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Book Low wage Workers in the New Economy

Download or read book Low wage Workers in the New Economy written by Richard Kazis and published by The Urban Insitute. This book was released on 2001 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book describes the challenges facing the country's working poor, drawing lessons from practice and policy to recommend approaches for helping low-wage workers advance to better-paying jobs. Part I overviews the low-wage workforce and the employers who hire them, and Part II summarizes the evidence on strategies to improve workers' skills, supplement their wages, and provide greater support. Part III focuses on challenges encountered by groups such as women and immigrants, and Part IV assesses the potential contributions of community colleges, employers, and unions. Much of this material originated at a May 2000 conference held in Washington, DC. The editors are affiliated with Jobs for the Future. c. Book News Inc.

Book Myth and Measurement

Download or read book Myth and Measurement written by David Card and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-12-22 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Card and Alan B. Krueger have already made national news with their pathbreaking research on the minimum wage. Here they present a powerful new challenge to the conventional view that higher minimum wages reduce jobs for low-wage workers. In a work that has important implications for public policy as well as for the direction of economic research, the authors put standard economic theory to the test, using data from a series of recent episodes, including the 1992 increase in New Jersey's minimum wage, the 1988 rise in California's minimum wage, and the 1990-91 increases in the federal minimum wage. In each case they present a battery of evidence showing that increases in the minimum wage lead to increases in pay, but no loss in jobs. A distinctive feature of Card and Krueger's research is the use of empirical methods borrowed from the natural sciences, including comparisons between the "treatment" and "control" groups formed when the minimum wage rises for some workers but not for others. In addition, the authors critically reexamine the previous literature on the minimum wage and find that it, too, lacks support for the claim that a higher minimum wage cuts jobs. Finally, the effects of the minimum wage on family earnings, poverty outcomes, and the stock market valuation of low-wage employers are documented. Overall, this book calls into question the standard model of the labor market that has dominated economists' thinking on the minimum wage. In addition, it will shift the terms of the debate on the minimum wage in Washington and in state legislatures throughout the country. With a new preface discussing new data, Myth and Measurement continues to shift the terms of the debate on the minimum wage.

Book New Rules for a New Economy

Download or read book New Rules for a New Economy written by Stephen A. Herzenberg and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-06 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three quarters of the American workforce is now employed in services, a substantial portion in low-paying, dead-end jobs. Can the service economy do as well by the American worker as the old manufacturing economy? Can the widely shared prosperity that accompanied steady increases in productivity and performance in manufacturing be replicated in the services? They can and they will, the authors of this timely book contend, but only if outmoded policies and practices are brought into line with the new economy. New Rules for a New Economy explains why this must be accomplished and how we can start.The authors call for new, decentralized institutions suited to a dynamic economy in which change is constant and rapid. In particular, they see a need for job ladders and worker associations that cut across firm boundaries. These institutions would foster individual and collective learning, mark out career paths, and facilitate coordination among both individuals and organizations in a networked economy. The authors propose new rules to reshape labor market institutions and policy, improving economic performance and opportunities for workers. Unusual in providing a comprehensive theoretical perspective that is grounded in detailed case research, this book points the way to a better future, not just for elite knowledge workers but for everyone.

Book Working and Poor

Download or read book Working and Poor written by Rebecca M. Blank and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2007-01-09 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last three decades, large-scale economic developments, such as technological change, the decline in unionization, and changing skill requirements, have exacted their biggest toll on low-wage workers. These workers often possess few marketable skills and few resources with which to support themselves during periods of economic transition. In Working and Poor, a distinguished group of economists and policy experts, headlined by editors Rebecca Blank, Sheldon Danziger, and Robert Schoeni, examine how economic and policy changes over the last twenty-five years have affected the well-being of low-wage workers and their families. Working and Poor examines every facet of the economic well-being of less-skilled workers, from employment and earnings opportunities to consumption behavior and social assistance policies. Rebecca Blank and Heidi Schierholz document the different trends in work and wages among less-skilled women and men. Between 1979 and 2003, labor force participation rose rapidly for these women, along with more modest increases in wages, while among the men both employment and wages fell. David Card and John DiNardo review the evidence on how technological changes have affected less-skilled workers and conclude that the effect has been smaller than many observers claim. Philip Levine examines the effectiveness of the Unemployment Insurance program during recessions. He finds that the program's eligibility rules, which deny benefits to workers who have not met minimum earnings requirements, exclude the very people who require help most and should be adjusted to provide for those with the highest need. On the other hand, Therese J. McGuire and David F. Merriman show that government help remains a valuable source of support during economic downturns. They find that during the most recent recession in 2001, when state budgets were stretched thin, legislatures resisted political pressure to cut spending for the poor. Working and Poor provides a valuable analysis of the role that public policy changes can play in improving the plight of the working poor. A comprehensive analysis of trends over the last twenty-five years, this book provides an invaluable reference for the public discussion of work and poverty in America. A Volume in the National Poverty Center Series on Poverty and Public Policy

Book Low Wage Work in the Wealthy World

Download or read book Low Wage Work in the Wealthy World written by Jerome Gautie and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2010-03-01 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As global flows of goods, capital, information, and people accelerate competitive pressure on businesses throughout the industrialized world, firms have responded by reorganizing work in a variety of efforts to improve efficiency and cut costs. In the United States, where minimum wages are low, unions are weak, and immigrants are numerous, this has often lead to declining wages, increased job insecurity, and deteriorating working conditions for workers with little bargaining power in the lower tiers of the labor market. Low-Wage Work in the Wealthy World builds on an earlier Russell Sage Foundation study (Low-Wage America) to compare the plight of low-wage workers in the United States to five European countries—Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom—where wage supports, worker protections, and social benefits have generally been stronger. By examining low-wage jobs in systematic case studies across five industries, this groundbreaking international study goes well beyond standard statistics to reveal national differences in the quality of low-wage work and the well being of low-wage workers. The United States has a high percentage of low-wage workers—nearly three times more than Denmark and twice more than France. Since the early 1990s, however, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Germany have all seen substantial increases in low-wage jobs. While these jobs often entail much the same drudgery in Europe and the United States, quality of life for low-wage workers varies substantially across countries. The authors focus their analysis on the "inclusiveness" of each country's industrial relations system, including national collective bargaining agreements and minimum-wage laws, and the generosity of social benefits such as health insurance, pensions, family leave, and paid vacation time—which together sustain a significantly higher quality of life for low-wage workers in some countries. Investigating conditions in retail sales, hospitals, food processing, hotels, and call centers, the book's industry case studies shed new light on how national institutions influence the way employers organize work and shape the quality of low-wage jobs. A telling example: in the United States and several European nations, wages and working conditions of front-line workers in meat processing plants are deteriorating as large retailers put severe pressure on prices, and firms respond by employing low-wage immigrant labor. But in Denmark, where unions are strong, and, to a lesser extent, in France, where the statutory minimum wage is high, the low-wage path is blocked, and firms have opted instead to invest more heavily in automation to raise productivity, improve product quality, and sustain higher wages. However, as Low-Wage Work in the Wealthy World also shows, the European nations' higher level of inclusiveness is increasingly at risk. "Exit options," both formal and informal, have emerged to give employers ways around national wage supports and collectively bargained agreements. For some jobs, such as room cleaners in hotels, stronger labor relations systems in Europe have not had much impact on the quality of work. Low-Wage Work in the Wealthy World offers an analysis of low-wage work in Europe and the United States based on concrete, detailed, and systematic contrasts. Its revealing case studies not only provide a human context but also vividly remind us that the quality and incidence of low-wage work is more a matter of national choice than economic necessity and that government policies and business practices have inevitable consequences for the quality of workers' lives. A Volume in the Russell Sage Foundation Case Studies of Job Quality in Advanced Economies

Book Jobs Aren t Enough

Download or read book Jobs Aren t Enough written by Roberta Rehner Iversen and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Job opportunity is a myth for 25% of U.S. wage earners.

Book What Works for Workers

Download or read book What Works for Workers written by Stephanie Luce and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2014-01-31 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The majority of new jobs created in the United States today are low-wage jobs, and a fourth of the labor force earns no more than poverty-level wages. Policymakers and citizens alike agree that declining real wages and constrained spending among such a large segment of workers imperil economic prosperity and living standards for all Americans. Though many policies to assist low-wage workers have been proposed, there is little agreement across the political spectrum about which policies actually reduce poverty and raise income among the working poor. What Works for Workers provides a comprehensive analysis of policy measures designed to address the widening income gap in the United States. Featuring contributions from an eminent group of social scientists, What Works for Workers evaluates the most high-profile strategies for poverty reduction, including innovative “living wage” ordinances, education programs for African American youth, and better regulation of labor laws pertaining to immigrants. The contributors delve into an extensive body of scholarship on low-wage work to reveal a number of surprising findings. Richard Freeman suggests that labor unions, long assumed to be moribund, have a fighting chance to reclaim their historic redistributive role if they move beyond traditional collective bargaining and establish new ties with other community actors. John Schmitt predicts that the Affordable Care Act will substantially increase insurance coverage for low-wage workers, 38 percent of whom currently lack any kind of health insurance. Other contributors explore the shortcomings of popular solutions: Stephanie Luce shows that while living wage ordinances rarely lead to job losses, they have not yet covered most low-wage workers. And Jennifer Gordon corrects the notion that a path to legalization alone will fix the plight of immigrant workers. Without energetic regulatory enforcement, she argues, legalization may have limited impact on the exploitation of undocumented workers. Ruth Milkman and Eileen Appelbaum conclude with an analysis of California’s paid family leave program, a policy designed to benefit the working poor, who have few resources that allow them to take time off work to care for children or ill family members. Despite initial opposition, the paid leave program proved more acceptable than expected among employers and provided a much-needed system of wage replacement for low-income workers. In the wake of its success, the initiative has emerged as a useful blueprint for paid leave programs in other states. Alleviating the low-wage crisis will require a comprehensive set of programs rather than piecemeal interventions. With its rigorous analysis of what works and what doesn’t, What Works for Workers points the way toward effective reform. For social scientists, policymakers, and activists grappling with the practical realities of low-wage work, this book provides a valuable guide for narrowing the gap separating rich and poor.

Book A Working Nation

Download or read book A Working Nation written by David T. Ellwood and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2000-09-14 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The nature of work in the United States is changing dramatically, as new technologies, a global economy, and more demanding investors combine to create a far more competitive marketplace. Corporate efforts to respond to these new challenges have yielded mixed results. Headlines about instant millionaires and innovative e-businesses mingle with coverage of increasing job insecurity and record wage gaps between upper management and hourly workers. A Working Nation tracks the profound implications the changing workplace has had for all workers and shows who the real economic winners and losers have been in the past twenty-five years. A Working Nation sorts fact from fiction about the new relationship between workers and firms, and addresses several critical issues: Who are the real winners and losers in this new economy? Has the relationship between workers and firms really been transformed? How have employees become more integrated into or disconnected from corporate strategies and performance? Should government step into this new economic reality and how should it intervene? Among the topics investigated, David T. Ellwood explores and explains the apparent paradox between the steady rise in per capita national income and the stagnant wages of middle- and working-class workers. Douglas Kruse and Joseph Blasi study relative changes in long-term vs. temporary work, and evaluate the introduction of profit-sharing schemes and high performance workplace programs. William A. Niskanen and Rebecca M. Blank, both former members of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, offer their perspectives on what direction government might take to make this a working nation for everyone. Though Niskanen and Blank take alternative approaches, they both conclude that the primary policy emphasis ought to be on the problems of the least skilled more than on inequality per se, and that a focus on childhood education and tax supports for low-income working families should be of primary concern. A Working Nation paints a compelling and surprisingly consistent picture of today's workplace. While the booming economy has created millions of new jobs, it has also lead to an alarmingly unbalanced system of rewards that puts less-skilled, and many middle-class, workers at risk. This book is essential reading for those seeking the most efficient answers to the challenges and opportunities of the evolving economy.

Book Minimum Wages

Download or read book Minimum Wages written by David Neumark and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive review of evidence on the effect of minimum wages on employment, skills, wage and income distributions, and longer-term labor market outcomes concludes that the minimum wage is not a good policy tool.

Book Moving Up in the New Economy

Download or read book Moving Up in the New Economy written by Joan Fitzgerald and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-05 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The United States used to be a country where ordinary people could expect to improve their economic condition as they moved through life. For millions of us, this is no longer the case. Many Americans today have a lower standard of living as adults than they had in their parents' homes as children.... This book is about restoring the upward mobility of U.S. workers. Specifically, it addresses the workforce-development strategy of creating not just jobs, but career ladders."—from Moving Up in the New Economy Career-ladder strategies create opportunities for low-wage workers to learn new skills and advance through a progression of higher-skilled and better-paid jobs. For example, nurses' aides can become licensed practical nurses, administrative assistants can become information technology workers, and bank tellers can become loan officers. Career-ladder programs could provide opportunities for upward mobility and also stave off impending national shortages of skilled workers. But there are a variety of obstacles that must be faced candidly if career-ladder programs are to succeed. In Moving Up in the New Economy, Joan Fitzgerald explores specific programs in different sectors of the economy—health care, child care, education, manufacturing, and biotechnology—to offer a comprehensive analysis of this innovative approach to job training. Addressing the successes achieved—and the problems faced—by career-ladder programs, this timely book will be of interest to anyone interested in career development, workforce training, and employment issues, especially those that affect low-wage workers.

Book Crime and Work

Download or read book Crime and Work written by Jared Bernstein and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Greater labor market opportunities result in lower crime rates, a clear link that is often ignored in policy debates on crime reduction. This study examines the labor market characteristics of the offender/ex-offender population and the labor market conditions these potential workers face. It identifies ex-offenders as a distinctly disadvantaged subset of the low-wage workforce : they have little education, weak job histories, and weak labor market attachment, plus the additional penalty of a criminal record. Even at a time when the overall economy is growing, workers in this sector face higher levels of un- and underemployment. This monograph argues fuller employment for ex-inmates will need innovative labor market solutions, including increases in the minimum wage, more education and training, and the expansion of work supports such as the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Book Laboring Below the Line

Download or read book Laboring Below the Line written by Frank Munger and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2002-04-25 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the distribution of wealth between rich and poor in the United States grew more and more unequal over the past twenty years, this economic gap assumed a life of its own in the popular culture. The news and entertainment media increasingly portrayed the lives of the poor with such stereotypes as the lazy welfare mother and the thuggish teen, offering Americans few ways to learn how the "other half" really lives. Laboring Below the Line works to bridge this gap by synthesizing a wide range of qualitative scholarship on the working poor. The result is a coherent, nuanced portrait of how life is lived below the poverty line, and a compelling analysis of the systemic forces in which poverty is embedded, and through which it is perpetuated. Laboring Below the Line explores the role of interpretive research in understanding the causes and effects of poverty. Drawing on perspectives of the working poor, welfare recipients, and marginally employed men and women, the contributors—an interdisciplinary roster of ethnographers, oral historians, qualitative sociologists, and narrative analysts—dissect the life circumstances that affect the personal outlook, ability to work, and expectations for the future of these people. For example, Carol Stack views the work aspirations of an Oakland teenager for whom a job is important, even though it strains her academic performance. And Ruth Buchanan looks at low-wage telemarketing workers who are attempting to move up the economic ladder while balancing family, education, and other important commitments. What emerges is a compelling picture of low-wage workers—one that illustrates the precarious circumstances of individuals struggling with the economic conditions and institutions that surround them Each chapter also explores the capacity for economic survival from a different angle, with ancillary commentary complementing the ethnographies with perspectives from other fields of study, such as economics. At this moment of governmental retrenchment, ethnography's complex, nonstereotypical portraits of individual people fighting against poverty are especially important. Laboring Below the Line reveals the ambiguities of real lives, the potential for individuals to change in unexpected ways, and the even greater intricacy of the collective life of a community.

Book Raising Lower Level Wages

Download or read book Raising Lower Level Wages written by Tomas Hellebrandt and published by Peterson Institute for International Economics. This book was released on 2015-04-06 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the United States emerges from the Great Recession, concern is rising nationally over the issues of income inequality, stagnation of workers' wages, and especially the struggles of lower-skilled workers at the -bottom end of the wage scale. While Washington deliberates legislation raising the minimum wage, a number of major American employers—for example, Aetna and Walmart—have begun to voluntarily raise the pay of their own lowest-paid employees. In this collection of essays, economists from the Peterson Institute for International Economics analyze the potential benefits and costs of widespread wage increases, if adopted by a range of US private employers. They make this assessment for the workers, the companies, and for the US economy as a whole, including such an initiative's effects on national competitiveness. These economists conclude that raising the pay of many of the lowest-paid US private-sector workers would not only reduce income inequality but also boost overall productivity growth, with likely minimal effect on employment in the current financial context. "It is possible to profit from paying your employees well…and increasing lower-paid workers' wages is the way forward for the United States," argues Adam S. Posen in his lead essay (reprinted from theFinancial Times). Justin Wolfers and Jan Zilinsky argue that higher wages can encourage low-paid workers to be more productive and loyal to their employers and coworkers, reducing costly job turnover and the need for supervision and training of new workers. Tomas Hellebrandt estimates that if all large private sector corporations in the United States outside of sectors that intensively use low-skilled labor increased wages of their low-paid workers to $16 per hour, the pay of 6.2 percent of the $110 million private-sector workers in the United States would increase on average by 38.6 percent. The direct cost to employers would be $51 billion, only around 0.3 percent of GDP. Jacob Kirkegaard and Tyler Moran explore the experience of employers in other advanced countries, with its implications for international competitiveness, and Michael Jarand assesses the impact of a wage increase on the near-term development of the US macroeconomy. Data disclosure: The data underlying the figures in this analysis are available for download in links listed below.

Book Jones s Minimal

Download or read book Jones s Minimal written by David Craig Griffith and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses the ways employers in American industries use race, gender, ethnicity, and institutions of the state and the church to manipulate workers' networks and communities, and ultimately, to control the supplies and characteristics of their labor. Griffith focuses on the labor processes in the seafood and poultry processing industries, paying particular attention to the growing use of new immigrant workers, women, and minority workers. He traces relationships between capitalist expansion overseas in peasant and tribal societies and evolving labor practices of "advanced" capitalism in the United States. As such, his work offers a critique of conventional, neoclassical economic approaches to the study of labor.

Book Changing Contours of Work

Download or read book Changing Contours of Work written by Stephen A. Sweet and published by Pine Forge Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 1. Mapping the Contours of Work 1 Scenes From the New Economy 3 Culture and Work 6 Structure and Work 11 Class Structures 12 Job Markets and Job Demands 13 Demography and the New Labor Force 16 Agency and Careers 18 Conclusion 20 2. How New Is the New Economy? 23 The Old in the New 24 A Post-Industrial Society? 24 The End of Mass Production? 26 New Cultures of Control? 30 The End of Organized Labor? 32 A New Global Economy? 36 The Old in the New: A Summary 38 Class Chasms in the New Economy 38 Class and Opportunity in the United States 39 Class and Opportunity in the Developing World 44 Are International Economic Divides Widening or Narrowing? 46 Conclusion 51 3. Gender Chasms in the New Economy 53 When did Home Work Become Nonwork? 54 Women's Participation in the Paid Labor Force in America 57 Gender Inequalities in Compensation 59 Socialization, Career Selection, and Career Paths 61 Interpersonal Discrimination in the Workplace 68 Structural Dimensions of Gender Discrimination 73 The Devaluation of Women's Work 74 How Job Designs Discriminate 75 Strategies to Bridge the Care Gaps: International Comparisons 78 Conclusion 84 4. Race, Ethnicity, and Work: Legacies of the Past, Problems in the Present 87 Histories of Race, Ethnicity, and Work 88 African American Exceptionality 88 The Immigrant Experience 90 The Magnitude of Racial Inequality in the New Economy 93 Intergenerational Transmission of Resources 96 Race, Ethnicity, and Economic Capital 97 Race, Ethnicity, and Human Capital 98 Race, Ethnicity, and Social Capital 100 Race, Ethnicity, and Cultural Capital 102 Geographic Distribution of Race and Work Opportunity 104 Racial Discrimination 107 Prejudice and Discrimination 107 Racialized Jobs 109 Race, Ethnicity, and Work: Social Policy 110 Affirmative Action 111 Immigration Policy 113 Conclusion 117 5. Whose Jobs Are Secure? 119 Risk and Work: Historical and Comparative Views 120 How Insecure Are Workers in the New Economy? 125 The Costs of Job Loss and Insecurity 130 Responding to Insecurity: Old and New Careers 134 Conclusion 139 6. A Fair Day's Work? The Intensity and Scheduling of Jobs in the New Economy 141 Time, Intensity, and Work 142 How Long Are We Working? Comparative Frameworks 145 Working Long, Working Hard 151 Why Are Americans Working So Much? 153 Nonstandard Schedules: Jobs in a 24/7 Economy 157 How Americans Deal With Overwork 160 Conclusion 163 7. Reshaping the Contours of the New Economy 165 Opportunity Chasms 166 Class Chasms 166 Gender Chasms 167 Racial and Ethnic Chasms 168 International Chasms 169 The Agents of Change 171 The Role of Individuals 171 The Role of Activist Groups 173 The Role of Organized Labor 175 The Role of Employers 179 The Role of Government 182 The Role of International Organizations 187 Conclusion 192.

Book Good Jobs  Bad Jobs

Download or read book Good Jobs Bad Jobs written by Arne L. Kalleberg and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The economic boom of the 1990s veiled a grim reality: in addition to the growing gap between rich and poor, the gap between good and bad quality jobs was also expanding. The postwar prosperity of the mid-twentieth century had enabled millions of American workers to join the middle class, but as author Arne L. Kalleberg shows, by the 1970s this upward movement had slowed, in part due to the steady disappearance of secure, well-paying industrial jobs. Ever since, precarious employment has been on the rise—paying low wages, offering few benefits, and with virtually no long-term security. Today, the polarization between workers with higher skill levels and those with low skills and low wages is more entrenched than ever. Good Jobs, Bad Jobs traces this trend to large-scale transformations in the American labor market and the changing demographics of low-wage workers. Kalleberg draws on nearly four decades of survey data, as well as his own research, to evaluate trends in U.S. job quality and suggest ways to improve American labor market practices and social policies. Good Jobs, Bad Jobs provides an insightful analysis of how and why precarious employment is gaining ground in the labor market and the role these developments have played in the decline of the middle class. Kalleberg shows that by the 1970s, government deregulation, global competition, and the rise of the service sector gained traction, while institutional protections for workers—such as unions and minimum-wage legislation—weakened. Together, these forces marked the end of postwar security for American workers. The composition of the labor force also changed significantly; the number of dual-earner families increased, as did the share of the workforce comprised of women, non-white, and immigrant workers. Of these groups, blacks, Latinos, and immigrants remain concentrated in the most precarious and low-quality jobs, with educational attainment being the leading indicator of who will earn the highest wages and experience the most job security and highest levels of autonomy and control over their jobs and schedules. Kalleberg demonstrates, however, that building a better safety net—increasing government responsibility for worker health care and retirement, as well as strengthening unions—can go a long way toward redressing the effects of today’s volatile labor market. There is every reason to expect that the growth of precarious jobs—which already make up a significant share of the American job market—will continue. Good Jobs, Bad Jobs deftly shows that the decline in U.S. job quality is not the result of fluctuations in the business cycle, but rather the result of economic restructuring and the disappearance of institutional protections for workers. Only government, employers and labor working together on long-term strategies—including an expanded safety net, strengthened legal protections, and better training opportunities—can help reverse this trend. A Volume in the American Sociological Association’s Rose Series in Sociology.

Book The New Geography of Jobs

Download or read book The New Geography of Jobs written by Enrico Moretti and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2012 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Makes correlations between success and geography, explaining how such rising centers of innovation as San Francisco and Austin are likely to offer influential opportunities and shape the national and global economies in positive or detrimental ways.