Each year, state legislators introduce hundreds of bills that generate new data collections, analyses, and resources, playing a crucial role in how people access and use data. Notably, in 2023 legislators introduced and enacted bills governing cross-agency data systems--the most important step that states must take to make robust access to data…

Geography is not what it used to be. Nowadays, that subject is often buried--and therefore inadequately covered--in a social studies curriculum itself under siege because of the extended commitment in schools to reading and math. But geographical knowledge also is not what it used to be. It has become essential to understanding a brave new world…

Comparing the papers on the Korean and the U.S. situations leads to interesting conclusions. Cho and Shin argue that the recent crisis did not create huge problems in the labor market because Korea was firstly in a fundamentally sound economic situation and secondly took adequate anti-crisis measures, in particular by stabilizing internal demand.…

We use a new, matched worker-firm dataset for the United Kingdom to estimate the income loss resulting from firm closure and mass layoffs. We track workers for up to nine years after the displacement event, and the availability of predisplacement characteristics allows us to implement difference-in-differences estimators using propensity score…

In the past year, cash-strapped districts have been handing out pink slips by the hundreds, and some, by the thousands. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that nearly 60,000 teachers were laid off in 2009. State budget gaps and deficit projections, with federal stimulus funding already spent, suggest more of the same for 2010. Some observers…

This dissertation examines issues regarding the educational attainment of the U.S. workforce. Specifically, I investigate the impact of various factors on the growth of postsecondary educational attainment. This includes issues pertaining to improving the skill-level of the workforce at the regional or state level, as well as for the domestic…

Is the United States in danger of losing its competitive edge in science and technology (S&T)? This concern has been raised repeatedly since the end of the Cold War, most recently in a wave of reports in the mid-2000s suggesting that globalization and the growing strength of other nations in S&T, coupled with inadequate U.S. investments in…

In international comparisons it was found that manufacturing productivity growth slowed after 1973 and unit labor costs accelerated in most industrial countries including the United States. Aggregate hours rose only in the U.S. (CT)

Mexico and the United States have different perspectives on undocumented migrant workers. Possible solutions to this dilemma are (1) deciding on a common definition; (2) bilateral negotiations on the status of migrant workers; (3) addressing Mexico's external debt and scarce money resources; and (4) addressing the ways the American economy…

After an initial wave of strikes, unions saw their power contained, beginning with Taft-Hartley, and then renewed as public-service unionism erupted in the 1960's. (Editor)

Youth unemployment in Australia has risen steadily with recession and the end of the long period of labor scarcity. Recent unemployment rates now rival the high rates among U.S. youth. (Author/SK)

The author studies the interaction between imperfect labor contracts and international trade in a setting in which workers have private information about their own abilities. When an individual's contribution to firm output can be measured accurately in some activities but not in others, the most able workers select occupations in which their pay…

Based on data from some of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' major statistical publication series, this booklet contains 16 graphic charts to illustrate patterns of change in the American economy and labor force. Charts depict (1) U.S. total labor force (1800-1975), (2) index of output per hour of all persons, total private economy (1909-1975), (3)…

The article discusses the impact of undocumented Mexican immigrants on the U.S. labor market. (NQ)

To determine the relationship between wage structure and employment patterns available evidence on changes in relative earnings and in relative numbers employed were surveyed for periods up to 15 years in 10 countries: Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Some findings…