Download or read book Good Job bad Jobs and the Declining Middle written by W. G. Picot and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Good Jobs bad Jobs and the Declining Middle 1967 1986 written by W. G. Picot and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Concern about the impact of a number of structural changes in the economy on the creation of "good" and "bad" jobs (i.e., high and low paying) has surfaced in recent years. It is speculated that the shift in employment to the services sector, technological change, the changing demographic composition of the workforce, contracting out and other effects are resulting in a polarization of the distribution of wages and earnings; that is, more workers and jobs at the bottom and top of the distributions and fewer in the middle. Using data on employment earnings of full-time, full-year workers from 1967 to 1986, this paper examines the degree to which polarization occurs, and whether the changing age and sex composition of work force accounts for this polarization. It is found that earnings distribution has become more polarized for this population since 1967, and that much of it remains after accounting for demographic effects. During the 1970's, after eliminating the effect of the changing age and sex mix, all of the shift was towards the top of the earnings distribution. During the late 60s and 1980s there was a shift towards both the top and bottom of the earnings distributions. In the 1980's demographic effects were less pronounced, but polarization continued and if anything accelerated. The changing industrial and occupational composition of jobs (Eg. the shift to the services) accounts for little of the observed polarization in the 1980s. Rather, a decline in the relative wages of young people is behind much of the observed change, at least to 1986. The degree to which the polarization of the earnings distribution is due to changes in hourly wage rates or changes in hours worked is also examined, and it is found that in the 1980s, both contributed about equally to earnings polarization.
Download or read book Contingent Work Disrupted Lives written by Belinda Leach and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2002-11-23 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contingent Work, Disrupted Lives examines the repercussions of economic globalization on several manufacturing-dependent rural communities in Canada. Foregrounding a distinct interest in the 'grassroots' effects of such contemporary corporate strategies as plant closures and downsizing, authors Anthony Winson and Belinda Leach consider the impact of this restructuring on the residents of various communities. The authors argue that the new rural economy involves a fundamental shift in the stability and security of people's lives and, ultimately, it causes wrenching change and an arduous struggle as rural dwellers struggle to rebuild their lives in the new economic terrain. Beginning with broader theoretical and empirical literature on global changes in the economy and the effects of these changes on labour, the text then focuses exploration on manufacturing in Ontario with an analysis of five community case studies. Winson and Leach give considerable attention to the testimony of numerous residents; they report on in-depth interviews with key respondents and blue-collar workers in five separate communities, ranging from diverse manufacturing towns to single-industry settlements. The result is an intimate contextual knowledge of the workers' lives and their attempts to adapt to the tumultuous economic terrain of 1990s rural Canada. Winner of the John Porter Prize for 2003, awarded by the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association.
Download or read book Getting on Track written by Daniel Drache and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 1992-01-23 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Social democrats have always understood that business will act differently if the rules governing economic life are changed: it is not because they share a commitment to gender equality that Scandinavian employers pay women and men wages that are virtually equal -- they do so because those are the rules. A modern NDP government must take immediate steps to define a coherent industrial strategy. It must devise new policies and develop industrial arrangements to change the ways firms behave, corporations invest, labour markets function, and companies compete. Piecemeal measures, the contributors to this collection insist, are not going to make the industrial sector more efficient. According to them, a redefinition of industrial strategy will only work if higher rates of growth in productivity are institutionalized and entire sectors produce differently than they do now -- without cutting wages or making labour markets more competitive than they already are. The social determinants of productivity, the contributors argue, are key to a different future -- especially in light of the wide range of issues exposed by the feminization of labour markets, the rise of the service industry, and the decline of the welfare state. The authors emphasize the continuing importance of a full employment strategy and the urgent need for income security for workers in highly fragmented labour markets, and outline tough new measures designed to close the wage gap between men and women. They delineate a fresh perspective on dealing with deficits, make a strong case for wide-reaching social welfare reform, and propose a framework by which Ontario can rebuild its shattered industries. Getting on Track convincingly demonstrates that if a modern social democratic administration expects to be dynamic and socially effective it has to have an economic strategy to restructure the economy while upholding its traditional commitment to social equality.
Download or read book Smiling Down the Line written by Bob Russell and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Smiling Down the Line theorizes call centre work as info-service employment and looks at the effects of ever-changing technologies on service work, its associated skills, and the ways in which it is managed.
Download or read book Working Time in Comparative Perspective written by Ging Wong and published by W.E. Upjohn Institute. This book was released on 2001 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comprises a collection of papers which examine recent changes in the distribution of weekly working time in Canada and the United States, the implications of the changing distribution of hours worked for earnings inequality, and efforts to reduce unemployment through mandated hours reductions. Analyses also general patterns and trends in working time over the life cycle and nonstandard employment arrangements. Covers mainly the period from the 1970s to 1990s.
Download or read book Ivory Tower Blues written by James Cote and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2007-05-26 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The present state of the university is a difficult issue to comprehend for anyone outside of the education system. If we are to believe common government reports that changes in policy are somehow making life easier for university graduates, we cannot help but believe that things are going right and are getting better in our universities. Ivory Tower Blues gives a decidedly different picture, examining this optimistic attitude as it impacts upon professors, students, and administrators in charge of the education system. Ivory Tower Blues is a frank account of the contemporary university, drawing on the authors’ own research and personal experiences, as well as on input from students, colleagues, and administrators. James E. Côté and Anton L. Allahar offer an insider’s account of the university system, an accurate, alternative view to that overwhelmingly presented to the general public. Throughout, the authors argue that fewer and fewer students are experiencing their university education in ways expected by their parents and the public. The majority of students are hampered by insufficient preparation at the secondary school level, lack of personal motivation, and disillusionment. Contrary to popular opinion, there is no administrative or governmental procedure in place to maintain standards of education. Ivory Tower Blues is an in-depth look at the crisis facing Canadian and American universities, the factors that are precipitating the situation, and the long-term impact this crisis will have on the quality of higher education.
Download or read book North South Trade Employment and Inequality written by Adrian Wood and published by Clarendon Press. This book was released on 1994-02-17 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on three fields of economics (international, labour, and development), this study shows that expansion of North-South trade in manufactures has had a far greater impact on labour markets than earlier work suggested. In the South, unskilled workers have benefited most from this trade, but in the North, the gains have been concentrated on skilled labour, while unskilled workers have suffered falling wages and rising unemployment. This decline in the economic position of unskilled workers has increased inequality, and aggravated crime and other forms of social erosion, on both sides of the Atlantic. The failure of Northern governments to recognize that trade with the South has these adverse side-effects, and to take appropriate counter-measures, has fuelled the rise of protectionism - the worst possible response, which slows economic progress in both regions. The best solution for the longer term in the North is more investment in education, to raise the supply of skilled labour. However, the benefits of this investment will emerge slowly. During the next one or two decades, Professor Wood argues, other measures are also urgently needed to boost the demand for, and incomes of, unskilled workers.
Download or read book Relative Distribution Methods in the Social Sciences written by Mark S. Handcock and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-05-10 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph presents methods for full comparative distributional analysis based on the relative distribution. This provides a general integrated framework for analysis, a graphical component that simplifies exploratory data analysis and display, a statistically valid basis for the development of hypothesis-driven summary measures, and the potential for decomposition - enabling the examination of complex hypotheses regarding the origins of distributional changes within and between groups. Written for data analysts and those interested in measurement, the text can also serve as a textbook for a course on distributional methods.
Download or read book Dimensions of Inequality in Canada written by David A. Green and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is Canada becoming a more polarized society? Or is it a kind-hearted nation that takes care of its disadvantaged? This volume closely examines these differing views through a careful analysis of the causes, trends, and dimensions of inequality to provide an overall assessment of the state of inequality in Canada. Contributors include economists, sociologists, philosophers, and political scientists, and the discussion ranges from frameworks for thinking about inequality, to original analyses using Canadian data, to assessments of significant policy issues, methodologies, and research directions. What emerges is the most detailed picture of inequality in Canada to date and, disturbingly, one that shows signs of us becoming a less just society. An invaluable source of information for policy makers, researchers, and students from a broad variety of disciplines, Dimensions of Inequality in Canada will also appeal to readers interested or involved in public debates over inequality.
Download or read book Changing Classes written by Gøsta Esping-Andersen and published by SAGE. This book was released on 1993-08-18 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book makes a significant contribution towards understanding the new class structures of post-industrial societies and the changing processes of social stratification and mobility. Drawing together comparative research on the dynamics of social stratification in a number of key western societies, the authors develop a framework for the analysis of post-industrial class formation. They illustrate the significance of the relations between the welfare state and the household, and the critical interface between gender and class. Case studies of the USA, the UK, Canada, Germany, Norway and Sweden examine the differing application of these ideas in individual welfare states.
Download or read book Gendered States written by Ann Porter and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the period since the Second World War there has been both a massive influx of women into the Canadian job market and substantive changes to the welfare state as early expansion gave way, by the 1970s, to a prolonged period of retrenchment and restructuring. Through a detailed historical account of the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program from 1945 to 1997, Ann Porter demonstrates how gender was central both to the construction of the post-war welfare state, as well as to its subsequent crisis and restructuring. Drawing on a wide range of sources (including archival material, UI administrative tribunal decisions, and documents from the government, labour and women's groups) she examines the implications of restructuring for women's equality, as well as how women's groups, labour and the state interacted in efforts to shape the policy agenda. Porter argues that, while the post-war welfare state model was based on a family with a single male breadwinner, the new model is one that assumes multiple family earners and encourages employability for both men and women. The result has been greater formal equality for women, but at the same time the restructuring and reduction of benefits have undermined these gains and made women's lives increasingly difficult. Using concepts from political economy, feminism, and public policy, this study will be of interest across a range of disciplines.
Download or read book Richer and Poorer written by Allahar, Anton and published by James Lorimer & Company. This book was released on 1998 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inequality increased in Canada throughout the 1990s. Despite government programs designed to confront the problem, more people than ever lived below the poverty line, with the young, women and visible minorities at greatest risk. Richer and Poorer describes the problem of inequality and explains why it is so hard to eradicate. The authors discuss why public policy and programs have not succeeded in ending gender, racial or other types of inequality, and why, without action, inequality in Canada will only increase Richer and Poorer is an acute and detailed analysis of the disparities of wealth and poverty as experienced in 1990s Canada.
Download or read book The Changing Distribution of Earnings in OECD Countries written by A B Atkinson and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2008-05-01 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about how much people earn and why the distribution of earnings has been changing over time. The gap between the top and bottom in the United States has widened significantly since 1980. Why has this happened? Is it due to new technologies? What is the role of globalisation? Are there historical precedents? The book begins with the "race" between technology and education, and shows that continuing technical progress does not necessarily imply a continuing rise in dispersion. It then examines the experience of 20 OECD countries over the twentieth century, material presented in the form of 20 country case studies. The book breaks new ground in assembling data on the distribution of individual earnings covering much of the twentieth century and drawing on a variety of under-exploited sources. The findings overturn a number of widely-held beliefs. It is not the earnings of the low paid that have been most affected by the recent changes; widening is largely due to what is happening at the top. The recent rise in earnings dispersion is not unprecedented, but should be seen as part of a longer-run history of successive compression and expansion of earnings differences.
Download or read book New Poverty written by David Cheal and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 1996-06-30 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cheal argues that the sociology of poverty has entered a new postmodern phase. The new poverty is about loss of faith—in relationships that were once believed to last a lifetime, and in government programs that we used to think would last for generations. The new poverty is about the economic fall of individuals and countries who used to be affluent and who once dreamed that their affluence would go on forever. It is about the experience of free-falling, without a parachute and without much of a safety net. The new poverty is about people who lose their jobs when their company downsizes. It is about people whose hours of employment are cut in half when the work runs out. And it is about couples who separate, thereby plunging one of them—and probably their children—into a low income level that they had never anticipated. What is new about the new poverty is the sense of surprise—that poverty can hit so suddenly, that people can fall so far before they are caught and lifted up, that the poverty of children still troubles us after a century of progress. The new poverty is about our loss of faith not only in relationships that were once thought to last a lifetime, but also in government programs that we believed would last for generations. Cheal translates the experience of the new poverty into sociological theory and into social statistics. His purpose is to provoke serious, critical reflection about families today and the risks of being poor. An important study for scholars and researchers involved with family issues and social policy.
Download or read book Employment in the Service Economy written by Gordon Betcherman and published by Economic Council of Canada. This book was released on 1991 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report is concerned with the nature of the service economy. It looks at conceptual issues associated with services, the factors which have traditionally distinguished service activity from the production of goods, and how innovations in technology and industrial organization are altering these orthodox distinctions. It focuses on explanations for the rapid expansions of the service sector, and documents the shift from goods to services. It also examines the issue of nonstandard employment in Canada, and focuses on the skill content of jobs. In addition, it addresses the relationship between human capital and employment outcomes, and Canada's capacity for developing human resources. It reports the results of a major Economic Council study of income distribution trends. Finally, it presents conclusions and policy implications.
Download or read book Perspectives on Labour and Income written by and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 734 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
