The United States labor force is examined in detail in this comprehensive study. The history and current makeup of the workforce is revealed and issues and trends are investigated. Theory and analysis are blended with demographics to provide the reader with a solid overview of the current state of the American worker and his or her environment. Competing views are offered on diverse issues such as unions, welfare, and health care. Where helpful, economic and labor theory is explained and applied to give the book scholarly rigor along with readability and practical information. The viewpoint remains focused on a broad view of manpower. As such, emphasis is not on theoretical analysis but on description, historical trends, statistics on present conditions, and explanations.

The book begins with a discussion of the development of the workforce, the impact of immigration, the rise of nontraditional work arrangements, the underground economy, and demographics. Basic vocabulary and concepts are presented and explained to give the reader the tools necessary to analyze the topics presented in the latter parts of the book. Education is examined in part two. Competing views on the U.S. educational system and the value of education in an economic sense are discussed as are the choices open to non-college graduates. Career choices, unions, wage determination, and women and minority issues are considered in later chapters. Aspects of unemployment are explored in part seven. The book concludes with a look at the government's role in the workforce, including welfare, social insurance, and health care and shows how these programs impact both employer and worker behavior. This book is a great resource for executives, human resource professionals, researchers, policy makers, and students.

How does the insecurity of work affect us? We know what job insecurity does to workers at work, the depressive effect it has on morale, productivity, and pay. We know less about the impact of job insecurity beyond the workplace, upon people's intimate relationships, their community life, their vision of the good self and a good life. This volume of essays explores the broader impacts of job precariousness on different groups in different contexts. From unemployed tech workers in Texas to single mothers in Russia, Japanese heirs to the iconic salaryman to relocating couples in the U.S. Midwest, these richly textured accounts depict the pain, defiance, and joy of charting a new, unscripted life when the scripts have been shredded. Across varied backgrounds and experiences, the new organization of work has its largest impact in three areas: in our emotional cultures, in the interplay of social inequalities like race, class and gender, and in the ascendance of a contemporary radical individualism. In Beyond the Cubicle, job insecurity matters, and it matters for more than how much work can be squeezed out of workers: it shapes their intimate lives, their relationships with others, and their shifting sense of self. Much more than mere numbers and figures, these essays offer a unique and holistic vision of the true impact of job insecurity.

This Palgrave Pivot features original research studies of wage inequality in African countries including South Africa, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. The contributors examine gender and racial wage differentials, as well as the effects of urbanization and globalization on inequality in wages and earnings. They also examine the extent to which human capital factors such as education and experience contribute to the significant wage differentials that exist in African countries.

This book provides a focus on some of the main markers and challenges that are at the core of the study of structural transformations in contemporary capitalism and their implications for labour in the Global South. It examines the diverse perspectives and regional and social variations that characterise labour relations as a result of the uneven development which is an important facet of the intensification of capitalist accumulation.. The book provides important insights into the impact of the crises of capitalism on the wellbeing of labour at different historical junctures. Some of the issues covered by it include the conditions of work, and the changing composition of laboring classes and/or working people. The chapters also throw light on the multiple trajectories in the development of labour relations and employment in the Global South, especially after the ascendancy and domination of neoliberal finance capitalism. Some of the major aspects considered by the essays include the decentering of production and development of global value systems, crisis of social reproduction, and the rising informalisation of work.

This volume of original essays considers how the International Labour Organization has helped generate a set of ideas and practices, past and present, transnational and within a single nation, aimed at advancing social and economic reform in the Pacific Rim.

This book explores the highly significant and contested area of graduate employability and employment which is paid so much attention by those in the media and policy-makers. This is driven largely by concerns over the wider economic impact and value of graduates as increasing numbers complete their studies in higher education. At a time when graduates are seen as key to economic success, the critical question remains as to how their employability plays out in a changing labour market. This book brings together innovative approaches and research to present an extensive survey of the field. It provides insight on what is a complex and often elusive social and economic problem, ranging from how graduate employability is constructed as an economic and policy agenda to explorations of how graduates manage the transition from higher education to paid employment and finally to suggest future directions for curricula, policy and research.

This is the third of three volumes containing the published and unpublished economic papers of Orley Ashenfelter written between 1966 and 1994. A complete and cross-referenced chronological list of all of the works featured in this set is included. The volumes begin with an interview in which Professor Ashenfelter covers highlights of his professional life, a discussion of many of the essays and papers featured in these volumes, and his reflections on the development of economics over the course of his career. Employment, Labor Unions and Wages and Education, Training and Discrimination are the companion volumes to Economic Institutions and the Demand and Supply of Labor, which together provide a distinguished collection of Ashenfelter's essays. These three volumes contain highlights of the published and unpublished economic papers of Orley Ashenfelter written between 1966 and 1993. A complete and cross-referenced chronological list of all of the works featured in this set is included. The volumes begin with an interview of Professor Ashenfelter which covers highlights of his professional life, a discussion of many of the essays and papers featured in these volumes, and his reflections on the development of economics over the course of his career.

Politicians, journalists, and the public have expressed rising concern about the decline - or percieved decline - in middle-class jobs. The U.S. work force is viewed as increasingly divided between a prosperous minority that enjoys ever-rising wages and a less affluent majority that struggles harder each year to make ends meet. To determine whether and why this view of the job market is accurate, labor market economists anaylze trends in the distribution of jobs and wages over the past two decades and attempt to forecast the future course of American earnings inequality. McKinley L. Blackburn, David E. Bloom, and Richard B. Freeman assess the reasons behind the deterioration of earnings and job opportunities among less skilled men. They consider the impact of changes in industrial structure, declines in unionization, and trends in the level and quality of schooling for men who have limited skills and education. Gary Burtless examines the effect of the business cycle, within and across different regions of the United States, on earnings inequality and analyzes the effects of demographic change on inequality over the past twenty years. Rebecca M. Blank studies the rise of part-time employment and its impact on wages, fringe benefits, and the quality of jobs. Linda Dachter Loury focuses on the effect of the baby boom and baby bust on demand for schooling among new labor market entrants. If young entrants are discouraged from seeking college training by the high cost or low payoff of schooling, the long-term impact will be a gradual decline in the skills of the U.S. work force. Robert Mofitt analyzes the effect of welfare state programs on the growth of low-wage jobs, and the extent towhich the welfare reforms of the eighties have affected low-income workers.

This book analyzes the decrease in labor share in China, which is a ratio of national income distribution to capital at three different levels (macro, meso, and micro) and from three different perspectives (growth, transition and opening up). The worsening income distribution has been a key issue for both Chinese and global economies in recent decades. The book shows that the decrease in labor share is closely related to economic growth, increasing extent of globalization, and firms with heterogeneous characteristics. Moreover, the book explains income inequality in detail, focusing on China's increasingly important and emerging economy.

The EU's 'social dimension' today is a product of the ideology of the 1990s. Its employment field is directed to increase the employability of workers and the adaptability of labor market regimes. The book argues that this social-liberal approach is best explained with a set of ideas strategically advanced by 'thought communities' in the policy process. It traces the success of this new approach in the debates among academic experts and policy-makers in the mid-1990s, the decisions leading to the adoption of the Treaty of Amsterdam, and the establishment of the approach in the policy field between 1997-2007. The author explores the processes through which ideas came to matter in the policy process. At every stage, the claim that ideas played a predominant role is strengthened by addressing the most viable alternative explanations such as institutional constraints set by Economic and Monetary Union and the preferences of political leaders.

Internationalisation is now a necessity for American organisations, leading to unprecedented cultural exchanges in multinational employers. Much has been written about Americans working abroad, but how do non-Americans feel about working for Americans? To answer this question, Bond Benton directly surveyed nearly 600 Foreign Service Nationals working for the US State Department.

The sectoral composition of economies is fundamental to the understanding of growth, unemployment and the relative performance of nations. Henri de Groot models the relationship between these four factors from a single theoretical perspective in order to determine the foundations of the wealth of nations. Special issues that are addressed include: * the macroeconomic consequences of outsourcing and downsizing * unemployment and catching-up * the relationship between growth and unemployment in a dual labour market * the relative stagnancy of Europe versus the USA in terms of productivity levels and unemployment * transitional dynamics in two-sector endogenous growth models * the causes of deindustrialization * the role of trade unions and efficiency-wage considerations Growth, Unemployment and Deindustrialization will be of paramount interest to scholars of endogenous growth theory, economic growth and unemployment, labour market economics and industrial organization.

This book examines gender- and integration-specific needs of women migrants by using a unique analytic framework, covering both qualitative and quantitative methods and techniques. Case studies from Sweden and Germany are presented, investigating how the gender and integration-neutral or integration-blind nature of the reviewed legislation can disadvantage migrant women in the labor market. The book contributes to the discourses of liberal and post-colonial feminism through new methodological and empirical insights. It, therefore, is a must-read for everybody interested in a better understanding of migrant women's chances to enter the labor market, as well as gender and integration studies in general.

How did the alliance between labor and the Democratic Party develop after the First World War? What role does Evansville play in an examination of this alliance? What was the impact of the alliance on U.S politics and society? These are some of the questions that Samuel W. White tackles in his book Fragile Alliances: Labor and Politics in Evansville, Indiana, 1919-1955. Focusing on Evansville, Indiana, as a case study, White challenges traditional assumptions in the field, such as the following: labor has one political voice; labor is monolithic in electoral politics; the New Deal successfully reordered American society and politics. White examines the roles played by political repression, opposition by employers, and anticommunist forces within the community as well as the labor movement in undermining the labor-Democratic Party alliance in Evansville. He contends that by the 1950s, the impact of these forces blunted the potential of the labor movement and the Democratic Party to transform the political system by giving workers and their allies a permanent political space in electoral politics. How did the alliance between labor and the Democratic Party develop after the First World War? What role does Evansville play in an examination of this alliance? What was the impact of the alliance on U.S politics and society? These are some of the questions that White tackles in his book Fragile Alliances: Labor and Politics in Evansville, Indiana, 1919-1955. Focusing on Evansville, Indiana, as a case study, White challenges traditional assumptions in the field, such as the following: labor has one political voice; labor is monolithic in electoral politics; the New Deal successfully reordered American society and politics. White examines the roles played by political repression, opposition by employers, and anticommunist forces within the community as well as the labor movement in undermining the labor-Democratic Party alliance in Evansville. He contends that by the 1950s, the impact of these forces blunted the potential of the labor movement and the Democratic Party to transform the political system by giving workers and their allies a permanent political space in electoral politics. Much of the published literature on labor and politics in the U.S. is focused on national events and organizations that make labor appear as a monolith in electoral politics. White diverges from the national focus of the majority of this literature, instead looking at labor and politics at the local level. While much of the published literature argues that the alliance between labor and the Democratic Party in the 1930s was a formidable force that reordered American society and politics, White shows that in Evansville, the alliance was anything but that. Racked by political repression, opposition by employers, and anticommunist forces within the community and the labor movement itself, the alliance was remarkably fragile and incapable of sustaining the momentum it had established in the 1930s.

The monograph disseminates the very topical issue of retirement and its timing as the key to one of the greatest challenges facing ageing societies. Postponing retirement is now almost universally regarded as indispensable in order to relieve European welfare states from the demography-related financial pressures. This seminal study, derived from a statistical analysis of a large-scale survey data, provides a thorough understanding of the micro- and macro-level determinants of retirement timing in contemporary Western Europe. The book is the first monograph to combine the analysis of the retirement attitudes with the analysis of the retirement behaviour within one research. It tackles the question as to whether early retirement can be explained by "early exit culture", triangulating life course theory with a social stratification approach. The author used a novel and innovative approach to obtain the results. The methodology includes: tobit models of proscriptive age norms; simulations of the impact of class structure on a country's average retirement age; competing risks models of different work-exit modalities; duration selection models of retirement timing.

An increasing amount of attention has been focused on the employment effect of governmental regulation. Controversy over the implementation and impacts of governmental rules are now central to current public policy debates relating to employment and labor markets. A new policy framework for regulation is needed to make the regulatory decision-making process more responsive to the requirements for economic growth and to the employment effects of regulation. The President and Congress need to provide effective oversight of the process, from the perspective of both a single regulation and a government-wide approach to regulatory planning. Regulatory agencies need to use state-of-the-art analytical tools so that they can better determine the employment effects of their regulatory actions. This book presents a common-sense, albeit highly sophisticated and technical, approach to improving the technical soundness, credibility, and transparency of the regulatory decision-making process.

Increasingly, the governments of virtually all industrialised countries are confronted with persistent problems of unemployment and low pay for those with little formal education and few skills. To combat this growing problem, various countries are utilising different remedies - usually with disappointing results.Policy Measures for Low-Wage Employment in Europe is a focused and up-to-date set of studies highlighting several important new findings. The book considers in-depth policy measures in the areas of taxation, benefits and employer subsidies aimed at the low-skilled and illustrates the limitations of short-term solutions. The policy debate is extended to encompass the role of product demand related to low-paid, low-skilled work and to the functioning of the labour market. In particular, the study investigates the role of job satisfaction and turn over in two major low-paying sectors - the retail trade and the hotel industry. This book will prove a valuable contribution to the literature for labour economists and policymakers at European and national level and policy officers of trade union and employment organisations. Those interested in labour market problems will also find the work to be a fascinating read.

The author demonstrates that the resources (income and wealth) available to most categories of employees has declined over the past 20 years relative to the total income and wealth in our society. Arguing that the decline of the heavy industry sector of the economy has eroded the power of organized labor, which was most concentrated in precisely these industries, Tigges suggests that the declining power of the unions has resulted in a lessened ability for employees to bargain for higher wages with their employers, thereby reducing employees' relative share of the national income.

Classical Political Economy addresses the question of what determines the social division of labour, the division of society into independent firms and industries and develops the theoretical implications of primitive accumulation. It also offers a significantly different interpretation of classical political economy, demonstrating that this school of thought supported the process of primitive accumulation. Classical political economy presents an imposing facade. For more than two centuries, the accepted doctrine dictates that a market generates forces that provide the most efficient method for organising production. This laissez faire approach is an ideology that gives capital absolute freedom of action, and yet called for intervention to coerce people to do things that they would not otherwise do. Classical political economy therefore encouraged policies that would hinder people's ability to produce for their own needs. Michael Perelman, however, in this innovative take on the subject, seeks to challenge the ideologies that would allow things to continue in this line unchecked.

This is the first of three volumes containing published and unpublished economic papers of Orley Ashenfelter written between 1966 and 1995. A complete and cross-referenced chronological list of all the works featured in this set is included. The volumes begin with an interview in which Professor Ashenfelter covers highlights of his professional life, a discussion of many of the essays and papers featured in these volumes, and his reflections on the development of economics over the course of his long and distinguished career. Education, Training and Discrimination and Economic Institutions and the Demand and Supply of Labor are the companion volumes to Employment, Labor Unions and Wages, which together provide a distinguished collection of Ashenfelter's essays.

This volume brings together an international group of contributors to explore the impacts of structural economic change and technological progress on labor markets. The contributors goal is to present an in-depth comparative study of the ways in which different national economies have adjusted to structural changes like the shift to service-based economies and technological changes brought about by the increasing use of the computer in offices and on the production line. Examining the adjustment process from both a micro and macro perspective, the contributors analyze the flexibility potentials within the different institutional organizations of the labor market in the U.S., France, West Germany, Great Britain, and Sweden.

The study begins with a comprehensive introduction written by the editors which discusses the problem of structural and technological change in economic, social, and political terms. Two subsequent chapters address the economic structures of post-industrial society and the differential characteristics of employment growth in service industries. The contributors then present individual analyses of the labor market situation in the five countries under study as well as two general studies of institutions regulating the labor market and flexibility within the labor market. Throughout, the contributors are concerned with key issues such as which systems seem to adapt best, how skill and educational needs may be met in the changing labor market, and the importance of flexibility in a system characterized by ongoing structural and technological change. Ideal as supplementary reading for advanced courses in labor economics and industrial organization, this volume offers important new insights into labor market flexibility in the face of significant and continuing change.

Competing claims on time in work and family life have become inherent, unavoidable features of the Western world. As households increasingly juggle competing responsibilities, and as job expectations and parenting standards intensify, many people feel torn between work and family. This book aims to deepen our understanding of a variety of conditions that influence the successes and difficulties experienced in attempting to equally accommodate both work and private lives. The contributors argue that conditions which create competing claims on time can originate from the organization, from the household, or from both; a multi-level and multi-actor approach is thus applied to the problem. Paying detailed attention to time use and time pressures, the contributors focus not only on the causes of disturbed balances between work and care, but also on solutions to these competing claims. The conclusions reached provide policymakers and implementers with evidence that certain elements of the organization and the household can be seen as parameters that are susceptible to directed policy-based intervention. This comprehensive, multinational and multi-disciplinary study encompasses sociology, economics, geography and urban science perspectives from across Europe, US, and Australia. It will prove essential reading for students of social scientific disciplines, including family and organizational sociology and economics, and for policymakers and researchers focusing on work-family issues.

This edited volume assesses from a variety of perspectives the policies introduced to support the development of household services across Europe. It highlights the impact of these costly policies on the creation of low quality jobs and on labour market dualisation, and questions their social and economic outcomes.