Month: January 2017

When was the last time you got away? While 78% of executives believe that vacations are necessary for preventing burnout, recent studies have shown that Americans are failing to heed their own advice when it comes to effective stress management. A recent Bankrate survey found that a whopping 52% of Americans who received paid vacation time in 2016 failed to use it all. In fact, 30% of those employees with paid vacation time stated that they would have anywhere from … Continue reading “A Nation of Workaholics: More Than Half of the American Workforce Fails To Use Vacation Days”

Nearly 40 million people visit Chicago every year, but it doesn’t appear that a lot of them are sticking around. According to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau report, between July 2015 and July 2016, 114,144 Illinois residents moved out of state. Most American adults (57%) have never lived outside of their home state. On the other hand,15% have lived in four or more states. Over the past three years, the exodus out of Illinois increased from one resident every … Continue reading “Why Over 114,000 People Left Illinois in Just 12 Months”

There are approximately 110 million emergency room visits annually, and a number of those may be a result of bird flu concerns in the Czech Republic. The disease was recently discovered on two poultry farms and in several swans in the southeast. Several tests performed on the infected birds confirmed that a highly contagious strain of the disease, known as H5, was present. Additional testing determined that the “assumed” N8 sub-type was also present in the birds. The areas of … Continue reading “Bird Flu Discovered in Swans and Poultry Farms in Czech Republic”

According to Zillow, U.S. home values are rising at a rapid rate and are currently on the verge of reaching their 2007 peak. Over the 12-month period that ended in November, home values increased 6.5%, marking the fastest annual growth rate since August 2006. The median U.S. home is currently valued at $192,500, which is only 2% below the high point of 2007. Zillow cites consumer demand and a short supply of homes as the cause of this trend, particularly … Continue reading “U.S. Home Values Reach Highest Point Since 2007”