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.

Ian and Ean on Cyber-Attacks on Target

We wanted to look at how cyber-attacks against big businesses effect the consumers, and that the consumer's response if to the cyber-attack if it is successful and then how that affects those businesses. In the podcast we interviewed Paula Milligan and asked her about how she was affected by the cyber-attack against Target.

Nathan and Jacob on the Affect of Large Businesses on Local Small Businesses

In this podcast Jacob and Nathan interviewed Susan Dixon, an owner of a small health foods store in Huber Heights, Ohio, called Nutra Foods. They interviewed her to learn how small retail stores are affected by large retail corporations. The news story that inspired them to look into this issue was about Cosco, a large retail store, moving in to Centerville, Ohio. Once interested, Jacob and Nathan researched statistics about the benefit of small businesses on the US economy. They found that small businesses are vital to the economy, by providing many jobs and new ideas.

Bret and Nic on the Dayton area YouthWorks Program

During our initial research, we found an article that explained how the YouthWorks program was increasing its numbers. After researching the program and information about its previous seasons, we decided to interview Rocky Rockhold, the coordinator of the program. He guided us through the process and how the program has functioned previously. With information about previous experiences and future expectations, we asserted that the program would meet its goals this summer.

Keaton Bonds and Alex Smith on Aerospace Funding in Dayton

SOAR and the IMCP - Aerospace Funding in Dayton

Earlier this year, SOAR - the Southwestern Ohio Aerospace Region - was designated as an area of aerospace development by the IMCP. This designation gives the region priority in federal funding. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in May of 2013, Dayton had more than 7 times as many aerospace engineers per 1000 jobs than in the nation as a whole. In this podcast, we investigate the effects this new funding will have on the amount of jobs in the aerospace industry in this region. We predicted that this extra funding should allow employers spend more on hiring, training, and paying new employees. For more information, we interviewed Kerry Taylor, Director at the Ohio Aerospace Hub. The full podcast can be found here.