Using data from the Quarterly Workforce Indicators, this brief explores changes in the Los Angeles County labor market and in the working-age population as a plausible explanation for some of the enrollment decline at the county's community college campuses.

Higher education could be one of California's most effective tools for combating economic and social inequities. College graduates experience large wage gains and their jobs offer more benefits than those of workers without bachelor's degrees. College graduates are also relatively insulated from recessions--including the current downturn--and…

Across the massive megalopolis stretching from the northern suburbs of Los Angeles County through the metropolitan complex along the northern border of Baja California is a diverse area containing 24 million people, with a disproportionate percentage of Latinos and African Americans who are facing an educational and economic disaster. As it…

Despite three decades of scholarship on economic restructuring in the United States, employers' violations of minimum wage, overtime and other workplace laws remain understudied. This article begins to fill the gap by presenting evidence from a large-scale, original worker survey that draws on recent advances in sampling methodology to reach…

The national college completion agenda is in full swing but the role of "community" colleges in that agenda is under-appreciated. With a large share of projected job openings requiring college education of less than a bachelor's degree and offering family-supporting wages, the nation's community colleges can make a huge contribution…

The Obama Administration has helped articulate the important role community colleges play in educating the nation's workforce and boosting the economy. With a large share of projected job openings requiring college education of less than a bachelor's degree and offering family-supporting wages, the nation's community colleges can make a huge…

The Obama Administration has once again demonstrated the important role community colleges play in educating the nation's workforce and boosting the nation's economy with its recently proposed Community College to Career Fund. This $8 billion fund is aimed at forging partnerships between colleges and businesses to train workers for good-paying…

California's community colleges are key to resolving the shortage of educated workers that is threatening the competitive position of the state's economy. Tremendous potential for addressing this challenge resides in the system's career technical education (CTE) mission which, with appropriate structures and support, could help many more students…

Since 1998, federally funded One-Stop Service Centers around the country have focused primarily on assisting the unemployed into work. WASC tests a strategy that expands that mission by targeting people who are already working, but at low wages. Through career coaching, skills training, and better connections with employers - and led by a newly…

The residential construction industry, like much of today's job market, requires young people to have more analytical reasoning ability and a broader skill base. Along with this comes a deeper understanding of what it means to provide students with "good" soft skills. Soft skills are more than just saying thank you. Choosing a career is…

San Bernardino Valley College instituted a library technician training program in September 1967. During the 1967-68 year, certain deficiencies became apparent, namely, data on job opportunities in the area served by the college and on what qualifications the graduates of the program should have. In June 1968, a survey of the area (limited to one…

Postsecondary education is a major enterprise in California. The state provides $12 billion annually in funding to the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges. A major concern is how well the output of degrees, certificates, and other qualifications from these three public segments meets the…

The existing vocational education delivery systems for exceptional students (grades 9-12) in Orange County, California, were evaluated. In the first phase, a needs assessment survey was developed to identify vocational education programs/classes available for handicapped students through sheltered workshops, high schools, community colleges, and…

This handbook is the result of research done in a workshop, the purposes of which included: (1) to improve vocational guidance in secondary schools, (2) to develop better liaison between businesses, industry and education, (3) to provide practical knowledge of employment conditions and personnel practices through observations in the business and…

This book is a report of the process by which young men in low income black and Chicano ghettos enter the labor market. Of the identifiable groups whose employment experience is reported and evaluated in official censuses and surveys, none has suffered a higher and more persistent rate of unemployment than has the minority youth labor force.…