During the 1980s and 1990s, industrial restructuring led to a marked increase in wage inequality. Women, however, were not as negatively affected by declining manufacturing employment because their pay was relatively low within the industry, and their already high representation in the service sector provided access to newly created opportunities.…

In this issue brief, the authors explore how former foster youth in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa are faring in the labor market and what explains the variability in employment outcomes for these youth. First, they describe trends in former foster youths' employment from age 17 to 24. Then, they consider how former foster youths' characteristics…

According to Sheldon Danziger and David Ratner, changes in the labor market over the past thirty-five years, such as labor-saving technological changes, increased globalization, declining unionization, and the failure of the minimum wage to keep up with inflation, have made it more difficult for young adults to attain the economic stability and…

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Great Recession began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009. With a duration of eighteen months, this recession was almost double the length of the average post-World War II economic downturn. Although the worst recession since the Great Depression is now technically over, this analysis…

Individual variation in labor supply can arise from more than just a choice among discrete occupation groups, especially given the joint process of wage determination and time allocation. Other factors can include differential preferences for earnings, the time length of work and other related occupational attributes. Using data from the Wisconsin…

The Boston metropolitan area is recognized by many for its concentration of prestigious private colleges and universities. The metropolitan area is home to over 80 private colleges and universities employing 68,600 people and attracting over 360,000 students from all over the world. This report uses employment and wage data from the Bureau of…

The Departments of Labor and Higher Education, working in close collaboration with the constituent units of public higher education, present this comprehensive report on the employment of graduates of public colleges and universities. This report summarizes the employment and compensation experience of students who graduated from the State's 18…

Everyone should have the opportunity to develop skills for a high-paying job. But most jobs are in the low-paying service sector. Recent work by Paul Barton and Michael Handel point to problems with initiatives designed to address skills deficits and calls into question reforms based on high-stakes assessments.

This working paper assesses the ease of immigrants' integration in OECD labour markets by estimating how an immigration background influences the probability of being active or employed and the expected hourly earnings, for given individual characteristics. Applying the same methodology to comparable data across twelve OECD countries, immigrants…

Until the 1960s, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were practically the only institutions of higher learning open to Blacks in the US. Using nationally representative data files from 1970s and 1990s college attendees, we find that in the 1970s HBCU matriculation was associated with higher wages and an increased probability of…

The Departments of Labor and Higher Education, working in close collaboration with the constituent units of public higher education, present this comprehensive report on the employment of graduates of public colleges and universities. This report summarizes the employment and compensation experience of students who graduated from the State's 18…

The self-employed began to more closely resemble wage and salary workers during 1972-79. Their workweek was shortened, they tended to be younger, and were more likely to be women than in the past, but they continued to earn less than other workers. (Author)

Using 1980/81 and 1990/91 census data from Australia, Canada, and the United States, we estimate the effects of time in the destination country on male immigrants' wages, employment, and earnings. We find that total earnings assimilation is greatest in the United States and least in Australia. Employment assimilation explains all of the earnings…

The 1990s saw considerable growth in employment, especially among high- and low-paid workers. However, there has been comparatively little real wage growth. (SK)

Earnings differences are relatively small between women and men in narrowly defined jobs; however, relatively few women fill the higher levels of these jobs. (Author/JOW)