February 13 2015
This was a big week for Commerce and the work we are
doing to help businesses and entrepreneurs with the tools they need to grow and
hire. At a time of increasing economic expansion, Secretary Pritzker spoke
at the Kauffman Foundation's 2015 State of Entrepreneurship on Wednesday to
talk about the power of entrepreneurs and small businesses to America’s
economy. She noted that many of the Department’s core responsibilities help
create the essential infrastructure of opportunity for entrepreneurs – issuing
patents that protect intellectual property, investments in local economic
development, collecting and disseminating data to inform better decision
making, expanding access to broadband, and protecting a free and open Internet.
She also highlighted a number of new ways that the Department of Commerce is
helping entrepreneurs through the launch of Startup Global and a partnership
between our Census Bureau and the Kaufmann Foundation to better measure the
power of entrepreneurship.
Today, Secretary Pritzker accompanied President Obama to
the White House Cyber Security Summit at Stanford University, where she
detailed the important work NIST is doing with the Cybersecurity
Framework. Many companies and governments are increasing their adoption of
this framework as the de facto blueprint to better cyber security
protections. Leading a panel of top U.S. CEOs and experts, Secretary
Pritzker also discussed the important work the Department is doing on our
skilled workforce initiative, given there are more than 200,000 current job
openings in cyber security positions throughout the country.
Another key part of Secretary Pritzker’s trip to the west
coast this week included a visit to DODOcase, a San Francisco-based
manufacturer of high-quality cases for tablets and smart phones. During
her tour of the company’s manufacturing facility, Secretary Pritzker met with
area business leaders to highlight the importance of trade and exports to our
nation. DODOcase products are handmade in San Francisco and when the company
opened in April 2010, the same day the iPad was released in the United States,
they only had two employees. Today, their workforce has grown to 22 workers and
30 percent of their business has been to customers overseas, which means that
exports have been part of the company's business model and success from the
start. This visit demonstrates that as 95 percent of the world’s consumers live
outside U.S. borders, the prosperity of American businesses and workers is
directly tied to their ability to reach new markets and new customers. That
is why President Obama has made increased trade a key focus of his plan to
create sustainable economic growth for American workers and is pushing for
trade promotion legislation as well as the completion of new, high-standard
trade agreements that uphold our values and open new markets to American goods
and services.
The Departments of Commerce and Homeland Security also
released a report today to President Obama, titled “Supporting Travel and
Tourism to Grow Our Economy and Create More Jobs: a National Goal on the
International Arrivals Process and Airport-Specific Action Plans.” The report
establishes a national goal: “The United States will provide a best-in-class
arrival experience, as compared to our global competitors, to an
ever-increasing number of international visitors while maintaining the highest
standards of national security.” This goal was developed through extensive
consultation with leaders from the airline, hospitality and travel industries,
airport authorities, and state and local governments. This effort announced
today also includes a new interagency task force, co-chaired by the Deputy
Secretaries of Commerce and Homeland Security, to engage a broad array of
industry stakeholders to identify the factors that drive a traveler’s
perception of the international arrivals experience and decision to visit the
United States. It also includes 17 airport specific plans to simplify and streamline
the entry process. Keep in mind that in the last five years more than 333
million international visitors have traveled to the United States. Growth
in spending from these visitors during this period has supported roughly
280,000 new American jobs. Preliminary estimates show the United States
welcomed a record 74 million international visitors in 2014 alone, and these
travelers spent a record $222 billion, supporting 1.1 million jobs.
In other Commerce news, BEA produced new statistics that
will make an impact when it comes to measuring America’s economy; NOAA’s Deep
Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) lifted off from Cape Canaveral; and NTIA has
been working hard on making more federal spectrum available for commercial use.
As you can see, we are working hard to keep America more
open for business.
Enjoy the long weekend!
-Jim
Remarks
from U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker at the Kauffman Foundation's
2015 State of Entrepreneurship Address- In her remarks, Secretary Pritzker discussed key ways
that the Department of Commerce is working to support entrepreneurship at home
and abroad: from the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship to
the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation to efforts to build regional
ecosystems across the nation.
Report
to the President on America’s National Travel and Tourism Goal- Over the
last five years, more than 333 million international visitors have traveled to
the United States. Growth in spending from these visitors during this period
has supported roughly 280,000 new American jobs.
Secretary
Pritzker Tours DODOcase and Highlights Successful San Francisco Exporters- U.S.
Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker visited DODOcase, a San Francisco-based
manufacturer of high-quality cases for electronics like tablets and smart
phones. During her tour, Secretary Pritzker met with company executives
and spoke with other San Francisco area business leaders about the importance
of trade and exports to businesses' ability to grow and hire.
U.S.
Census Bureau Releases Key Statistics for Valentine's Day- Expressing one’s
love to another is a celebrated custom on Valentine’s Day. Opinions differ
as to who was the original Valentine, but the most popular theory is that he
was a clergyman who was executed for secretly marrying couples in ancient Rome.
BEA
Constantly Innovates to Produce New Statistics Measuring the U.S. Economy- The Bureau of
Economic Analysis is producing new economic statistics over the course of this
year that offer businesses and households additional tools to make informed
decisions and illustrate BEA’s innovative approach to better measure the dynamic
U.S. economy.
NOAA
Identifies Six Nations Engaging in Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing-
Kathryn Sullivan, Ph.D., Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere,
and NOAA’s administrator at the SeaWeb Seafood Summit in New
Orleans released a new NOAA report that identified six nations- Colombia,
Ecuador, Mexico, Nigeria, Nicaragua, and Portugal -- as engaging in illegal,
unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU).
Supporting
Wireless Innovation Through a “Model City”- The demand for wireless devices
in all sectors of our lives- from smartphones to smart utility meters - is
driving the exploding demand for access to spectrum. By 2019, Cisco predicts
there will be a seven-fold increase in data traffic.
Northern
California MBDA Business Centers Help Minority Entrepreneurs Enter Technology
Transfer, Innovation Market- Led by National Director Alejandra Castillo, the Minority
Business Development Agency (MBDA) has been collaborating with
the San Francisco MBDA Business Center (SFMBC), operated
by ASIAN, Inc., to advance a groundbreaking technology transfer and
innovation agenda.
NOAA
Launches New Deep Space Solar Monitoring Satellite- NOAA’s Deep Space
Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, last
night at 6:03 p.m. EST on its way to an orbit one million miles from
Earth. DSCOVR will give NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction
Center forecasters more reliable measurements of solar wind conditions,
improving their ability to monitor potentially harmful solar activity.
Secretary
Pritzker Visits New York City’s Flatiron School to See Innovative Approach to
Skills Training- Last week in New York City, U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny
Pritzker learned about the Flatiron Schools’ innovative approach to skills
training. Secretary Pritzker spoke with students, employers and business
leaders, who are involved with the school about the importance of job-driven
workforce development.
Cyber Security in Central and Eastern Europe:
business opportunities and challenges explored in upcoming webinar and
trade mission- Cyber
security plays an important role in ensuring the protection of an
organization’s vital security properties against security risks in the
ever-expanding cyber environment. The damaging effects of cyber threats can be
felt throughout many levels in a business or organization, and the effects can
quickly spill over across borders.
Recognizing
U.S. Exports; Celebrating U.S. Exporters- When it comes to U.S. exports,
there has been a lot of good news this month. For the fifth consecutive year,
the United States has set a record for exports, and that trend continues
to support our economic recovery.
Expanding
the Benefits of Broadband in Mississippi- The National Telecommunications
and Information Administration’s BroadbandUSA team convened a productive
workshop in Jackson, Miss., last week to explore ways to close the digital
divide in a state that continues to expand broadband connectivity and adoption.
What
Does It Take to Clean up the Cleanup From an Oil Spill?- The International
Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF) did a study on this very
topic, looking at the oil-to-waste ratio for nearly 20 spills. (A messy
job, for sure.) ITOPF found that the general rule for estimating waste at oil
spills still held true at about 10 times the amount spilled.
USPTO
Trade Secret Symposium- On January 8, 2015, the USPTO held a trade secret
symposium at USPTO headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. The public event
featured experts from academia, law, private industry, and the government
discussing the importance of trade secrets to innovators.
Hack
Housing Spurs Private Sector Innovation through Open Data- Over 200
software developers, designers and makers gathered at the Zillow headquarters for
“Hack Housing”, a hackathon co-hosted by Zillow and the University of
Washington. Teams of programmers spent the weekend using open data to build
apps that help people find affordable, accessible places to live – and pitching
their products in competition for a $10,000 top prize.
The Economic and Statistics Administration wrote Data
Snapshot: Which states are leading the way in manufacturing and which pay the
most? on their blog this week.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis wrote BEA Constantly Innovates to Produce New
Statistics Measuring the U.S. Economy on their blog this week.
December 2014
sales of merchant wholesalers were $449.8 billion, down 0.4 percent from
last month. End-of-month inventories were $547.6 billion, up 0.1 percent from
last month.
U.S. retail and
food services sales for January were $439.8 billion, a decrease of 0.8
percent from the previous month but up 3.3 percent above January 2014. Total
sales for the November 2014 through January 2015 period were up 3.8 percent
from the same period a year ago. The November to December 2014 percent change
was unrevised from -0.9 percent.
U.S. total
business end-of-month inventories for December 2014 were $1,764.4 billion,
up 0.1 percent from last month. U.S. total business sales were $1,331.2
billion, down 0.9 percent from last month.
Commerce Data in the News:
The Wall Street
Journal cites Census Bureau statistics on state government finances to
report that state governments in fiscal 2013 had $20.38 billion in lottery
revenue in the article, Big
Powerball Draw Gives Boost to States.
The New York Times
cites Census Bureau statistics on marriage to report that married women and men
tend to be much better off financially than those who are unmarried, and that
those who have fewer assets and more debt early on are less likely to marry or
have stable marriages than those who are more financially secure in the article,
Falling
Marriage Rates Reveal Economic Fault Lines.
Data Releases Next Week: Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales: 2014 Q4; New Residential Construction:
January 2015 (Census)
On Saturday, MBDA National Director Alejandra Castillo will participate
on a panel at the Minority and Women Business Enterprise (MWBE) - Our Vision,
Our Opportunity event in Albany, NY. She will provide guidance on how MWBEs can
gain greater access to capital and contracts.
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Commerce will be closed in
observance of Washington’s Birthday (President’s Day).
Also on Monday, Assistant Secretary for Economic Development Jay
Williams will deliver the closing keynote about the Administration’s economic
development agenda at the 2015 Shaping our Appalachian Region (SOAR) Strategy
Summit “Creating our Future: Regional Strategies for Economic Growth” in
Pikeville, KY.
From February 17-19, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Regional
Affairs Tom Guevara and Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Director
Julie Kirk will participate in the Global Innovation Summit in Palo Alto, CA,
to speak about Administration efforts to advance American innovation and
entrepreneurship.
From February 18-19, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for
Industry and Analysis Marcus D. Jadotte will participate in the Aero India
Aerospace and Defense show in Bangalore, India, where he will help open the
pavilion, meet with American exhibitors, and promote collaboration between
Indian and American companies. He will also meet with Indian government
officials and advocate for American firms, as appropriate.
Secretary
Pritzker delivering remarks on the leadership of the Department of Commerce
and the entire Obama Administration in promoting entrepreneurship across the
U.S. at the 2015 State of Entrepreneurship Address, hosted by the Kauffman
Foundation.
Bonus Photo of the Week:
Secretary
Pritzker’s DODOcase that she
designed when she visited their factory in San Francisco. DODOcase is a manufacturer
of high-quality cases for electronics. The company’s manufacturing facility not
only signifies ingenuity within the American manufacturing sector, but also the
importance of trade and exports to their ability to grow and hire.
Jack
Markell, Governor of Delaware, believes foreign direct investment - one of SelectUSA’s
key priorities - will create more jobs “right here at home.”
Declining
Drive-Ins- The Census Bureau posted a graphic that showed the number of
places to watch a movie from your car since 1954. The graphic accompanies the
latest release from the 2012 Economic Census Industry Series - this one
involving the motion picture and video distribution industry.
| 
Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page.
