Tag: "unemployment"

Recessions Are Good for Nursing Homes

Nursing homes are chronically understaffed in times of economic prosperity. But…a one percent increase in unemployment sees full time employment in nursing facilities rise three times as fast. After a recession, when the economy picks back up and jobs become available again, low skilled workers abandon nursing homes jobs’ low pay and even fewer accolades for better prospects. The shift of workers in and out of nursing jobs drives the swings in the national death rate and underscores the importance of these under-appreciated jobs.

A look at the relationship between economic downturns and health outcomes in the United States reveals a complex picture: harm from lost insurance and increased anxiety but better care for the elderly. These two trends coexist because, while harm concentrates in working age people, retirees reap the majority of the benefit.

Neal Emery in The Atlantic. HT: Tyler Cowen.

Nov 28, 2012 | 9 comments | by

More on Uncertainty

Our model estimates that uncertainty has pushed up the U.S. unemployment rate by between one and two percentage points since the start of the financial crisis in 2008. To put this in perspective, had there been no increase in uncertainty in the past four years, the unemployment rate would have been closer to 6% or 7% than to the 8% to 9% actually registered.

Study via Timothy Taylor. See our previous post.

Sep 21, 2012 | 6 comments | by

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

Bad news: men are dropping out of the labor force in record numbers: earnings haven’t grown in 40 years.

Mandatory mileage standards are somewhere between 2.4 and 13 times more expensive than a gasoline tax would be. By some calculations, raising fuel-economy standards is more costly than climate change itself.

117,000 Americans get jobless and disability benefits.

Sep 20, 2012 | 9 comments | by

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

Obama says “don’t read too much” into the bad jobs report for the 31st time since November 2009.

Man dies after doc takes lunch during kidney operation.

Shelter mistakenly euthanizes pet dog. How much should the owners be able to sue for?

Sep 11, 2012 | 11 comments | by

Jobs

We’re still down 4.6 M private sector jobs from the employment peak in January 2008, compared to down 407,000 government jobs. For every net lost government job since employment peaked in January 2008, the U.S. economy has lost more than eleven private sector jobs.

That’s the opposite story from the one told by the President. While the U.S. economy has been slowly creating private sector jobs over the past 2 1/4 years, the hole left to fill is overwhelmingly one caused by the destruction of private sector jobs.

The President is right that the public sector is not creating net new jobs because of local layoffs. But by focusing on recent trends and ignoring the nearly nine million private jobs lost before his measurement window began, he is leading us to the wrong conclusion. Even if government job growth were to resume, our economy needs to create millions more private sector jobs to be restored to full health.

Oh, and Paul Krugman is just as wrong as President Obama. Full Keith Hennessey post worth reading.

Jun 13, 2012 | 3 comments | by

Screening Unborn Babies for 3,500 Genetic Faults, and Other Links

Scientists could soon be able to routinely screen unborn babies for 3,500 genetic faults.

App can tell you if you are crazy.

If the health care sector is booming, why are nurses having trouble finding jobs?

Jun 08, 2012 | 5 comments | by

Unskilled Labor, and Other News

Why don’t the unemployed have the skills that employers want?

$20 billion of your tax dollars to promote ObamaCare.

Study: 96% of chain restaurant entrees exceed USDA limits.

“Good cholesterol” not so good: It doesn’t lower your risk of heart disease.

May 25, 2012 | 7 comments | by

The Cost of At-Home Caregiving

The MetLife report said that for the typical woman, the lost wages due to dropping out of the labor force because of adult caregiving responsibilities averages nearly $143,000. That figure reflects the wages lost while not working — typically for about five years — as well as lower wages after returning to the workforce with rusty skills. When foregone pension and Social Security benefits are counted, the out-of-pocket losses roughly double.

Full article by Marilyn Geewax on nursing homes quality service in the NPR.

May 10, 2012 | 5 comments | by

Jobs Matter

There’s plenty of reason to worry about the long-term unemployed. Plenty of evidence suggests that when a person stays unemployed for seven months or more, it becomes harder and harder for him or her to ever return to the workforce.

This is Brad Plumer at Ezra Klein’s blog. Full post is interesting.

May 07, 2012 | 4 comments | by

For the bottom 1%: Prison Release or Factories Behind Bars

David Henderson’s post:

In our prisons today are 2,200,000 people… and their wages are typically about 23 cents an hour. They are, essentially, the bottom 1%. Many of them are there for violent crimes, theft, fraud, and other such things. But hundreds of thousands of them are there for buying, selling, or producing illegal drugs. The drug war has put them there. And we taxpayers are paying $30,000 a year and more to keep them there….

We hear the occupy people advocate taxing the top 1% more. I’ve got a better idea: let’s tax the top 1% less – they’re already paying a disproportionately high share of taxes – and let a few hundred thousand of the bottom 1% percent out of prison and out of their grinding poverty in prison.

And my comment:

And for those who are kept in prison, let’s allow factories behind bars, so that they earn more than 23 cents an hour. Here is the principle: just because a person is imprisoned does not mean he should lose his right to work. In fact, prisoners should be able to work for any employer at any task, consistent with the prison’s need for order and security.

Apr 30, 2012 | 7 comments | by
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