As the U.S. workforce ages, baby boomers retire, and birth rates decline, the United States is facing an estimated shortfall of 8 million workers between now and 2027. At the same time, the U.S. economy is becoming ever more knowledge-based. Having a marketable postsecondary credential, whether an academic degree or a professional certification or…

This dissertation studies the effects of China's higher education expansion reform on workers' labor market outcomes. In Chapter 1, I investigate how China's higher education expansion reform affects young workers' labor market outcomes. Using data from the 2005 China Population Survey, I estimate the effects of the reform using a diff-in-diff…

Washington employment projections continue to show strong demand for workers with postsecondary education. Nearly 70 percent of all projected job openings require at least some education beyond high school, with two-thirds requiring midlevel education or higher. As businesses, industries, and workplaces become increasingly complex, employers need…

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workers help drive our nation's innovation and competitiveness by generating new ideas and new companies. For example, workers who study or are employed in these fields are more likely to apply for, receive, and commercialize patents. STEM knowledge also has other benefits; while often very…

This is the technical appendices for the report, "Higher Education and Economic Opportunity in California." Lower rates of college access and completion among Latinos, African Americans, and low-income Californians exacerbate the state's economic divide and puts California further behind in meeting its workforce needs. And even though a…

Economic theories predict that women are more likely to exit the labor force if their partners' earnings are higher and if their own wage rate is lower. In this article, I use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 2,254) and discrete-time event-history analysis to show that wives' relative wages are more predictive of their exit than are…

After a long decline, the Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) of older men in the United States leveled off in the 1980s, and began to increase in the late 1990s. We examine how changes in Social Security rules affected these trends. We attribute only a small portion of the decline from the 1960s-80s to the increasing generosity of Social…

This book grew out of the research of the Conservation of Human Resources Project at Columbia University. It provides an updated version of a book with the same title and by the same author that was published in 1959. The subject is discussed in the following chapters: I. The Work of Women; II. The Women Who Work; III. The Demands and Rewards of…

Contingent workers generally earn less income and are less likely to receive health insurance and pension benefits through their employers than are noncontingent workers. However, many earn higher wages than those in traditional arrangements and have access to health insurance from other sources. (Author)

When chronicling how less-skilled workers have fared in the U.S. since the late 1970's, existing literature often cites their falling wages and declining participation in the labor force. Most research describing these trends, however, focuses primarily on men, failing to account for the fact that less-skilled women's real wages have not fallen,…

Today, the Census Bureau compiles extensive information every year about the people and the economy of the United States. That is how the authors know that in 2006 the United States is going to reach an extraordinary milestone--300 million people. In this article, the authors discuss the "now and then" of the U.S. society. The authors…

Abstracts a number of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publications. For example, reviews seven current employment analysis documents, one employment structure and trends document, and one wages and industrial relations document. Provides other reference sources. Describes five types of BLS surveys on straight-time earnings and establishment…

This monograph systematically explores the implications of changes in the composition of the labor force and of related socioeconomic trends for the availability of workers in lower level occupations (mainly less skilled and/or lower wage blue-collar and service jobs), and assesses the forms of labor market adjustment to be expected, in the event…

Examines two opposing positions of economists about immigration's impacts. Reports empirical analysis of wages and employment effects of recent undocumented aliens and settled migrants on native-born workers. Separate native-born worker estimates are provided for men and women, subdivided by race and Spanish origin. (FMW)

Provides data on industrial employment in the chemical industry, comparing subgroups of production for all employees and for scientists and engineers. Gives company by company sales per employee breakdown. Compares wages among industry subgroups. Cites productivity measures. (JM)