Energy firm Baker Hughes reported today the U.S. oil and gas rig count slipped again during the past week, losing, receding to 1,749, with oil rigs down seven at 1316, gas rigs down five at 429.
Over the past year the rig count is down 259 rigs from 2,008, with oil rigs up 93, gas rigs down 35. The country’s offshore rig count is 51, down two from last week and up six year over year.
While the largest decline is in Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and California all have a higher rate of shutdowns.
The oil rig count has fallen five straight months as companies, respond to high crude supplies and a decline in prices have scaled drilling programs
Meanwhile, the Canadian rig count is up 70 rigs at 601 from last week, with oil rigs up 70 at 458, gas rigs unchanged at 143.
The Canadian rig count trails last year by 53 rigs when it stood at 654, primarily in the gas end.
Oregon was one of 30 states with statistically significant employment changes from December 2011 to December 2012, according to figures released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Oregon added 19,500 jobs during 2012, hitting 1.639 million in December.
That was one of the few categories in which Oregon followed national trends.
The BLS said regional and state unemployment rates were generally little changed in December. There were 22 states reporting unemployment rate decreases, 16 states and the District of Columbia posted increases.
Oregon wasn’t among the states with significantly different unemployment trends from the country as a whole. Unemployment rate changes from December 2011 to December 2012 weren’t statistically significant and neither were the employment changes during the period.
Here’s an amazing bit of “art” work performed skillfully by Ryan McNaught. It’s a Lego version of an Erickson Air-Crane helicopter.
And while we’re talking helicopters.
This comes from a company called Forex Currency. I wasn’t able to find the background data, but think it’s worth noting.
Curious to discover American holidaymakers’ thoughts on exchanging foreign currency back into dollars after finishing their vacations, a currency trading information website in the US has carried out a poll which discovered that 83% of Americans do not exchange other currency back into dollars after a trip, resulting in close to $1.7 billion a year in wasted money .
Americans seem to have little regard for their leftover vacation money, as it has been revealed that close to $1.7 billion was wasted last year due to foreign currency not being changed back to US dollars post-vacation.
The recent poll, conducted by Forex Currency, surveyed 2,105 Americans from across the US, as part of the research into attitudes towards travelling and spending money while abroad. All respondents went on a vacation abroad in 2012 to a destination that used a currency other than the US dollar.
The survey found that, on average, vacationers returned home from their trips with approximately the equivalent of $32 left over from their foreign spending money. Some 83 percent of travelers who took part in the poll admitted that they did not exchange the money back to American dollars when they returned home.
When asked to explain their reasons why they failed to change their money back to American dollars, 54 percent said they just didn’t get round to doing so, while 35 percent said there was no point. Another 11 percent said that they were saving their funds for “their next vacation”.
So what happens when a bright, young entrepreneur begins looking for key personnel for a new company. As discussed here in Entrepreneur, an online magazine, it often means hiring someone older than the boss.
