The most prominent theories of unemployment that have emerged since 1960 are search, disequilibrium, implicit contracts, efficiency wage, and insider/outsider models. Search models assume that it takes time and effort for employers and potential employees to find each other. A "partial-partial" equilibrium approach focuses on one side of…

The prospective place of the aging worker in the employment environment of the 21st century is examined. The following are among the specific topics discussed: (1) the real world of work and retirement; (2) the changing employment environment; (3) the restructuring of business in the United States; (4) globalization and the economy; (5) downsizing…

This is the first of two volumes of selected papers presented at the 1996 conference on "Changes in Working Time in Canada and the United States." Eleven chapters focus on weekly hours worked by individuals, including the recent changes in the distribution of weekly working time in Canada and the U.S., implications of the changing…

This book, which was written for students, explains the education and training needed to obtain one of the 50 most appealing and best-paying jobs today. Jobs are grouped into these categories: business services; communications; computer technology; construction; health care; manufacturing and production; mechanics, installers, and repairers;…

In order to determine whether methods of job analysis and classification currently used are biased by traditional sex stereotypes or other factors, a committee assessed formal systems of job evaluation and other methods currently employed in the private and public sectors for establishing the comparability of jobs and their levels of compensation.…

The impact of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) on working families was analyzed. The analysis established that the EITC is, on balance, a highly effective program that meets its primary objectives well. The following benefits of the EITC were identified: (1) it reduced the poverty rate in 1999 by an estimated 1.5 percentage points; (2) it is…

The rising wage inequality in U.S. urban labor markets during the 1980s was examined in a study of 20 metropolitan area labor markets. The study's perspective differs from the prevailing perspective on the problem in three ways: (1) it focuses on changes in the wage structure in a sample of local labor markets; (2) it examines changes in the…

Numerous sources of data about family incomes, taxes, wages, unemployment, wealth, and poverty were used to analyze the impact of the economy on living standards in the United States in 1994-1995. It was discovered that most individuals in the United States are worse off in the 1990s than they were at the end of the 1970s. Between 1979 and 1989,…

This handbook, based on the U.S. Department of Labor's "Occupational Outlook Handbook," is a book for children describing the work people do for their self-worth as well as for income to pay their bills. The guide describes 196 jobs, organized within the following job clusters: (1) executive, administrative, and managerial; (2) professional…

The comparable worth issue has become heated in the 1980s and is especially important to minorities and women. The debate, explored in this eighth chapter of a book on school law, concerns the causes of and cures for the earning gap between employed men and women. One major cause of the gap is occupational segregation. Comparable worth advocates…

The Special Libraries Association (SLA) provides information on achieving equal pay for equal work for women librarians in special libraries. A 1973 SLA study is cited to show pay differences between men and women. Then relevant legislation and executive orders are listed for the United States, along with similar legislation for Canada. Attention…

For the past 15 years, economist Ronald Ferguson has investigated the myriad factors that combine to create racial disparities in academic performance. Beginning with his analysis of the impact of test scores in predicting racial wage gaps, Ferguson has explored how rates of progress in narrowing gaps have varied over the recent decades, the roles…

This examination of the academic reward structure at American universities involves an analysis of the marketplace for academic labor and an empirical investigation of the reward structure in several of the different disciplines found in the modern university. Four dimensions of the reward structure are considered: the merit raise, the annual…

This book explains major trends in the U.S. labor market over the last quarter-century. Chapter 1 presents hypotheses regarding the changing labor market. Chapter 2 looks at cognitive skills and formal education as determinants of employment. Chapter 3 develops the argument that the downward occupational mobility arising from changes in the supply…

Data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau (the Current Population Survey and Survey of Income and Program Participation) and other federal agencies were used to examine trends in the ways different cohorts of women born between 1906 and 1975 have attempted to balance motherhood, marriage, and employment. The study focused on the following:…