A study was conducted in six south central Mississippi counties (1) to determine the incidence of part-time employment of in-school youth by age, grade, sex, and race; (2) to determine types of part-time jobs held by youths while in public school and their available work experience alternatives; (3) to obtain employed youth and their parents'…

Over 3,000,000 youths aged 16-24 fall into the category of unemployed or persons who are discouraged and no longer actively seeking work. This number accounts for more than half of the unemployment in the U.S. and represents a personal tragedy for the youths as well as a considerable loss of productivity for society while adding a drain on its…

The impact of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) on working families was analyzed. The analysis established that the EITC is, on balance, a highly effective program that meets its primary objectives well. The following benefits of the EITC were identified: (1) it reduced the poverty rate in 1999 by an estimated 1.5 percentage points; (2) it is…

Social statistics may exaggerate the degree of hardship caused by labor market problems. Yet, in many ways social statistics underestimate the degree of hardship caused by extended unemployment, underemployment, and low wages. Therefore, new measures are needed to reassess long-term and cyclical labor market developments, the changing status of…

This book looks at the issue of youth unemployment and examines policy responses. Part I considers the youth unemployment problem. Chapter 1 is an overview, covering size of the problem and the close relationship between youth and adult unemployment. Chapter 2 examines youth unemployment characteristics and distribution of unemployment across…

Policy options for increasing the earnings of the young welfare recipients were explored by analyzing the incomes of nearly 12,000 young women in Baltimore, Maryland, whose 19th birthday fell between April 1, 1985, and March 31, 1989, and who had at least one spell of welfare dependency between their 19th and 29th birthdays. An analysis of the…

Numerous sources of data about family incomes, taxes, wages, unemployment, wealth, and poverty were used to analyze the impact of the economy on living standards in the United States in 1994-1995. It was discovered that most individuals in the United States are worse off in the 1990s than they were at the end of the 1970s. Between 1979 and 1989,…

Votes of the Senators and Representatives on selected bills deemed important to students covering late 1976 and all of 1977 are presented along with the National Student Association and the National Student Lobby (NSA-NSL) rating of each Congressman. The rating is based on the percentage of times the Congressman voted in favor of the position that…

This inventory of research and evaluation projects completed during calendar years 1970-1979 for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Education, and Research (ASPER) of the Department of Labor contains summaries of projects on economic, social, and policy background; the labor market; the nature and impact of Department of Labor…

This collection of papers on the youth employment problem consists of 15 papers that cover the dimensions, causes, and consequences of youth unemployment and that also focus on problems in measuring the extent of the problem, the dynamic aspects of youth labor force participation, and problems associated with adequately assessing the consequences…

The future of low-wage jobs is examined through a case study of firm restructuring in the retail industry. The study confirms that the retailing sector has come to be dominated by the Wal-Mart model, which emphasizes an efficient technology-driven inventory management system and a human resource approach that includes the following elements:…

The business press abounds with examples of innovative companies that have created high-quality jobs; however, low-wage, deskilled jobs filled by contingent workers are equally prevalent. More than one in six U.S. workers currently hold retail jobs. The effect of globalization of trade on the retail industry is unclear. The most significant…

This book contains 17 social policy essays on various topics related to labor and full employment policies in the United States. The following papers are included: "Introduction" (Stephen Mangum); "Secular Rabbi: The Life and Times of Sar A. Levitan" (Garth Mangum); "Young Workers, Young Families, and Child Poverty"…

The rising wage inequality in U.S. urban labor markets during the 1980s was examined in a study of 20 metropolitan area labor markets. The study's perspective differs from the prevailing perspective on the problem in three ways: (1) it focuses on changes in the wage structure in a sample of local labor markets; (2) it examines changes in the…

The lives of working-class women were explored through interviews with 63 middle-aged women, most of whom were employed in working-class jobs and living working-class lives in Baltimore, Maryland. The following were among the areas covered in the interviews: the women's lives on and off the job; their job satisfaction; the reasons they work and…