Today's movement in support of the 99 percent is a reminder that throughout U.S. history, a major engine of change has been grass-roots organizing and solidarity. Major history textbooks, however, downplay the role of ordinary people in shaping events--especially those who formed labor unions and used the strike to assert their rights. One of the…

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…

In recent years, a concatenation of fears, pressures, and agendas has produced a new round of testing in the form of high school exit examinations. There has not, however, been an accompanying rush to see whether the exams do any good. No state has attempted to validate its test against external criteria: given the hyperbole surrounding the tests…

Discusses the national economy and the need for a well-trained work force. (JOW)

With intense competition at the forefront of the global knowledge-based economy, the United States must embrace a strategy of building a skilled workforce. In the New Economy, the flow of capital coalesces around regions that have high concentrations of talent. Despite evidence that skilled workers are a vital element of regional economic…

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)

Reindustrialization problems in the United States (U.S.) include unemployment, low productivity, inflation, and inadequate economic growth. To determine how to improve economic performance, a careful, rational evaluation must be made of such factors as tax policy, spirit of risk, managerial effectiveness, rates of innovation, research and…

Although projecting what the labor market will be like in 10 years is extremely difficult, it is useful to consider what is in store for the nation in terms of employment. In 1985, the civilian labor force of the United States averaged 115 million persons, with 8 million (7.2 percent) unemployed. Unemployment was much higher for young people and…

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)