Contingent workers are those employed in jobs that do not fit the traditional description of a full-time, permanent job with benefits. Contingent work takes the form of part-time, temporary, and contract employment. The number of contingent workers in 1988 has been estimated at between 29.9 and 36.6 million, representing 25-30 percent of the…

Of the currently unemployed workforce, a portion (100,000 to 2.1 million) can be termed dislocated workers. Even as the economy recovers from the current recession, these involuntarily unemployed workers will face serious problems finding new jobs because of structural changes in the economy. Current unemployment and training programs often do not…

Not only is the official black unemployment rate 2.5 times higher than that of whites, but a significantly greater percentage of the white population is employed compared with blacks (61.6 percent compared with 54.2 percent). Evidence suggests that the real rate of unemployment and underemployment among blacks is 23.5 percent. The situation is…

In 1993, 10.4 million people were classified as being among the working poor. Of those individuals living in poverty, 2.4 million worked year round at full-time jobs and 7.4 million lived in a household containing someone who was employed full time throughout the year. A U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report identified low earnings, involuntary…

Stagnant or declining wages for less-educated workers make policies to upgrade the job market options for low wage workers an urgent priority. One in three low wage workers lives in a low income family. The link between low basic skills and low wages is strong. No single standard of minimum skill requirements applies to all middle income jobs, and…

Unemployment compensation in the United States is provided through a federal-state system of unemployment insurance (UI). UI provides temporary partial wage replacement to active job seekers who are involuntarily out of work. For older workers, UI is an important source of income security and a potential influence on work incentives. For example,…

The moral and ethical values enunciated by America's leading religious organizations lay much of the groundwork for its major democratic institutions and establish the benchmarks by which U.S. employment conditions and policies should be measured. The public's perception of the economy's relative well-being is based on oversimplified statistical…

The collection of three documents offers a two-page summary of research conducted in 1970 and the two resulting papers. Most of the work involved the preparation and analysis of data from the Survey of Economic Opportunity. The first paper, Why is the Unemployment Rate So High at Full Employment? examines the nature of the unemployment that…

This study was conducted to determine how many workers are in low-wage jobs; their characteristics and changes in their characteristics over time; the characteristics of the low-wage jobs; gender, sex, and racial factors influencing participation in low-wage jobs; and the relationship of low-wage work to family poverty and welfare receipt. The…

This report summarizes the presentations and discussions at a conference on contingent labor sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor. The first two sections are introductory: (1) "Introduction to the Role of Contingent Labor" (Kathleen Christensen, Mary Murphree); and (2) "Between Now and the Year 2000: A Glimpse of the Workplace" (Jill Houghton…

Implications of new government approaches to manpower planning and its relationship to higher education in Ontario are examined. In January 1980 the Council of Ontario Universities released a background paper on the employment of university graduates, which reviewed the current major economic and demographic analyses of youth unemployment, the…

The examination of Irish manpower policy is largely devoted to a consideration of the strategy for economic development and permanent job creation--as well as to a study of various aspects of the procedures and administrative arrangements adopted to attain these objectives. Attention is drawn to the fundamental imbalances in the Irish…

This document examines the causes and consequences of Black male joblessness. First, key insights and recommendations of a 1993 policy roundtable on labor force participation and family formation are summarized. Discussed next are the following issues related to the economic and social alienation of Black men: joblessness and absence from the…

Social statistics may exaggerate the degree of hardship caused by labor market problems. Yet, in many ways social statistics underestimate the degree of hardship caused by extended unemployment, underemployment, and low wages. Therefore, new measures are needed to reassess long-term and cyclical labor market developments, the changing status of…

This policy statement focuses on ways of overcoming unemployment and underemployment for groups (young, old, disadvantaged) that typically experience high or prolonged joblessness, and on increasing incentives for productive work. Recommendations resulting from the CED study focus on these areas: new and expanded use on a nationwide basis of…