No abstract

Counseling and pharmacotherapy can promote modest sustained weight loss, improving clinical outcomes. Pharmacotherapy appears safe in the short term; long-term safety has not been as strongly established. In selected patients, surgery promotes large amounts of weight loss with rare but sometimes severe complications.

Recent rapid economic growth in Ireland has been accompanied by a strong surge in the number of women in employment, and this has led to a significant increase in the proportion of dual-earner families. These changes have brought the issue of reconciliation between work and care commitments to the fore. Flexible working arrangements in firms have been identified as one important means of balancing work and other commitments. In this article we investigate the relationship between four flexible working arrangements; flexitime, part-time hours, working from home and job sharing, and two key employee outcomes; work pressure and work-life conflict, using data from the first national survey of employees in Ireland in 2003. Our results show that while part-time work and flexitime tend to reduce work pressure and work-life conflict, working from home is associated with greater levels of both work pressure and work-life conflict. We conclude that it is important to distinguish between flexible working arrangements to discover their potential for reducing work pressure and work-life conflict.

Family and work, Work-life balance, Work conditions, European Social Survey, Job pressure,

National Institute for Health Research and Medical Research Council.

The Institute's research is funded from a variety of sources including: an annual grant-in-aid from the Irish government; competitive research grants (both Irish and international); support for agreed programmes from government departments/agencies and commissioned research projects from public sector bodies. Sponsorship of the Institute's activities by Irish business and membership subscriptions provide a minor source of additional income. The Authors AcknowledgementsThis research was completed as part of a programme of research on Equality funded by the Department of Justice and Equality (DJE). We would like to express our thanks to the members of the steering group for the study, particularly Deaglán O'Broin of the DJE and Ronnie Fay of Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre. We also thank our ESRI colleagues Emer Smyth and Alan Barrett, who provided valuable comments. We are grateful to the Central Statistics Office for making available the micro-census data files for 2006 and 2011 and to the research team of the All Ireland Traveller Health Study, whose data we also use here. We also thank the three anonymous peer reviewers. Neither the DJE, the ESRI nor the CSO is responsible for the content of the report, which is the independent work of the authors. These Acts prohibit discrimination in the provision of goods and services (including accommodation and education), wither in the public or private sector, on any of the nine 'equality' grounds (see Employment Equality Acts, above). A further ground -being in receipt of housing assistance payment -also applies to the provision of accommodation. This report has been accepted for publication by the List of Tables Labour market participationThis involves being in employment (or self-employment) or being available for and actively seeking employment. Multivariate analysisA statistical analysis methodology used when we want to look at the impact of one factor (such as age) on another (such as health problems), after taking account of other differences (such as level of education, gender and so on).Odds ratio This is an indicator of how much more or less likely an outcome is for one group than another. An odds ratio greater than one indicates a greater likelihood, while an odds ratio less than one indicates a lower likelihood. For instance, if the odds ratio for poor health is 1.5 for Travellers compared to Non-Travellers, then Travellers have 50% higher odds of being in poor health. Overall and adjusted riskOverall risk is the actual rate of an outcome in the population (e.g. 12 per cent of Travellers have poor health compared to 9 per cent of non-Travellers). The adjusted risk is the risk we would observe if the groups were similar in respect of other characteristics taken into account in the statistical model (e.g. gender, age group, marital status, education, region, housing). For instance, the adjusted risk of poor health for married Traveller men would be 22 per cent compared to 12 per cent for non-Traveller married men. Traveller-specific accommodationThis...

Current levels of youth unemployment need to be understood in the context of increased labor market flexibility, an expansion of higher education, youth migration, and family legacies of long-term unemployment. Compared with previous recessions, European-wide policies and investments have significantly increased with attempts to support national policies. By mapping these developments and debates, we illustrate the different factors shaping the future of European labor markets. We argue that understanding youth unemployment requires a holistic approach that combines an analysis of changes in the economic sphere around labor market flexibility, skills attainment, and employer demand, as well as understanding the impact of family legacies affecting increasingly polarized trajectories for young people today. The success of EU policy initiatives and investments will be shaped by the ability of national actors to implement these effectively.

Ireland is experiencing the worst recession since the foundation of the state, and the effects on the labour market have been dramatic. This article explores the impact of recession for those still in employment by examining work pressure, using two large, nationally representative workplace surveys from 2003 (boom) and 2009 (recession). We find a significant increase in work pressure between 2003 and 2009. Staff reductions and company reorganization are both associated with increased work pressure, as is current job insecurity. Other job changes, like large pay cuts, increases in responsibility and monitoring are also associated with increased work pressure. We argue that negative organizational and job changes in the previous two years play an important role in accounting for the rise in work pressure.