The top three occupations with the most new job openings in California for the month of August were grounds maintenance workers with 3,366 new openings, cashiers with 3,643 new openings, and managers, all other with 3,687 new openings.
August 2014
| Month | Occupation | Total_Openings | New_Openings |
| Aug-14 | Grounds maintenance workers | 6,868 | 3,366 |
| Aug-14 | Cashiers | 9,288 | 3,643 |
| Aug-14 | Managers, all other | 9,939 | 3,687 |
Source: BLS
California
California experienced a decrease of 3,814 job openings from July 2014 to August 2014, a 0.67% monthly decrease.
| Month | Total_Openings | Monthly_Change | Yearly_Change |
| Aug-14 | 566,834 | -0.67% | 27.78% |
| Jul-14 | 570,648 | 6.01% | 27.68% |
| Jun-14 | 538,310 | 0.55% | 16.09% |
| May-14 | 535,368 | -5.24% | 20.85% |
| Apr-14 | 565,001 | 23.20% | 26.68% |
| Mar-14 | 458,591 | 2.14% | -2.59% |
| Feb-14 | 448,997 | -4.13% | 0.79% |
| Jan-14 | 468,361 | 20.57% | 11.64% |
| Dec-13 | 388,443 | -5.47% | -9.36% |
| Nov-13 | 410,918 | -14.15% | 16.93% |
| Oct-13 | 478,665 | 7.91% | 24.94% |
| Sep-13 | 443,593 | -0.75% | 0.01% |
Texas
Texas experienced a decrease of 4,548 job openings from July 2014 to August 2014, a 1.23% monthly decrease.
| Month | Total_Openings | Monthly_Change | Yearly_Change |
| Aug-14 | 364,236 | -1.23% | 27.59% |
| Jul-14 | 368,784 | 7.36% | 28.75% |
| Jun-14 | 343,517 | 0.21% | 14.99% |
| May-14 | 342,800 | -5.20% | 20.03% |
| Apr-14 | 361,597 | 22.06% | 25.80% |
| Mar-14 | 296,241 | 3.08% | -1.95% |
| Feb-14 | 287,386 | -5.31% | 1.30% |
| Jan-14 | 303,498 | 20.51% | 12.47% |
| Dec-13 | 251,841 | -4.38% | -8.61% |
| Nov-13 | 263,377 | -14.41% | 16.67% |
| Oct-13 | 307,730 | 7.80% | 25.44% |
| Sep-13 | 285,468 | -0.34% | 0.57% |
Source: BLS
The new data files released by the CMS regarding the payments made to U.S. medical doctors by drug and medical device manufacturers contains a treasure trove of information. However, the large size of the data will limit the use and the nuggets that can mined for some.
Using the statistical program STATA, which is generally one of the fastest and most efficient ways to handle large data sets, required an allocation of 6G of RAM memory to just read in the program. STATA is efficient at handling large wage and hour, employment, and business data sets (like ones with many daily prices)
The table below shows what STATA required in terms of memory to be able to read the data:
Current memory allocation
current memory usage
settable value description (1M = 1024k)
——————————————————————–
set maxvar 5000 max. variables allowed 1.947M
set memory 6144M max. data space 6,144.000M
set matsize 400 max. RHS vars in models 1.254M
———–
6,147.201M
Overall, across established and new patients, VA wait times are actually not that out of line with other types of hospitals.
Highlights from the June 2014 VA wait time data,
Average VA wait time across hospitals and specialities: 22.78 days.
96% of VA patients have a wait time of 30 days or less to see a physician (significantly less for established patients (most less than 4 days))
Nearly 85% of 141 VA hospitals in the data have wait times less than 30 days
Longer wait times are concentrated in 15 out of 141 VA hospitals
In comparison, Merrit Hawkins 2014 study on hospital wait times for non-VA hospitals finds:
– Finds 18.5 day avg. wait times for all medical specialties, which is about 4 days shorter than wait times at VA hospitals
– Wait times vary significantly by location
The U.S. rig count was 1,931 in September 2014, up from 1,914 in August 2014; Texas rig count was 896 in September 2014, down from 900 in August 2014; The Eagle Ford Shale rig count was 207 in September 2014, up from 203 in August 2014.
Source:Baker Hughes
The top three occupations with the most new job openings in Texas for the month of August were elementary and middle school teachers with 221.93 new openings, waiters and waitresses with 230.08 new openings, and cooks with 236.90 new openings.
August 2014
| Date | Occupation | Total_Openings | New_Openings |
| Aug-14 | Elementary and middle school teachers | 3,594.52 | 221.93 |
| Aug-14 | Waiters and waitresses | 4,610.36 | 230.08 |
| Aug-14 | Cooks | 4,963.26 | 236.90 |
Source: BLS
Another preliminary finding from our research on VA wait times suggest that really long wait times at VA hospitals are concentrated at a few VA hospitals. A significant amount of Vets (about 20%) are found at these hospitals with long wait times.
The graph below presents a histogram of VA wait times for Vets waiting more than 90 days for a new appoint
The number of job openings in California for nurses, therapists, and physician assistants increased from 16,429 in July 2014 to 16,994 in August 2014. The searcher-to-job opening ratio decreased from 2.10 to 1.90 in the same span.
Source: BLS
Image source: http://pediatric-nurse-practitioners.blogspot.com/2012/12/top-5-cardiac-care-nursing-jobs-for-we.html
The Center for Medical and Medicaid Services (CMS) new Open Payments database shows the consulting fees, research grants, travel and other reimbursements made to medical industry in 2013
There are 2,619,700 payments in the CMS data made to 356,190 physicians. The average payment made to physicians was $255.22. The median payment was $15.52
Table 1: Summary of Payments – STATA output
The physicians received an average total of $1,877.11 in payments. The median total payment for the 356,190 physicians in the data was $94.15
Table 2: Summary of Payments – STATA output
Below is the STATA code for the results:
count gen
bysort phy: gen hj =_n
bysort physician_p: gen hj =_n
sum hj, det
count if hj==1
sum tot, det
bysort physician_p: egen hj2 = tot(total)
bysort physician_p: egen hj2 = total(total_am)
sum hj2
sum hj2, det
sort physcian_p
sort physician_p
sum hj2 if _n==1, det
sum hj, det
sum hj2 if hj==1, det
The number of job openings in California for “Innovation Type Jobs” decreased from 25,143 in July 2014 to 24,132 in August 2014. The searcher-to-job opening ratio also decreased from 1.09 to 1.06 in the same span.
Innovation jobs definition: http://www.employstats.com/blog/2014/09/26/1233/
Image source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2013/09/23/symposium-innovation-ecosystems-jobs-wea.html