See  US Business Management   US technology

Job Creation and Employment Opportunities: The United States Labor Market, 1993-1996.

Council of Economic Advisers and U.S. Department of Labor, April 23,1996. 11p.

"Since January 1993, U.S. employment has grown rapidly -expanding by 8.5 million net new jobs. Based on comparable data, employment growth has been stronger in the United States than in any of our G7 partners."The report describes the main characteristics of the recently created jobs. Quite surprisingly most of them are full-time jobs created by industry/occupation groups paying above-median wages. The second part of the report examines job displacement. All Worked Up Cassidy, John The New Yorker, April 22, 1996, pp. 51-55Cassidy argues that the U.S. press has missed "the real" story of corporate downsizing by focusing on job loss in isolation from job creation. "When downsizing is judged in relation to upsizing," he writes,"it looks like a far less serious problem... The central fact that has been underplayed...is that companies are doing a lot of hiring as well as firing, and, in many cases, more hiring than firing." Crosscurrents. Sass, Steven Regional Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Winter 1996, pp.18-24In the workplace in the United States, huge numbers of jobs are being created and destroyed at any given moment. Workers are continually shifting from one job to another. Much of this turnover is healthy, as workers and employers search for a better niche. But stable relationships also allow workers and employers to concentrate on their tasks and invest in ways that increase efficiency. The author examines the flows and rigidities in New England's regional labor market and their effects on the economy. = Service Workers: Human Resources or Labor Costs? Gutek, Barbara A. (University of Arizona) Annals, AAPSS, March 1996, pp. 68-82The author describes "the work performed by service providers, defined broadly, and the changes in this work engendered by an increasing reliance on encounters as a form of service delivery. This delivery mechanism facilitates the view of service providers as labor costs to be managed and reduced rather than human resources to be nurtured and developed. The provision of services by encounters may be a prelude both to the substitution of machine providers for human and to large-scale unemployment." Labor Movement's Future. CQ Researcher, June 28, 1996, pp. 553-575"The labor movement has been losing members over the past two decades --and political and economic clout as well. Now, the new president of the AFL-CIO is vowing to reinvigorate the labor federation... Business groups and other labor critics maintain that unions are no longer needed to provide workers'rights." This is a backgrounder on the labor movement. It includes a bibliography. The Happiest Workers in the World Seglin, Jeffrey L.Inc., vol. 18, no. 7, May 21, 1996, pp. 62-76The crisis of worker confidence in America is "as inescapable as the daily news" -- and INC. magazine expected their first annual Inc./Gallup national survey of the American worker to reflect it. But, surprisingly, they got upbeat -- sometimes even glowing -- responses to their 34questions. Seglin discusses the survey and the complexities of American society its responses reveal. Worsening American Income Inequality: Is World Trade to Blame? Burtless, Gary (The Brookings Institute) The Brookings Review, Spring 1996, pp. 26-31"Since 1970 American incomes have become strikingly less equal. Living standards of poor and lower middle-class Americans have fallen while those of affluent Americans have continued to improve. Many people blame rising income inequality on the growing importance of trade, especially trade with nations in the developing world, in the past quarter century. How well that the case against free trade stands up to the facts?" Winner Take All... Frank, Robert H. and Cook, Philip J. Across the Board, May 1996, pp. 44-48"Our claim is that growing income inequality stems from the growing importance of what we call "winner-take-all markets" -- markets in which small differences in performance give rise to enormous differences in economic reward."This essay is an original point of view on the issue and provides a good synthesis of Frank's book: "The Winner-take-All Society: How more and more Americans compete for ever fewer and bigger prizes, encouraging economic waste, income inequality and an impoverished cultural life." Underpaid Workers, Bloated Corporations: Two Pieces in the Puzzle of U.S. Economic Decline Gordon, David M. Dissent, Spring 1996, pp. 23-34"There are two tendencies in the American economy that many have noticed as isolated phenomena but that few connect with each other. The first is the enduring decline of most U.S. workers' real wages. The second is the top-heavy, bloated scale of U.S. corporate bureaucracies. These two tendencies are neither accidental nor coincidental but structurally linked and mutually independent. What is the nature of this connection?" Who Wins with a Higher Minimum Wage Mishel, Lawrence; Bernstein, Jared; Rasell, Edith Economic Policy Institute Briefing Paper, 1995, 12 p. (http://epn.org/epi/epminw.html)The recent Clinton Administration proposal to raise the minimum wage has been offered as one mechanism to improve the incomes of low- and lower-middle income working families in the United States. Noting that there was little, if any, job loss resulting from the minimum-wage hikes in 1990 and 1991, the authors argue that raising the minimum wage to $5.15 an hour in 1997 would improve earnings for many of the poor, while having negligible effects on employment. = Wages, Work and Welfare Under Siege New Perspectives Quarterly, Spring 1996, pp. 14-29"The same market-based global technological revolution that made communism obsolete has now trained its sights on work, wages and welfare in the West. Aging populations and the competitive imperatives of the low-wage information age are undermining the capacity of nations to afford their welfare state. Compounding the problem, automated capitalism has moved on from manufacturing to displace jobs in the service sector. Productivity rises, but jobs disappear." This is a series of articles by Lester Thurow, Robert Reich, Robert Heilbronner, Robert Samuelson and Walter Russell Mead. Rewarding Work. Bluestone, Barry; Ghilarducci, Teresa The American Prospect, May/June 1996, pp. 40-46"There are proven methods of cushioning the impact (of the changing income distribution) by raising incomes at the bottom and providing `wage insurance' for those at risk. Chief among these are the minimum wage and the earned income tax credit. The two fits together like jigsaw puzzle pieces. Each has an inherent weakness -- but the weakness in one is precisely the strength of the other." Redeploying Employment, Redesigning the Safety Net New Perspectives Quarterly, Spring 1996, pp. 30-43"As the global technological revolution renders places workless and work placeless, how will we organize our economic life? How can we design a security cushion in an economy so flexible that we will move through several careers in a working lifetime? Are there ways to share the high-wage work made possible by rising productivity? Perhaps the narrow definition of productivity is itself the problem?" William Knore, Hazel Henderson, Tibor Scitovsky and Bill Bradley offer their thoughts. Devolution, Workforce Development, and Welfare Reform Savner, Steve Center for Law and Social Policy, January 1996, 6p http://epn.org/clasp/clwdle.html "Proposed training and welfare reform legislation would set two sharply different paths for public policy. Workforce development legislation emphasizes improving the skills of workers so they can earn better wages and make the U.S. economy more productive. Welfare reform proposals, in contrast will likely require recipients to take any available job, precluding them from education and training." Savner examines the dissonance between these two reform efforts and the problems they may create for policymakers and poor families.

Strong Job Growth Continues, Unemployment Declines in 1997 Monthly Labor Review, February 1997, pp 48-68"The unemployment fell to a 28-year low last year, as job growth accelerated; real earnings reached their highest level yet in the 1990s." This article presents detailed statistics. High-Tech Labor Shortage CQ Researcher, April 24, 1998, pp 361-383"American employers say that a severe shortage of skilled high-tech workers is delaying projects and reducing expansion plans. To avoid economic disaster, they want Congress to admit more foreign workers. But critics, including the Clinton Administration, say employers are simply seeking more foreign workers because they are cheaper. The critics say the answer is training or retraining American workers and hiring more women, minorities and unemployed or underemployed technical workers." The Services Industry in the ‘Good’ Versus ‘Bad’ jobs Debate Monthly Labor Review, February 1998, pp 22-47"Because average wages are higher in manufacturing than in services, some observers view employment shifts to services as shifts from ‘good’ to ‘bad’ jobs; however, a deeper assessment reveals that within each industry, especially in services, there is a range of job quality." Jobs at Play and Jobs that Pay American Demographics, May 1998, pp 50-56"People with good jobs usually have money to spend. Yet most of them won’t be found in the U.S. counties with the fastest employment growth in the next century. Tracking rapid employment growth may lead companies to workers with some of the lowest wages in America." Job Displacement Kletzer, Lori G. Kletzer, Lori G. Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1998, pp 115-136"How has the incidence of displacement changed from the 1980s to the 1990s? How do the characteristics of displaced workers compare to the characteristics of other workers who experience unemployment? What are the consequences of displacement? How important is the loss of firm-specific human capital for a displaced worker? How do earnings of displaced workers change? What is the appropriate public policy response for displaced workers?"

EMPLOYMENT - LABOR Center for National Policy Research Brief, July 2000 Information Technology Producing Ripple Effect http://www.cnponline.org/rbrief0700.htm Annette Bernhardt  The Future of Low-Wage Jobs: Case Studies in the Retail Industry  The Institute on Education and the Economy (IEE), at Teachers College, Columbia University, http://www.tc.columbia.edu/iee/PAPERS/Abstracts/wp10.htm http://www.tc.columbia.edu/iee/PAPERS/workpap10.pdf Kim Elliott. Institute for International Economics The ILO and Enforcement of Core Labor Standards International Economics Policy Brief No 00-6. July 2000. 7p http://www.iie.com/NEWSLETR/00-6.pdf Jared Bernstein and Ellen Houston Economic Policy Institute, July 2000 Crime & Work: What We Can Learn From the Low-Wage Labor Market http://www.epinet.org/books/crimeandwork.html

EMPLOYMENTThe Natural Rate of Unemployment: Reflections on the Natural Rate Hypothesis Stiglitz, Joseph Stiglitz, Joseph The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1997, pp 3-10"I have become convinced that the NAIRU is a useful analytic concept. It is useful as a theory to understand the causes of inflation. It is useful as an empirical basis for prediction changes in the inflation rate. And, it is useful as a general guideline for thinking about macroeconomice policy." The Natural Rate of Unemployment: Time to Ditch the NAIRU Galbraith, James K. Galbraith, James K. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1997, pp 93-108"This essay presents a brief for no-confidence in four parts... The risks of dropping the natural rate hypothesis are minor, while the benefits from a sustained pursuit of full employment could be substantial." *This issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives presents six articles on the NAIRU. Employment in 1996: Jobs Up, Unemployment Down Monthly Labor Review, February 1997, pp 3-18"The number of non-farm payroll jobs increased by 2.6 million overall; the largest gains occurred in services, retail trade, construction, and public school systems... Overall job gains were moderated by losses in nondurable goods manufacturing and Federal employment; declining unemployment was tempered by persistent long-term joblessness." Employment Shifts in High-technology Industries,1998-96 Monthly Labor Review, June 1997, pp 12-25"From 1988 to 1996, employment in high-technology industries shifted more toward services; indeed, since 1988, growth in high-tech services accounted for all the net increase in employment in the research-and-development-intensive sector." Take this Job and Love It Levine, Daniel Levine, Daniel Policy Review: The Journal of American Citizenship, May-June 1997, 4p http://www.heritage.org/heritage/p_review/may97/thlevine.htlm For the past six years, the author has written "articles in which successful people discuss the value of their early work experiences. Their jobs were not part of government-sponsored training or placement programs, they were simply low-level jobs earned through diligent effort. And what they learned in these jobs goes a long way toward dispelling several liberal myths about the workplace in general and entry-level jobs in particular." New Data on Multiple Jobholding Available from CPS Characteristics of Multiple Jobholders Monthly Labor Review, March 1997, pp 3-15"According to the 1995 Current Population Survey, 7.9 million persons, or 6,3% of all employed workers, held more than one job." These two articles examine the evolution in the number of multiple jobholders and their characteristics.  Trends in Hours of Work since the Mid-70s Monthly Labor Review, April 1997, pp 3-14"Although there has been little change in the average number of hours worked each week since the mid-70s, the proportion of persons working very long workweeks has risen and there has been a growing trend toward year-round work among women." Flexibility in the Workplace: The Overtime/Comp Time Debate Congressional Digest, May 1997, pp 131-160"Increasing numbers of women in the workforce, an anti-regulatory mood among American businesses, and a trend toward more flexible job arrangements for employees have led to a re-examination of the traditional work hour and work week structure." A bill currently moving through Congress "would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to allow private sector employers to offer their employees the choice of receiving either overtime pay or compensatory time off in exchange for hours worked beyond the 40-hour work week." Gender Differences in Occupational Employment Monthly Labor Review, April 1997, pp 15-24"This analysis seeks to update past research on occupational differences between the sexes by evaluating trends over the past two decades... It includes an overview of current patterns of the gender distribution of employment within occupations and the ways in which they have changed over the past two decades." Training Programs for Displaced Workers: What Do They Accomplish? Kodrzycki, Yolanda Kodrzycki, Yolanda New England Economic Review, May/June 1997, pp 39-57"A consensus appears to be building that the extensive structural changes taking place in the U.S. economy warrant the expansion of government programs to assist displaced workers. Training in particular is seen as a vital part of the adjustment process. Although the problem is real, findings regarding the appropriate solution are murky. Research on existing training programs fails to show that they enable workers to achieve higher pay at their new jobs. Less expensive government interventions such as assistance in identifying and applying for job openings may be just as effective as training."  When Work Disappears Wilson, William Julius (Harvard University) Wilson, William Julius (Harvard University) Political Science Quarterly, Winter 1996/97

"For the first time in the twentieth century most adults in many intercity ghetto neighborhoods are not working in a typical week. The disappearance of work has adversely affected not only individuals, families, and neighborhoods, but the social life of the city at large as well." The author proposes long-term and short-term solutions that could draw the support of a broad range of groups in America and are based on the notion that the problems of jobless ghettos cannot be separated from those of the rest of the nation.

Overworked and Underemployed

Bluestone, Barry; Rose, Stephen Bluestone, Barry; Rose, Stephen The American Prospect, March/April 1997, pp 58-69

"Based on a new analysis of the data, we have found that Americans are indeed working longer than they once did...We have also found that many Americans are both overworked and underemployed... They work as much as they can when work is available to compensate for short weeks, temporary layoffs, or permanent job loss that may follow."

Unemployment Insurance for a New Age    Levin-Waldman, Oren Levin-Waldman, Oren Challenge, March/April 1997, pp 110-120

"The proportion of those unemployed longer than twenty-six weeks has risen rapidly during the 1980s and 1990s. A two-tiered system could reduce short-term unemployment and better match the long-term unemployed for suitable jobs."

THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION : NOVEMBER 2001Bureau of Labor Statistics, December 7, 2001 http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

The number of unemployed persons increased by 419,000 to 8.2 million in November, and the unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percentage point to 5.7 percent; this followed an increase of half a percentage point in October. The jobless rate in November was at its highest level since August 1995.

The End of Full-Employment and Expansionist Policies? – The New Conventional Wisdom

Navarro, Vicente (Johns Hopkins University) Challenge, September-October 2001, pp. 19-29

"The conventional wisdom in many circles is that globalization and public expenditures are at odds with each other. The author shows that, historically speaking, this conflict has not been the case."

Youth Employment  Monthly Labor Review, August 2001, p. 3-50

"This issue of the Monthly Labor Review contains articles, which investigate important aspects of the early labor market experiences of the youths. The data used in these articles is drawn from the family survey sponsored by the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS) Program of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, termed NLSY97. Designed as a longitudinal survey, the NLSY97 follows the lives of these young men and women as they make pivotal decisions that affect their outcomes later in life. Among other inquiries you will find such as whether they should continue their education after high school or choose an occupation and enter the world of work."

Have A Nice Day: The American Journey to Better Working Conditions  Annual Report 2000, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. 30p

"Work conditions have improved dramatically for Americans over the past century: U.S. offices and work sites have become safer and more comfortable. Workplaces are also more easy-going. Companies offer perks unheard of 25 years ago, including exercise rooms, paternity leave, on-site child care and paid sabbaticals. Generous retirement plans are available at 81% of U.S. firms, and average real hourly wages and benefits grew 175 percent between 1947 and 2000…"

The Effect of Employee Stock Options on the Evolution of Compensation in the 1990s  

FRB New York, Economic Policy Review 2001, forthcoming, 18p http://www.newyorkfed.org/rmaghome/econ_pol/2001/701hmeh.pdf

"Between 1995 and 1998, actual growth in compensation per hour (CPH) accelerated from approximately 2 percent to 5 percent. Yet as the labor market continued to tighten in 1999, CPH growth unexpectedly slowed. This article explores whether this aggregate "wage puzzle" can be explained by changes in the pay structure--specifically, by the increased use of employee stock options in the 1990s. The CPH measure captures these options on their exercise date, rather than on the date they are granted. By recalculating CPH to reflect the options' value on the grant date, the authors find that the adjusted CPH measure accelerated in each year from 1995 to 1999."

Time for a Living Wage  Pollin, Robert (University of Massachusetts) Challenge, Interview, September-October 2001, pp. 6-18

"A living wage is catching on in America. About sixty municipalities have adopted such ordinances. But the real impact of the living wage may be its effect on state and city minimum wages. The living-wage movement has helped awaken America to the fact that many of its citizens make wages that cannot provide them with even a minimally decent life."

Divided We Fall -- Deserving Workers Slip Through America's Patchwork Unemployment Insurance System  Wenger , Jeffrey B. EPI Briefing paper, August 2001, 24p http://www.epinet.org/briefingpapers/divided.html

"Since 1935, unemployment insurance (UI) has operated as the primary safety net for workers who lose their jobs. But changes in work organization, increases in the number of women in the workplace, and growing concern for work/family balance have not been matched by changes in the way workers qualify for UI benefits. Over time the system has become less effective, with fewer than half of the nation's unemployed even applying for benefits. Part of the problem stems from the fact that each state establishes its own rules governing UI policy, generosity, eligibility, and revenue."

Tomorrow’s Cyber Unions – A New Path to Renewal and Growth  Shostak ,Arthur B. Working USA, Fall 2001, p. 82-105 "Extraordinary changes in information technologies challenge organized labor to adapt without end. Technological advances are evident in the building of alliances, modernization of communications, fresh tactics in organizing, and the upgrading of staff development. Worries persist about possible related erosion in face-to-face relations, loss of control over the medium, generational rifts, loss of confidentiality, and (unappreciated) work overload. Thanks to a growing core of digerati inside the labor movement, there is hope that the CyberUnion model will soon receive the fair trial it warrants."

Renewing Labor – A Report From the Field  Miller, Mike and Michael Eisenscher  Working USA, Fall 2001, p. 131-154"This paper describes ORGANIZE Training Center’s approach to transforming union locals. The project for Labor Renewal worked intensely with two San Francisco Bay Area union locals. The article describes and analyzes the organization’s development process, successes, difficulties, and lessons from this experience, arguing for an extension of current understanding of organizing to include a number of community-building activities." There is Nothing More Permanent Than Temporary Foreign Workers Center for Immigration Studies, Backgrounder, April 2001, 6p http://www.cis.org/articles/2001/back501.html More than 725,000 Laid-Of  Workers Has Lost Health Coverage Since the Recession Began in March Families USA, Report December 2001, 4p http://www.familiesusa.org/media/pdf/cobra.pdf Hard Work on Soft Skills: Creating a 'Culture of Work' in Workforce Development Public/Private Ventures, October 2001, 56p http://www.ppv.org/indexfiles/wvindex.html

TRADE AND EMPLOYMENT  

Workers and the World Economy

Foreign Affairs, May/June 1996, pp. 16-37 and July/August, pp. 164-181

"Not everyone is a winner in the global economy. Unemployment is high in Europe and inequality is rising in the United States as growth proves disappointing and foreign competition drives wages down." According to Ethan B. Kapstein of the Council on Foreign Relations, the postwar bargain struck with workers in every industrial country is undermined by the spread of the dogma of restrictive fiscal policy. "States must now reorient their economic policies toward growth, but it should be done as part of a coordinated international effort." In the following issue of Foreign Affairs, P. Krugman, R. Lawrence, Steve Forbes and others reply to Kapstein.

How Trade Hurt Unskilled WorkersHow Trade Hurt Unskilled Workers.

Wood, Adrian Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1995. Pp 57-80

"This paper will argue...that the main cause of the deteriorating situation of unskilled workers in developed countries has been the expansion of trade with developing countries... It will respond to some criticisms of this evidence, and challenge the evidence for the alternative view that these problems are caused mainly by new technology. At the end, it will consider some of the implications of this debate for public policy."

Are Your Wages Set in Beijing?

Freeman, Richard B. (Harvard University) Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1995. Pp 57-80

"The rough concordance of falling demand for less-skilled workers with increased imports of manufacturing goods from third world countries has created a lively debate about the economic consequences of trade between advanced and developing countries... This paper provides a viewer's guide to the debate. I review the two facts that motivate the debate... Then I summarize the arguments and evidence brought to bear on them and give my scorecard on the debate. I conclude by examining the fear that, whatever trade with less-developed countries did in the past, it will impoverish less-skilled Americans and Western Europeans in the future, as China, India, Indonesia and others make greater waves in the world economy."

Income Inequality and Trade: How to Think, What to Conclude.

Richardson, David (Syracuse University)

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1995. Pp 57-80

"This paper will attempt to organize the debate on the connections among trade, technology and inequality. I will offer a theoretical framework, distill the existing empirical consensus, assess neglected issues, and isolate anomalies that remain. A consensus has begun to form, slowly, on specifications and conclusions. By specification, I mean how to analyze and measure the effects of trade on income inequality."

WAGES

The Limits of Labor Markets

Kuttner, Robert Kuttner, Robert Challenge, May/June 1997, pp 75-102

"Is changing technology the main explanation for the inequality of wages in America? In an excerpt from his new book, the author says it is not. And he tells us what we can do to help reverse the process."

Have Wages Turned the Corner?

Bernstein, Jared; Mishel, Lawrence Bernstein, Jared; Mishel, Lawrence Challenge, July-August 1997, pp 6-14

"This article examines a wide variety of wage measures to evaluate the nature of wage trends from 1989 through 1996 -- the period covering the current business cycle. We find little evidence to support the notion that wage decline is a thing of the past. Are the wages of typical workers growing faster than inflation? The answer is: At best, the wages of such workers are keeping pace with inflation or are growing a few cents per year. At worst, real wages for typical workers are declining through 1996, much as they have since the late 197os."

Rewarding Work: The Case for Subsidizing Worker Pay

Edmund Phelps (Columbia University) Edmund Phelps (Columbia University) Challenge, July-August 1997, pp 15-26

"In a new book, this mainstream economist, who cofathered the notion of natural employment rate, argues that it is time the federal government subsidize low-wage workers. Moreover, he believes we do not have to cut the budget to do this, because over time the program will pay for itself."

Fear Not: The Global Economy and American Wages

Bhagwati, Jagdish N. Bhagwati, Jagdish N. The New Republic, May 19, 1997, pp. 36-41

Bhagwati identifies two basic reasons for distress in the U.S. workplace: the decline in the real wages of unskilled workers, and the feeling among workers that they can't really improve their situation in life. Part of the distress comes from unrealistically high expectations that the growth of the 1950s and 1960s would continue uninterrupted, Bhagwati says. The challenges of the global economy can be met, he says, if the power of government is used to retrain and assist those dislocated by economic competition.

In Praise of Cheap Labor: Bad Jobs at Bad Wages are Better Than No Jobs at All

Krugman, Paul Krugman, Paul Dismal Scientist, March 20, 1997

http://www.slate.com/dismal/97-03-20/dismal.asp

"The lofty moral tone of the opponents of globalization is possible only because they have chosen not to think their position through. While fat-cat capitalists might benefit from globalization, the biggest beneficiaries are, yes, Third World workers.

Nice Work If You Can Get It: The Software Industry as a Model for Tomorrow's Jobs.

Kanter, Rosabeth Moss (Harvard Business School) The American Prospect, Fall 1995, pp 52-58

"Today's good jobs are different from those of memory and nostalgia, as I found recently in a national study of local challenges in the local economy. The software and related knowledge industries are inventing a new kind of career with profound implications for the way we work and live."

International Comparisons of Manufacturing Compensation.

Monthly Labor Review, October 1995. Pp 3-9

"Japan and many Western European economies had higher manufacturing hourly compensation costs than the United States in 1994; the trade-weighted average for 24 foreign economies was 88 percent of the U.S. level."

Why Wages Aren't Growing.

Burtless, Gary (The Brookings Institution) Challenge, November/December 1995, pp. 4-11

"Despite the long economic expansion that began in 1991, average wages paid to American workers continue to stagnate and income distribution to widen. Challenge separates the facts from the myths about the wage problem with an outspoken expert in the field."

 Rising Tides, Sinking Wages.

Mishel, Lawrence (Economic Policy Institute) The American Prospect, Fall 1995, pp 60-64

"The economy seems to be in great shape . . . There's only one problem with this celebration: The living standards of the broad middle class have remained in continuous decline despite therobust aggregate performance. The recovery has demonstrated that improved competitiveness, productivity, and overall economic growth do not necessarily translate into improved incomes for most families."

 Payday Mayday.

Zinsmeister, Karl The American Enterprise, September/October 1995, pp 43-48

"Wages have stopped growing, and downward mobility is squeezing many Americans out of the middle class, right? Not so fast"

 Workers Finally Get Theirs Workers Finally Get Theirs.

Business Week, November 27, 1995, pp 36-38

"Thanks to rising productivity, falling prices, and tight labor markets, gains for workers finally outpace inflation."

 A Surge in Income Inequality.

Monthly Labor Review, August 1995. pp 51-61

"Examination of a reported surge in income inequality in 1993 indicates that, despite changes in survey methodology, patterns of employment growth were consistent with greater income dispersion."

 Why the Income Gap Won't Go Away.

Fortune, December 11, 1995, pp 65-70

"High- and low-level jobs are on the increase, but the middle is still squeezed."

The Working Poor.

CQ Researcher, November 3, 1995, pp 969-991

"The U.S. economy is in its fifth year of recovery. Profits are up, interest rates are under control and unemployment is low. But the glowing statistics tend to overshadow a troubling increase inthe number of working Americans living in poverty." This is a backgrounder on this issue. It includes a bibliography.

 From Underclass to Working Class.

Payne, James L. The American Enterprise, September/October 1995, pp 43-48

"Modern social policy has drifted into the view that unconditional giving is the way to help people in need . . . The lessons that commercial firms who work with candidates for the underclass could teach social reformers is the idea of exchange, the notion that the assisted person should give something in return for what he receives."

LABOR RELATIONS  See  USbusman.html

Worker Rights Promote Productivity GrowthWorker Rights Promote Productivity Growth.

Buchele, Robert and Christiansen, Jens Challenge, September/October 1995, pp 12-18

"An economy should be judged at least in part by how well it treats its workers, say the authors, even if treating workers well reduces economic efficiency. But contrary to the view of many economists, the authors argue that when workers are treated better, encouraged to participate in management, and given substantial rights to bargain, productivity is not diminished but is usually enhanced."

Employee Participation and Labor-Management Cooperation in American WorkplaceEmployee Participation and Labor-Management Cooperation in American Workplace.

Commission on the Future of Worker-Management Relations

Challenge, September/October 1995, pp 38-45

"A federal commission finds that while change is underway in the American workplace, innovations are only partially diffused and are fragile at best. But the commission notes that the new employee-participation plans, when systematically implemented, often improve productivity and almost always result in increased investment in education and job training."

Should There Be National Standards for Employer/Employee Relations?

Business and Society Review, Summer 1995, pp 30-33

"Robert Kuttner...called for a national set of standards governing the way employers deal with their employees... Business and Society Review has asked a group of business leaders and social commentators for their opinions on Kuttner's proposal."

  Striking Out

National Journal, March 29, 1997, pp 613-615

"The National Labor Relations Board is supposed to referee contentious workplace disputes. But the new economy is making the old rules unworkable, and politicians can t agree on a fix." 

EMPLOYMENT - INCOMES

Urban Institute Forum, January 4, 2000

  Are There Good Jobs for Low-Skilled Workers?  http://www.urban.org/news/tuesdays/1-00/january00.html

AIn the midst of the current long economic boom, unemployment is no longer a major public concern. However, a number of Urban Institute economists point out that many jobs neither pay enough to support a family nor offer strong potential for advancement. At our First Tuesdays forum in January, several Institute experts discussed a number of key new findings on the low-wage labor market. Specifically, they looked at lower-wage occupations that offer the most "good jobs," looked at mobility patterns in selected low-wage occupations, and discussed the implications of their findings for programs that serve low wage workers and former welfare recipients.@

Hudson, Ken  No Shortage of "Nonstandard" Jobs: Nearly 30% of Workers Employed in Part-time, Temping, and Other Alternative Arrangements

Economic Policy Institute, December 1999   http://www.epinet.org/briefingpapers/hudson/hudson.html

Even in the midst of a booming economy, with wages rising and unemployment at historic lows, reliance by the U.S. economy on nonstandard jobs C part-time work, independent contracting, temping, on-call work, day labor, and self-employment C remains as strong as ever. Employers argue that these jobs (also called contingent work) provide the flexibility needed to be competitive. But these perceived advantages notwithstanding, as of 1997, most nonstandard workers, on average, were paid less, were less likely to receive health insurance or a pension, and had less job security than workers in regular full-time jobs. The disparities between nonstandard and regular full-time jobs persist even when comparing workers with similar personal, educational, and job characteristics.

Pigeon, Marc-André and L. Randall Wray  Jerome Levy Economics Institute

Down and Out in the United States, An Inside Look at the Out of the Labor Force Population,

Public Policy Brief no. 54, 1999, 45p   http://www.levy.org/docs/ppb/ppb54.pdf

ADespite a long period of strong economic growth, more than 28 million working-age persons were categorized by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as out of the labor force in 1998. A small portion of this population will move into the labor force, but the majority will remain without work. This brief examines the demographics of the out of the labor force population, their reasons for not working, the likelihood that they will move into the labor force, and the adverse effects on them of prolonged joblessness.@

Clinton Waging War on Pay Inequity

   Briefing, Policy.com 1/25/00

President Clinton unveiled a $27 million proposal on Monday in an effort to help close the earnings gap between men and women and increase enforcement of equal-pay laws. Clinton also urged the prompt passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act in order to combat "unfair pay practices against women."

Jerome Levy Economics Institute

Margo, Robert A. (Vanderbilt University) The History of Wage Inequality in America, 1820 to 1970

Working Paper no 286, August 1999 http://www.levy.org/docs/wrkpap/papers/286.html

Economists have written extensively about the remarkable rise in wage inequality since the 1970s in the United States, but these analyses often lack a historical perspective. Robert A. Margo, of Vanderbilt University and the National Bureau of Economic Research, fills this lacuna by surveying patterns of wage inequality from 1820 to 1970.@

Working Partnerships USA

Walking the Lifelong Tightrope: Negotiating Work in the New Economy May 1999  http://www.atwork.org/wp/tig/tightrope.html

AThe report examines the striking changes in California's economy over the past decade and the implications of this transformation for the state's working families. It details how workers at all income levels are increasingly vulnerable to rapid changes in our volatile, information-based economy and how inequality has become more and more entrenched in California's economic structure. To decrease economic insecurity and volatility, the report proposes news ways for government, business and labor to develop new institutions and policies that protect working families, provide effective bridges from low-paid to high-paid occupations and industries, and provide life-long learning opportunities.@

Bernstein, Jared (EPI), Elizabeth McNichol (CBPP), Lawrence Mishel (EPI), and Robert Zahradnik (CBPP)

Pulling Apart: A State-by-State Analysis of Income Trends Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute, January 18, 2000

http://www.cbpp.org/1-18-00sfp.htm  ADespite the strong economic growth and tight labor markets of recent years, income disparities in most states are significantly greater in the late 1990s than they were during the 1980s.@

State of Working America 2000-01 - Introduction and Executive Summary Economic Policy Institute, September 2000 http://www.epinet.org/books/swa2000/swa2000intro.html Report on the Youth Labor Force Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2000, 76p  http://stats.bls.gov/opub/rylf/rylfhome.htm Robert J. LaLonde and Harry J. Holzer Job Instability Among Young Adults Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies http://www.harrisschool.uchicago.edu/publications/research_summaries/rs_vol1 _num3.html Ray Perryman (The Perryman Group) Do Minimum Wages Raise the NAIRU?   http://www.bog.frb.fed.us/pubs/feds/2000/200038/200038abs.html Robert W. Farlie and Bruce D. Meyer The Effect of Immigration on Native Self-Employment Northwestern University, January 2000  http://www.nwu.edu/IPR/publications/native.pdf Center for an Urban Future The Skills Crisis: Building a Jobs System that Work  http://www.nycfuture.org/econdev/skills.htm Bronfenbrenner, Kate. Uneasy Terrain: the Impact of Capital Mobility on Workers, Wages, and Union Organizing. Research paper submitted to the U.S. Trade Deficit Commission. September 6, 2000. http://www.ustdrc.gov/research/bronfenbrenner.pdf Nancy Birdsall, Carol Graham, and Stefano Pettinato Stuck In the Tunnel: Is Globalization Muddling the Middle Class? Working Paper No. 14 (August 2000), Center on Social and Economic  Dynamics http://www.brookings.edu/es/dynamics/papers/middleclass/

G. Bertola, F. D. Blau and L. M. Kahn Comparative Analysis of Labor Market Outcomes: Lessons for the US from International Long-Run Evidence National Bureau of Economic Research, working paper, October 2001 http://papers.nber.org/papers/W8526

Labor Research Portal  http://iir.berkeley.edu/~iir/library/webguides.html <Attitudes About Work And Leisure in America>American Enterprise Institute, Special Analysis, August 2001, 45p http://www.aei.org/ps/psbowman4.pdf Low Unemployment: Old Dogs or New Tricks?   Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, article, October 2001 http://www.stls.frb.org/publications/re/2001/d/pages/economic-backgnd.html A Local Ladder for the Working Poor: The Impact of the Earned Income Tax  Credit in U.S. Metropolitan Areas  Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, report, October 2001 http://www.brookings.edu/es/urban/eitc/eitcnationalexsum.htm Workforce Development: Employment Retention and Advancement Under TANF Center for Law and Social Policy, paper, October 2001, 6p http://www.wkkf.org/Devolution/TechnicalPapers/Workforce.pdf

Paul Light: Preparing a Workforce for War The Brookings Institute, article, October 2001 http://www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/light/20011101.htm Economic Slowdown Highlights Critical Importance of Skills: EPF, Employment Trends, November 28, 2001, 4p http://www.epf.org/research/newsletters/2001/et20011127.pdf Financial Peril Awaits Unemployment Insurance System EPF, Employment Trends, November 5, 2001, 9p http://www.epf.org/research/newsletters/2001/et20011105.pdf Peter Orszag and Gene Sperling: Unemployment Insurance and Fiscal Stimulus Brookings, paper, November 2001, 8p http://www.brookings.edu/views/papers/orszag/20011107.pdf Future Labor and Skill Shortages Jeopardize American Prosperity: EPF, Contemporary Issues in Employment and Workplace Policy, October 23,2001, 5p http://www.epf.org/research/newsletters/2001/ef20011025.pdf Older Workers: Demographic Trends Pose Challenges for Employers and Workers. GAO-02-85, report, November 16, 2001, 46p http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d0285.pdf Government Spending on the Elderly: Social Security and MedicareNCPA, Policy Report, November 2001  http://www.ncpa.org/pub/st/st247/index.html Greg Scandlen: <MSAs Can Be a Windfall for All.> National Center for Policy Analysis, Backgrounder No. 157, November 1, 2001 http://www.ncpa.org/pub/bg/bg157/index.html

EMPLOYMENT - INCOMES - RETIREMENT Employee Overtime Hours Unchanged in Over 15 Years  EPF, Press Release, May 2002 http://www.epf.org/research/newsletters/2002/wt20020605.pdf Paul Weinstein Jr. New Economy Work (NEW) Scholarships PPI Policy Report, June 14, 2002 http://www.ppionline.org/ndol/print.cfm?contentid=250586 Making Work Pay for Public Housing Residents: Learning from the Jobs-Plus Demonstration Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, Policy Brief, April 2002 http://www.mdrc.org/Reports2002/JobsPlusPolicyBrief/jobs_plus_pb_2_2002.htm The Economic Well-Being of Low-Income Working Families Employment Policies Institute, March 2002, http://www.epionline.org/study_bishop_03-2002.html Income and Poverty of Older Americans In 1999: A Chartbook' The AARP's Public Policy Institute, 60p http://research.aarp.org/econ/income_poverty.html Dr. Andrew Rettenmaier (Texas A&M University) The Economic Cost of the Social Security Payroll Tax National Center for Policy Analysis, Study No. 252, June 2002. http://www.ncpa.org/pub/st/st252/ Reinventing Retirement Income in America   NCPA, Policy Report No. 248, December, 2001 http://www.ncpa.org/pub/st/st248/

Eisenscher, Michael “Is the Secret to Labor’s Future in its Past?” WORKINGUSA, Spring 2002, pp. 95-122 This article considers current efforts to restore union power and the problems inherent in them. The article concludes with discussion of changes that are required for U.S. organized labor to avoid becoming little more than a niche influence in the twenty-first century.  Lancaster, Loryn and Anne Vogel “Changes in Unemployment insurance legislation in 2001” MONTHLY LABOR REVIEW, January 2002, pp. 37-45 At the State level, enactments included increases of maximum weekly benefit amounts, modifications to voluntary quit provisions, and extensions of coverage to Indian tribes; one Federal bill enacted will affect the Federal-State unemployment insurance program.  Nelson, Richard R.“State Labor Legislation Enacted in 2001” MONTHLY LABOR REVIEW, January 2002, pp. 12-30 Increases in minimum wage rates, restrictions on youth peddling, ban on discrimination because of genetic information, and protection from workplace harassment and violence were among major subjects of State labor legislation.  Whittington, Glenn“Changes in Workers’ Compensation Laws During 2001” MONTHLY LABOR REVIEW, January 2002, pp. 31-36 Workers’ compensation coverage was extended to certain law enforcement and public safety officers, but excluded from some sports officials, inmates, musicians.

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