These four Congressional hearings investigate the role of the federal government in assisting long-term, structurally unemployed workers and in encouraging private sector efforts to retrain Americans. Witnesses who present statements, prepared statements, and articles represent the Urban Institute, Washington, District of Columbia; Forecasting…

Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) is a benefit paid to workers who lose their jobs in industries that face increasing competition from imported goods. TAA is supposed to offset political pressures for protectionist legislation, and it has been justified on grounds of equity and efficiency as well. Research on TAA shows that it has failed to aid…

Federal initiatives should be undertaken to reduce long-term structural unemployment in the United States. Long-term structural unemployment has risen during the 1970s and 1980s but is still primarily a problem of disadvantaged workers, not dislocated ones. The impact of technological change on occupations is felt mainly by the employed who are…

This congressional hearing focuses on the Endangered Species Employment Transition Assistance Act of 1992, which would amend the Job Training Partnership Act to provide job training and supportive services to workers dislocated as a result of enforcement of the Endangered Species Act. Testimony includes statements, articles, publications,…

This document contains testimony from two Senate hearings on the Reemployment and Training Act of 1994 by U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich and other witnesses concerning the Act and the need for changes in the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which requires employers to notify employees of impending layoffs.…

This document reports the oral and written testimony of witnesses at a Congressional hearing held to examine H.R. 3266, the Workforce 2000 Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) Amendments of 1989. The bill is aimed at reforming JTPA targeting and training efforts. It focuses on critical support services and targeting issues and includes provisions…

The National Council on Employment Policy found that there are small but substantial groups of older persons who are experiencing labor market problems--the working poor, the displaced unemployed, persons with health limitations, and groups of women who have been out of the labor force for large blocks of time. The problems of this generation, now…

The federal government needs to provide employment and training assistance to help dislocated workers to become reemployed. Worker mobility assistance should not be focused upon as a major thrust of reemployment programs, since American workers are remarkably resistant to pressures to move to more promising labor markets. Efficient and effective…

This working paper, part of a project on the applicability of the French training system in the United States, argues that a systematic national commitment to midcareer worker retraining is necessary for American prosperity and international economic competitiveness. Although findings of the early human capital theorists demonstrated that an…

This book examines the causes of worker displacement in the United States in the context of national economic change. It discusses the promising, through scattered, efforts already underway to help dislocated workers and outlines more far-reaching steps that can be taken with assistance of the federal Job Training Partnership Act of 1982. The book…

This policy study of official efforts to develop the relationship between education and employment in the United States focuses on both the transition of youth from school to work and the education and employment system for adults. Federal legislation is overviewed, and federal programs for youth to improve the relationship of education to…

This monograph outlines public policy responses to deal with the effects of forced worklife changes fashioned by government in the United States, Japan, and Western European countries. From the Morrill Act of 1862, through New Deal policy initiatives and on to the "active" manpower policies operating in Europe, the record of government…

A study was conducted in Illinois to determine how effectively the vocational education system was meeting its responsibilities to train, retrain, and upgrade employed and unemployed workers in new skills for which there is a demand in the state, under the terms of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act of 1984. Responses were received from…

If it is to play a key role in the reindustrialization of the United States, vocational education must be improved. Although vocational education has grown substantially in size in recent years, its quality is spotty, characterized by excellent programs in some communities and poor programs in others. In order to contribute to reindustrialization,…

The New Economy Work (NEW) Scholarship is a proposed scholarship designed to reform federal training programs and to make them universally accessible to dislocated or disadvantaged workers. NEW Scholarships would accomplish the following things: (1) make access to training for dislocated workers as universally available as access to college; (2)…