Market-oriented industrial nations other than the United States have experienced rapid structural changes in their economies and reemployment problems among dislocated midcareer workers. The Swedish active labor market approach is a socialized one. This system has been criticized for excessive reliance on microeconomic labor market programs to…

The federal government must undertake action to direct and speed the transitions of dislocated workers to new employment. Dislocated workers comprise only 1 or 2 percent of the nation's 11 million currently unemployed workers. Cyclical macroeconomic factors are responsible for the high unemployment rate, not structural factors such as new…

Federal initiatives should be undertaken to reduce long-term structural unemployment in the United States. Long-term structural unemployment has risen during the 1970s and 1980s but is still primarily a problem of disadvantaged workers, not dislocated ones. The impact of technological change on occupations is felt mainly by the employed who are…

Undertrained workers, not dislocated workers, are the real problem in the American economy. The vast majority of the workers affected by structural change in the American economy appear to make employment transitions fairly swiftly and smoothly, with no need for public intervention. Undertrained workers, mostly employed and scattered in all…

Five strategies have been identified as particularly promising as the most useful ways government can spend money to aid dislocated workers. The mix of income support programs can be enriched for workers who have been unemployed for a long time but who are not permanently dislocated. For most dislocated workers, only limited job searching…

The federal government needs to provide employment and training assistance to help dislocated workers to become reemployed. Worker mobility assistance should not be focused upon as a major thrust of reemployment programs, since American workers are remarkably resistant to pressures to move to more promising labor markets. Efficient and effective…

This working paper, part of a project on the applicability of the French training system in the United States, argues that a systematic national commitment to midcareer worker retraining is necessary for American prosperity and international economic competitiveness. Although findings of the early human capital theorists demonstrated that an…