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Statistics Alive
Don't blame the economists 2010-03-10 Bill Federman argues in his Feb. 27 article, "Dismal science, dismal record," that the failure of the economics profession to provide accurate forecasts or sound policy advice is the principal cause of our economic woes. He suggests that if economists were replaced by computer programs, "doubt and uncertainty about what to do and when to do it would vanish." Such claims, even if made in jest, do readers a disservice. Read more... Perils of polling: Surveys can be wrong 2010-03-10 Surveys or opinion polls are not free from risks. Poll results that are several weeks or months old may be perfectly valid. But surveys are snapshots of opinions. A mood or opinion is, of course, subject to change. That’s why surveys taken at different times reflect different opinions. Read more... Tories rebuked again by statistics chief on crime 2010-03-09 The Tories were today embroiled in a new row with statistics chiefs after insisting that violent crime has soared under Labour. Chris Grayling, the Shadow Home Secretary, ratcheted up the tension over misleading figures after asking parliamentary statisticians to ajudicate. Read more... American millionaires and the search for work 2010-03-09 The statisticians who occasionally cough up data on employment posted two new sets of numbers today. The first was the traditional monthly report from the BLS called “The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary”. Job openings at the end of January in the public and private sector rose by 173,000 to a seasonally adjusted 2.7 million the highest the figure, has been in 11 months. Nearly 14.8 million people are unemployed in America according to the report, but the chances that people can find work improved. The single most important figure about the labor situation - the ratio of jobless people to job openings - was 5.45 jobless people to each open job. That number was 6.03 in December and a record 6.25 in November. The figure is the only government statistic that measures the real opportunity that people without work have to find it. Read more... The Surgeon, the survey and survival 2010-03-09 Statistical analysis is a venerable approach in medical research. It is one way to find causes of conditions that are not fully understood, for example triggers of incurable diseases like cancer. It can also give you a good idea what determines child mortality rates in a given society at a certain point-in-time. The key determinants may not even be of a medical nature, as Hans Rosling, professor for international health, will point out at the Teradata Universe in Berlin. Read more... Men losing more jobs than women worldwide 2010-03-08 The global recession has caused more men than women lose their jobs around the world, following a pattern already well established in the United States, according to research released on Friday. Men held more of the jobs lost in nearly all the nations where executives were surveyed by Accenture, a management consulting firm. Read more... Developing world mothers 'at risk' 2010-03-08 Pregnant women in developing countries face as great a risk of death in childbirth as British mothers-to-be 100 years ago, campaign groups warned. Coinciding with the 100th year of International Women's Day a coalition including Amnesty International, Save the Children, Mumsnet, White Ribbon Alliance and Oxfam called on world leaders to give greater priority to maternal and child health. Read more... Burden of AIDS hits Zimbabwe's women hardest 2010-03-07 Since testing positive for HIV six years ago, Cecilia Chinhamo has endured a torrent of verbal abuse from her husband. "My husband shouts at me and calls me a walking corpse," said the 30-year-old Zimbabwean vegetable vendor. "I can only cry when he says that. What else can I do?" Read more... Israel given one year to tell truth about settlers 2010-03-07 Israel has been told that its accession to an exclusive club of the world’s most developed economies is all but assured when the 30 member states meet in May. But a draft report of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), seen by The National, concedes that Israel has breached one of the organisation’s key requirements on providing accurate and transparent data on its economic activity. Read more... Swaziland: NSDS critical to economic development 2010-03-04 The National Statistics Development Strategy (NSDS) is critical to economic development. This was the observation of UK based Official Statistics Consultant Phillip Turnbull yesterday. Turnbull has been engaged by government through the Department of Statistics to assist in the formulation of the NSDS, which is expected to be completed by July end at latest. Read more... Kenya: Inflation data needs to reflect the reality of life 2010-03-04 Kenya National Bureau of Standards’ official shift to a new Consumer Price Index on Wednesday, though long planned did not come without surprises. Besides unravelling the thinking of the mandarins at the Ministry of Planning about the changes that have taken place in Kenya’s economy in the past decade, new additions to the basket of goods that make the index and the weighting that has been given to the various components of household expenditure is not only telling but highly controversial. Read more...
Newsfeeds	News compiled by Richard Humphries