News In Brief

MIDDAY UPDATE: Groupon, unemployment, college admissions

Katharine Crnko Dec 29, 2010

Venture capital Groupon may raise $950 million from private investors to fuel its growth. This comes after recently turning down a $6 billion buyout offer from Google. Analysts read this as an example of how much demand there is for Groupon’s product — daily deals on local businesses. As the company expands globally, Mitchell Hartman says “the potential’s huge.”

The Bureau of Labor Statistics plans to change the way the government measures unemployment. Until recently, the unemployed could only list their length of unemployment in double digits, so if a person was unemployed for a length of time longer than 100 weeks, it was recorded as 99. The Bureau intends to change the system beginning in January, which will likely cause the jobless number — currently at 9.8 percent — to spike up.

And finally, the college application process can be stressful on both parents and teenagers. To avoid stress and conflict, and increase a student’s chances at attending their dream school, more parents are turning to a professional education consultant to help with the application process.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.