May 7, 2008 9:59

Is the slowdown forcing you back to work?

Here's an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal today: apparently,

The ailing economy is helping to ease the nursing shortage.

Why? Simple:

With house prices falling and the cost of gasoline and food rising, many nurses are going back to work, in some cases to make up for the income of a spouse who has lost a job. Hospitals say part-time nurses are taking on extra shifts. And nursing schools are seeing an increase in people applying for refresher courses on the ins and outs of modern hospitals. Some older nurses are putting off a planned retirement.

This made me wonder if the economic slowdown—note how I'm conceding to economists' strict (and Bush's delusional) definition of what is and isn't a recession—is forcing other moms back to work. Because, let's face it, the vast majority of nurses are women. I'm sure each has her personal reasons for halting work, but I wager many, like my sister, did so to stay home and raise children. If her husband lost his job, you bet your scrubs she'd be back in a pediatric cancer ward in no time.

That's where nurses are in luck; their skills are in such demand that they can unpause their careers practically anytime. What about you? Any stay-at-home parents forced to return to jobs by the price of Wonderbread? Or part-timers going full-time? Freelancers going 9-to-5?