A growing number of employers identify difficulty hiring highly qualified workers as their top competitive challenge. Roughly 75 million of Americans could meet these employer needs but currently lack the skills or supports to do so. This is America's untapped workforce--the many people who do not have the work or wages they need to get by, but…

The Office of Workforce Development (OWD) in New Orleans, Louisiana, with a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor, implemented Career Pathways, an innovative program designed to increase the local talent pool and help lower-skilled, unemployed, and underemployed individuals train for work in growing fields. RAND Corporation researchers evaluated…

This paper addresses the convergence of inequality across social and economic dimensions in the United States. Chief among these are wealth accumulation, labor, and education. Specifically, I discuss the transference of wealth to the top of the income hierarchy, the automation and polarization of labor, and threats to public education.…

Data from a sample of university graduates in Egypt are used to test the effect of a mismatch in higher education policy and labor demand on future employment patterns. The results are delayed employment or underemployment and consequent lowering of lifetime earnings of college graduates. (MSE)

Data on a commercial and an agricultural Guatemalan population indicates most peasants derive income from both agricultural and nonagricultural sources. While disguised employment does not utilize labor at its most efficient level, development projects should complement traditional economic activities and recognize that diversion of peasant labor…