|News & Know How| News
Good Signs of the Times: Job opportunities abound in fitness industry
J
ob creation may be a major challenge for the U.S. in general, but for the health and fitness club industry, it seems to just be part of the natural order of things. Within the past few months, a number of companies and reports have indicated that jobs are available and people are being hired. ABC Financial Services, Inc., a billing management company based in Sherwood, Arkansas, announced that it was expanding its headquarters operation, creating 100 new positions. “We’re thrilled to provide increased employment opportunities in Arkansas, while we expand our presence in the health club and billing industry,” says Paul Schaller, the president of the firm, an IHRSA associate-member company.
At about the same time, Town Sports International Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLUB), indicated that it was anxious to fill 1,000 positions at its clubs in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States. In a release, it said it was “looking for new employees who have a passion for fitness and serving others. The company is currently hiring personal trainers, club managers, membership consultants, laundry and cleaning associates, facilities technicians, and specialized instructors for tennis, swimming, and squash.”
The company, which operates 158 facilities, primarily in the Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., markets, supported its hiring initia- tive with a print advertising campaign.
Paul Schaller
And, finally, in the U.K., The Mirror reports that, when it searched an online job site, it found 4,681 listings for fitness industry-related positions. —|
| Obesity Update | U.N. Identifies Obesity as a Global Threat
>In September, the U.N. General Assembly acknowledged the extent and deadly seriousness of obesity by convening a special two-day meeting to discuss how governments can curb the 36 million deaths that are attributable, each year, to preventable diseases, such as diabetes, cancer, and lung and heart disease. All are influenced and fostered by unhealthy lifestyle factors,
including obesity. “The prognosis is grim,” said U.N. Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon in an opening statement, noting that, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), deaths from noncommunicable diseases will increase by 17% in the next decade. “These statistics are alarming,” he said, “but we know how to drive them down.” The keys, Ki-moon suggested, were
exercise, improved nutrition, and expanded medical screening. “Worldwide obesity rates have almost
doubled since 1980,” Margaret Chan, the chief of WHO, told the gathering. “This is a world in which more than 40 million preschool children are obese or overweight. This is a world where more than 50% of the adult populations in some countries is obese or overweight.
26 Club Business Internat ional | NOVEMBER 2011 |
ihrsa.org “Obesity is a signal that something is terribly wrong in the
policy environment.” In other obesity-related developments:
• In a special four-part series on obesity in the Lancet, a British medical journal, a group of prominent doctors and medical experts called for government to take “tougher action” to combat rising obesity levels.
• Research conducted at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health indicates that the problem of obesity among people aged 60 and older is intensifying.
• A report produced by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation notes that, in 17 states, obesity rates climbed 90% between 1995 and 2010.
• Johns Hopkins University reports that as many as 20% of the children in China are now overweight; and more than 80% of primary and secondary schools in Beijing are now implementing obesity- intervention programs. —|
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