Download or read book The Role of Temporary Help Employment in Low wage Worker Advancement written by Carolyn J. Heinrich and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We examine the effects of temporary help service employment on later earnings and employment for individuals participating in three federal programs providing supportive services to those facing employment difficulties. The programs include Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, whose participants are seriously disadvantaged; a job training program with a highly heterogeneous population of participants; and employment exchange services, whose participants consist of Unemployment Insurance claimants and individuals seeking assistant in obtaining employment. We undertake our analyses for two periods: the late 1990s, a time of very strong economic growth, and shortly after 2000, a time of relative stagnation. Our results suggest that temporary help service firms may facilitate quicker access to jobs for those seeking employment assistance and impart substantial benefits as transitional employment, especially for individuals whose alternatives are severely limited. Those who do not move out of temporary help jobs, however, face substantially poorer prospects, and we observe that nonwhites are more likely than whites to remain in THS positions in the two years following program participation. Our results are robust to program and time period.

Download or read book States of Change written by Carol Clymer and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Low Wage America written by Eileen Appelbaum and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2003-09-04 with total page 550 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: About 27.5 million Americans—nearly 24 percent of the labor force—earn less than $8.70 an hour, not enough to keep a family of four out of poverty, even working full-time year-round. Job ladders for these workers have been dismantled, limiting their ability to get ahead in today's labor market. Low-Wage America is the most extensive study to date of how the choices employers make in response to economic globalization, industry deregulation, and advances in information technology affect the lives of tens of millions of workers at the bottom of the wage distribution. Based on data from hundreds of establishments in twenty-five industries—including manufacturing, telecommunications, hospitality, and health care—the case studies document how firms' responses to economic restructuring often results in harsh working conditions, reduced benefits, and fewer opportunities for advancement. For instance, increased pressure for profits in newly consolidated hotel chains has led to cost-cutting strategies such as requiring maids to increase the number of rooms they clean by 50 percent. Technological changes in the organization of call centers—the ultimate "disposable workplace"—have led to monitoring of operators' work performance, and eroded job ladders. Other chapters show how the temporary staffing industry has provided paths to better work for some, but to dead end jobs for many others; how new technology has reorganized work in the back offices of banks, raising skill requirements for workers; and how increased competition from abroad has forced U.S. manufacturers to cut costs by reducing wages and speeding production. Although employers' responses to economic pressures have had a generally negative effect on frontline workers, some employers manage to resist this trend and still compete successfully. The benefits to workers of multi-employer training consortia and the continuing relevance of unions offer important clues about what public policy can do to support the job prospects of this vast, but largely overlooked segment of the American workforce. Low-Wage America challenges us to a national self-examination about the nature of low-wage work in this country and asks whether we are willing to tolerate the profound social and economic consequences entailed by these jobs. A Volume in the Russell Sage Foundation Case Studies of Job Quality in Advanced Economies

Download or read book The Temp Economy written by Erin Hatton and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 2011-01-07 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: groundwork for a new corporate ethos of ruthless cost cutting and mass layoffs. --

Download or read book Do Temporary Help Jobs Improve Labor Market Outcomes for Low skilled Workers written by David H. Autor and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A disproportionate share of low-skilled U.S. workers is employed by temporary help firms. These firms offer rapid entry into paid employment, but temporary help jobs are typically brief and it is unknown whether they foster longer-term employment. We draw upon an unusual, large-scale policy experiment in the state of Michigan to evaluate whether holding temporary help jobs facilitates labor market advancement for low-skilled workers. To identify these effects, we exploit the random assignment of welfare-to-work clients across numerous welfare service providers in a major metropolitan area. These providers feature substantially different placement rates at temporary help jobs but offer otherwise similar services. We find that moving welfare participants into temporary help jobs boosts their short-term earnings. But these gains are offset by lower earnings, less frequent employment, and potentially higher welfare recidivism over the next one to two years. In contrast, placements in direct-hire jobs raise participants' earnings substantially and reduce recidivism both one and two years following placement. We conclude that encouraging low-skilled workers to take temporary help agency jobs is no more effective - and possibly less effective - than providing no job placements at all. Keywords: Temporary Help Employment, Contingent Work, Welfare, Work First, Earnings, Employment. JEL Classifications: I38, J20, J30, J40.

Download or read book Moving Up or Moving On written by Fredrik Andersson and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2006-12-07 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For over a decade, policy makers have emphasized work as the best means to escape poverty. However, millions of working Americans still fall below the poverty line. Though many of these "working poor" remain mired in poverty for long periods, some eventually climb their way up the earnings ladder. These success stories show that the low wage labor market is not necessarily a dead end, but little research to date has focused on how these upwardly mobile workers get ahead. In Moving Up or Moving On, Fredrik Andersson, Harry Holzer, and Julia Lane examine the characteristics of both employees and employers that lead to positive outcomes for workers. Using new Census data, Moving Up or Moving On follows a group of low earners over a nine-year period to analyze the behaviors and characteristics of individuals and employers that lead workers to successful career outcomes. The authors find that, in general, workers who "moved on" to different employers fared better than those who tried to "move up" within the same firm. While changing employers meant losing valuable job tenure and spending more time out of work than those who stayed put, workers who left their jobs in search of better opportunity elsewhere ended up with significantly higher earnings in the long term—in large part because they were able to find employers that paid better wages and offered more possibilities for promotion. Yet moving on to better jobs is difficult for many of the working poor because they lack access to good-paying firms. Andersson, Holzer, and Lane demonstrate that low-wage workers tend to live far from good paying employers, making an improved transportation infrastructure a vital component of any public policy to improve job prospects for the poor. Labor market intermediaries can also help improve access to good employers. The authors find that one such intermediary, temporary help agencies, improved long-term outcomes for low-wage earners by giving them exposure to better-paying firms and therefore the opportunity to obtain better jobs. Taken together, these findings suggest that public policy can best serve the working poor by expanding their access to good employers, assisting them with job training and placement, and helping them to prepare for careers that combine both mobility and job retention strategies. Moving Up or Moving On offers a compelling argument about how low-wage workers can achieve upward mobility, and how public policy can facilitate the process. Clearly written and based on an abundance of new data, this book provides concrete, practical answers to the large questions surrounding the low-wage labor market.

Download or read book Temporary Help Agencies and the Advancement Prospects of Low Earners written by Fredrik Andersson and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this paper we use a very large matched database on firms and employees to analyze the use of temporary agencies by low earners, and to estimate the impact of temp employment on subsequent employment outcomes for these workers. Our results show that, while temp workers have lower earnings than others while working at these agencies, their subsequent earnings are often higher - but only if they manage to gain stable work with other employers. Furthermore, the positive effects seem mostly to occur because those working for temp agencies subsequently gain access to higher-wage firms than do comparable low earners who do not work for temps. The positive effects we find seem to persist for up to six years beyond the period during which the temp employment occurred.

Download or read book Moving Up or Moving On written by Fredrik Andersson and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2005-01-07 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For over a decade, policy makers have emphasized work as the best means to escape poverty. However, millions of working Americans still fall below the poverty line. Though many of these "working poor" remain mired in poverty for long periods, some eventually climb their way up the earnings ladder. These success stories show that the low wage labor market is not necessarily a dead end, but little research to date has focused on how these upwardly mobile workers get ahead. In Moving Up or Moving On, Fredrik Andersson, Harry Holzer, and Julia Lane examine the characteristics of both employees and employers that lead to positive outcomes for workers. Using new Census data, Moving Up or Moving On follows a group of low earners over a nine-year period to analyze the behaviors and characteristics of individuals and employers that lead workers to successful career outcomes. The authors find that, in general, workers who "moved on" to different employers fared better than those who tried to "move up" within the same firm. While changing employers meant losing valuable job tenure and spending more time out of work than those who stayed put, workers who left their jobs in search of better opportunity elsewhere ended up with significantly higher earnings in the long term—in large part because they were able to find employers that paid better wages and offered more possibilities for promotion. Yet moving on to better jobs is difficult for many of the working poor because they lack access to good-paying firms. Andersson, Holzer, and Lane demonstrate that low-wage workers tend to live far from good paying employers, making an improved transportation infrastructure a vital component of any public policy to improve job prospects for the poor. Labor market intermediaries can also help improve access to good employers. The authors find that one such intermediary, temporary help agencies, improved long-term outcomes for low-wage earners by giving them exposure to better-paying firms and therefore the opportunity to obtain better jobs. Taken together, these findings suggest that public policy can best serve the working poor by expanding their access to good employers, assisting them with job training and placement, and helping them to prepare for careers that combine both mobility and job retention strategies. Moving Up or Moving On offers a compelling argument about how low-wage workers can achieve upward mobility, and how public policy can facilitate the process. Clearly written and based on an abundance of new data, this book provides concrete, practical answers to the large questions surrounding the low-wage labor market.

Download or read book Studies of Labor Market Intermediation written by David H. Autor and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-12-15 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the traditional craft hiring hall to the Web site Monster.com, a multitude of institutions exist to facilitate the matching of workers with firms. The diversity of such Labor Market Intermediaries (LMIs) encompasses criminal records providers, public employment offices, labor unions, temporary help agencies, and centralized medical residency matches. Studies of Labor Market Intermediation analyzes how these third-party actors intercede where workers and firms meet, thereby aiding, impeding, and, in some cases, exploiting the matching process. By building a conceptual foundation for analyzing the roles that these understudied economic actors serve in the labor market, this volume develops both a qualitative and quantitative sense of their significance to market operation and worker welfare. Cross-national in scope, Studies of Labor Market Intermediation is distinctive in coalescing research on a set of market institutions that are typically treated as isolated entities, thus setting a research agenda for analyzing the changing shape of employment in an era of rapid globalization and technological change.

Download or read book Not Just Getting by written by Mary Lizabeth Gatta and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2005 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Not Just Getting By chronicles groundbreaking thinking and research on new and innovative workforce development initiatives to create flexible and collaborative programs and policies. Author Mary Gatta builds on extensive interviews and focus groups with 128 women enrolled in a U.S. Department of Labor pilot program in New Jersey focusing on how they attain education through online courses while working, raising their children, and dealing with the many demands on their lives. The book addresses three main areas: It engages current policy debates demonstrating how online learning and other forms of flexible learning opportunities will reorganize the way federal and state governments deliver skills training, especially working poor single mothers, within the context of Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF), the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and other legislated workforce development programs in the 21st century. It explores the development of the program and qualitatively details the experiences of the women as they spend a year receiving online learning courses. It explores how to rethink workforce development so that online learning for low wage workers and other innovative programs can be successful. As both a piece of scholarship and a case study in successful policy development, this text will be a useful supplement for courses in the sociology of labor, women's studies, or adult education. It will also serve policymakers and others who are looking for a model of training and skills delivery that actually works.

Download or read book The Role of Temporary Help Employment in Tight Labor Markets written by Susan N. Houseman and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Do Temporary Help Jobs Improve Labor Market Outcomes for Low skilled Workers written by David H. Autor and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Temporary-help jobs offer rapid entry into paid employment, but they are typically brief and it is unknown whether they foster longer-term employment. We utilize the unique structure of Detroit's welfare-to-work program to identify the effect of temporary-help jobs on labor market advancement. Exploiting the rotational assignment of welfare clients to numerous nonprofit contractors with differing job placement rates, we find that temporary-help job placements do not improve and may diminish subsequent earnings and employment outcomes among participants. In contrast, job placements with direct-hire employers substantially raise earnings and employment over a seven quarter follow-up period. Keywords: Temporary-help, welfare to work, job placement, low-skill workers, causal effects. JEL Classifications: J24, J48, J62.

Download or read book Employment Strategies for Low wage and Hard to employ Workers written by Karina Lipovsky and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and other low-income individuals find or keep jobs for a while, but far fewer remain steadily employed, advance in the labor market, or earn wages that lift their families out of poverty. To address these issues, a number of initiatives have aimed to help low-wage workers stay employed and move up in the labor market. Several such programs, trying different strategies, were studied as part of a multiyear, multisite evaluation called the Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) project. This book examines the ERA program which outlines a few strategies that succeeded in improving individuals' employment retention and earnings as well as strategies that did not. Key findings and lessons are detailed.

Download or read book Increasing Employment Stability and Earnings for Low Wage Workers Lessons from the Employment Retention and Advancement ERA Project written by Gayle Hamilton and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and other low-income individuals find or keep jobs for a while, but far fewer remain steadily employed and advance in the labor market. The Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) project was launched in 1999 to identify and determine the effectiveness of different program strategies designed to promote employment stability and earnings growth among current or former welfare recipients and other low-income individuals. The study was conceived and funded by the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; supplemental support was provided by the U.S. Department of Labor, and the evaluation was conducted by MDRC. Using random assignment research designs, ERA tested 16 different program models in eight states and estimated effects over a three- to four-year follow-up period. The focus of this synthesis is primarily on the 12 programs that targeted more employable groups, as opposed to harder-to-employ groups, such as individuals with known disabilities. Three of these 12 programs produced consistent increases in individuals' employment retention and advancement, and the others did not. The project points to some strategies that succeeded in improving retention and earnings among low-income single parents and provides some lessons. Key ones include: Supporting employment stability is likely to be a more effective strategy than encouraging job stability -- that is, staying employed in the same job. Earnings supplements, tied to job retention and that help to make low-wage work pay, ideally coupled with job coaching, can promote sustained employment and advancement. By themselves, counseling and referrals to services to help people stay employed do not appear to increase employment retention and advancement. Although the ERA project found that some strategies can improve low-income individuals' employment and earnings, the improvements were not transformational. The majority of the programs tested did not improve participants' retention and advancement, and most sample members remained poor or near-poor at the end of the study. Much is left to learn about how best to foster upward mobility for the millions of low-wage workers across the nation and lift them and their families out of poverty.

Download or read book Career Path Training for Low skill Low wage Workers written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Subcommittee on Employment, Safety, and Training and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Temporary Help Agencies and the Advancement Prospects of Low Earners written by Harry J. Holzer and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this paper we use a very large matched database on firms and employees to analyze the use of temporary agencies by low earners, and to estimate the impact of temp employment on subsequent employment outcomes for these workers. Our results show that, while temp workers have lower earnings than others while working at these agencies, their subsequent earnings are often higher - but only if they manage to gain stable work with other employers. Furthermore, the positive effects seem mostly to occur because those working for temp agencies subsequently gain access to higher-wage firms than do comparable low earners who do not work for temps. The positive effects we find seem to persist for up to six years beyond the period during which the temp employment occurred.

Download or read book Temporary Work written by Heidi I. Hartmann and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: