Discusses the increasing shortage of qualified entry-level workers. Describes solutions that are being attempted by various companies, including increasing the training budget, raising wages, and providing better benefits. (CH)

The Third International Symposium on Career Development and Public Policy was entitled "Shaping the future: Connecting career development and work development." Papers were provided by 16 nations and organisations, and this article synthesises these papers. The country teams were asked to select and address two or three of six themes: (1) human…

A model of occupational choice based on the theory of human capital is developed and estimated by conditional logit analysis. The empirical results estimated the probability of individuals with certain characteristics (such as race, sex, age, and education) entering each of 11 occupational groups. The results indicate that individuals tend to…

The conventional approach to analysis of employment problems in the modern sector, namely comparison of workforce supply and demand, is inapplicable in the traditional sector, where a distinction needs to be made between the concepts of workforce underutilization and its availability. The author discusses these concepts and presents their policy…

Nigeria's National Open Apprenticeship Scheme (NOAS) is aimed at giving vocational skills to unemployed youth and helping them to be self-employed or get gainful employment. NOAS is targeted at Nigerian men and women aged 15-25. Minimum educational requirements vary by trade; course duration ranges from 2 months to 3 years. The number of trainees…

Job training is a powerful tool for growth, but only if embedded in a climate of pro-growth policies that it complements. To attract capital to create growth and jobs, a country has to offer favorable supply side conditions. A skilled labor force is one of several important supply side categories, whose growth effects are strongest when the other…

A review and evaluation were conducted of social science research that has been based upon the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS) of Labor Market Experience. First, a comprehensive survey was undertaken of the labor market research that has used NLS data: (1) labor supply and the factors of female and male labor, child care and welfare, and…

The multidimensional nature of the diversity of the nation's labor force was examined, with emphasis on the economic diversity within the population generally and within and among the demographic groups. Principal activities were a literature review focusing on the economics of the labor market, analysis of data from the 1980 Census, and a…

This book, which is designed for undergraduate-level students in economics and industrial relations, attempts to synthesize the literature in the field of training for employment in Western Europe and the United States. In part 1, the principles of human capital theory are used to explain many labor market phenomena in terms of rational choices…