Page 8 - BizVoice May/June 2013
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8
BizVoice
/Indiana Chamber –
May/June 2013
shorts
Law School Applicants Falling Fast
A
mix of fewer jobs and rising costs to enter the profession is not a
good combination.
The Law School Admission Council reports that the number of
students applying to law school has declined 38% since 2010. Law
schools are expecting to receive 54,000 applicants this year compared to
100,000 in 2004.
The average debt that a law school student accumulates reached a
high of $125,000 in 2011. To
accompany this financial challenge, only
55% of law school graduates found full-
time jobs after passing the bar exam.
Efforts are being made to combat
these issues. In New York, it has been
debated whether to allow students to
take the bar exam after two years rather
than three. Northeastern Law School in
Boston, which has had one of the
smallest decreases in applications,
emphasizes hands-on training as a major
component of its final year of education.
With the number of students
attending law school in the fall (after
dropouts) expected to be 38,000 – the
lowest since 1977 – schools are being
forced to resort to layoffs and staff
buyouts. A University of Chicago Law School expert says that if these
trends continue, as many as 10 law schools will have to close within the
next decade.
T
echnology and agriculture have been no strangers in
recent years. A Purdue Research Park-based company is
among those combining the two.
Optimizer 2.0 is a site-specific yield model developed by
Advanced Ag Solutions (AAS) that is making itself well-known
since its February 2012 launch. It placed second in
CropLife
magazine’s 10 Best Mobile Agriculture Apps for 2012.
The web application allows farmers to project corn yields
based on soil, weather and seed properties. Daryl Starr, founder
and CEO of AAS, says, “The app’s reception has been stronger
than anticipated. Since its launch, we now have more than
1,000 users in 27 states.”
AAS unveiled a new feature called “Solver” in February,
which provides farmers with an algorithm to determine the
correct amount of seeding and nitrogen. Starr adds that while
currently the focus is on corn, “We are very tentatively
scheduling for a 2014 soybean model crop release.”
Starr maintains that as the web application continues to
grow in popularity and is increasing its already high accuracy,
“We are just getting our feet wet in technology, but we are
growing substantially every day.”
Resource:
Daryl Starr, Advanced Ag Solutions, at
Web Application Forecasts Corn Yield
In for the Long Haul
R
etirement at age 65 is not an option – or
intentional choice – for many people.
Rather than leaving the workplace at
that age, many Americans desire to remain on
the job for quite a bit longer. According to the
AARP Public Policy Institute, the number of
workers age 75 and older has soared nearly
77% in the past two decades.
Those employed in this age range have a
number of differing careers – 25% in
professional lines of work, such as doctors, and
another 25% in retail positions. In addition,
88% of employees who are within five years of
retirement are willing to acquire new skills.
The opportunities for older workers,
however, are not always promising. In 1990,
there were 11,000 unemployed workers age 75
and older. In 2011, the number of unemployed
American workers at this age increased to
75,000, AARP reports.
Workforce Wise is an initiative of the
Indiana Chamber Foundation that focused on
employer preparation for the loss of workplace
knowledge. It included a series of studies and
BizVoice
®
stories. It stressed, among other
points, strategies that companies can
successfully employ to accommodate older
workers and benefit from their expertise.
Resource:
Learn more about Workforce
Wise at
Shorts written by Katie Wyss
