The United States labor market has seen dramatic shifts in its occupational composition over the past few decades. Employment and wages have grown for workers at both the high and low end of the skill distribution, while those in the middle have suffered. Community colleges have historically acted as suppliers of middle-skill jobs and drivers of…

Scholarship on minority-serving institutions (MSIs) has established the critical role they play in spite of significant financial constraints. At the same time, descriptive statistical analyses have also found that MSIs, as a group, have lower completion rates than the national average. More research is thus needed on the factors underlying the…

Despite three decades of scholarship on economic restructuring in the United States, employers' violations of minimum wage, overtime and other workplace laws remain understudied. This article begins to fill the gap by presenting evidence from a large-scale, original worker survey that draws on recent advances in sampling methodology to reach…

California's degree gap is a growing concern. According to recent reports and news articles comparing the number of degrees awarded with the jobs expected in the coming decade, California will not have enough university graduates to meet the needs of the labor market. Previous work by the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) showed…

There is a persistent concern over mismatches between the degrees awarded by universities and the needs of the job market. Although there are shortages of graduates in some fields, many university graduates have difficulty finding jobs that make good use of their education. This has been discussed in newspaper articles, in education and business…

This dissertation deals with the relationship between wages and employment in five industry classifications covering mullwork and furniture plants. Census and other data for 1958, 1963 and 1967 are used, as well as data for the three years combined. The data are on the state level. The relationship is estimated within a simultaneous equation…

Describes 1984-88 employment and wage trends among California hired farmworkers, following immigration reforms. Describes farm employment trends by commodity and region. Discusses emergence of two-tiered farm labor market. Large farms tended to hire workers directly. More contractors shared expanding labor-contractor market. Suggests implications…

The existing vocational education delivery systems for exceptional students (grades 9-12) in Orange County, California, were evaluated. In the first phase, a needs assessment survey was developed to identify vocational education programs/classes available for handicapped students through sheltered workshops, high schools, community colleges, and…

If the immigration pattern of the 1970's persists in the 1980's, California can expect, annually, approximately 250,000 new immigrants, the majority from Latin America and Asia. Of these immigrants, concentrated in the working ages, 60 percent will be poorly educated and generally unskilled refugees and illegals and will be potentially heavy users…

QUESTIONNAIRE RETURNS FROM 103 EMPLOYERS IN AGRICULTURE AND RELATED INDUSTRIES WERE COMBINED WITH 50 INTERVIEWS WITHIN THE SAME GROUP TO PROVIDE INFORMATION ABOUT AGRICULTURAL TRAINING NEEDS IN VENTURA COUNTY. MOST FIRMS EMPLOYED FEWER THAN 15 WORKERS ON A PERMANENT BASIS, SUPPLEMENTED BY LARGE MEMBERS OF SEASONAL WORKERS, ESPECIALLY IN THE…

A study was conducted to identify new and emerging entry-level office and distributive occupations and analyze their effect on the business education curriculum. Two methods of gathering data were used in the study. First, data were gathered from interviews of forty-seven office firms, twelve individuals who were informed regarding office…

This research probes two questions: Does participation in alternative high school programs reduce the likelihood of students dropping out? Does participation enhance experience in the labor market after students leave school? Results showed lower dropout and higher subsequent employment rates among participants who had no doubt about finishing the…

The State/Local Cooperative Labor Market Information Program has been developed to meet the needs of California's business community and work force. The program aims to improve the match between employers' needs for skilled labor and the skills of the state's workers. The program is a partnership composed of the state Employment Development…

In 1980, 25% of the 14 million foreign-born persons in the United States were in California; 1.7 million of these were in Los Angeles County. Half of the 2.1 million undocumented immigrants counted in the 1980 United States Census lived in California, and about 75% of these were of Mexican origin. Results of a 1983 Urban Institute poll revealed…

A stratified random sample of 69 6 workers in 361 households in Kern County, California, was selected to investigate the changes in labor use resulting from farm mechanization, and to explore the trend towards a stable labor force. Some major findings were: (1) Mechanization of the cotton harvest has erased the high peak of seasonal farm labor,…