Workplace Buzz: Today’s Headlines

Workplace Buzz on November 19, 2007 7:10 AM

Another Workplace Issue: Arthritis
Often thought of as a condition affecting grandparents and retirees with creaking joints, there are multiple kinds of arthritis, many of which - like rheumatoid - affect young people, said Mary Wright, occupational therapist at the Arthritis and Osteoporosis Center at Toledo Hospital. About a third of Americans with arthritis say the condition has limited their ability to work, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released last month. And as the U.S. population ages and starts dealing with osteoarthritis, the most common form, the condition will become a bigger issue for both employers and employees, said Dr. Harvey Popovich, an occupational medicine physician with Mercy Health Partners. Toledoblade.com

Gender Equity
Most businesspeople can cite the factors for smart economic growth: access to money, reasonable interest rates, sensible government policies. Andrew Morrison, a senior economist with the World Bank, adds another: gender equity. "Gender equity matters because it's a matter of intrinsic fairness," said Morrison, brother of Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce President Chip, who did the introductions at this month's Great Falls Forum. "A second argument ... is that it is not only unfair, it's inefficient. The converse to gender inequality is smart economics." Sun Journal

Career Penalty
With women delaying marriage and parenthood in favor of higher education and better careers, never in California's history have so many remained childless through their childbearing years. One in four women in California are now childless in their early 40s - nearly double the rate in 1980, the highest since record-keeping began in 1870, and a significantly higher rate than for the United States overall. And yet, never have so many Californians given birth in their 40s. With teen birth rates continuing to drop, the bulk of childbearing is moving out of the teens and 20s and into the 30s - or later. Birth rates for women in their early 40s have tripled over the past two decades, for reasons both social and economic. Mercury News

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