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Home  August 18, 2009
August 18, 2009
 | August 18, 2009 |
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Medical
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Written by Jackie Rosselli
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Monday, 17 August 2009 13:33 |
 When the Uniform Retailers Association heads to Las Vegas in October for its third annual show, they'll do so under a cloud of economic uncertainty. "Business is changing, and right now everyone is cautious," says the group's co-founder, Melanie Imlay.
With good reason. Considered recession-proof, the healthcare industry has begun to show cracks in its armor, with several big hospitals announcing layoffs recently. And in February, the number of mass layoffs for hospitals was double what it was a year ago, according to government data. "We're hearing different things from different parts of the country," continues Imlay. "How retailers are doing depends on how big the medical community is in their area."
But the overall picture isn't as dismal as one might expect. More than 16 million people, or one in eight workers on U.S. payrolls, work in health care today. In fact, it's one of the few segments that actually added jobs - about 500,000 – since the start of the recession, according to the Wall Street Journal. While the rate has slowed, the industry still managed to create 17,000 jobs per month in the first three months of this year. "We're very fortunate," says Imlay. "I wouldn't want to be supplying the hospitality sector right now."
Others in the healthcare market appear to share that sense of optimism and good fortune. Interest in the upcoming show is strong, according to Steve Land, another URA co-founder. "In terms of attendees, we're ahead of where we were last year at this time," he notes.
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Last Updated on Monday, 17 August 2009 13:53 |
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Economy
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Written by Joseph Greco, MSOD
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Monday, 17 August 2009 12:35 |
 One of the principle benefits of education is that you can learn from the experience of others. Sure, our own experience will be the most valuable as we tend to remember the lessons we pay dearly for with our personal blood, sweat and tears. But we are apt to experience more and require more answers than we can resolve ourselves. For some reason, I have always been comforted by the fact that someone else has experienced a similar challenge, dilemma or grief before I have. Instead of suffering to determine the answer on my own I can learn how someone else dealt with the situation.
I am going to take a wild, non-researched, guess and figure that the people reading this article are probably past the half way mark in their careers. Based on anecdotal feedback I have received, those readers whom I have encountered fall into this category. Maybe it's just the senior apparel executives that speak with me. During graduate school I read a fascinating book by Harvard professor Robert Kegan. "In Over Our Heads," subtitled "The Mental Demands of Modern Life," was about business careers, and was rooted in a psychological approach to growth and accomplishment. Much is what we normally experience in our careers but have not associated into a coherent framework. There are normal phases in our career growth defined by characteristics that typify each decade from our twenties to our sixties.
If this book had been written more recently, I speculate that Kegan would have extended our expected work life past the standard retirement age of 65. We are, after all, living longer, and in many cases need to earn more than we had anticipated to sustain a suitable or attractive retirement period. We are generally healthier and will outlast the predicted expectations of the Social Security Administration when our savings accounts there were initiated. This can be both positive and negative news depending on one's health and economic status.
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Last Updated on Monday, 17 August 2009 19:32 |
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