Uncategorized – Economic Thinking In Action

EmployStats Assist with the Rescission of the Texas Medicaid Waiver Program

Dr. Roberto Cavazos, Dr. Dwight Steward and Dr. John Thompson recently worked on a high profile case with the Texas Attorney General’s Office pertaining to the rescission of Texas’ Medicaid 1115 waiver program. This program is designed to provide health care in Texas that improves the experience of care and the population’s health while reducing the cost without affecting the quality.

The AG’s office filed a suit against the Texas Health and Human Services Commissions to counteract the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) decision to eliminate the current medicaid waiver granted to the state of Texas. EmployStats (Dwight. John, and Roberto) provided the AG’s office with an economic analysis of the Medicaid waiver program showing the impact of eliminating the current waiver.

Our analysis found that had the federal government eliminated the medical waiver, millions of Texans would have lost access to health care. Eliminating the Medicaid waiver would have closed rural Texas hospitals and healthcare providers due to lack of funding and existing minimal resources.

The federal government recently renewed the Texas Medicaid Waiver program for another decade. With Texas having the largest uninsured population in the nation, the program can help to provide and pay for healthcare for millions of Texans.

Neumark Speaks to Freakonomics on the Minimum Wage

Policymakers and economists continue to debate the merits and costs of minimum wage increases. The Raise the Wage Act of 2021, if enacted, would increse the federal minimum wage from its current $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour. What are the policy implications of the proposal: would it reduce poverty, increase prices, cost jobs, raise living standards, or perhaps a combination of impacts? What is the read of the academic literature on the subject?

Professor David Neumark was featured on the popular economics podcast Freakonomics to help answer this question. Dr. Neumark is an economics professor at the University of California – Irvine, and on the show describes how the academic consensus on the minimum wage has changed over the years. The benefits and costs however, are clear to Neumark:

“So my research on the minimum wage, one of the things it tends to say is there definitely is some job loss. And I’m quite convinced of that. So on net, there are winners and there are losers. I think then the question is, how do you add those up? So one reasonable metric is to say, “Well, okay, do we reduce poverty?” If we do, then maybe the costs are acceptable relative to the benefits. My reading of the evidence is that it’s pretty hard to find convincing evidence that poverty will fall.”

You hear more from Professor Neumark on the Freakonomics Episode here.

The Dallas/Fort Worth Metropolitan Area Reported the Highest Employer Demand this Month

For the month of March 2021 employers in the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area posted the highest number of new job openings in the state of Texas. In the last month, there have been 68089 job postings in the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitian area. Houston/Galveston reported the second highest number of job openings in Texas, with 67334 job postings this month.

In the Dallas/Fort Worth area, Software Developers, Application were the most widely sought after positions by prospective employers, with a total of 2515 job positings this month. The other job positions that experienced the highest demand this month in the Dallas/Fort Worth area were Computer Occupations, All Other with 2499 job postings, and Sales Reps, Exc Tech/Sci Product with 2978 openings.

Texas Employers on the Lookout for Registered Nurses, Sales Reps, Exc Tech/Sci Product, and Heavy/TractorTrailer Truck Drv.

In March 2021 Registered Nurses are in high demand in Texas, with 13237 openings, the largest number of active job openings. Other occupations in high demand include Sales Reps, Exc Tech/Sci Product , with 9033 active openings, and Heavy/TractorTrailer Truck Drv , with 8069 active openings. Last Month, February 2021 , the jobs with the largest number of openings were Registered Nurses , Heavy/TractorTrailer Truck Drv , and Sales Reps, Exc Tech/Sci Product .

March saw increased demand for Sales Reps, Exc Tech/Sci Product with the largest number of new job postings by prospective employers, over 1058 in the past few weeks. Computer Occupations, All Other also saw large increases in openings, with 1017 new posted positions, followed by Software Developers, Application with 963 new posted positions within the past few weeks.

The State of Texas saw a 3% percent change and Laredo saw a 24% change in job postings in the past month

On February 03 there were 222469 job postings open in the state of Texas. On March 03 there were 228275 job postings open in the state of Texas. The state of Texas experienced a 3% percent change in the number of total job postings open. The Houston/Galveston region experienced the highest number of job postings open as of February 03 , and Dallas/Fort Worth region experienced the highest number of job postings open as of March 03 . Laredo experienced the largest change in job postings over the February 2021 to March 2021 time period .

The job postings open in the following Texas regions are outlined below:

Abilene : -9% change in job postings ( From 2690 openings on February 03 to 2445 openings on March 03 )
Amarillo : 1% change in job postings ( From 3909 openings on February 03 to 3936 openings on March 03 )
Austin : -4% change in job postings ( From 11269 openings on February 03 to 10833 openings on March 03 )
Beaumont : -8% change in job postings ( From 3047 openings on February 03 to 2801 openings on March 03 )
Bryan : -13% change in job postings ( From 3722 openings on February 03 to 3221 openings on March 03 )
Corpus Christi : 13% change in job postings ( From 7385 openings on February 03 to 8327 openings on March 03 )
Dallas/Fort Worth : 7% change in job postings ( From 55916 openings on February 03 to 59824 openings on March 03 )
Del Rio/Eagle Pass : 1% change in job postings ( From 530 openings on February 03 to 533 openings on March 03 )
El Paso : 14% change in job postings ( From 9485 openings on February 03 to 10800 openings on March 03 )
Houston/Galveston : 2% change in job postings ( From 58447 openings on February 03 to 59496 openings on March 03 )
Laredo : 24% change in job postings ( From 3215 openings on February 03 to 3989 openings on March 03 )
Lubbock : 15% change in job postings ( From 6290 openings on February 03 to 7226 openings on March 03 )
Lufkin/Nacogdoches : -14% change in job postings ( From 1799 openings on February 03 to 1552 openings on March 03 )
McAllen/Brownsville : 7% change in job postings ( From 2461 openings on February 03 to 2625 openings on March 03 )
Midland/Odessa : -3% change in job postings ( From 4699 openings on February 03 to 4581 openings on March 03 )
San Angelo : -3% change in job postings ( From 698 openings on February 03 to 675 openings on March 03 )
San Antonio : 0% change in job postings ( From 30867 openings on February 03 to 30910 openings on March 03 )
Sherman/Denison : -10% change in job postings ( From 1682 openings on February 03 to 1521 openings on March 03 )
Texarkana : -24% change in job postings ( From 1807 openings on February 03 to 1373 openings on March 03 )
Tyler/Longview : -9% change in job postings ( From 5533 openings on February 03 to 5055 openings on March 03 )
Victoria : -10% change in job postings ( From 767 openings on February 03 to 694 openings on March 03 )
Waco/Temple/Killeen : -9% change in job postings ( From 4959 openings on February 03 to 4532 openings on March 03 )
Wichita Falls : 3% change in job postings ( From 1292 openings on February 03 to 1326 openings on March 03 )

EmployStats Standouts Virtually

Last month, Adela attended a webinar hosted by Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa. This webinar was given by Nick Westergaard, a marketing specialist and marketing professor at the University of Iowa. For more information about Nick Westergaard, go to his website at: nickwestergaard.com. This webinar provided tips and strategies to better our communication skills using tools such as Zoom, Skype, and WebEx. Nick used his experience as a virtual conference presenter and online educator to teach the attendees how to better communicate and present ideas and information within our own teams. With COVID-19, our world has only gone more digital. Virtual meetings have become the only option to slow the spread of the virus. Learning how to communicate effectively and efficiently in our digital world will help your business stay on track and succeed.

In this webinar, the key audience takeaways were to master the technical ins and outs of online meetings, project confidence and clarity with vocal delivery, and reinforce key points with the nonverbal cues that matter most in virtual presentations. As an attendee, Adela can gladly say she learned to adapt previously learned in-person presentation skills to better fit virtual presentations and learned new tips that will help our team at EmployStats.

To start, Nick spoke about how public speaking is a key skill many employers want in an employee. This skill is not easily learned and even terrifies people more than death! To help people with this skill, Nick explained the way to better standout and develop our skills.

Three items are of focus when making a presentation.

Story

Visual

Delivery

Story

Story Sketch Download

Talk Template Download

Creating a story rather than stating fact after fact helps your audience feel more engaged in your idea/information that you are presenting. Being persuasive and using your emotions is key to audience engagement. Stories move people and become engraved into their memory more easily. To help tell a story, Nick provided a template that was called “Story Sketch”. It breaks down into three sections: Context, Contrast, and Call to Action.

Under Context, the questions “Who’s your audience?” and “Why are you in front of them?” should be answered. Under Contrast, the questions “Where are they now?” and “Where do you want them to be?” should be answered. Under Call to Action, the question “What do you want them to do?”. Within the story, you should include supporting stories that are personal, other people’s, or simple analogies. The most important part of your story is the opening and closing. This is when your audience is most engaged, so use it wisely!! This is when you should state and restate important points that you want to leave with your audience. Using this template will help you and your audience stay engaged.

Visuals

Virtual Communication Checklist Download

In a presentation, visuals are important. Having a visual provides another way to retain information, so not only are they hearing you, they are seeing the important facts. Pictures provide better recall, better comprehension, and help reinforce learning styles. Pictures are not the only visual you should focus on. When presenting virtually, you have to think about what you look like to your audience. Things to check before your presentation are lighting, the angle of your camera, and visual noise.

To make sure your lighting is good, either present in front of a window that lets in natural light or buy a ring light. Check your camera angle by simply looking at what you look like in the view box. People want to see you, not your ceiling or a portion of your face. It’s super simple, but people tend to forget this part. A tip Nick gave was putting your view box under your camera so you can see what you look like while looking at your camera.

As well, the items behind you can create “visual noise”. If you have an obnoxious painting/art piece, messy table, or animals/children running around in the background, people will start to lose interest in what you are presenting and start to focus on things around you. Another item to be aware of is audio noise. When presenting, it is best practice to use headphones or a microphone to prevent echoes or cause your audience to not hear you. Stay away from loud places like a coffee shop or somewhere near construction sites. When Nick practices his presentations, he records them in a quiet room with natural light, and he puts a sign on his office door saying he is recording. This helps see what the audience is seeing and make any adjustments needed.

Delivery

The last item that will better your presentation is how you deliver your story and visuals. Nick provided a breakdown of what engages the audience. This breakdown includes the words you say, the tone you speak, and the body language you present. Your presentation and visuals can be great, but if you cannot deliver them in a way that will keep your audience listening, you have almost wasted your content. Nick’s breakdown will show you what your audience is most interested in.

At only 7% are the actual words you are saying. When speaking, keep your words relatable to your audience by using language that is familiar. If you are presenting new ideas to a crowd or your team, try adding definitions to a slide or providing a fact sheet before the presentation. Taking short pauses throughout your presentation also allows more understanding and comprehension. Your team will appreciate these short pauses to take notes or think of questions.

Next, 38% is the tone of your voice. Your tone of voice is especially crucial when presenting to a crowd and your colleagues because it helps keep them interested. According to Nick, your tone should be a “casual authority” and provide variety during different sections in your presentation. This sounds like you are confident in your ideas and feel comfortable in what you are presenting. Another tip Nick suggests is to pay attention to how your mouth is moving. When reviewing your practice recording, watch how your mouth moves. If your mouth is moving then you should be able to hear your words more clearly.

Lastly, 55% is your body language. The most important thing to do is relax, look at the camera, and smile. Being anxious is normal, but if you prepare and know your content, you will be great!! Not only should you look at the camera, but point your body to the camera by squaring up to it. Nick said to make yourself big. He stands up during his presentation to keep his posture upright and also uses computer stands to help keep everything squared up to him.

Nick provided several tips and suggestions to better your presentation.
At EmployStats, we will start using these new tips to further improve our presentation skills in future courses we teach or webinars we attend.
We want to stand out virtually and thanks to Nick Westergaard, we have moved closer to that goal!

Want to stay up to date with EmployStats presentations and blogs?
Follow our LinkedIn Page for our latest posts!

To learn more about Nick Westergaard, you can visit his website at: https://www.nickwestergaard.com/

To learn more about Employstats, you can visit our website at: https://employstats.com/

High Praise for EmployStats’ Sampling Course

“It was very relevant!”

“Clearly the presenters were knowledgeable on the subject”

“I look forward to more courses presented by this company.”

The reviews are in, and EmployStats’ course for the Texas State Auditor’s Office was a huge hit with our audience! Our class, “Statistical Sampling for Large Audits” was a crash course in the uses of statistical sampling. We were proud to teach our two-day, all-online course to a full class of 18 auditors who were active and engaged.

The State Auditor’s Office (SAO) is the independent auditor for Texas state government. The SAO performs audits, reviews, and investigations of any entity receiving state funds. To find out more about the Texas State Auditor’s Office, please visit the SAO’s Website.

EmployStats’ principal economist, Dwight Steward, Ph.D., along with Matt Rigling, MA and Carl McClain, MA, were also given high marks on their presentation skills.

EmployStats appreciated the opportunity to work with the SAO and hopes to conduct more presentations in the future. For more on EmployStats, visit our website: Employstats.com!

Evaluating Pay Discrimination in Tech

An article published in the New York Times on December 29, 2020 highlights allegations that female and minority employees are were underpaid compared to comparable male or white counterparts. The article, written by Nathaniel Popper, utilizes internal data from one cryptocurrency startup to compare pay differences between men and women across different job titles in the firm.

The analysis, run by Alexandra Marr, indicated that women were paid an average of $13,000, or 8 percent, less than men at comparable jobs and ranks within the company. Similarly, black employees were paid $11,500, or 7 percent, less than all other employees in similar jobs.

The article cites comparable studies conducted by David Neumark of other large technology firms like Google and Oracle. These analyses were possible due to lawsuits brought by female employees accusing the companies of underpaying women for comparable positions. For example, in his analysis of Oracle, Neumark found that the pay gap between men and women with similar backgrounds and roles was 3.9 percent. Similarly, in the Google litigation, Numark’s expert analysis found a statistically significant pay gap between similarly situated male and female employees.

See here for a copy of David Neumark declaration on the Google case.

The State of Texas saw a 13% percent change and Del Rio/Eagle Pass saw a 70% change in job postings in the past month

On November 01 there were 200951 job postings open in the state of Texas. On December 01 there were 227808 job postings open in the state of Texas. The state of Texas experienced a 13% percent change in the number of total job postings open. The Houston/Galveston region experienced the highest number of job postings open as of November 01 , and Houston/Galveston region experienced the highest number of job postings open as of December 01 . Del Rio/Eagle Pass experienced the largest change in job postings over the November 2020 to December 01 time period.
 
The job postings open in the following Texas regions are outlined below:

 Abilene : 49% change in job postings ( From 1620 openings on November 01 to 2420 openings on December 01 )
 Amarillo : 20% change in job postings ( From 3381 openings on November 01 to 4055 openings on December 01 )
 Austin : 14% change in job postings ( From 9761 openings on November 01 to 11175 openings on December 01 )
 Beaumont : 31% change in job postings ( From 1834 openings on November 01 to 2403 openings on December 01 )
 Bryan : 30% change in job postings ( From 2124 openings on November 01 to 2761 openings on December 01 )
 Corpus Christi : 25% change in job postings ( From 6499 openings on November 01 to 8127 openings on December 01 )
 Dallas/Fort Worth : 7% change in job postings ( From 53917 openings on November 01 to 57935 openings on December 01 )
 Del Rio/Eagle Pass : 70% change in job postings ( From 386 openings on November 01 to 656 openings on December 01 )
 El Paso : 17% change in job postings ( From 8000 openings on November 01 to 9380 openings on December 01 )
 Houston/Galveston : 8% change in job postings ( From 56735 openings on November 01 to 61228 openings on December 01 )
 Laredo : 52% change in job postings ( From 2380 openings on November 01 to 3619 openings on December 01 )
 Lubbock : 37% change in job postings ( From 5815 openings on November 01 to 7950 openings on December 01 )
 Lufkin/Nacogdoches : 29% change in job postings ( From 1234 openings on November 01 to 1590 openings on December 01 )
 McAllen/Brownsville : 12% change in job postings ( From 2410 openings on November 01 to 2707 openings on December 01 )
 Midland/Odessa : 34% change in job postings ( From 3156 openings on November 01 to 4219 openings on December 01 )
 San Angelo : 50% change in job postings ( From 500 openings on November 01 to 748 openings on December 01 )
 San Antonio : 9% change in job postings ( From 29795 openings on November 01 to 32450 openings on December 01 )
 Sherman/Denison : 16% change in job postings ( From 1483 openings on November 01 to 1724 openings on December 01 )
 Texarkana : 15% change in job postings ( From 1320 openings on November 01 to 1517 openings on December 01 )
 Tyler/Longview : 34% change in job postings ( From 3522 openings on November 01 to 4703 openings on December 01 )
 Victoria : 40% change in job postings ( From 576 openings on November 01 to 807 openings on December 01 )
 Waco/Temple/Killeen : 18% change in job postings ( From 3620 openings on November 01 to 4271 openings on December 01 )
 Wichita Falls : 54% change in job postings ( From 883 openings on November 01 to 1363 openings on December 01 )

The Houston/Galveston Metropolitan Area Reported the Highest Employer Demand this Month

For the month of November 2020 employers in the Houston/Galveston metropolitan area posted the highest number of new job openings in the state of Texas. In the last month, there have been 58178 job postings in the Houston/Galveston metropolitian area. Dallas/Fort Worth reported the second highest number of job openings in Texas, with 55418 job postings this month.

In the Houston/Galveston area, Registered Nurses were the most widely sought after positions by prospective employers, with a total of 2359 job positings this month. The other job positions that experienced the highest demand this month in the Houston/Galveston area were Retail Salespersons with 2002 job postings, and Sales Reps, Exc Tech/Sci Product with 2284 openings.