Category Archives: economy

Silicon Alley Humming Despite Slow Economy

Posted on May 4, 2010 | Leave a comment

The recent recession may have cut venture capital available to young companies, but it hasn’t prevented a blooming of high-tech startups in New York.

Many of the companies getting attention from venture capitalists and on tech blogs are social media sites, which rely on networks of friends to do everything from picking out gifts to sharing photos.

“New York is a hotbed of innovative startups and always has been,” said Nate Westheimer, co-founder of AnyClip, a company that aggregates clips of movies. Read the full story.

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Posted in economy, New York City

Crafty Stay-at-Home Moms Turn to Online Sales

Posted on March 22, 2010 | Leave a comment

Reuters

NEW YORK  – Lara Lewis used to be a stressed-out single mother whose teaching job left her little time for her young daughter. Now she works from home, selling an estimated $60,000 a year worth of jewelry online.

The 37-year-old from State College, Pennsylvania, is one of an estimated 5.1 million stay-at-home U.S. mothers, many of whom juggle child-rearing and generating an income, and a growing number of whom are starting their own businesses.

The web is redefining “women’s work” and giving stay-at-home mothers the flexibility that eluded them in the corporate world. The Small Business Administration says the number of self-employed women around the country jumped by 10 percent from 2000 to 2006, to 5.3 million.

For Lewis, an online marketplace called Etsy provided a place to sell her estate-style and faux vintage pieces. The website, www.etsy.com, lets craft makers set up their own virtual shops and has more than 4.2 million users. Read the full story.

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Posted in economy, Karina Ioffee

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Illiteracy Takes Toll on Job-Hunting New Yorkers

Posted on February 8, 2010 | Leave a comment
Miguelina Benitez is a 34-year-old Bronx resident who wants to work. But she can’t get a job, even an entry-level position at McDonald’s or Victoria’s Secret, and thinks she knows why.

Benitez reads at a third-grade level, one of 1.5 million New Yorkers considered functionally illiterate, meaning they have trouble reading a job description or filling out an application.

“I’ve been looking for work ever since I was 16 and I’ve become very frustrated,” said Benitez, who’s now enrolled in a high school equivalency class through Highbridge Community Life Center in the Bronx. She said she hopes to go to college and one day become a secretary for the U.S. Marshals Service.

An increasingly large number of city residents don’t have the skills to compete for today’s jobs, which require more education and training than ever before, according to a new report by the Center for an Urban Future, a New York research organization.
Read the full story.

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Posted in Bronx, economy, New York City

Frustrations Mount as City, Consumers Debate About What to Do About Techno-Trash

Posted on November 17, 2009 | Leave a comment

New York Daily News

Old computers, iPods, cell phones – Brian Boyd’s got ‘em all. But when Boyd, who runs a social media company, TrakVu, wanted to get rid of some of his electronics, he didn’t know what to do with the stuff.

Watch the video

“I usually try to sell it on eBay, but who has the time?” Boyd said, adding that he had no idea where there might be a recycling center that would accept old electronics.

As our lives become filled with more gadgets, New Yorkers are being confronted with a growing problem: What to do with old electronics that, at least in the view of their owners, are garbage? 
Read the full story.

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Posted in economy, environment, New York City

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One Factory Towns in Russia Clinging to Life

Posted on September 6, 2009 | Leave a comment

Associated Press

YASNOGORSK, Russia – Three decades ago, the Yasnogorsk Machine-Building Factory stamped out thousands of pounds of steel and iron into parts for wagons, pumps and locomotives for Russia’s mining industry.

Now two-thirds of its stamping and welding machines have been shut down. The old Soviet-era equipment is rusting, and fewer than 280 employees clock in every day — from a peak of 7,000. The factory that kept this town alive since the days of the czar is on its last breath, the victim of a global recession that has shaken Russia to the core. Read the story.

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Posted in economy, Russia

Closure of Europe’s Largest Market Viewed as Attack on Immigrants

Posted on August 27, 2009 | Leave a comment

Huffington Post

chirkIn one of the most expensive cities in the world, Chirkizovsky market was still a place where the everyman could go shopping.

Located in northeast Moscow, it was a sprawling compound of stalls, restaurants and small shops, where Chinese, Vietnamese and other immigrant vendors sold clothes, household goods and just about anything else for rock bottom prices. Until one day in late June, the metal gates of the 740 acre bazaar– the largest in Europe– slammed shut, leaving an estimated 100,000 people without work.

Authorities cited a slew of reasons, including the sale of contraband goods and the fact that Chirkizovsky vendors did not pay taxes. But the real motivation may be revenge by the Kremlin and Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov against the owner of the market, the Azerbajani-born Telman Ismailov who got too big for his britches and boasted about a new hotel he was building in Turkey.

Whatever, the reason, vendors had exactly two days to pack up their wares and shove out. Those who didn’t, lost thousands of dollars worth of merchandise, some of which is still being kept at the market. Read the story.

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Posted in economy, Karina Ioffee, Russia

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PepsiCo Banks on Russia with New Plant

Posted on July 11, 2009 | Leave a comment

Associated Press

DOMODEDOVO, Russia – PepsiCo opened an immense new bottling plant outside Moscow on Wednesday as it bets on Russia to become its biggest market outside the United States in five years.

The glimmering blue and white $1 billion plant, which the company says will be the largest bottling plant in Europe, will eventually churn out more than 2 billion liters of soft drinks a year and employ more than 1,000 people. Read the story.

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Posted in economy, Karina Ioffee, Russia