New data show small local firms create less than a third of new jobs in rural areas and are unreliable employment sources because many fail within their first 5 years of business. Local planners should consider mix of corporate affiliates offering potential of many jobs and small independent firms. (NEC)

Critically examines the suggestion that unemployment could be reduced by creating jobs in nonprofit organizations, observes trends in the sector's employment and resources, and discusses the conditions in which nonprofit organizations provide social services more efficiently that government and for-profit enterprises. Concludes that this is not a…

This document contains two essays: "Toward a High-Wage, High-Productivity Service Sector" by Lester Thurow; and "Service Sector Wages, Productivity and Job Creation in the U.S. and Other Countries" by Louise Waldstein. The first essay analyzes the recent and currrent U.S. economy under headings called Growth Nodes, Falling…

This report synthesizes the findings from several areas of work undertaken to assess what impact public sector employment has had on both the level and structure of employment. It also examines the impact of the public sector as employer on the labor market from two viewpoints: the level and share of public sector employment and the structure of…

This report questions whether high-tech development is an option for rural counties in the United States by examining the spatial location, industrial composition, growth experience, and environmental factors associated with high-tech industries in such counties. Using a highly detailed database of manufacturing plants and estimates of employment,…

The literature on employment growth in the United States and selected industrialized countries and the wage, benefits, and job security characteristics of new and existing jobs were analyzed to determine how job growth and quality in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s compares to that in other industrialized countries. Among the study's…

A study examined the job creation and job displacement potential of industrial robots in the United States and specifically, in Michigan, by 1990. To complete an analysis of the impact of robotics on the American labor force, researchers combined data from previous forecasts of future unit and dollar sales projections and from interviews with…

This document contains 15 papers from a conference on preparing youth for the 21st century that was organized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The following papers are included: "Giving Young People a Good Start: The Experience of OECD Countries" (Norman Bowers,…