Digital Citizenship Summit will Bring State, National Tech Experts to Connecticut

Connecticut will be the center of the digital universe this fall, when the University of Saint Joseph (USJ) in West Hartford hosts a Digital Citizenship Summit, bringing local and national experts together to explore the good, the bad and the ugly about the pervasive and ubiquitous use of technology in our personal and professional lives. The term “digital citizenship” describes appropriate, responsible tech and Internet use. Similar to the rights and responsibilities involved in being a citizen, there are legal and ethical obligations with being a digital citizen, organizers explain.

The aim of the Digital Citizenship Summit, to be held on October 3, is to create positive, practical solutions along with amplifying the overall message of improving tech usage. Topics for the all-day Summit include digital literacy, etiquette, wellness, security, and law.

“We believe that digital citizenship deserves its own space for educational, non-profit, and industry leaders to focus on solutions and push new ideas forward focused on positive, practical solutions to improve our use of technology and the Internet. The Digital Citizenship Summit aims to bring together the various silos of thought and activity across the country in order to create a stronger, more unified message for better tech usage,” organizers said.

This inaugural event is being sponsored by the University of Saint Joseph’s School of Education, Office of Student Affairs and Office of Informational Technology and will engage students, teachers, parents, administrators and policy makers in a dynamic conversation focused on digital citizenship.  It comes in the first semester of the administration of incoming university President Rhona Free, who takes office July 1.  Free is a past national Professor of the Year as selected by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

Plans are for the Summit to include a panel discussion, breakaway sessions, a keynote talk TED-style, and a social event to “connect with all the fascinating big thinkers across the country who are pivotal in shaping digital citizenship.”

Among the speakers will be:

• Alan Katzman is Founder of Social Assurity, the leading youth social media advisory service in the country. They work with students and families on customized social media training to maximize the students’ opportunities and use of social media to their advantage.  He is an entrepreneur and former attorney with an expertise in law, technology and software, compliance, human resources and investigations.
• Mike Ribble: Known as the godfather of digital citizenship, Kansas-based Ribble is an international speaker, researcher and author of the books Digital Citizenship in Schools (soon to be in its 3rd edition) and Raising a Digital Child. He has worked within the education field his entire career, including as a science educator, an assistant principal at the high school level, and adjunct faculty at the college level.
• Jennifer Scheffer: Mobile Learning Coach and Instructional Technology Specialist at Burlington, MA Public Schools, she is a dynamic and energetic teacher leader with over a decade of experience teaching project-based computer technology, marketing, and business management courses. She coaches students on how to leverage social media tools to showcase their talents, create a positive online presence, and build their professional network.
• Sarah Thomas is a Google Certified Teacher and Edmodo Certified Teacher, as well as a leader of the Washington, DC Google Educator Group and founder of the EduMatch project. She is the Technology Liaison at John Hanson French Immersion School in Oxon Hill, MD and teaches Technology Integration and English Language Arts at the middle school level.  She is a recipient of the 2014 Digital Innovation in Learning Award and was named by the National School Board Association as one of the “20 to Watch” in 2015.

The organizing committee for the Summit includes:

• David Ryan Polgar, a frequent speaker and respected tech commentator whose ideas and thoughts concerning digital citizenship have been featured in publications including The Boston Globe, Financial Times, Sydney Morning Herald, US News & World Report, and Forbes. With a background as an attorney and college professor, he examines the use of technology from an ethical, legal, and emotional perspective.
• Marlialice B.F.X. Currran, an Associate Professor at USJ, focuses on digital citizenship and social media in K-12 teacher education. A former middle school teacher, principal and an advocate for young adolescents, Curran was named one of the Top 10 Digital Citizenship bloggers by Common Sense Media in 2014.
• JoAnn Freiberg is an Educational Consultant with the Connecticut State Department of Education, responsible for managing bullying, improving school climate and character education, and has taught at numerous colleges in Connecticut and currently is Co-Chair of the National School Climate Council.

Often referred to as a Tech Ethicist, Polgar has become a respected and unique voice in the digcit community. He is a contributing writer with the Family Online Safety Institute, iKeepSafe, and The Good Men Project, along with appearing regularly on television to discuss issues such as tech balance, cyber ethics, and tech etiquette.  He has delivered two TEDx talks on digital technology.

In describing Dr. Curran, Common Sense Media said “she is a long-time proponent of responsible online behavior, and encourages her undergraduate and graduate students to learn and explore what it means to be socially responsible both face to face and online, how teaching empathy is the most important 21st century skill and how social media can change teaching and learning in PK-12 classrooms.” Dr. Curran and Tracy Mercier co-founded the digital citizenship #digcit chat on Twitter in 2011. The first chat was inspired as a result of a digital citizenship course at USJ.

Registration for the Summit will be available later this spring, along with additional details regarding the agenda and program, at the website www.digcitsummit.com.

Photo: Marlialice B.F.X.Curran,  David Ryan Polgar,  JoAnn Freiberg. 

Connecticut Has Most Disengaged Employees; State Tied for Last Place in Gallup Survey

Actively disengaged employees are not just unhappy at work, these employees undermine the accomplishments of their engaged coworkers. They monopolize managers' time, account for more quality defects and quit at a higher rate than engaged employees. No state in the nation has more actively disengaged workers than Connecticut, according to a new two-year survey by the Gallup organization, for the period January 1, 2013 through December 31, 2014.

There is a four-way tie between Connecticut, New York, Michigan and Kentucky for the highest percentage of actively disengaged workers – 21 percent in each state, according to the Gallup survey. Residents of South Dakota, Wyoming, Alaska and Vermont reported the lowest percentages of actively disengaged workers, each with less than 15 percent. The national average for 2013-2014 was 18 percent active disengagement.

On the other side of the ledger, workers in Montana (39%), followed closely by those in Mississippi (37%) and Louisiana (36%), had the highest levels of employee engagement in 2013 and 2014. With 22 percent of workers engaged, the District of Columbia had the lowest employee engagement, followed by New York, Minnesota and Connecticut. Nationally, 31 percent of workers were engaged during this time period.

Gallup identifies workers as engaged, not engaged or actively disengaged based on their responses to items that assess key workplace elements found to predict important business outcomes.

• Engaged employees are involved in and enthusiastic about their work and workplace. Day after day, they are passionate about their jobs and feel a profound connection to their company. They are more productive, drive innovation and promote organizational growth.
• Not engaged employees are essentially "checked out." They demonstrate less concern about customers, productivity and profitability. They do not own or feel passionately about their work.
• Actively disengaged employees are not just unhappy at work; these employees undermine the accomplishments of their engaged coworkers. They monopolize managers' time, account for more quality defects and quit at a higher rate than engaged employees.

In its analysis, Gallup points out that “Active disengagement tends to be more highly related to labor market trends such as unemployment, underemployment and letting people go.” Previous Gallup research has indicated that employees in very small companies (fewer than 10 employees) have higher rates of engagement and lower rates of active disengagement – which Gallup suggests may be related to the psychological ownership and autonomy that is often present in small companies.

Rates of unemployment and underemployment are also associated with variation in engagement, Gallup’s analysis points out. Recent employment statistics and overall U.S. workforce trends suggest that active disengagement has declined in line with decreases in unemployment and underemployment.  Connecticut’s economic recovery has lagged, although the number of jobs created has steadily climbed.

Major New Academic, Residence Facilities Opening At State University Campuses

Years in the making, a number of major new facilities are in the midst of coming on  line at Connecticut's four state universities - Central, Eastern, Southern and Western - that are part of the Connecticut State Colleges & Universities (CSCU) system administered by the Board of Regents for Higher Education.  The facilities include a library, residence hall, classroom building, performing arts instructional centers, and a science and laboratory building, among other new and renovated facilities. At Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, students now have a first-rate, 21st century library in which to study, conduct research and meet with their friends and classmates, the university announced this week. A ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the opening of the “new” Buley Library was held April 20. The event marked the completion of the $31 million project that renovated the original wing of the building. A 12,000-square-foot area that will serve as an atrium has been added to the older 98,000-square-foot wing as part of the project. When combined with the 135,000-square-foot addition that was completed in 2008, the library now encompasses 245,000 square feet.

“This truly is an exciting and energizing time for Southern because we are gaining the physical resources to prepare our students for success in the 21st century knowledge-based economy,” said SCSU President Mary A. Papazian. “The students already have claimed this library as their own.”

Among the other amenities in the four-story complex is a “learning commons”-- an area on the first floor that includes a computer lab, lounge seating, email stations, a reference help desk and an IT help desk. The library houses space for media collections and special collections, on the ground floor. Three classrooms, two computer teaching labs, a seminar room and a conference room also are part of the new Buley.  In addition, a cyber café and a Student Success Center that includes tutoring rooms, a computer lab and conference space are scheduled to open in the fall.

At Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, there is a Fall 2015 target date for completion of a new on-campus residence hall and food services dining facility. That will follow by just two years the opening of a major new classroom building on the CCSU campus.  The four-story academic building houses classes and faculty offices for the sociology, history, anthropology, geography and political science departments, according to university officials.  It includes 17 classrooms, five seminar rooms, seven labs and 71 offices for faculty and administrators.  Now completing construction at the corner of Harold Lewis Drive and Ella Grasso Boulevard, the new $82.3 million, eight-story 220,000 square foot residence hall "will keep CCSU in the vanguard of higher education in operations and facilities," points out CCSU President Jack Miller, noting its ideal fit into the university's strategic plan for the recruitment and retention of new students.

Opening this fall on the campus of Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic is a Fine Arts Instructional Center - a 118,000 square foot building that will contain three main performance venues; an auditorium; a procenium theater and a black box theater.    In addition to the performance spaces there will be instructional labs and other spaces in support of the Performing Arts Department.   There will be design studios for the Visual Arts Department including Printmaking, Sculpture, Painting and Drawing. The building will also have three general purpose classrooms and a gallery.  Construction  has been underway for the past two years.

The new residence hall at CCSU will be the school’s tenth, and the largest on any of the four Connecticut state university campuses, according to CCSU officials. Features include over 600 beds, a 2,000 square foot fitness facility, a kitchenette on each floor, a large kitchen and living room on the main floor, and will house approximately 150 suite-style rooms, each with a living room and bathroom shared by four students. Each floor will also have a computer room, a game room and group study rooms and alcoves for one-on-one studying and socializing.  Construction is also scheduled to begin soon on a new food services dining facility located near the north end of campus near the existing residence halls.  The planned $10.3 million, 22,000 square ft. food services dining facility will include areas for food preparation, serving, and accommodate dining for approximately 1,200 residents.

Renovations are also underway at Willard and DiLoreto Halls at CCSU, among the oldest academic buildings on campus. The $61,085,000 project calls for both of the academic buildings to be completely renovated, including the development of a new main entrance with elevators, bathroom facilities, and additional offices and classroom space, along with new heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, with the interiors of the buildings also receiving enhanced lighting, computer technology and classroom/office upgrades.

Last September, Western Connecticut State University opened its new Visual and Performing Arts Center. Students, faculty and staff were on hand to “put the building through its paces” in a multitude of spaces, including the Concert Hall, Studio Theatre, Art Gallery, Painting Studio, Recording Studio, Scene Shop, Dressing Rooms, Sculpture Studio, and M.F.A. Studios. Since the gala opening, the new facility has enhanced the artistic and academic experience for students, faculty, staff and patrons - and received positive notice in regional and national publications.

At 130,000 square feet, this uniquely designed facility is divided into three distinct wings: Theatre Arts, Music and Visual Arts, all connecting together. Students taking courses in the art wing benefit from light shining through double-height, northern-exposed windows in the spacious painting and sculpture studios. They work in photography and graphic design studios equipped with both the latest computer technology and the legacy technology of traditional film development.Two theater rehearsal studios, both equipped with audio/visual technology and sprung dance floors complement the university’s increasingly popular musical theater program. Dressing rooms, practice rooms and individual Master of Fine Arts in Visual Arts studios are all incorporated into the spaces, designed for students so they may experience a professional-quality arts education.

The next major opening among the CSCU institutions will likely be a Science and Laboratory Building at Southern Connecticut, due later this year.  Southern's ongoing expansion of its science programs will be greatly enhanced with the construction of a 103,608-square-foot, four-level academic and laboratory science building. Situated adjacent to Jennings Hall, the current home for the sciences, the new building will enhance the ongoing expansion of Southern’s science programs and the university’s capacity to educate more students in the STEM disciplines – science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

According to Southern's website description, the building will be configured in the shape of an “L,” the new building will work in concert with two pre-existing science buildings — Jennings and Morrill halls — to enclose a new “science enclave.” Bedecked with scientific displays and instrumentation visible from within and outside the building, the new center will house teaching and research training laboratories for nanotechnology, physics and optics, the earth sciences, the environmental sciences, cancer research, astronomy, molecular biology and chemistry.  The building’s two wings will be connected at each of its four floors by an alluring connector windowed along its southern exposure and encircling the newly formed science enclave outside. It is along the glass-enclosed path that built-in displays of optical phenomena, the natural environment, nanotechnology, geological formations, biological specimens, and astronomical observations will be interspersed among sun-filled lounges, all to advance interaction among the different scientific disciplines housed within.

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CT Is Second-Tier State in Innovation Ranking of States; Earns Top Grades in Investment, Internet

Connecticut is among the second tier of states, described as an “innovation leader,” in the inaugural Innovation Scorecard compiled by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA).  The first-of-its-kind innovation performance index is based on ten criteria, and evaluates all 50 states and Washington, D.C., according to the conduciveness of their legal, regulatory and overall business environments to welcome and encourage innovation. The Innovation Scorecard’s first group of Innovation Champions – those states that earned the highest grades – are Delaware, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia.

Connecticut’s grades range from A- in the “attracts investment” and “fast internet” categories to a C in “tax-friendliness,” D in “innovation friendly sustainable policies,” and F in “right to work.”  The state also received a B in four categories:  entrepreneurial activity, tech workforce, grants STEM degrees and innovation momentum.

The analysis notes that in Connecticut, “the public and private sector are funding incubators including the Connecticut Enterprise Center, Institute of Technology & Business Development and UConn Technology incubation Program to help startups launch their businesses and become financially viable companies.”

The Innovation Scorecard assesses the progress of state policies intended to advance innovation and improve business climates, while also tracking states’ responsiveness to disruptive innovation. Using established economic, educational and legislative data, the report issues grades across ten categories, including: right-to-work laws; policies that support new business models; tax friendliness; Internet speed; and size of the tech workforce.

After the innovation champions group that tops the list, the next category (innovation leader) includes Connecticut and 19 other states, including Vermont and New Hampshire in New England and Washington and Oregon on the West Coast.

Connecticut is one of only five states to receive an A, A- or A+ in the “attracts investment” category.  The others are California, Washington, Massachusetts, and Delaware.  Nine states and Washington, D.C. receive an A, A- or A+ for “fast internet.”  Among them are Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Among the CEA report’s key findings:

• Delaware leads the nation in providing the fastest average Internet speed, at 16,200 kbps;
• The District of Columbia leads the nation in tech jobs per capita;
• Massachusetts and California bring in the most venture capital investment dollars, more than $500 per capita, in the U.S; and
• Massachusetts, California, Washington, Connecticut and Delaware received higher R&D investment than other states.

Plans are for the Innovation Scorecard will be annually updated to reflect states’ evolving policies and any changes in measuring innovation.

Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of CEA, said “The future of growth and economic prosperity in this country is most vibrant in places where policies and political climates serve to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit and can-do attitude that is part of our American DNA. Our hope is that states will use our Scorecard as a measurable guidepost to improve their policies supporting innovation.”

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), with more than 2,000 member companies, is the technology trade association representing the $286 billion U.S. consumer electronics industry.

Asian Population Grows in CT and US, Becomes More Suburban As Challenges Persist

Asians are the country’s fastest-growing racial group — their share of the U.S. population has increased from 4.2 percent in 2000 to 5.6 percent in 2010, and is expected to reach at least 8.6 percent by 2050, the website newgeography.com has reported.  The White House has estimated that by 2050, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders will make up 9.7 percent of the total United States population -- over 40 million people. Between 2000 and 2010, the Asian Pacific American population in Connecticut increased by 65 percent.  Connecticut's current Asian Pacific population is 147,830, four percent of the total Connecticut population, according to the state’s Asian Pacific American Affairs Commission, an agency created by the state legislature in 2008. 

Asia is now the largest source of legal immigrants to the United States, constituting 40 percent of new arrivals in 2013, according to newgeography.com.  The state Commission indicates that Asian Pacific Americans can be broken down into four geographically-based groups:

• Pacific Islanders, mostly Native Hawaiians, Samoans, and Guamanians;
• Southeast Asians, largely comprised of Indochinese from Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Indonesians and Filipinos;
• East Asians, including Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans; and
• South Asians, including those from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Tibet, and the Maldives

In Connecticut, the largest population of Asian Pacific Americans are in Fairfield and Hartford counties, and Asians represent the majority minority in 40 percent of Connecticut school districts, according to Commission data.  Recent data compiled in New Haven indicated that the Elm City’s growth in recent years, and its status as the state’s fastest growing city, has been in large part due to immigrants, including Asians.

In decades past, Asians, as other immigrants, tended to cluster in “gateway cities” and often in the densest urban neighborhoods, like New York’s Chinatown. Now the center of gravity has shifted to the suburbs, newgeography reported.  Between 2000 and 2012, the Asian population in suburban areas of the nation’s 52 biggest metro areas grew 66.2 percent while those in the core cities expanded by 34.9 percent.

In a report issued last year, Connecticut’s Asian Pacific American Affairs Commission reported concerns related to education (especially English proficiency), healthcare, mental health services, job opportunities and legal services.  Concerns have also been raised regarding the increasing costs of higher education in Connecticut.

For example, the Commission noted “the lack of culturally competent health care professionals, including hospital interpreters, is an overwhelming, ethnicity-specific obstacle to health care access resulting in low rates of health services utilization, high rates of emergency room use, and inadequacy of prenatal care.”  The Commission also noted that “up to 53.3 percent of APAs lack English language proficiency due to the high proportion of immigrants (about 74 percent of APAs in Connecticut are foreign born).”  In addition, a report by the Commission indicated that “in the last six years, there has been a 350 percent increase in need for court interpreters.”

California has long been is the most frequent location for Asian immigrants to settle, with 4.8 million currently residing in the state, according to data published by newgeography.com.  New York, with 1.4 million Asians, ranks second while Texas, with 964,000, ranks third.

Asian populations are increasing quickly in the Sun Belt. Texas’ Asian population increased by 71.5 percent from 2000 through 2010, adding a net 402,277, second most in the country over that span behind California’s  1.1 million gain. Texas is home to the only city outside California and Hawaii in the top 20 of our list of the most heavily Asian U.S. cities: the Houston suburb of Sugar Land, where 37.1 percent of the 82,000 residents are Asian.

The newgeography website indicates that “One clear trend is that Asian populations are growing in areas that are on the cutting edge of the economy — in tech centers like Silicon Valley, and near New York’s global service firms (across the river from Manhattan, Jersey City is now 25 percent Asian.) Around the manufacturing and technology companies of the Detroit and Seattle areas, Asian communities are growing.

Millennials Present New Challenges to Insurance Industry Seeking Customers

Just as recently appointed Connecticut Insurance Commissioner Katharine L. Wade settles in to her job, the insurance industry is facing new challenges from a new generation. A former Cigna executive, Commissioner Wade has more than 20 years of industry experience and oversees a regulatory agency with jurisdiction over one of the largest insurance industries in the United States.  Hartford has long been considered the nation’s Insurance Capitol, so changes in the industry reverberate across the Constitution State.

It seems insurance companies have their work cut out for them when it comes to engaging their millennial customers. Of all the generations, millennials (born in 1980 to 1996) are the least likely to be fully engaged -- and the most likely to be actively disengaged -- with their primary insurer, according to a recent Gallup survey.

Millennials are the largest generation in the U.S. and will grow to dominate the market in the years to come, Gallup points out, adding that “insurance executives who neglect to take steps to engage this age group do so at their own peril.”

Insurance companies see substantial business gains when they engage customers of any generation, Gallup finds. Compared with their actively disengaged counterparts, engaged insurance customers are less sensitive about pricing when selecting and retaining a primary insurance carrier. They spend more and buy a wider variety of products, including financial offerings, from their insurer than do actively disengaged customers. They also stay with the company longer and are more likely to recommend it to others.

But building and maintaining customer engagement can be challenging -- especially for insurance companies with a diverse customer base. To raise millennials' engagement -- and thereby ensure a more engaged customer base in the future -- Gallup indicates that "leaders must understand how these young customers differ from others in their engagement and consumer behavior."  And they do differ, in substantial ways.

In its 2014 Insurance Panel study, Gallup uncovered insights into what drives millennials to start a relationship or stay in one with an insurance company. The analysis revealed many similarities across generations, but it also uncovered two important approaches to build relationships with millennials, and key factors that differ with past generations.

1. Family is key. Millennials are significantly more likely than other generations to have insurance coverage under a family member who chose the company. When their family members value an insurance company's brand, millennials follow suit. This finding contrasts sharply with older generations' prioritization of factors such as cost and company reputation.
2. Millennials are more likely to buy insurance online. Millennials are more than twice as likely (27% vs. 11%, respectively) as all other generations to purchase their policies online rather than through an agent. Online purchasing is far from the mainstream among insurance consumers overall -- 74% originally purchased with an agent vs. 14% online -- but if this trend among millennials continues to grow, it could substantially change the way insurance companies interact with customers in the coming years.

The bad news?  Millennials are least satisfied of any generation with the online experience, which could contribute to their generally low engagement overall with their primary insurer. Improving interactions with customers online is, therefore, a smart investment toward building strong relationships within this future mainstream customer base, Gallup points out.

As insurance companies consider ways to improve those relationships with millennial customers, Gallup suggests seven key areas worthy of attention:  information security, family incentives, specialized services,  ease of making changes to coverage online, ease of finding answers online, easy access to a range of online services, and overall ease of use in areas including account management, payment and website navigation.

Millennials’ distinctive attitudes also extend to car insurance and long-term care insurance, according to other recent surveys.

Cars are increasingly being rejected by many millennials in favor of public transit or other modes of transportation, including increasingly popular ride-for-hire services.  As a consequence, car insurance is taking a backseat among some, the website NerdWallet reported this month. According to a study by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, Americans are driving fewer total miles today than eight years ago, and driving fewer miles per person than we did in 1996.  It is a reversal after decades of steady growth.

Millennials are less likely to drive — or even have a driver’s license — than previous generations. From 1983 to 2008, the percentage of Americans age 20 to 24 with a driver’s license fell from about 90 percent of that age group to just over 80 percent, according to a University of Michigan study, the website noted.  If you don’t own a car, you don’t need car insurance.

In addition, Forbes recently reported that many of the nation’s millennials think their boomer parents are doing a lousy job planning for their long-term care needs, according to a survey from Genworth Financial, a leading seller of long-term care insurance policies.

The Aging Across Generations study, conducted with the J&K Solutions research firm, found that 27 percent of millennials would give their parents or loved ones a “failing grade” due to not planning for, or talking about, their long-term care needs.  And the kids say they’ll do better, with more than half (56 percent) of millennials surveyed expressing the view that they will plan for their long-term care needs more effectively than previous generations.

Time will tell.  Other impacts on the industry are likely to be more noticeable more quickly.

Primary School Teacher is Connecticut’s Most Common Job; Secretary Was For Most of Past Three Decades

What was the most common occupation in Connecticut in 2014?  Primary School Teacher. That’s according to data analyzed by National Public Radio, using U.S. Census data.  NPR checked the most common occupation in each of the 50 states, every two years from 1978 and 2014.

One of the key findings?  Farmers have virtually dropped off the map.  In only two states – North Dakota and South Dakota – were “farm managers” the leading occupation in 2014.  That compares with 8 states in 1978.

Primary school teachers were the most prevalent job in 2 states – New Hampshire and Alaska – in 1996. In addition to Connecticut, the other states in which Primary School Teacher was the leading job in 2014 were Alaska, Florida, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and West Virginia.

In 2014, the most common job in 4 states was “computer software developers” – Colorado, Utah , Virginia and Washington State.  The leading occupation in Washington, D.C.? Lawyers.

NPR points out that “through much of the '80s, as the U.S. economy shifted away from factories that make goods and toward offices that provide services, secretary became the most common job in more and more states. But a second shift — the rise of the personal computer — reversed this trend, as machines did more and more secretarial work.”

Connecticut’s most common occupation through the years:

• Secretary             1978, 1982-1994, 2004, 2008, 2010
• Foreman              1980
• Bookkeepers     1998
• Truck drivers      1996, 2000
• Nursing Aide      2002
• School Teacher 2006
• Primary School Teacher 2012, 2014

The NPR report points out that “driving a truck has been immune to two of the biggest trends affecting U.S. jobs: globalization and automation.”  The prominence of truck drivers is partly due to the way the government categorizes jobs, the report points out. It lumps together all truck drivers and delivery people, creating a very large category.

Other jobs are split more finely; for example, primary school teachers and secondary school teachers are in separate categories, as evidenced by Connecticut’s most common jobs – school teachers in 2006, primary school teachers in 2012 and 2014.

Three CT Metro Regions Reach Top 50 in USA for Well-Being of Residents

The well-being of residents in three of Connecticut’s metropolitan areas are among the nation’s top 50, ranking at #36, #37 and #48 in a national survey of community well-being that evaluated the top 100 metro regions in the country. The 2014 Community Well-Being Rankings are the latest annual surveys by the polling company Gallup and the consulting firm Healthways. Reaching the top 50 from Connecticut were the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk region (#36), West Hartford-Hartford-East Hartford (#37), and New Haven-Milford (#48), based on U.S. Census tract data. 

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, surveyed residents to get a sense of their social, physical and financial health, as well as their sense of purpose and connections to their community -- all factors that contribute greatly to worker productivity, societal health costs and the economic competitiveness of a place, according to the polling firms as reported by Governing Magazine.

The 2014 rankings are based on 55-question surveys of about 176,000 people across all 50 states. The score for each community included metrics affecting overall well-being and five elements of well-being:

• Purpose: liking what you do each day and being motivated to achieve your goals
• Social: having supportive relationships and love in your life
• Financial: managing your economic life to reduce stress and increase security
• Community: liking where you live, feeling safe and having pride in your community
• Physical: having good health and enough energy to get things done daily

The Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk region ranked #5 in physical health, #43 in financial health, #58 in community ties, #63 in sense of purpose and #88 in social health.

The Hartford - West Hartford – East Hartford region ranked #18 in financial health, #20 in physical health, #30 in social health, #61 in sense of purpose and #62 in community ties.

The New Haven-Milford region ranked #6 in physical health, #47 in sense of purpose, #48 in social ties, #50 in financial ties, and #91 in community ties.

The South, Southwest and West Coast dominated the top 30, with Boston the only Northeast city, reaching that high.  California, North Carolina, Texas all have two communities in the top 10.

Leading the list was Florida’s North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton area, which performed especially well in financial and physical health. Honolulu, Raleigh, California’s Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura area and El Paso, Texas, rounded out the top five.

El Paso was the only community to take the top ranking in two categories: sense of purpose and physical health.  That was also the only category to see a Connecticut metropolitan area reach the top 10. Elsewhere in New England, Providence-Warwick ranked #70.

The survey found that residents of high well-being communities exercise more frequently -- an important aspect of physical well-being -- but they are also more likely to report that someone close to them encourages them to be healthy, a critical component of social well-being. They are much less likely to be obese, they have fewer significant chronic health conditions, and they feel safe where they live. Those who feel safe where they live are, in turn, more likely to have access to a safe place to exercise and access to fresh produce, which are important community characteristics that are linked to lower levels of obesity.

Each community, defined as a metropolitan statistical area under the U.S. Census Bureau, received a rank in each category according to the strength of the responses from their residents and an overall rank as well.

Residents of the top well-being locations in the U.S. are “more likely to be thriving across each of the five critical elements of well-being, thus capitalizing on the synergistic benefits of each element acting in concert with one another,” the survey analysis indicated. “This may reflect what is perhaps the most important factor separating the nation's high well-being communities from those with lower well-being: a holistic view of well-being.”

Suicides in Connecticut, Nationally Increase in Recent Years, Extending Trend

The number of Americans who die by suicide has climbed to more than 40,000 deaths annually, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Between 2007 and 2012, total annual suicide deaths increased in all but two states, and twenty states recorded increases of more than 20 percent – including Connecticut, where the suicide rate increased 36 percent in the five-year period. Connecticut had 368 suicides in 2012, compared with 271 in 2007, which was the lowest number in the state since 2002.  Suicide is the 10^th leading cause of death in the United States, according to the CDC.  The data, through 2012, indicated that the rate of suicides in Connecticut ranked the state 44th in the nation, according to the National Center for Health Statistic as published in Governing Magazine.

In Connecticut, the age-adjusted rate of 9.9 per 100,000 population is below the national rate of 12.5, and well below states including Utah (21.0), New Mexico (21.3) and Montana (22.6).  New York (8.3) and New Jersey (7.4) had the lowest suicide rates among their population.  The number of suicides has increased in New York and decreased in New Jersey in recent years.

Nationwide, the number of suicides has been steadily increasing each year for more than a decade.  In 2012 there were 40,600 deaths by suicide reported, compared with 34,598 in 2007, an increase of 17 percent, and 29,350 in 2000.

Research hasn’t linked a single prevailing factor to steadily rising rates, according to published reports. But some of the more commonly cited culprits, according to Governing magazine, are the downturn in the economy, prescription drug abuse and returning veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.  About half of suicides nationally are committed with firearms, according to CDC data.

Suicide increases are especially apparent in what some have described as the Suicide Belt, a region stretching from Idaho down to Arizona and New Mexico where self-inflicted deaths are more prevalent, according to Governing. Some site the relative lack of access to mental health care as a possible contributing factor.

From the 2012 CDC data, men were about four times more likely than women to take their own lives. Women, however, are about three times more likely than men to attempt suicide. From 1986 to 2000, suicide rates in the U.S. dropped from 12.5 to 10.4 suicide deaths per 100,000 people in the population. Over the next decade, however, the rate generally increased, and was at 12.5 percent by 2012.

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As Income Inequality Grows Nationwide, CT's Top 1% Earn More Than in Any State

Connecticut's top 1 percent earned an average of $2.7 million, compared to an average of $52,000 for the rest of the taxpayers -- a ratio of about 51 to 1, according to a report from the Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN). The data indicate that the top 1 percent of taxpayers in Connecticut earn more than $677,608 — the highest 1-percent income threshold in the nation, according to the report issued earlier this year, based on 2012 data.  In addition, Connecticut has the largest income gap between the top 1 percent of taxpayers and the bottom 99 percent, according to a recent study, and a AP-GfK poll found that 68 percent of Americans believe that wealthy households pay too little in federal taxes. It is little wonder that some describe the nation – as well as Connecticut – as separate and disparate lands.  Income inequality drives the conversation.

The top 1 percent in Connecticut saw incomes grow by 35 percent between 2009 and 2012, while the bottom 99 percent of Connecticut taxpayers saw average real income growth decline by 5.4 percent during the same period, according to the report. In fact, the states in which all income growth between 2009 and 2012 accrued to the top 1 percent include not only Connecticut, but Delaware, Florida, Missouri, South Carolina, North Carolina, Washington, Louisiana, California, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Idaho, Massachusetts, Colorado, New York, Rhode Island, and Nevada.

A recent article in the Boston Globe, Divided Nation, included the following:

• The nation’s 100 richest families have as much wealth as the 80 million families who make up the bottom 50 percent in wealth, according to the University of California, Berkeley.
• By the late 1970’s the wealth gap in America had substantially closed over the previous five decades, with the top .01 percent of Americans holding 7 percent of the nation’s wealth. The trend then reversed. By 2012, the top 0.1 percent controlled 22 percent of the nation’s wealth.  Projections are the percentage will reach 25 percent by next year.
• An estimated 7 million families have lost their homes to foreclosure since 2007, according to Moody’s Analytics. And 6.5 million families still hold mortgages larger than the value of their home.

A study conducted at Harvard Business School last fall found that Americans believe CEOs make roughly 30 times what the average worker makes in the U.S., when in actuality they are making more than 350 times the average worker.  A previous analysis estimated that it takes the typical worker at both McDonald's and Starbucks more than six months to earn what each company's CEO makes in a single hour.

The average Fortune 500 CEO in the United States makes more than $12 million per year, which is nearly five million dollars more than the amount for top CEOs in Switzerland, where the second highest paid CEOs live, more than twice that for those in Germany, where the third highest paid CEOs live, and more than twenty one times that for those in Poland, the Harvard report indicated.

The wealth disparity is also on full display in politics, the Globe points out, noting that 100 super-wealth Americans accounted for 41 percent of contributions in 2012 to so-called Super Political Action Committees (PACs).

Widely reported estimates suggest that compensation of CEOs was about 20 times as much as the typical worker in the 1950s, rising to 42-to-1 in 1980 and 120-to-1 in 2000. In 2013, the ratio stood at 204-to-1 for the S&P 500, with the average of the top 100 companies at nearly 500-to-1, according to a 2013 Bloomberg Businessweek report cited a study by researchers at Rice University and the University of Houston last month, which found that for the vast majority of United States commercial banks, the ratio of CEO-to-employee pay was lower than at the top echelons of the S&P 500.

The EARN report concludes by starkly pointing out that “Policy choices and cultural forces have combined to put downward pressure on the wages and incomes of most Americans even as their productivity has risen. CEOs and financial-sector executives at the commanding heights of the private economy have raked in a rising share of the nation’s expanding economic pie, setting new norms for top incomes often emulated today by college presidents (as well as college football and basketball coaches), surgeons, lawyers, entertainers, and professional athletes.”