Here's to the Over-Worked, Under-Paid Worker Next to You

The swine flu scare has brought one lab need center-stage in the Wall Street Journal: the shortage of lab technicians. The WSJ reports that Vanderbilt University Hospital's lab pulled people working in other parts of the hospital and had technicians work double to handle all the flu-testing. The American Society for Clinical Pathology says that lab-tech vacancies average 50 percent in some states and the president of the American Society for Clinical Pathology adds that new workers aren't attracted to the job since the pay starts at $27,000 to $58,000, despite the education needed for the job.