Four telling facts about jobs and wages for young Americans, as explained in this policy brief, suggest a labor market recovery is coming, although it will be gradual and uneven by educational attainment. Young Americans with a postsecondary degree are more likely to be employed, but the nature of their employment suggests they are taking…

The U.S. economy has undergone dramatic changes in recent decades. Jobs that required limited skills--but still paid a family-supporting wage--have disappeared and increasingly have been replaced with jobs that either require higher levels of education and skills "or" require little education and training but offer no pathways to careers…

Innovation is the key to productivity growth and prosperity. Most empirical cross-country analysis of the determinants of innovation focus mainly on developed countries. The objective of this study is to fill this gap in the research and analyze the determinants of innovation in transition countries of Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union.…

The authors of this report analyzed the most recent data to illustrate the impact of literacy skills on both the micro- and macro-economic levels. The report explores whether there is a case to be made for direct links between literacy skill and income level. Data relating to the ability to get a job, job retention and promotion, risk of job loss,…

Uses 1981 and 1991 census data to study the incidence and wage consequences of adequate schooling, overschooling, and underschooling in Hong Kong. Using the objective "mode" definition of adequate schooling, less than one-half of workers in the sample were adequately schooled; overeducated workers predominated. (Contains 20 references.)…

Employs Portuguese data to test competing hypotheses about effects of over- and under-education on earnings. The human capital trade-off theory seems irrelevant. The hypothesis of technology-produced pockets of over- and under-education is consistent with Portugal's efforts to promote economic growth, modernize industry, and upgrade educational…

Investigates whether structural changes in the U.S. labor market affected the rewards and penalties associated with having too much or too little schooling for a job. Applies U.S. results to Germany's more structured ambience. In all cases, productivity and wages were affected by workers' education levels. (Contains 34 references.) (MLH)

An analysis of the economic returns of education in Australia finds a rising need for education at a time of diminishing apparent returns. It is proposed that the notions of credentialism and education as a positional good provide a better explanation for this phenomenon than does the human capital approach. (MSE)

Is the positive potential of globalization being realized? Are transnational careers becoming a reality? What effects are uncertainty and continuous change having on career development? There is evidence that a growing number of companies are exporting both blue- and white-collar jobs overseas, although some contend that it is new technologies…

The purpose of "Focus" is to provide coverage of poverty-related research, events, and issues, and to acquaint a large audience with the work of the Institute for Research on Poverty by means of short essays on selected pieces of research. This issue contains the following articles: (1) Changing poverty and changing antipoverty policies…

The empirical basis for expectations that employer involvement in high school programs contributes to early employment success in today's economy was explored by using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) survey for 1992, when students were sampled in their senior year, and data for 1994, when follow-up interviews with the…

A review of technological, political, social, and economic forces affecting the world of work indicates that in the eighties significant changes can be expected in the following areas: the nature of organizations, the relationship between individuals and organizations, the nature of the work force, the nature of the workplace, and the nature of…

Men's and women's quality of work in the new Canadian economy was examined. The two data sources used were the 2000 Changing Employment Relationships Survey (CERS), which consisted of telephone interviews of 2,500 currently employed Canadian residents aged 18 or older, and the 2000 General Social Survey (GSS), which examined access to and use of…

The rise of the office economy and its impact on vocational education and training (VET) in Australia were examined by replicating the methodology used in Carnevale and Rose's U.S. study on the impact of the new office economy. Both studies took a functional approach to analyzing economic activities and the work force and focused primarily on…

This book contains 17 papers devoted to the following four aspects of the transition to adulthood: effects of alterations in the structure of opportunity; effects of prior experiences in the family; effects of prior experience in the workplace; and career development and marriage formation during a period of rising inequality. The following papers…