Investing and Global Finance News

Monthly Archives: September 2015

Women Gaining Representation in Elite Business Schools

Inside a Harvard Business School classroom. Photo by HBS1908
Inside a Harvard Business School classroom. Photo by HBS1908

It has taken over ten years of concerted efforts, but finally America’s elite business schools have significant numbers of female students in their programs. For instance, Wharton and Kellog’s class of 2017 has 43 percent female enrollment. Harvard, Tuck and Stanford has 42 percent enrollment in their MBA programs, while the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley has 41 percent in their newest class.

The change has come quickly. The top schools could only claim 29 percent women in 2005, says the Forté Foundation, a non-profit group whose goal is to increase the number of women in business schools.

“In the past two years this issue has gone from being on the radar of deans to being a priority,” says Elissa Sangster, the executive director at Forté. “Having these top schools at over 40 per cent raises the stakes for others in terms of what they see as attainable.”

Consumer Confidence Up, Economy Chugging Along

The Commerce Department released its latest figures for retail sale and restaurants, showing a rebound in September after a slow start to the year. The retail and restaurant sector posted a 0.2 percent monthly gain in August, and an annual increase to date of 2.2 percent. Analysts believe that retail sales improvement is all that… Continue Reading

US Job Growth and Unemployment: An Update

The US job growth slowed in August, but the good news is that the unemployment rate dropped to an almost 7.5 year low and wages have accelerated. The Nonfarm payrolls increased 173,000 last month after a revised gain of 245,000 in July, according to the Labor Department. The payrolls data for June and July showed… Continue Reading