Progress Daily

Baruch Lev argues that “intangible assets” — ranging from a skilled workforce to patents to know-how — account for more than 1/2 of the market capitalization of America’s public companies. Accenture calculates that intangible assets have shot up from 20% of the value of companies in the S&P 500 in 1980 to around 70% today.

McKinsey has divided American jobs into three categories: “transformational” (extracting raw materials or converting them into finished goods), “transactional” (interactions that can easily be scripted or automated) and “tacit” (complex interactions requiring a high level of judgment). The company argues that over the past 6 years the number of American jobs that emphasise “tacit interactions” has grown two and a half times as fast as the number of transactional jobs and 3 times as fast as employment in general. These jobs now make up some 40% of the American labor market and account for 70% of the jobs created since 1998.

“The battle for brainpower,” The Economist

Jay Russo and Paul Schoemaker (Winning Decisions) note that we often believe more information provides a clearer picture of the future and improves our decision-making. But in reality, additional information often only confuses the decision-making process.

Researchers asked handicappers to make horse race predictions with five pieces of information. The researchers then asked the handicappers to make the same predictions with ten, twenty, and forty pieces of information for each horse in the race. Even though the handicappers gained little accuracy by using the additional information, their confidence in their predictive ability rose with the supplementary data.

More Than You Know by Michael J. Mauboussin

According to recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), from 1979 to 2004, women’s earnings — as a percentage of men’s — rose from 62 % to 80%.

According to 2004-2005 school year data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), women outnumbered men in terms of earning associate, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees.

Women who graduated from four-year colleges earned about 76% more than women with only a high school diploma, according to the most recent data released by the BLS.

According to 2004 statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau, women who hold at least an associate degree earn $9,032 more than women who don’t pursue higher education.

Of today’s workforce, nearly 33% of women ages 25 to 64 had academic experience under their belt in 2004, compared to 11% in 1970, according to the BLS.

“Women, Education, and Earning Power” by Jennifer Merritt