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Additional funds for school budgets could help save some Virginia teaching jobs.

The State of Virginia recently announced that $4.1 million in refinancing savings would be distributed to 31 Virginia school divisions. The savings range between $4,760 and $662,686.

The funds are from the Virginia Public School Authority's issuance of $114.2 million in School Financing Refunding Bonds, which were completed on March 12. Schools will receive the funding on July 15 in the form of a one-time credit against their debt service.

"I am delighted that we have been able to provide some additional budget relief for these localities in 2010," Governor Timothy M. Kaine said in a press release. "These savings will be passed through to the localities as a credit, freeing up funds in local budgets."

The school districts in Virginia receiving the savings were participants in four earlier VPSA bond issues that were refunded by 2009 bonds. The amount of savings credit for a locality is determined by the locality's participation in the earlier bond issues. That means the larger the original bond amount, the larger the savings.

The Literary Fund also will receive about $2.86 million in funds, representing savings on local borrowings originally subsidized by the Literary Fund.

The additional funds should help some school districts avoid job cuts because of budget problems. Virginia's education and health services industry employed 442,300 workers during January, according to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is up from 441,700 workers during December 2008 and a 2.6 percent increase from last year.

Labels: Virginia teaching jobs

With the nation's unemployment rate continually increasing and more people switching career paths, taking on second jobs or going back to work, people of all ages are searching for jobs online.

While recent graduates are used to using the Internet as a resource for a variety of tasks, the older generation is beginning to use online job searching to its advantage. According to an article by The Wall Street Journal, about 3.6 million people 65-years and older visited career-development Web sites during January, as reported by Nielsen Online.

While the majority of online job seekers, or 18.7 million, are between the ages of 35 and 49, those 65-years and older were the fastest-growing group, up 41 percent from January 2008.

"(The figures represent) a desire to stay employed longer in order to sock away more retirement savings," Chuck Schilling, Nielsen Online research director, said in the article.

Workers who are 65-years and older made up about 17 percent of the total workforce at the end of 2008, an increase of 12 percent from 1998. The unemployment rate among the same age group is 5.7 percent.

Pew recently reported that those 64 to 72-years old make up 7 percent of the population that uses the Internet. About 45 percent of people aged 70 to 75 used the Internet during 2008, up from 25 percent during 2005, while 56 percent of people aged 65 to 69 used the Internet.

Of those 65 to 69-years old, two out of five have broadband Internet access in their home, four times as many compared to 2005. Of those 70 to 75-years old, one in three have broadband Internet access in their home, three times as many compared to 2005.

While nine out of 10 seniors use the Internet for e-mail, the second-most popular activity is search and research, while seven out of 10 seniors use the Internet to find health information.

Labels: Jobs online