Panama has achieved socio-economic improvements in recent decades thanks to strong economic growth and consequent poverty reduction. Its growth model is characterised by a dual economy in which a small number of activities, including those related to the Canal and Special Economic Zones, have exhibited high productivity growth but limited job…

Increasing numbers of recent college graduates are ending up in relatively low-skilled jobs that, historically, have gone to those with lower levels of educational attainment. This study examines this phenomenon in some detail, concluding: (1) About 48 percent of employed U.S. college graduates are in jobs that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)…

Presents findings of a study of Caribbean undocumented immigrants in the Flatbush-Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York. Focuses on employment among this group, and suggests that these illegal immigrants do, in fact, compete in the labor market with American-born, unskilled workers. (GC)

While employment growth has accelerated, allowing unemployment to fall significantly since 2005, many low-skilled workers are still unemployed and the duration of unemployment spells is still long. The introduction of an in-work benefit for workers in low-income households, subject to a minimum of hours worked, could lower barriers to higher…

THE STUDY DEMONSTRATED THAT THE RATIO OF UNSKILLED TO SKILLED EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT VARIES FROM THE PEAK TO THE TROUGH OF THE BUSINESS CYCLE. DATA PRIMARILY FROM "EMPLOYMENT AND EARNINGS AND MONTHLY REPORT ON THE LABOR FORCE," MARCH 1967 WERE USED IN RELATING THE ANNUAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATES FOR CRAFTSMEN AND LABORERS TO BUSINESS CYCLE PEAKS…

When chronicling how less-skilled workers have fared in the U.S. since the late 1970's, existing literature often cites their falling wages and declining participation in the labor force. Most research describing these trends, however, focuses primarily on men, failing to account for the fact that less-skilled women's real wages have not fallen,…

A survey of 379 Elkhart County, Indiana, employers was conducted to determine the local labor force situation. Replies received from 141 employers were analyzed, with the following findings reported: (1) more than 520 job openings existed for unskilled, entry-level jobs, but employers were having trouble filling them because candidates were poorly…

THE TRENDS INDICATE THAT ABOUT 7.5 MILLION OF THE 26 MILLION YOUNG PEOPLE ENTERING THE LABOR FORCE DURING THE 1960'S WILL NOT HAVE COMPLETED HIGH SCHOOL AND THAT 2.5 MILLION WILL NOT HAVE COMPLETED EVEN THE EIGHTH GRADE. THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE OF 16- AND 17-YEAR-OLDS WAS THE HIGHEST AMONG ALL AGE GROUPS AND RANGED FROM 11 TO 24 PERCENT DURING THE…

Over the past few decades, the economic prospects for workers possessing relatively few skills have worsened as the demand for skills in the labor market has increased. Even in jobs that might be categorized as low-skilled, workers require a diverse set of skills to succeed. Many of these skills can only be obtained through schooling or job…

In the United States, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Denmark, employment trends have been considerably more favorable than in Germany. A country is considered successful in an employment policy context if unemployment is falling steadily or is low and if employment is increasing steadily or the employment rate has reached a high level.…

Although earnings generally increased in rural areas in the 1990s, Hispanic population growth led to lower wages for at least one segment of the rural population--workers with a high school degree (skilled workers), particularly men in this skill group. Using data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Current Population Survey, this report…

In 1980, 25% of the 14 million foreign-born persons in the United States were in California; 1.7 million of these were in Los Angeles County. Half of the 2.1 million undocumented immigrants counted in the 1980 United States Census lived in California, and about 75% of these were of Mexican origin. Results of a 1983 Urban Institute poll revealed…

Many of the arguments behind efforts to reform this nations's immigration laws allege that immigrants, especially illegal immigrants, take jobs away from native workers, depress wages, and receive public services valued in excess of their tax contributions. To provide a basis for appraising these economic arguments, this paper presents a model for…

In view of German reunification, the 1992-94 recession, and ongoing demographic, technological, organizational, and social changes, alternative projections of labor market and employment structures provide policy makers with needed information. The Institut fur Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB) structural labor projection (1989) forecasted…

Examines African American employment trends compared with increases or decreases in economic growth and Federal welfare spending during the 1970s and 1980s, focusing primarily on unemployment and labor force participation rates among African American youth. Studies the impact of structural unemployment, racial discrimination, and immigration on…