Items of Interest This day

 
UN: Population to hit 7 billion by end October
The global population will hit 7 billion on Oct. 31 and hit 8 billion by 2025, the United Nations Population Fund says. The increasing population is driving spikes in energy and food prices, and highlights the need for family-planning services for more than 200 million women worldwide. The Globe and Mail (Toronto) (10/17)

Bangladesh struggles to improve sanitation
Public campaigns that promote the use of toilets as a component of a modern lifestyle and highlight the health benefits of proper hygiene are needed to help improve sanitation in Bangladesh, according to water and sanitation experts. Nearly half of the Bangladeshi population still lives in areas without proper sanitation. IRINNews.org (10/14)

Research finds that trees improve crop yields in Africa
Research finds that crop yields in Africa could be increased by planting trees that improve the quality of soil, as well as "climate proof" agricultural land by acting as conduits to bring water to surface root systems, like those of crops. BBC (10/15)

It’s called the "Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey",  (snip-it)
It is a relatively new report that was started by the Labor Department in late 2000. Its latest report showed approximately 3.2 million job openings in July in the United States, about the same number as June. The total number of openings is up about 1.1 million jobs from July 2009, but it’s still short of the 4.4 million openings reported in December 2007........

..........But employers say they’re having trouble finding applicants who fit the requirements for open positions. In a recent survey by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, 40 percent of the members of the Inc. 500 (a group of the fastest-growing companies in the country) reported that the biggest impediment to growing their companies was finding qualified people. “That clearly speaks to the skills gap that exists,” says Thom Ruhe, director of entrepreneurship for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.......  [engineers, scientists, AI technicians, etc.]

.......Many of the unemployed get left behind in today’s leaner, more educated economy. “There’s a clear bifurcation between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots,’” he says. “You have large parts of the population that just aren’t employable.”