The Future of America's Labor Force

The 2010 Census showed that one out of every six Americans is Hispanic. From the 2000 Census to the 2010 Census, more than half of the nation’s population growth was due to Hispanics. According to an article in the Knowledge@Wharton online program of business-related articles (America’s Growing Hispanic Population: Investing in the Future ‘Mainstay of Our Labor Force’) the “burgeoning Hispanic population creates both challenges and opportunities for the future.” Those challenges are listed as:

1. Short term: Hispanics may stimulate business, pump up a weak housing market, replenish an aging work force, and revitalize dying communities.

2. Long term: The country must find a way to educate an increasingly diverse and underprivileged generation of children or lose its competitive edge.

Steve Murdock, a former director of the U.S. Census Bureau and a sociology professor at Rice University, explains how the Hispanic population growth affects our future:

We have to change the educational futures for these kids. Not just for them, frankly, but for all of our benefit [emphasis added]. The bottom line is this: If we do not provide the resources, if we do not invest in these populations at these young ages…we could be poorer and less competitive than we are today. If we do invest, we could be at an advantage.

To subscribe to the Wharton online program, visit http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/.

The Best Hospital for Your Workplace

There are a number of sources on the internet that identify the “best” hospital. Needless to say, the source determining which hospital is the best varies with the interest of the entity doing the rating. Recently, the Huffington Post ranked The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore as the “Best Hospital” in the United States. Two other American hospitals frequently included in the “best” category are Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic.

For those who are too remote from Baltimore or wherever, the internet lists other hospitals in queries like “The Best Hospital in Philadelphia,” “The Best Hospital in Wilmington,” etc. (There are approximately 5,000 hospitals nationwide.)

Hospital ratings are based on two sets of criteria:

1. Statistics (including especially):
fatality rates
patient safety
volume of procedures

2. Specialties (overall ratings are based on the total number of “specialties”):

cancer neurology/neurosurgery cardiology/heart surgery ophthalmology diabetes and endocrinology orthopedics ear, nose, and throat psychiatry

gastroenterology pulmonology geriatrics rehabilitation gynecology rheumatology nephrology urology

But for professionals working in Disability Management programs in the workplace, there are more important issues than best ratings.

The first responsibility of the rehabilitation professional in a Disability Management program is to get the injured worker to the nearest source for emergency treatment. However, after stabilization, the company and the worker’s family may want to consider other feasible treatment options, which might include moving the injured worker to a hospital which specializes in the particular specialty needed.

Disability Management program specialists need to have written procedures for dealing with workplace injuries or illnesses, including the appropriate hospital. Since good hospitals are dynamic and frequently upgrade procedures, workplace professionals need to keep pace.

- Has your company had experiences recently with injured or ill workers who required hospitalization?
- How would you rate your last hospital experience?
- Can you describe your best and worst hospital experiences?

Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being

In 1878, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would give women the right to vote. 42 years later, in 1920, the states ratified the 19th Amendment and women finally were authorized (“franchised”) to vote.

While the 19th Amendment did signal the beginning of gains for women in education and the labor force, it has not yet, 91 years later, translated into wage and income equity. However, there have been gains: for every two men who received a college degree in 2010, three women achieved the same goal.

An in-depth report on the issue, titled Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being, has just been published by a coalition of federal agencies working under the coordination of the Department of Commerce. The report, for the first time in U.S. history, pulls baseline information together from across the Federal statistical agencies.