Download or read book America Works written by Richard B. Freeman and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2007-04-02 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The U.S. labor market is the most laissez faire of any developed nation, with a weak social safety net and little government regulation compared to Europe or Japan. Some economists point to this hands-off approach as the source of America's low unemployment and high per-capita income. But the stagnant living standards and rising economic insecurity many Americans now face take some of the luster off the U.S. model. In America Works, noted economist Richard Freeman reveals how U.S. policies have created a labor market remarkable both for its dynamism and its disparities. America Works takes readers on a grand tour of America's exceptional labor market, comparing the economic institutions and performance of the United States to the economies of Europe and other wealthy countries. The U.S. economy has an impressive track record when it comes to job creation and productivity growth, but it isn't so good at reducing poverty or raising the wages of the average worker. Despite huge gains in productivity, most Americans are hardly better off than they were a generation ago. The median wage is actually lower now than in the early 1970s, and the poverty rate in 2005 was higher than in 1969. So why have the benefits of productivity growth been distributed so unevenly? One reason is that unions have been steadily declining in membership. In Europe, labor laws extend collective bargaining settlements to non-unionized firms. Because wage agreements in America only apply to firms where workers are unionized, American managers have discouraged unionization drives more aggressively. In addition, globalization and immigration have placed growing competitive pressure on American workers. And boards of directors appointed by CEOs have raised executive pay to astronomical levels. Freeman addresses these problems with a variety of proposals designed to maintain the vigor of the U.S. economy while spreading more of its benefits to working Americans. To maintain America's global competitive edge, Freeman calls for increased R&D spending and financial incentives for students pursuing graduate studies in science and engineering. To improve corporate governance, he advocates licensing individuals who serve on corporate boards. Freeman also makes the case for fostering worker associations outside of the confines of traditional unions and for establishing a federal agency to promote profit-sharing and employee ownership. Assessing the performance of the U.S. job market in light of other developed countries' recent history highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the free market model. Written with authoritative knowledge and incisive wit, America Works provides a compelling plan for how we can make markets work better for all Americans. A Volume in the Russell Sage Foundation's Centennial Series
Download or read book Inequality and the Labor Market written by Sharon Block and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2021-04-06 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring a new agenda to improve outcomes for American workers As the United States continues to struggle with the impact of the devastating COVID-19 recession, policymakers have an opportunity to redress the competition problems in our labor markets. Making the right policy choices, however, requires a deep understanding of long-term, multidimensional problems. That will be solved only by looking to the failures and unrealized opportunities in anti-trust and labor law. For decades, competition in the U.S. labor market has declined, with the result that American workers have experienced slow wage growth and diminishing job quality. While sluggish productivity growth, rising globalization, and declining union representation are traditionally cited as factors for this historic imbalance in economic power, weak competition in the labor market is increasingly being recognized as a factor as well. This book by noted experts frames the legal and economic consequences of this imbalance and presents a series of urgently needed reforms of both labor and anti-trust laws to improve outcomes for American workers. These include higher wages, safer workplaces, increased ability to report labor violations, greater mobility, more opportunities for workers to build power, and overall better labor protections. Inequality in the Labor Market will interest anyone who cares about building a progressive economic agenda or who has a marked interest in labor policy. It also will appeal to anyone hoping to influence or anticipate the much-needed progressive agenda for the United States. The book's unusual scope provides prescriptions that, as Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz notes in the introduction, map a path for rebalancing power, not just in our economy but in our democracy.
Download or read book Labor Market Policies And Employment Patterns In The United States written by Lois Recascino Wise and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-10-28 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States lacks a comprehensive and coordinated labor market policy. The components of U.S. labor market policy are derived from the activities and programs of many different agencies and Congressional committees. In addition to the Department of Labor, major aspects of labor market policy are sponsored by the Departments of Health and Human Services and Education, and the Social Security and Veterans Administrations. There is no centralized authority over these various activities and there is no one administrative agency responsible for the implementation of active labor market policies. This study seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of U.S. labor market policies that are presented and social and political barriers to policy impact are discussed.
Download or read book Building America s Skilled Technical Workforce written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2017-06-04 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Skilled technical occupationsâ€"defined as occupations that require a high level of knowledge in a technical domain but do not require a bachelor's degree for entryâ€"are a key component of the U.S. economy. In response to globalization and advances in science and technology, American firms are demanding workers with greater proficiency in literacy and numeracy, as well as strong interpersonal, technical, and problem-solving skills. However, employer surveys and industry and government reports have raised concerns that the nation may not have an adequate supply of skilled technical workers to achieve its competitiveness and economic growth objectives. In response to the broader need for policy information and advice, Building America's Skilled Technical Workforce examines the coverage, effectiveness, flexibility, and coordination of the policies and various programs that prepare Americans for skilled technical jobs. This report provides action-oriented recommendations for improving the American system of technical education, training, and certification.
Download or read book The Changing U s Labor Market written by Eli Ginzberg and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-07-09 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on the aspects of the changing U.S. labor market, including the role that the export of advanced business services from the United States plays in the increasing globalization of the world's economy and the reemergence of national employment policy.
Download or read book Structural Changes in U S Labour Markets Causes and Consequences written by Randall E. Eberts and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-07-26 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During much of the 1980s, US wage growth has been unexpectedly slow in the face of relatively low unemployment rates and high capacity utilization rates. This collection of papers resulting from the Wage Structure Conference held by the Federal Research Bank of Cleveland, November 1989, helps explain labour market behaviour in that period. The contributors - academic and research economists in labour economics - provide a comprehensive assessment of the current state of the wage-setting process in the US labour market.
Download or read book The U S Labor Market written by Michael R. Strain and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-10-07 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores nine major questions regarding the labor market on which respected economists disagree. The purpose of the volume is to elevate the public debate about labor-market policy questions by exposing the public to this range of reasonable viewpoints.
Download or read book Statistics on U S Immigration written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1996-07-27 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The growing importance of immigration in the United States today prompted this examination of the adequacy of U.S. immigration data. This volume summarizes data needs in four areas: immigration trends, assimilation and impacts, labor force issues, and family and social networks. It includes recommendations on additional sources for the data needed for program and research purposes, and new questions and refinements of questions within existing data sources to improve the understanding of immigration and immigrant trends.
Download or read book Immigrants Unions The New Us Labor Mkt written by Immanuel Ness and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 2005-06-15 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, New Yorkers have been surprised to see workers they had taken for granted—Mexicans in greengroceries, West African supermarket deliverymen and South Asian limousine drivers—striking, picketing, and seeking support for better working conditions. Suddenly, businesses in New York and the nation had changed and were now dependent upon low-paid immigrants to fill the entry-level jobs that few native-born Americans would take. Immigrants, Unions, and the New U.S. Labor Market tells the story of these workers' struggle for living wages, humane working conditions, and the respect due to all people. It describes how they found the courage to organize labor actions at a time when most laborers have become quiescent and while most labor unions were ignoring them. Showing how unions can learn from the example of these laborers, and demonstrating the importance of solidarity beyond the workplace, Immanuel Ness offers a telling look into the lives of some of America's newest immigrants.
Download or read book At Home and Abroad written by Francine D. Blau and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2002-04-11 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the latter part of the 20th century, the U.S. labor market performed differently than the labor markets of the world's other advanced industrialized societies. In the early 1970s, the United States had higher unemployment rates than its Western European counterparts. But after two oil crises, rapid technological change, and globalization rocked the world's economies, unemployment fell in the United States, while increasing dramatically in other nations. At the same time, wage inequality widened more in the United States than in Europe. In At Home and Abroad, Cornell University economists Francine D. Blau and Lawrence M. Kahn examine the reasons for these striking dissimilarities between the United States and its economic allies. Comparing countries, the authors find that governments and unions play a far greater role in the labor market in Europe than they do in the United States. It is much more difficult to lay off workers in Europe than in the United States, unemployment insurance is more generous in Europe, and many fewer Americans than Europeans are covered by collective bargaining agreements. Interventionist labor market institutions in Europe compress wages, thus contributing to the lower levels of wage inequality in the European Union than in the United States. Using a unique blend of microeconomic and microeconomic analyses, the authors assess how these differences affect wage and unemployment levels. In a lucid narrative, they present ample evidence that, as upheavals shook the global economy, the flexible U.S. market let wages adjust so that jobs could be maintained, while more rigid European economies maintained wages at the cost of losing jobs. By helping readers understand the relationship between different economic responses and outcomes, At Home and Abroad makes an invaluable contribution to the continuing debate about the role institutions can and should play in creating jobs and maintaining living standards.
Download or read book Dual Labor Markets written by Gilles Saint-Paul and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Uses theoretical models to analyse the macroeconomic implications of the dual labour market. Includes an introduction to the techniques of dynamic programming and the matching function.
Download or read book The US Labor Market written by Michael R. Strain and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Recent U S Labor Force Dynamics written by Mr.Ravi Balakrishnan and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2015-04-02 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The U.S. labor force participation rate (LFPR) fell dramatically following the Great Recession and has yet to start recovering. A key question is how much of the post-2007 decline is reversible, something which is central to the policy debate. The key finding of this paper is that while around 1⁄4–? of the post-2007 decline is reversible, the LFPR will continue to decline given population aging. This paper’s measure of the “employment gap” also suggests that labor market slack remains and will only decline gradually, pointing to a still important role for stimulative macro-economic policies to help reach full employment. In addition, given the continued downward pressure on the LFPR, labor supply measures will be an essential component of the strategy to boost potential growth. Finally, stimulative macroeconomic and labor supply policies should also help reduce the scope for further hysteresis effects to develop (e.g., loss of skills, discouragement).
Download or read book Divergent Paths written by Annette Bernhardt and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2001-06-21 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The promise of upward mobility—the notion that everyone has the chance to get ahead—is one of this country's most cherished ideals, a hallmark of the American Dream. But in today's volatile labor market, the tradition of upward mobility for all may be a thing of the past. In a competitive world of deregulated markets and demanding shareholders, many firms that once offered the opportunity for advancement to workers have remade themselves as leaner enterprises with more flexible work forces. Divergent Paths examines the prospects for upward mobility of workers in this changed economic landscape. Based on an innovative comparison of the fortunes of two generations of young, white men over the course of their careers, Divergent Paths documents the divide between the upwardly mobile and the growing numbers of workers caught in the low-wage trap. The first generation entered the labor market in the late 1960s, a time of prosperity and stability in the U.S. labor market, while the second generation started work in the early 1980s, just as the new labor market was being born amid recession, deregulation, and the weakening of organized labor. Tracking both sets of workers over time, the authors show that the new labor market is more volatile and less forgiving than the labor market of the 1960s and 1970s. Jobs are less stable, and the penalties for failing to find a steady employer are more severe for most workers. At the top of the job pyramid, the new nomads—highly credentialed, well-connected workers—regard each short-term project as a springboard to a better-paying position, while at the bottom, a growing number of retail workers, data entry clerks, and telemarketers, are consigned to a succession of low-paying, dead-end jobs. While many commentators dismiss public anxieties about job insecurity as overblown, Divergent Paths carefully documents hidden trends in today's job market which confirm many of the public's fears. Despite the celebrated job market of recent years, the authors show that the old labor market of the 1960s and 1970s propelled more workers up the earnings ladder than does today's labor market. Divergent Paths concludes with a discussion of policy strategies, such as regional partnerships linking corporate, union, government, and community resources, which may help repair the career paths that once made upward mobility a realistic ambition for all American workers.
Download or read book Labor Market Issues Along the U S Mexico Border written by Marie T. Mora and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2009-12-15 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Five million workers are employed in a variety of settings along the U.S.ÐMexico border, yet labor market outcomes on each side often differ. U.S. workers tend to have low earnings and high unemployment compared with the rest of the country, while workers on the Mexican side of the border are often more prosperous than those in the interior. This book sheds new light on these socioeconomic differentials, along with other labor market issues affecting both sides of the border. The contributors take up issues that dominate the current discourseÑ migration, trade, gender, education, earnings, and employment. They analyze labor conditions and their relationship to immigration, and also provide insight into income levels and population concentrations, the relative prosperity of MexicoÕs border region, and NAFTAÕs impact on trade and living conditions. Drawing on demographic, economic, and labor data, the chapters treat topics ranging from historical context to directions for future research. They cover the importance of trade to both the United States and Mexico, salary differentials, the determinants of wages among Mexican immigrant women on the U.S. side, and the net effect of Mexican migration on the public coffers in U.S. border states. The bookÕs concluding policy prescriptions are geared toward improving conditions on the U.S. side without dampening the success of workers in Mexico. Written to be equally accessible to social scientists, policy makers, and concerned citizens, this book deals with issues often overlooked in national policy discussions and can help readers better understand real-life conditions along the border. It dispels misconceptions regarding labor interdependence between the two countries while offering policy recommendations useful for improving the economic and social well-being of border residents.
Download or read book How the Government Measures Unemployment written by and published by . This book was released on 1964 with total page 18 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Statistical method used by the USA labour administration for the measurement of unemployment.
Download or read book Investing in America s Workforce written by Carl E. Van Horn and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
