This volume attempts to measure and quantify 10 labor standards in the United States and Canada. Its two purposes are to begin to fill the gap in the research by developing a measure of labor standards that can be applied across countries and to apply that measure to the United States (U.S.) and Canada to test a popular hypothesis that Canada has…

A study examined the school and labor market experiences of students who either are in or have participated in vocational education programs. To formulate their conclusions, the researchers involved in the study analyzed a subset of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Labor Market Experience--Youth Cohort. These data indicate that…

Wage rates and earnings give misleading signals to public and private policymakers as to the benefits of certain kinds of education and training investments. These misleading signals result from the fact that (1) workers and employers prefer employment contracts that either do not recognize or only partially recognize differences in productivity…

Most female workers in developing countries do not have wage jobs. However, the preponderance of female workers in non-wage jobs is not consistent across all developing countries. It is highly likely that the proportion of non-wage female workers in developing countries is greater than is suggested by the statistics. Consequently, mothers in the…

Education in the arts and humanities has always been important to the United States' arts and culture and to its competitiveness in a global economy. Providing all students with a complete education in the arts and humanities can help them cope with, and master, the fast-paced technological advances, forces of globalization, and major demographic…

Although youth between the ages of 16 and 19 account for only 6.7 percent of the nation's labor force, they constitute 17.9 percent of the officially unemployed. Unemployment among youth is rising. More than 46 percent of the nation's black youth and nearly 39 percent of Hispanic children currently live below the poverty level. Moreover, real…

The 10-year report of Virginia's Director of the State Council for Higher Education gives an overview of trends and changes in the state's institutions during that period, examines strategies for the future of the state's higher education planning, and discusses the role of technology in knowledge development. It outlines the broad principles of…

The principal justification for the federal government's long-term and substantial support of vocational education programs is the need to provide opportunities for American workers, particularly those without marketable skills from lower income and minority families, to develop job-related skills. In recent decades, Congress has enacted several…

Analysis of the costs of employing older workers indicates that some types of employment costs do vary by age and that overall compensation costs increase with age, largely because of increasing employee benefit costs. There is, however, no statistical evidence that direct salary costs increase by age on an economy-wide basis. The belief that…

The federal policy shift from skills training and toward work first strategies has come about, in part, from a misconception that "training does not work." A more comprehensive look at existing research reveals the documented effectiveness of skills training. A growing number of studies have shown skills training can increase earnings;…

Examination of data concerning such topics as enrollment in nontraditional vocational programs and comparative earnings of male and female vocational graduates indicates that efforts to reduce sex bias and sex role stereotyping in Michigan's secondary vocational programs have resulted in increased attention to the issue at the local level. Such…

The Minnesota Family Investment Program, the Canadian Self-Sufficiency Project, and Milwaukee's New Hope Project are three antipoverty programs that were undertaken in the 1990s to end dependency on welfare by "making work pay." The impacts of all three programs were reviewed and compared to those of the Seattle/Denver Income Maintenance…

The literature on sex segregation in the workplace was reviewed to determine how it could be used in formulating policy in the area of sex fairness in the American labor market. The committee found that although women's occupational options have increased dramatically in the past decade, sex segregation is still widespread. Among those factors…

The third biennial outcome evaluation of the state of Washington's workforce development system analyzed the results of nine of the state's largest workforce development programs plus employer-provided training for participants who left programs from July 1, 1997 to June 30, 1998. For reporting results, the nine programs were grouped into three…

The key characteristics, representation, and salaries of women in management versus those of their male counterparts were examined through an analysis of Current Population Survey data collected in March 1995 and 2000. The study focused on the following 10 industries: communications; public administration; business and repair services;…