Source: Janette S. Dill, John Cagle, Journal of Aging and Health, Vol. 22 no 6, September 2010
(subscription required)

From the abstract:
Objectives: High turnover and staff shortages among home care and hospice workers may compromise the quality and availability of in-home care. This study explores turnover rates of direct care workers for home care and hospice agencies.
Results: Home care agencies have higher total turnover rates than hospice agencies, but profit status may be an important covariate. Higher unemployment rates are associated with lower voluntary turnover. Agencies that do not offer health benefits experience higher involuntary turnover.
Conclusion: Differences in turnover between hospice and home health agencies suggest that organizational characteristics of hospice care contribute to lower turnover rates. However, the variation in turnover rates is not fully explained by the proposed multivariate models. Future research should explore individual and structural-level variables that affect voluntary and involuntary turnover in these settings.

Source: Jeanne Geiger-Brown, Alison M. Trinkoff, Journal of Nursing Administration, Vol. 40 no. 9, September 2010
(subscription required)

From the abstract:
This article is part 3 of the series "Pulling the Plug on 12-Hour Shifts." In part 1 (March 2010), the authors provided an update on recent evidence that challenges the current scheduling paradigm and supports the lack of safety of long work hours. Part 2 (April 2010) described the barriers to change and challenges for the nurse executive in moving away from the practice of 12-hour shifts. This article presents strategies for mitigating the effects of 12-hour shifts for nurses who continue to work 12-hour shifts despite the potential risks to their health and to patient safety.

Source: Lawrence Mishel and Monique Morrissey and Harry C. Ballantyne, Economic Policy Institute, Briefing Paper #273, August 2010

From the press release:
Social Security is financially sound through 2036, and modest increases in revenue can close the shortfall expected in 2037, a new analysis by Economic Policy Institute researchers Lawrence Mishel and Monique Morrissey and former Chief Actuary of Social Security Harry C. Ballantyne finds. Furthermore, Social Security cannot add to public debt over the long term because it is prohibited from borrowing.

The analysis, Social Security and the Federal Deficit: Not cause and effect, explains that Congress made reforms to the Social Security system in 1983, when Ballantyne was Chief Actuary, that fully accounted for both Baby Boomer retirements and increases in life expectancy. The long-term finances of Social Security do need to be shored up due to a range of economic factors, including growing wage inequality, but this can be accomplished with an increase in revenues equal to 0.6% of GDP.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, USDL-10-1142, August 19, 2010

A preliminary total of 4,340 fatal work injuries were recorded in the United States in 2009, down from a final count of 5,214 fatal work injuries in 2008. The 2009 total represents the smallest annual preliminary total since the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) program was first conducted in 1992. Based on this preliminary count, the rate of fatal work injury for U.S. workers in 2009 was 3.3 per 100,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers, down from a final rate of 3.7 in 2008. Counts and rates are likely to increase with the release of final 2009 CFOI results in April 2011. Over the last 2 years, increases in the published counts based on information received after the publication of preliminary results have averaged 156 fatalities per year or about 3 percent of the revised totals.

Source: U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, August 2010

Twenty-five years ago, America was recovering from the double-dip recession of the 1980s, and women's role in the labor force was beginning a multi-decade-long period of expansion. Today, as our nation's economy continues down the road to recovery from the Great Recession, women are poised to be the engine of future economic growth. Women comprise half of all U.S. workers, and well over half of all American women are in the labor force. Women's educational attainment outstrips that of men, and women's share of union membership is growing rapidly. Families are increasingly dependent on working wives' incomes in order to make ends meet.

Despite a quarter-century of progress, however, challenges remain. While the pay gap has narrowed over the last 25 years, the average full-time working woman earns only 80 cents for every dollar earned by the average full-time working man. Certain industries remain heavily gender-segregated. In addition, millions of women are struggling to juggle work outside the home with family care-giving responsibilities.

This report, which includes annual data from 1984 through 2009, provides a comprehensive overview of women's economic progress over the last twenty-five years and highlights the additional work left to be done. The role of women in the American economy is of indisputable importance. The future of the American economy depends on women's work, both inside and outside the home.

Source: Jenni Spinner, Public Works, Vol. 141 no. 7, June 2010

Budget shortfalls are nothing new to public agencies, and they're all too familiar to Michigan's Genesee County Parks and Recreation Commission (GCPRC).

McMillan called her team together for a brainstorming session, encouraging employees at every level to spout out ideas that would save just $10 a year. The group started the session with the aim of creating 60 ideas in 60 minutes. But when their hour was up, they'd generated 80 ideas, ranging from reducing the frequency of mowings in some areas, using e-mail rather than the U.S. Postal Service to share information, and letting field employees wear their own jeans rather than agency-purchased uniform pants.

A number of the ideas were put in place that, combined, were expected to save $40,000 over one year. Instead, they saved four times that: $167,000.

The following measures have been taken as result of the cost-cutting ideas generated by the staff of Genesee County Parks.

Source: Sarah Anderson, Chuck Collins, Sam Pizzigati, Kevin Shih, Institute for Policy Studies, 2010

From the summary:
Over 15 million workers were fired from their jobs from January 2007 through December 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Keep that in mind while looking at these numbers from IPS's just-released 17th annual Executive Excess Report, CEO Pay and the Great Recession:

* Fred Hassan, the ex-CEO of Schering-Plough, received a $33 million golden parachute when his firm merged with Merck in late 2009. The merger led to 16,000 workers being fired.
* William Weldon of Johnson & Johnson took home $25.6 million, more than three times as much as the S&P 500 CEO average, at a time when his firm slashed 9,000 jobs and while the company was facing a massive drug recall scandal.
* Mark Hurd of Hewlett-Packard, currently famous for failing to cover up a relationship with a contractor/erotic film star, has been awarded $24.2 million for laying off 6,400 workers. On top of that, he received an additional $28 million in severance.