By the Numbers: Rising Interest Rates and Access to Mental Healthcare

Each week, the Mployer Advisor team parses through dozens of reports, industry news, updates, and headlines. Not every statistic or data set warrants an exclusive blog post, but there are numbers that deserve to be reported on a smaller scale.     

Here are some of the top numbers that caught our attention over the past two weeks.

0.75%

The U.S. Federal Reserve announced that interest rates will be raised by three-fourths of a percentage point in order to combat raging inflation. This is the single largest jump in interest rates in 28 years; even still, inflation will likely continue to affect millions of Americans across the nation for months to come. Check out this article for more detail on this economic shift.  

$4,000

In light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, employers–predominantly larger employers specifically–have announced the decision to extend travel-related reimbursements for employees forced to travel out of state or long distances to receive abortions. According to a recent post from HR Executive, $4,000 is the amount of money that companies like Amazon will reimburse.  

Although the reimbursement caps vary from $3,000 to $10,000 depending on the employer, other companies such as PayPal, Netflix, Levi Strauss, Starbucks, Tesla, the Walt Disney Company, JPMorgan Chase, and Dick’s Sporting Goods announced similar decisions to extend the benefit to their workforce. If you want more information on this topic, you can listen to our most recent episode of “This Week in Benefits,” as well as a past episode on the trend toward extending unconventional employee benefits.  

15

This number represents the cities with newer tech hubs that have shown a notable increase in tech talent since 2019. San Diego, California, is ranked as the city with the highest increase at 38.6%, followed by Cape Coral, Florida, at 38.4% and Austin, Texas, with an increase of 36.9%. To see the complete list of cities and their rankings, check out the full article.

1.4 million

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in May 2022 there were 1.4 million Americans who were unemployed for 27 weeks or longer. This number of long-term unemployed people accounted for 23.2% of the total number of unemployed people across the nation. To learn more about the current employment situation, click here.

8%

This is the percentage increase in private employers that decided to give employees the day off for Juneteenth this year. According to HR Executive, the total number of employers who offer this as a holiday is now around 30%.  

1/2  

According to recent research from ADP, about half of all employees said they would prefer a decrease in salary if that meant their work-life balance would improve. Data compiled prior to the COVID-19 pandemic–and since–consistently shows that an excessive workload can lead to burnout, stress, and physical symptoms of anxiety.  

35%

In a survey done by Uprise Health, 43% of respondents reported that access to mental healthcare is a problem for their staff. Despite the critical need, another 35% of businesses do not currently provide any benefits for mental health and wellness.  

Not only is mental healthcare important in ensuring high-quality work, but also it is important for the overall health of employees. To learn more about how your company can support employees’ mental health, check out this past blog post.

Looking for more exclusive content? Check out the latest over on the Mployer Advisor blog, or read on for our most recent By the Numbers: HR Burnout and Employee Quit Rates.

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