This paper aims to provide metro, state, and national policy makers with a better sense of the specific problems facing metropolitan labor markets. First, the analysis examines trends in the demand for educated labor and how a gap between education supply and demand is related to unemployment. Next, it attempts to distinguish between cyclical and…

The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) is the U.S. Government's crosscutting program that coordinates Federal research and development (R&D) activities in nanoscale science, engineering, technology, and related efforts among various participating agencies. The Federal Government launched the NNI in FY 2001 with an initial $500 million…

An Appalachian Regional Commission-sponsored conference on entrepreneurship stressed that the availability of investment capital is important to economic development in Appalachia and other rural areas, but it is not enough. A local social and business culture that embraces entrepreneurship and risk-taking must be developed through…

The causes of youth unemployment--especially among poor and minority youths--are enmeshed in a web of social, educational, and economic forces acting on the lives of families. Some of these forces are out of the sphere of federal influence, but labor market industries and the education system also have important effects on the experience of youth…

The United States has never had a consistent, unified work force development system. Instead, because of citizens' preference for decentralized government, most efforts at work force development have been sporadic and localized. From the 1960s until the early 1990s, Congress enacted between 125 and 175 narrowly-focused categorical employment…

This report presents the views expressed at the Labor/Higher Education Council's National Meeting, the theme of which was "Education and Work: Redefinitions and New Strategies." Section 1 includes two keynote speeches: "Priorities for Economic Investment in People, Technology, and Public Works" (Ira Magaziner) and "Organized Labor's Stake in the…

This paper states that, although education has been linked historically to economic development, there is no clear evidence that this link is valid. It investigates under what conditions educational programs are likely to be effective and which are likely to shift resources without any net effects on employment, wage levels, productivity, or…

This paper's overiew of the relationship between vocational education and productivity includes the presentation of results from a multiple regression analysis of vocational education enrollments and various productivity indices. This tentative analysis contributes additional observations to the studies reviewed and offers pertinent suggestions…

An overview is presented of the scope of a series of monographs produced as part of the American Council on Education's Higher Education/Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) Project, which was supported by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education. The monographs discuss contemporary policy issues concerned with higher…

This book traces the development of public assistance programs in the United States from the 1930s to the present. Throughout the book, the differences between workfare and fair work programs and the role of workfare programs in the growing impoverishment of women are emphasized. The following topics are examined: women, welfare, and government…

This report presents representative findings from the Youth Employment and Demonstration Project Act's (YEDPA) experiments and evaluations since 1977, focusing largely on the programs' impacts on participants. The report begins with a review of YEDPA-sponsored research on the nature, causes, and consequences of youth unemployment. Chapter 2 deals…

In rethinking its policy with regard to involvement in the vocational education enterprise, the federal government must consider traditional educational goals as well as recent social, economic, and demographic changes. If the idea of vocational education as part of the public school system is going to work, it is necessary to make vocational…

These abstracts summarize 73 research projects that were conducted in Australia during 1982 and 1983 to investigate various issues related to youth employment and unemployment. Included among the topics addressed in the individual research projects are the following: economic developments, education and rural communities; employment (changing…

This document consists of transcripts of testimony presented at Congressional hearings concerning Title II of the Youth Act of 1980. The provisions of the act include extending the authorization of youth training and employment programs and improving such programs; extending the authorization of the private sector initiative program; and…

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"…