economy

If you're grumbling about your grocery bill, you might want to check out this Buzzfeed video that shows how far $5 goes in different countries. You'll quickly realize that there isn't that much of a difference in food prices between first-world countries.

It's interesting to see the huge disparity in food prices between developing nations and countries with a higher cost of living. For example, $5 gets you only eight pounds of potatoes in the US while scoring you 31 pounds of potatoes in Ethiopia.

It's not you, it's the city. If you're struggling on the job-search front, perhaps it's time to go look at greener pastures — in cities with better job prospects.

Of course, moving for a job has its pitfalls; you're taking a big risk if you don't have a job lined up in the city before you move. But maybe the smarter strategy to take is to start looking for jobs in the cities with good job growth, if you haven't been already.

Ready to get started on job hunting in a new area? Lucky for you, Forbes compiled a list of top cities for good jobs from analyzing data like job growth and unemployment rate in 100 metropolitan cities. Here are the winners:

1. Dallas, TX: The five-year job growth rate is 2.8 percent. It added thousands of jobs last year and continues to add jobs to the financial services, energy, and health care sectors.
2. Houston, TX: The five-year job growth rate is 2.6 percent, and Houston continues to grow as America's energy capital.
3. Austin, TX: The five-year job growth rate is 3.2 percent, and jobs are expected to be added in the tech industry, government, education, and construction.
4. Fort Worth, TX: The five-year job growth rate is 2.6 percent. There are a lot of job prospects with defense contractors and energy companies.
5. Seattle, WA: The five-year job growth rate is 1.9 percent. Tech wages are expected to grow as well as the education industry. Boeing continues to be a strong employer.
6. San Antonio, TX: The five-year job growth rate is 2.6 percent. There are a lot of gains seen in energy, construction, and the leisure and hospitality sectors.
7. Oklahoma City, OK: The five-year job growth rate is 1.7 percent. There's a lot of job growth seen in financial services, hospitality, transportation, and utilities.
8. Denver, CO: The five-year job growth rate is 2.1 percent. The financial services, hospitality, and education industries seem to be rebounding.
9. San Francisco, CA: The five-year job growth rate is 1.9 percent. This is the perfect city for you if you're looking for a job in the informational technology or professional services industry.
10. Salt Lake City, UT: The five-year job growth rate is 1.9 percent. The city is expected to add 60,000 jobs by 2020.

We're happy to present this article from our partner site Yahoo Shine!:

The US economy may be on the mend, but that hasn't stopped it from influencing a generation in an unexpected way: for the first time ever, an annual survey of college freshman has found that first-year students are more focused on their job prospects than their party plans.

According to the "2012 Freshman Norms report," conducted by UCLA's Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) each year since 1966, only 33 percent of college freshman reported drinking beer in 2012, down from 35.4 percent in 2011 and far lower than the 73.7 percent who were knocking back drinks in 1982, when many of their own parents were in college.

Read on to find out if college freshmen are more focused on potential jobs than partying.

Contrary to conspiracy theorists' fears, the world did not end on Dec. 20 as predicted by the Mayan calendar. But that won't stop companies from capitalizing on the apocalypse! Our partners at LearnVest break down the disaster economy.

Watch out! There's a giant asteroid coming your way!

Just kidding. Maybe.

According to some interpretations of the Mayan calendar, [Dec. 20, 2012, was] supposedly the end of the world. But even if you believe that you'll live to toast a new year, you may be eyeing another apocalyptic scenario on the horizon:

• Economic collapse
• Environmental disaster brought on by global warming (you know, freak snowstorms, hurricanes, and flooding)
• Third World War and/or nuclear holocaust
• Rogue meteor
• The Rapture
• Zombie apocalypse
• We are definitely missing something here . . .

Welcome to the apocalypse economy, which can equip you with everything that you could possibly need to survive in the event that any of the above scenarios happen.

Related: Which Costs More: Preventing Climate Change or Dealing With Its Effects?

And as with any growing trend, there are entrepreneurs ready to help. What used to be canned food and the occasional Cold War disaster bunker has grown into a multimillion-dollar-a-year disaster economy that can supply you with a year’s worth of organic, freeze-dried food in your luxury bunker.

Seem far-fetched? Not to the people selling and buying these products.

The disaster market is hard to define, since many products needed for emergencies are normal things like flashlights and duct tape. But the owner of the Ready Store, which sells everything from backpacks stuffed with emergency supplies to portable toilets, estimates that this consumer market makes around $500 million annually.

That said, there are essentially two different types of disaster economies: the End-of-the-World sort and the Natural Disaster sort. Let us explain. Head to LearnVest for the full scoop on Apocalypse Inc.

Check out more from LearnVest:

10 Things Everyone Should Know How to Do by 30
The Power of Purposeful Thinking: How I Thought My Way Out of $60,000 in Debt
Become the Ultimate Wine Connoisseur in 4 Easy Steps
Widowed at 26: How Life Insurance Became My Lifeboat

The rigors of Europe's economic crisis are starting to have an effect on Manolo Blahnik's business, and he's worried that "the savoir-faire is going to go" out of the shoes he creates.

Blahnik told WWD that some suppliers he used to work with are shutting down or outsourcing as a way to deal with financial stresses.

"Some of the people are just gone," he said. "A buckle place near Milan that I used to work with very closely, they are going to close everything and move somewhere outside Hong Kong. I find it very difficult to deal with this, all the more because the priorities, the necessities of rich people, God bless them, is to be interested in what we do. But it's sad. If this situation is not resolved quickly, many people are going to suffer. The savoir-faire is going to go."

Still, Blahnik hasn't lost his zest for design. "It's something that I do with passion and with such pleasure that it's not even work," he said.

We've heard the term "private equity" bandied around many times in the media — more than usual — ever since Mitt Romney became the Republican Party's nominee for president. But what does it really mean? Better inform yourself on Romney's past career as the cofounder of Bain Capital, a billion-dollar private equity investment firm he ran for 15 years, by learning more about this type of finance company:

What is a private equity firm?

It's a term often used in the field of finance to describe a company that invests in another company by buying it out or buying a stake in the company. It generally prefers to have total or significant control of the direction of the company it invests in. The private equity firm will usually have multiple companies in their portfolio.

Where do they get the money to invest?

The private equity firm raises money from institutions such as endowment funds and pension funds, money from wealthy individuals, and the managers of the firm to create the fund. Before they invest in a company, they will borrow money from the banks to pool with their fund.

Read on for more.

If you're looking for a salary boost, then perhaps you need to pack your bags and move to another city. The Atlantic parsed through data by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics to come up with a list of cities that have done the best in terms of raises from 2006 to 2011.

• Champaign-Urbana, IL: $11,250
• Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV: $10,460
• San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA: $9,890
• Fairbanks, AK: $9,480
• Corvallis, OR: $9,340
• San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA: $9,140
• Madera, CA: $8,950
• Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT: $8,900
• Durham, NC: $8,760:
• Iowa City, IA: $8,750

Would you ever pack up and move to an area with more salary growth? If you're considering it, then here are some of our tips on finding a job in another city.

One of the reasons you're having a tough time looking for a job could be that there simply is a lack of jobs where you live. Money magazine recently compiled a list of counties that have seen the biggest job growth in 2010 to 2011. This growth is attributed to factors like good location or tax structures conducive to companies, which make it more attractive for firms to either set up shop or further expand their operations in the area. Here are 15 counties that have seen the largest amount of jobs created last year.

1. Loudoun County, VA: 83.6 percent job growth
2. Fort Bend County, TX: 78.1 percent job growth
3. Williamson County, TX: 73.8 percent job growth
4. Montgomery County, TX: 63.5 percent job growth
5. Douglas County, CO: 58.6 percent job growth
6. Collin County, TX: 55.9 percent job growth
7. Denton County, TX: 53.4 percent job growth
8. Prince William County, VA: 48.6 percent job growth
9. Suffolk County, VA: 43 percent job growth
10. Williamson County, TN: 40.3 percent job growth
11. Sarpy County, NE: 39.4 percent job growth
12. Wake County, NC: 36.5 percent job growth
13. Faulkner County, AR: 35 percent job growth
14. Houston County, GA: 29.9 percent job growth
15. Bonneville County, ID: 28.1 percent job growth

Would you ever pack up and move to an area with more jobs? If you're considering it, here are some of our tips on finding a job in another city.