Data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (1985 wave) indicate that rural households have the highest probability of poverty, followed by metropolitan-core households. Household factors (educational attainment, family structure, age, minority status) and the local opportunity structure were important determinants of poverty, but controlling for…

Drawing on empirical studies from five countries (Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, United Kingdom, and United States), over 2 decades, outlines irregularities in the incidence of over- and under-education and consequences for individual earnings. The overall incidence of overeducation in the labor market is about 26 percent. (Contains 33 references.)…

Surveys of rural and urban businesses and households in northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin found that: only 25 percent of firms had trouble hiring skilled workers; required skills were not particularly high-tech; few firms used public or private education providers in their skill training activities; and the labor force was overtrained…

Despite growth in the service sector, manufacturing remains a vital part of the rural South's economic base and is related to lower poverty rates. However, manufacturing is changing, adopting new technologies and management practices, and seeking more highly skilled labor. Poor rural schools, an unskilled workforce, and absence of community…

What does a high school diploma do for new graduates? For decades, Americans have come to expect a diploma to do at least two things: (1) offer a chance at jobs that support a family; and (2) qualify its holder for entrance into the military. But today, most young people and their parents also expect it to open the door to postsecondary education,…

Project Human Capital is a five-year research project designed to examine the impact of the college experience on the upward mobility of rural South Carolina State College students. A total of 5,916 freshmen, seniors, and graduates from three institutions of higher learning were surveyed; some 2,999 students responded for an overall response rate…

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth's continuous work history files, this paper examines how individual and market characteristics influence the unemployment rates of Hispanic youth. The results show that family income, marital status, post-school vocational education, age, and local unemployment rates significantly influence…

Presents poverty statistics from the report of the Rural Sociological Society's Task Force on Persistent Rural Poverty. Discusses who the rural poor are, recaps the history of government policies affecting rural poverty, and touches upon 10 theories that attempt social, economic, and educational explanations of why poverty is so persistent in…

Major intergenerational changes in occupational structure, common in many countries, can invalidate conclusions drawn from correlation/path analysis studies of status attainment (Wisconsin model). Longitudinal data on Chilean youth of different social strata and the Chilean occupational structure are used to explain education's role in…

In next 15 years, economy will grow more slowly than it did in 1980s because of slow growth in labor force. Service industry will provide most of new jobs, and higher educational attainment will be needed to enable people to compete in an increasingly diverse labor force. (Includes projections and expected competition for about 250 occupations.)…

Underemployment is another indicator of nonmetropolitan labor's disadvantaged circumstances. Yearly employment transitions during 1968 and 1993, show that compared to urban counterparts, adequately employed nonmetro workers were more likely to become underemployed; the nonmetro underemployed were less likely to become adequately employed; and…

A meta-analysis of studies on overeducation and undereducation in the labor market reveals that of the four different definitions of overeducation distinguished in the literature, only the one based on variation in years of education within occupational groups appears to yield significantly lower-than-average rates of overeducation. (Contains 4…

Social determinants over the life course, including childhood family characteristics, were studied in predicting unsuccessful entrance into the labour market at the age of 31 years. Among men, unsuccessful entrance into the labour market was predicted prospectively by the mother's receptive attitude towards receiving social aid and contentment…

Since coming to power in 1997, New Labour has adopted area-based initiatives (ABIs) as a key strategy to combat economic, social and (especially) educational disadvantage. This paper briefly outlines the history of ABIs within the UK and explores the discontinuities and continuities between recent initiatives and their earlier counterparts. It…

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…