Aggregate unemployment may affect individual returns to education through qualification-specific responses in participation and wage bargaining. This paper shows that an increase in regional unemployment by 1% decreases returns to education by 0.005 percentage points. This implies that higher skilled employees are better sheltered from labour…

This article addresses the question of why fields of study differ in early labour market returns. It is argued that the higher the potential training costs of a field of study the more problematic the labour market integration of graduates. This is due to the fact that employers use the occupational specificity and selectivity of a study programme…

This paper estimates changes in the effects of educational attainment and college quality on three cohorts of students observed during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Consistent with most of the prior literature, I find that educational attainment and college quality raise earnings, and the magnitudes of these effects have increased over time. The…

The purpose of this report is to provide California community colleges with a statistical description of regional employment trends between 1991 and 1997. These trends are presented by one-, two-, and three-digit Standard Industrial Classification Codes (SIC) for each of the nine regions of the state: (1) the Bay Area; (2) the Central Coast; (3)…

Now that some of the historic barriers to economic success for U.S. women and minorities have begun to fall, women and blacks, in particular, are moving upward on the nation's socioeconomic ladder. Melissa Kearney reviews evidence that improved economic opportunities for these two groups make sex and race less important than they once were in…

A research project studied 4 selected matched samples of 160 youths each, aged 16-19 years, from 2 towns in England and 2 in Germany in order to compare the youths' experience of job training and the school-to-work transition. Two expanding towns--Swindon, England, and Paderborn, Germany--were paired, as were Liverpool and Bremen. Whereas…

We are witnessing an historic shift in our approach to employment policy that will have profound implications for vocational educators. This shift is most recognizable in the waning influence of demand-side economics and the ascendence of supply-side economics. Recent indications are that public policy is no longer firmly committed to maintaining…

Selected titles from a conference on building a quality workforce are as follows: "Action Packed 'Practical Education Now'" (Walters); "Adjusting to Transitions" (Schall, Dluzak); "Adult Literacy" (Nichols); "Aging Workforce" (Stowell et al.); "Artificial Intelligence and Human Performance…

This book explores how two nations with widely divergent political economies, Germany and the United States (U.S.), embraced change in four contemporary settings. "Mutual Learning with Trade-Offs" (Kirsten Wever) discusses mutual learning and the distinguishing characteristics of the political economies of Germany and the U.S.…

This Congressional report contains the testimony and documents presented for the record at the second of two hearings on the effects of welfare reform and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. Other areas receiving particular attention from witnesses included the impacts of education and training on employment patterns…