The position of small rural schools is precarious in much of rural Canada today. What is to be done about small schools in rural communities which are often experiencing population decline and aging, economic restructuring, and the loss of employment and services? We argue this issue is a classic "wicked" policy problem. Small schools…

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…

In this article we use comparative micro data for 15 European countries covering the period 1992-2007 to study the impact of labor market reforms on the skill-related individual risk of holding a temporary contract and the risk of being unemployed. Our results indicate no general increase in either of these skill gaps. Using two-step multilevel…

As the unemployment rate edged down to a 31-year low, the job market entered an unprecedented 10th year of expansion, though job growth slowed, especially in construction and service industries. The labor market improved for minority workers, who slightly closed the unemployment rate gap with white workers. (Contains 102 notes and references.)…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the possible implications for graduate employability of the economic changes which are affecting the UK in the wake of the "credit crunch". It explores the changing economic context and its implications both for HEIs and for graduates starting their careers. Design/methodology/approach:…

This study focuses on the role of student earnings as a source of financial support for postsecondary education and the trends in the various components of total earnings over the past ten years. Also studied is the disposition of these earnings between educational and noneducational use. It was found that the average full-time undergraduate…

The 1986 survey of displaced workers presents a more positive picture of post-displacement success than that conducted in 1984. Regional distribution also improved slightly. (CH)

External boom-bust forces may be so great as to overwhelm even well-prepared communities. In two oil-dependent coastal Louisiana parishes, over 90 percent of variation in total employment, 1970-88, was explained by commodity-related variables completely outside local community control. Contains 53 references. (Author/SV)

Analysis of occupational structures in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States shows divergent paths toward postindustrial society, with different forms of knowledge-based production (service-economy and info-industrial) that reflect cultural and institutional diversity. (SK)

Three papers consider various aspects of the labor market in the telecommunications field in the United States. The first, "Employment and Worker Dislocation in Telecommunications Equipment" (Julie Gorte, Office of Technology Assessment), notes that the increasing importance of international trade in the American economy has meant both a…

We used data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Samples to document poverty rates among native-born and foreign-born Mexicans living in the southwest and in new regions where many Mexican families have resettled. Our analysis focused on how changing patterns of employment have altered the risk of poverty among Mexican families and children.…

As in developed countries, China's service sector has become the main job creator, the country's labor force is better educated, and the average age of the employed is rising. Driving those phenomena are a fast-paced employment restructuring and a growing private enterprise at the expense of state and collective ownership. (Author)

Surveys of 900 manufacturers in Hungary and Bulgaria show that transition to a market economy is (1) marginalizing women, affected by segregation, layoff risk, and discrimination; (2) diminishing labor market role of older workers; and (3) increasing difficulties faced by youth seeking employment, whose skills do not match new employment needs.…

A study of 600 households found that, during Poland's transformation to a market economy, there was overall job stability; a small proportion changed from public to private sector employment; higher private sector wages prevailed only in urban areas; and those with high education levels, good health, and occupational experience fared best. (SK)

Many service industries are capital intensive, and the range of expansion in output per hour is not significantly different from that found among goods-producing industries. (Author/SSH)