local

·         http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/4-ways-amazons-ruthless-practices-are-crushing-local

Sydney on the impact of Genetically Modified Organisms

This podcast looks at how Genetically Modified Organisms affect small farms and farmer's markets, as well as the future of Ohio's agriculture industry.

https://ofbf.org/education-and-reference/faq/
http://www.naturalnews.com/031817_GMOs_seeds.html
http://www.card.iastate.edu/publications/DBS/PDFFiles/10wp503.pdf

Brandon and Jordan on how unemployment fraud affects our local and national economy

In this podcast, Brandon and Jordan discuss the economic impacts of unemployment fraud on our local and national economy. They interview Mr. Randy Tucker, a reporter from the Dayton Daily News, in order to learn more about how unemployment fraud affects our economy. They learned that there various ways people commit fraud. Also, they learned that unemployment fraud virtually has no effect on our economy. This topic ended up being very interesting to research. Brandon and Jordan learned a lot
about what exactly unemployment fraud is and how it impacts our local and national economy.  

Sources-  

http://www.wkyc.com/news/article/235193/45/Ohio-unemployment-fraud-cases-double-over-5-years

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/ohio-hires-more-unemployment-fraud-investigators/nZhg6/

http://www.labor.ny.gov/agencyinfo/uifraud.shtm

http://www.dol.gov/dol/maps/state/OH.htm

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/05/01/cnbc-unemployment-fraud/2127897/

Bethany Explores how the retirement of Baby Boomers is going to impact those in skilled trades

In this podcast Bethany explores the world of skilled trades. She looks into what it takes to be an apprentice and how the looming retirement of baby boomers is going to affect the amount of skilled trade workers in our area. To answer this question she interviews Mike Gebhart from IBEW local 82. Mike is the director of the Joint Apprenticeship ad training committee. He works hands on to ensure that each apprentice experiences an array of skills before their five-year education comes to an end or "tops off", as they say at the IBEW. Before this interview with Mike she explores how apprenticeships are funded and their growth the past few years including the number of Journeymen in the state of Ohio. She finds that the number of apprentices in Ohio has decreased slightly in previous years.

Haley and Martin on the economic impact of the new Moraine Fuyao plant

In this podcast, Haley and Martin look at the economic impact of the new auto glass company FuYao has and will have on Moraine as it moves into the old General Motors plant. They are currently renovating the area and already have a few machines and mechanisms that will be used in their production line. Mike Fullenkamp, Tanya Adams, and Ben Nartker were there to tell us more.

Eva and Makayla look at how Matthew's Bill will affect local franchises

In this podcast, we, Makayla Day and Eva Peterson-Smith talk about the effects that Matthew's Bill will have on medium/large businesses and franchises in Ohio. They sit down with the CEO of American Pi located in downtown Dayton Mrs. Danielle Fritz and her business partner Mrs. Linda Decker, who provided insight on the business side of it and how much they would have to spend in order to comply with the bill. Mrs. Fritz and Mrs. Decker provided their opinions on the bill and went into detail about what they saw fit regarding their businesses and the bill.

Alex Helton on Matthew's Bill's impact impact on Ohio businesses

In this podcast, Alex discusses Senate Bill 112 (or Matthew's Bill) and whether or not it will be financially possible for Ohio businesses to afford the accommodations that this bill would mandate.  He interviews Israel Hoke, who is a general manager of Penn Station in Huber Heights, Ohio.  Alex finds that smaller businesses may have a hard time affording this bill and that the bill may have to be revised in order for businesses to offer their full support towards the bill.   

Sammie and Joe on the impact of Matthew's Bill on public libraries

In this podcast, Sammie and Joe look at the impact of Matthew's Bill on public libraries.

Caleb and Sha'Tera on the impact of Matthew's BIll on small businesses

This podcast looks at the effects of Matthew's Bill on small businesses. In it, Caleb and Sha'Tera interviewed one local business owner about their views on the bill.

JTC Meredith looks at the effect of Matthew's Bill on small businesses

How will Matthew's Bill affect new and renovating small businesses? In this podcast JTC Meredith talked with Justin Howard, owner of the Black Box Improv Theater, about how Matthew's Bill could affect his business if it were to go into effect before he was done renovating.

Alex T. and Maggie on the effects of Matthew's Bill on the personal finances of people with disabilities

In this podcast, Alex T. Smith and Maggie Moreda explore the economic impact Matthew’s Bill could have on the personal finances of people with disabilities. They interview Mr. Greg Kramer, the interim Executive Director at the Access Center for Independent Living. He believes that the passing of Matthew’s Bill will increase the amount of time and money spent by people with disabilities. 

AJ and Adam on the impact of Matthew's Bill on small businesses

In this podcast AJ and Adam interviewed the owner of Giovanni's to talk about the impacts of Senate Bill 112 on small businesses. During the interview they discover that the business does not have any adult changing tables in their restaurant and that adding them would require a bit of remodeling. Over the course of the interview she revealed that it could be difficult to add them to the existing restrooms. Read more about Matthew's Bill on their Website.

Brianna and Abby on the Unemployment Concerns of Veterans

Brianna and Abby found that many veterans struggle financial when returning home. Entering civilian workforce can be difficult contribute more financial problems, although there are many ways veterans can prosper in today's economy.
Podcast
Research: BLS article Employment Situation of Veterans Summary
Think Process article How Economic Inequality Could Take A Bigger Toll On Veterans’ Mental Health Than Warfare Itself

Lee and Shannon on Entrepreneurship and Small Business

In this podcast, we were tasked to do research on an economic indicator. With the information we found, we made interview questions to use in an interview with someone related to the topic we researched. For our podcast, we researched entrepreneurship and interviewed our teacher who is a small business owner in here in Dayton, Ohio. Some o the key topics we covered were:

• The definition of entrepreneurship: The act of starting a business or an organization.
• There are 23 million small businesses in America
• Small business make about 54% of all jobs
• More than 50% of all people are employed by small businesses.

Aubrianna on Student Loan Debt

In this podcast, Aubrianna Markus' essential question was: what has caused the increase in student debt, and what impact does this have on the economy? She interviewed Tera Mandery on her personal opinions of student loan debt. The news article that alerted her was about increasing student loan debt. Some facts and statistics that she found were: In 2013, 7 out of 10 graduating seniors at public and private nonprofit colleges had student loans. They owed an average of $28,400, up 2% since 2012. Student loan debt is over $1 trillion, bypassing credit card and auto-loan debt. There are approximately 37 million student loan borrowers with outstanding student loans today. Since 1999, student debt has increased more than 500%.

Eric on the Effect of Hollywood Gaming on the Local Economy

In this podcast, Eric discusses the presence of the Hollywood Gaming Casino in Dayton and how it has affected the local economy. He interviewed Mr. Chris Kershner, the Vice President of Public Policy and Economic Development for the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce. Eric learned a lot of valuable information from the expert he interviewed, and confirmed some of his inferences about the effects of Hollywood Gaming on Dayton’s economy.

Sources: News Article, BLS Data, BLS Spreadsheet, Chris Kershner Bio.

Jalen and Katie on Budget Cutting at Wright Patt Air Force Base

In this podcast we discuss the process of budget cutting at Wright Patt and how it affects the people in the work force. According to an article from the military website written on October 1, 2014 they are planning to cut 372 positions, 103 were occupied so 269 of them were vacant. Which lead to us conducting an interview with Vanessa Freeman, a Senior Manpower Analyst at Wright Patt Air Force Base who is one of the main people involved in budget cuts. Overall, majority of our questions were answered, but we still would like to know how it affects the larger work force.

Justin on the Relationship Between Large and Small Companies

In this podcast, Justin discusses how employment is affected by the funding of small businesses by large companies. He interviewed Eoghan Gregory, an engineer at a local engineering firm in the Dayton area in order to learn more about how small business spend their funding. During this research, Justin learned much about how small businesses are related to employment. He learned that small businesses are vital for regions to have high employment rates and boost employment within areas.

Nia and Tyson on Veterans in the Workforce

According to the BLS, as of 2013, roughly 722,000 total veterans were left unemployed. That is 6.6 percent of the labor force. 47.9 percent of the population was employed. According to another statistic, also provided by the BLS, veterans with less than a high school diploma have a higher unemployment rate than veterans with higher degree at 10.3 percent being unemployed in the labor force where those with associates degrees are at 7.3 percent and bachelor's degree or higher at 4.4 percent. These statistics show that higher education will provide more job opportunities. We interviewed Dr. Seth Gordon, director of the Veteran and Military Center at Wright State University. Dr. Gordon has a history working with veterans and with helping students obtain skills and higher education. During the interview, Dr. Gordon was given the opportunity to explain what the center is about and how it relates to jobs for veterans and military personnel. The interview can be found here.

En and Niky on Military Training for After Retirement

In this podcast, we talk about what may happen in military training that would prepare you for the workforce after retirement. We talk to retired vet, Cpt. Mitchell, about how he plans to find a job, and how the military has made him able to do so.  We interviewed him because he has been in the military for 19 years before retiring and has been looking for a job since.  We found a article about veteran employment at this Biz Journals website.  We also looked on this BLS page for information about veterans from many different wars that were employed.