Moms Look to Part-Time Work

Columbus, Indiana, and Casper, Wyoming top employment list

(NEWSER) - Recession—that's a big-city thing, right? Several mid-size cities around the US are making an argument for their economic superiority, boasting job growth higher than the 1.5% national average in 2011. You may not know these cities well, but the Christian Science Monitor recommends them:

1. Columbus, Indiana: No, not Ohio's Columbus: Indiana's version had 10% growth from 2009 to 2010, making it the best economic rebounder during the Great Recession. Jobs are up 6.4%.

Children of caring mothers have larger hippocampi: study

(NEWSER) - A mother's care may affect the physical development of a child's brain, a study suggests. Researchers found that preschool kids with more nurturing mothers had larger hippocampi than their peers by the time they were school age, reports HealthDay News, via the Philadelphia Inquirer . The hippocampus is a part of the brain that deals with learning and memory, among other functions. The study "provides very powerful evidence of the importance of early nurturing for healthy brain development and has tremendous public health implications," says its author. More»

Hiccuping cat, ambiguous lottery ticket top the list

(NEWSER) - Traffic, poor sleep, and bad weather are the three most common excuses for showing up late to work, according to a nationwide survey of employees and bosses. But what are the most outrageous reasons employees gave in 2011 for being tardy? Here are the top 10, selected by CareerBuilder.com as part of its annual survey: More»

In part because they have to be

(NEWSER) - The good news is that at least one segment of the population has seen its employment statistics actually rise in this economic downturn. The bad news? That segment is older Americans, many of whom are only working because they're afraid they don't have enough savings to retire, the Washington Post reports. Since the start of the recession, the number of workers aged 55 and older has shot up by 3.1 million, or 12%. More»

Jobless apparently using fund as a last resort

(NEWSER) - The ranks of Americans collecting Social Security Disability Insurance payments have swelled dramatically in recent years, and that may be because more people are turning to the program when they can’t find work, the Wall Street Journal reports. Some 10.6 million Americans are now on the program, compared to 7.2 million in 2002. And one recent study shows that the jobless are much more likely to enter the program after they’ve used up their unemployment benefits. More»