Global economic crisis! Record level unemployment in the U.S.!

With our latest dataset on unemployment levels for select countries from 1995 to 2008 from the U.S. Department of Labor, I decided to take a look at what has been happening to unemployment in this economic environment.

The next three maps show unemployment levels for three different years at the same scale.

Then too see the more short term effects of the current crisis on unemployment rates, I made a map based on the percent change of unemployment rates from the first quarter of 2008 to the third quarter of 2008.

It is clear that globally things have worsened since 2000, however they still have not reached the levels seen in 1995. Also, the U.S. still has much lower unemployment rates than many European countries, such as Spain, France, Portugal, Germany, Greece and Italy (this may change with the latest figures for the fourth quarter of 2008).

Although comparatively, the U.S. has lower rates of unemployment than many European countries; it is important to note that the U.S. has a much less significant safety net for the unemployed (in the area of health care for example) so that the social effects may be as devastating.

The U.S. is also one of the countries that has seen the largest percent increase in unemployment rates since the beginning of 2008. Only Spain, Portugal and Ireland have had larger increases in unemployment rates than the U.S. (Italy does not have data after the second quarter of 2008). Since this data is based on self reporting from each country, figures may be inflated or deflated, such as the case of the U.S. It is important to note that this data does not represent unemployment in poorer countries where increasing unemployment may be more devastating.

Take a look at these maps yourself or go to Maker! and make your own maps from the dataset.

Popularity: 17% [?]

It’s the holidays and what is one thing that is on the minds of everyone? Shopping! Yes, and this year with the economy slumping people are trying to not only find the perfect gift but the perfectly-priced gift. As I myself have pondered this question a thought entered my head. What if I were to do my shopping in a state that has no sales/general tax? Yes, these states do exist and Finder! and Maker! have a dataset that show sales tax across the USA by state. The map is below:

The states that are a very light cream color (Oregon, Montana, Delaware, New Hampshire) are the states that have no sales/general tax. The darker the state the higher the sales tax rate is in that state.

Now my next question is this. If I am to go to one of these states to shop will I really end up saving more money? I may not be spending money for a sales tax but I certainly will be spending more money on gas to travel the extra distance. I will set up a hypothetical situation using Finder! and Maker! to see what my answer will be.

Let’s say I live in the lovely state of Washington in the city called Castle Rock. In Washington the sales tax is at a rate of 6.5%. Next door to me is my neighbor Oregon that has a 0% sales tax. Now on Finder! I can load major shopping centers that are around me in my area. The map below shows that I have two major shopping centers right by me that are relatively close off of Interstate 5, one in Centralia, WA (Centralia Shopping Center, 34.4 miles away) and the other in Portland, OR (Jantzen Beach SuperCenter, 50.4 miles). These will be the two places that I will compare and the map is below of the two with Castle Rock right in the middle. The map is shown below:

Now let’s do some math. My holiday shopping expenses look like this:

Wife = $70, Mom = $60, Dad = $60, Sisters = $120 = = Total of $310 on gifts

In Washington, with shopping tax this equals 310 x 6.5% tax = 20.15, 310 + 20.15 = $330.15. So the difference between the two states is $20.15.

Now let’s look at gas expenses:

Let’s say gas in Castle Rock is $2.00 a gallon and my car averages a rate of 25 mpg. If my round trip from Castle Rock to Centralia is 68.8 and my trip from Portland and back is 100.8 miles, then my gas costs will look like this.

Castle Rock to Centralia: 68.8/25 = 2.75 g x $2 = $5.50

Castle Rock to Portland: 100.8/25 = 4.03 g x $2 = $8.06

By going to Centralia I will end up saving 8.06 – 5.50 = $2.56

Now as we put these two savings figures together we see that overall our trip to Portland would be a wiser choice. You will spend more money on fuel ($2.56), but you will save much more on your shopping expenses ($20.15). Together it will provide us with a savings of $17.59.

I would like to mention that this is very hypothetical. Often, other circumstances (county taxes, municipal taxes, toll roads encountered, different mpg rates on the trips, and many others) may enter into the equation and change figures. All in all this might be a solution to save money, so create your own hypotheticals using Finder! and Maker! and see if it will help. Below are links to Finder! datasets that show major shopping centers (malls, outlet malls) in a few 0% sales tax states. Happy Holidays and good luck shopping!

• Oregon
• Delaware
• New Hampshire

Popularity: 13% [?]

India wants to ban Google Earth and Wikimapia. The aftermath of the Mumbai attacks created a petition to remove all imagery of India on Google Earth and similar sites like Wikimapia. Mumbai-based lawyer Amit Karkhanis filed the petition saying, “The petition is filed against the backdrop of terror attacks in Mumbai. Even images of nuclear plants and defense establishments are available on this site. It is a security hazard.”

Vector One’s Jeff Thurston discusses the representation part to his GIS series. He says that representation part is an integral feature and one of the primary functional capabilities of GIS. Thurston discusses the many ways GIS is represented, including tabulated spreadsheets, numerically instead of graphically, through maps, charts, etc. He also talks about visualization tools that ‘take GIS data output and use it to develop other forms of visualization.’

The Washington Post released a flashed based Google Map mashup called TimeSpace: World. The map is a compilation of world news from the newspaper, its online site – washingtonpost.com, PostGlobal, Foreign Policy magazine and other partner sites including The Associated Press. The coverage is represented by clusters around hot-spots on the map. Each cluster lets you view articles, blog posts, photos, videos and even reporter twitter feeds.

Microsoft Research India created a system called the Robust Location Search, which enables location addresses in structured formats from any country. Microsoft plans to add it into Window Live Local.

The unemployment is getting worse. “Initial jobless claims surged by 58,000 to 573,000 in the week ending Dec. 6, the highest level since 1982.” MSNBC created an interactive map that displays the unemployment rate by month for each state starting in September 2007.

Blogger added geotagging! Now the Blogger community can geotag blog entries and not just photo. Now feed readers, map applications and search engines can associate posts with their locations.

Popularity: 16% [?]

With the college football season winding down and the National Championship coming up on January 8, 2009 between the Florida Gators and the Oklahoma Sooners, it would be interesting to know what college programs across the country are paying their head coaches. The following map shows a data collection, by all co-educational post-secondary institutions that receive Title IV funding. That basically means all colleges that participate in financial student aid programs that also offer athletic programs. The points represent colleges and what male head coaches are paid per university.

Click Finder! to view the dataset.

After viewing this above map, I was interested in finding out what the BCS top 25 college football team rankings and their head coaches were getting paid – comparatively to the other head coaches throughout the US. The map below shows the top 25 college football teams with orange proportion symbols and reveal, for the most part, that most of the colleges with highly paid coaches are universities that are succeeding at the highest level. The University of Texas, University of Florida, and University of Alabama show particularly high salaries.

Click Finder! to view the dataset

Popularity: 12% [?]