Statistics and Indicators

More than 30% Enrolled in Consumer-Driven Plans Have Household Incomes Over $100,000 a Year

March 18, 2008 -- Washington, D.C.—Enrollment in consumer-driven and high-deductible health plans increased in 2007, but still makes up a small segment of the overall insurance market, according to the third EBRI/Commonwealth Fund Consumerism in Health Care Survey released today.

Enrollment in consumer-driven plans with a tax-advantaged account was 2 percent of the privately insured adults in 2007. One in 10 insured adults had high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) without accounts. The survey also found the percentage of consumer-driven plan enrollees with high incomes (above $100,000) swelled in 2007.    » read more »

March 17, 2008 -- CONCORD - CQ Press today named New Hampshire the “Safest State” in the nation for 2008.

New Hampshire boasts the nation’s lowest murder rate and second-lowest rates for aggravated assault and burglary, according to CQ Press.    » read more »

Washington, D.C.—Growth in the human population abounds despite falling fertility rates, and where it heads in the future will continue to confound demographers, according to the latest Vital Sign Update from the Worldwatch Institute. With the number of women of childbearing age growing and future fertility trends unpredictable, closing the “gender gap”—the difference between women’s health, economic, educational, and political status relative to men—may be one key to slowing population growth.    » read more »

March 5, 2008 - Michigan's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in January decreased by three-tenths of a percentage point to 7.1 percent (December's rate was revised downward by two-tenths of a percentage point from 7.6 to 7.4 as part of the annual revision process), according to data released today by the Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Growth (DLEG). Total employment rose by 33,000 and unemployment fell by 19,000 in January, which resulted in a labor force advance of 14,000 over the month.    » read more »

March 05, 2008 -- FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kentucky’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased from 5.3 percent in December 2007 to 5.2 percent in January 2008, according to the Office of Employment and Training (OET), an agency of the Kentucky Education Cabinet. January 2007’s jobless rate was 5.7 percent.

The U.S. seasonally adjusted jobless rate fell from 5 percent in December 2007 to 4.9 percent in January 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.    » read more »

CHICAGO, March 4, 2008—A report on law school enrollment by the American Bar Association Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar showed that total enrollment by students seeking the Juris Doctor degree, the basic law degree, increased only slightly during 2007-08, while enrollment of first-year students was nearly flat, compared to the previous year.    » read more »

Washington, DC - March 3, 2008 - All 50 states received report cards today evaluating each state government’s performance in serving the public. Grading the States 2008 is the only 50-state assessment of its kind that evaluates and grades each state based on a range of areas, from budget and finance to roads and bridges. The report demonstrates the importance of state governments that work better and cost less, particularly in the wake of widespread budget deficits and a weakening national economy.    » read more »

Washington, DC - 02/28/2008 - For the first time in history more than one in every 100 adults in America are in jail or prison—a fact that significantly impacts state budgets without delivering a clear return on public safety. According to a new report released today by the Pew Center on the States’ Public Safety Performance Project, at the start of 2008, 2,319,258 adults were held in American prisons or jails, or one in every 99.1 men and women, according to the study.    » read more »

Phoenix, AZ – Arizona’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.3% in January, essentially unchanged from a revised rate of 4.2% in December 2007. At the national level, the adjusted unemployment rate also remained relatively level at 4.9%.

Average annual employment growth in 2007 was 1.2%, representing an increase of 31,500 jobs over the 2006 level.    » read more »

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 20, 2008 -- Nearly 45 million (61 percent) of the nation’s 73 million children younger than 18 lived with their biological mother and father in 2004 regardless of the parents’ marital status, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released today.    » read more »

February 21, 2008 -- In the week ending Feb.16, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 349,000, a decrease of 9,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 358,000. The 4-week moving average was 360,500, an increase of 10,750 from the previous week's revised average of 349,750.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.1 percent for the week ending Feb. 9, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate of 2.1 percent.    » read more »

January 25, 2008 -- Union membership in the United States increased by 311,000 to 15.7 million in 2007, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the largest single-year increase in union membership since 1979. Overall union density increased slightly from 12.0 percent to 12.1 percent last year, reversing a trend of decline in recent years.    » read more »

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report indicates union membership increased by 311,000 to 15.7 million in 2007

January 25, 2008 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. — AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee released the following statement in response to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report released today indicating that union membership in the United States increased by 311,000 to 15.7 million – the largest annual increase since 1979:    » read more »

Jan 09, 2008 -- BATON ROUGE - The good news in the 2008 edition of Quality Counts is that Louisiana's strategies to improve the quality of education in our state are considered to be high caliber - in some cases the highest caliber - when compared to other states in the nation. Louisiana's Standards, Assessments and Accountability Program is ranked number two in the United States, according to the report released by Education Week, the nation's foremost K-12 education magazine. The state's effort to improve Teacher Quality ranks number five among the fifty states and the District of Columbia.    » read more »

101,000 Fewer Americans Would Die Annually If the U.S. Improved Its Preventable Death Rate to that of the Three Top Performing Nations

January 8, 2008, Bethesda, MD—The United States places last among 19 countries when it comes to deaths that could have been prevented by access to timely and effective health care, according to new research supported by The Commonwealth Fund and published in the January/February issue of Health Affairs. While other nations dramatically improved these rates between 1997–98 and 2002–03, the U.S. improved only slightly.    » read more »