Over the past century, the United States workforce has undergone a massive structural shift. Technological change has moved the economy toward skilled labor and away from unskilled labor--a phenomenon known as skill-biased technical change. This structural shift has increased the relative demand for educated and skilled labor, leading to…

This appendix documents the methodology used by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce to project educational demand within the US economy. The methodology produces forecasts using data from two private analytics companies. The authors use occupational forecasts provided by Lightcast that are calibrated to total employment…

The staggering highs and lows of the recent US economy and their effect on the labor force has been deeply unsettling. The US has come through the COVID-19 recession, the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression, followed by the quickest recovery ever. One trend in the workforce has remained unaltered throughout this historic change:…

This report projects education requirements linked to forecasted job growth for all 50 states and the District of Columbia from 2021 through 2031. It complements a larger national report that projects education demand by occupation and industry for the same period. The national report finds that by 2031, 72 percent of all jobs nationally will…

It is generally accepted that human capital is an important factor in economic growth, but its impact on growth depends on the demand for education and skills on the labor market. Demand for human capital is largely determined by the institutional environment that governs the basic conditions for economic activity. The author expresses ten doubts…

Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) agencies provide a range of services to help people with disabilities become employed. How services are delivered, however, depends on several factors including client interests and abilities as well as economic opportunities within the local community. For better or worse, rural and urban clients face vastly…

This report is the successor to "Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Education Demand through 2018," in which researchers examined the connections between educational attainment and educational demand in the labor market. In this report, the authors update the jobs projected to be available through 2020, using a macro-micro modeling…

In a recent survey, most managers and blue-collar workers indicated that the availability of job modifications would alter their retirement plans. Such an alternative can alleviate some job-related problems of older workers and permit an organization to capitalize fully upon these employees' skills. (SK)

The recession that began in December of 2007 is already 30 months old, but the U.S. economy will not recover its pre-recession employment levels for at least another two years. From there, it will take an additional three years to make up for lost growth and create a job market strong enough to employ both the casualties of the recession and the…

Surveys completed by a random sample of 1,884 blue-collar unionized workers showed that perceived role enhancement opportunities (more task complexity and autonomy) were positively related to attitudes associated with promotion opportunities (commitment, work involvement, career opportunity satisfaction). This was especially true for workers with…

The 1970 Transportation Act holds promise of employment for diverse group of workers, including the disadvantaged, academic researches, and unemployed aerospace engineers. (Editor)

A 3-day conference conducted by the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research with the support of the Ford Foundation explored a range of problems that blue collar workers have with their jobs and discussed new directions for industrial work which would decrease worker alienation and "humanize" the quality of work. The 42 conference…

Summarizes the 1991 National Organizations Study on formal job training programs. Finds that blue-collar core occupations receive as much company training as white-collar occupations. Determines that the more extensive a company's internal labor market, the more formal training programs are used for advancement and promotion. (CFR)

In order to measure the degree of upward mobility among nonsupervisory workers in private industry, a study was made of 11 major service, manufacturing, and retail sales industries. That investigation, which stressed the opportunities available to the average worker with normal motivation, is reviewed both in general and by industry in this…

This report presents the study of a project conceived as a means of developing and testing a model Career Development Program. The project was designed to contribute significantly to the opening of nontraditional occupations to young women of low socioeconomic status and varying race and ethnic backgrounds. Three major goals were: (1) To assist a…