Since the onset of the Great Recession, the U.S. labor market has been reeling. Public concern has largely focused on the unemployment rate, which rose to double digits and has since been stalled at just over 9 percent. This rate is unacceptably high, and macroeconomic policy efforts have been unsuccessful in bringing it down. The overall…

In this paper, the authors first discuss the Neumark and Troske piece, and then compare the U.S. context to that in Europe and Korea, as described by the Caspar, Hartwig, and Moench and the Cho and Shin contributions. Although they are in basic agreement with Neumark and Troske on the extent and depth of the current employment situation, they…

Comparing the papers on the Korean and the U.S. situations leads to interesting conclusions. Cho and Shin argue that the recent crisis did not create huge problems in the labor market because Korea was firstly in a fundamentally sound economic situation and secondly took adequate anti-crisis measures, in particular by stabilizing internal demand.…

The adult basic education field in the United States is now being encouraged to shift to a "career pathways" orientation by policy research organizations, federal and state agencies, community college organizations, business groups, and private foundations. In such an approach, adult basic education programs work with workforce…

This paper presents Stan Jones' testimony before the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training. In his testimony, he talks about a new American majority of students that is emerging on campuses, especially at community colleges. These students must delicately balance long hours at jobs they must…

The Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce has engaged in a highly publicized campaign claiming that the nation will face a very substantial deficit of college graduates by 2018 if the American postsecondary system fails to rapidly expand the number of college degrees it awards each year. Indeed, the employment projections developed by…

This series of articles cites a variety of sources and synthesizes a number of studies related to education and training efforts in both developing and developed nations. (SSH)

To improve America's economic outlook, positive action must be taken to lay the groundwork for a sustained increase in the rate of productivity. It is helpful to compare training methods, particularly apprenticeship, to those of West Germany, which has consistently maintained high production levels. (JOW)

Countries everywhere are turning to education in the quest for competitive edge in the global economy. How to attain the high skills needed in new reformed workplaces is a preoccupation that can be observed across developed countries. In this widening discourse of high skills and competitiveness, the U.S. skills production model is being seen as…

Compares current U.S. productivity to productivity in two previous decades and to productivity in Japan and Germany. Suggests that productivity comes from three groups of factors: (1) human resources, (2) technology and capital investment, and (3) the external environment. Recommends that vocational educators should more aggressively sell their…

This group of articles studies the effects of microelectronics technologies on the world of work and on the social and economic life in general. These studies are related to several industrial nations and are also concerned with the international division of labor. (SSH)

I explore the role of training practices at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) in perpetuating power and control issues and the potential consequences of those practices. I argue that trainee responses to control deprivation may have resulted in alleged sexual assaults by male cadets and the eating disorders manifested by female cadets.…

This series of articles cites a variety of sources and synthesizes a number of studies on the effects of new technologies on the world of work and on social and economic life in general. These studies are related to several industrial nations and are also concerned with the new information-oriented society. (SSH)

Although several fundamental forces are changing the American economy and the American work force, three conditions are pivotal--demographic change, technological change coupled with shifting conditions of competition, and the continuing inadequacies of both public- and private-sector employment and training policies. The employment and training…

This article cites six sources which present planning and implementation strategies for major government-sponsored training programs. These federal programs were designed to allocate funds to modernize training facilities and to provide employment skills for the hard-to-employ youth in six European and Asian nations. (SSH)