As we approach this Labor Day, the Pennsylvania economy is growing steadily. Working families are sharing in prosperity in a more sustained way than at any point since 1980--although many families still struggle to make ends meet and, in our polarized nation, a big partisan divide exists in perceptions of whether the economy is better than four…

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented economic and policy challenges to the United States and other countries. Navigating out of the pandemic slowdown is another novel experience, which makes it more difficult to answer the question addressed each year in the "State of Working Pennsylvania": How is the Pennsylvania economy…

In the United States, we tend to assume that young people should become educated and then go to work, as though the two were entirely separate stages of life. This dichotomy blinds us to the fact that work itself can be a powerful means of education-giving students opportunities to apply academic subject matter to real-world problems, and pushing…

For young people in the United States, whatever their backgrounds, one of the essential purposes of schooling should be to help them develop the knowledge, skills, and competence needed to search for and obtain work that they find at least reasonably satisfying. Our present educational system does precious little to introduce young people to the…

In the United States, we tend to assume that young people should become educated and then go to work, as though the two were entirely separate stages of life. This dichotomy blinds us to the fact that work itself can be a powerful means of education. Indeed, the workplace is where many young people become most engaged in learning high-level skills…

The economic boom of the 1990s veiled a grim reality: in addition to the growing gap between rich and poor, the gap between good and bad quality jobs was also expanding. The postwar prosperity of the mid-twentieth century had enabled millions of American workers to join the middle class, but as author Arne L. Kalleberg shows, by the 1970s this…

The paternalistic industrial system is not likely to be discarded soon; in today's fast-moving economy, it affords cost flexibility and employment security. (Editor)

Outlines objectives and conclusions of a 1977 seminar for trade union officials and other specialists in labor relations on Europe and the trade unions in the next decade. Continuing economic problems and increasing economic interdependence between societies call for international labor cooperation in employment planning. (MF)

Utilizing Federal census data from 1960 and 1970, this study provides (1) an overview of the job structure of the entire American economy as of 1970, by arranging the jobs in a new occupational-industrial matrix and ranking them in terms of average annual earnings; and (2) an analysis of the structural factors that distinguish the better from the…

The United States is a labor surplus society, one with a persistent shortage of jobs. This labor surplus--manifested in excessively and persistently high unemployment--will continue through the 1980s. The existence of a persistent job shortage, resulting in a labor surplus of four to six million unemployed workers without a constructive economic…

Changes in the American work force include more workers, especially women; racial and ethnic composition of the work force; lengthening work lives; decline in union representation; workers' attitudes toward labor and leisure; expansion of a service economy; and projected demand for blue-collar occupations. The effect of these changes on…

The United States is faced with two serious economic problems: declining productivity growth and rising unemployment. These problems have become severe in the last decade. Both problems are caused by a number of factors, but experts fail to agree on which factors have most contributed to the problems. This paper examines the relationship between…

Between 1992 and 1995, 2,117 nonmanagerial employers in 31 public and private sector organizations throughout the United Kingdom were interviewed for the following purposes: analyzing the need for training and development (T&D); obtaining feedback on existing training provision; identifying barriers to T&D that might affect individuals'…

Representatives of employers' and workers' organizations from 16 member countries met to analyze the problems of facilitating adjustment to geographical and occupational changes, to discuss their experience, and to study the type of overall program needed in this field. The report contains (1) an introduction to the Seminar by Solomon Barkin, (2)…

The rapid technological and employment changes have had a serious impact on the railroad industrial relations system and its manpower. The organization of the collective bargaining system and the Railway Labor Act have seriously impeded rather than aided the meeting of the challenges of these developments. This study recommends a recasting of the…