As we approach this Labor Day, the Pennsylvania economy is growing steadily. Working families are sharing in prosperity in a more sustained way than at any point since 1980--although many families still struggle to make ends meet and, in our polarized nation, a big partisan divide exists in perceptions of whether the economy is better than four…

The purpose of this report is to examine the historical development and policy evolution of workforce intermediaries, a community-based model of education, job training and economic development practices that has become commonplace in local and regional labor markets. Workforce intermediaries broker the relationship between workers and employers,…

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented economic and policy challenges to the United States and other countries. Navigating out of the pandemic slowdown is another novel experience, which makes it more difficult to answer the question addressed each year in the "State of Working Pennsylvania": How is the Pennsylvania economy…

Intermediaries--also referred to as bridge builders, boundary spanners, conveners, and other names--fill the critical role of connecting all the parties in the system to empower people with the skills required in the labor force. Those parties generally include employers, educators, workers, and prospective workers. Within these categories may…

Purpose: This paper aims to describe how the human resources development (HRD) policy has shifted from the national level to the sectoral levels; the paper also explains the changes that have been made in skills formation in the economy by presenting the emergence of Industry Skills Councils (ISC). Design/methodology/approach: This paper presents…

The adult basic education field in the United States is now being encouraged to shift to a "career pathways" orientation by policy research organizations, federal and state agencies, community college organizations, business groups, and private foundations. In such an approach, adult basic education programs work with workforce…

Despite union opposition and noncooperation with the Act, the author concludes it will have a permanent effect on British industrial relations. (Editor)

Examines trends within the past 15 years in (1) structural features of American labor organizations, (2) collective bargaining, and (3) methods of legal enactment and political action. Also considers the effects that workers' attitudes and international interactions will have on future policies and structure of American labor organizations.…

This collection of articles focuses on the negative impacts that deindustrialization has had on the American labor market, on American workers, and on the U.S. economy. The introduction, by Donald Kennedy, traces the development of the trend toward and negative impacts of deindustrialization, outlines some of the policy issues raised by…

A pooled, cross-sectional, time-series analysis of state manufacturing growth rates for 1970-85 indicates that manufacturing growth was influenced by workforce quality, population density, and elements of states' political economies, including state fiscal capacity, organizational capacity of labor, social wage policies, and state…

Using a developmental stages model, the extent and characteristics of manufacturing development in the nonmetropolitan South between 1940 and 1970 were examined. Focus was on whether industrialization comes in different phases and whether its impact on the rural poor varies during each phase. Nonmetro labor markets (counties more than 50 miles…

Poloni reviews implications for unions of recent economic, social, technological, and political changes in Central and Eastern Europe. Flechsenhar states that unions play a role in the development and restructuring of developing countries by providing special services to meet the economic and social needs of their members. (SK)

A group of three articles discusses training junior shop stewards in Canada, union involvement in worker education in China, and the "Dakar Declaration" of a Pan-African conference expressing international union solidarity. (SK)

The role of social partner organizations in vocational education and training (VET) has been compared for Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic, and Slovenia. In these countries, a system of industrial relations comparable to those existing in western Europe is emerging gradually.…

Discusses the new welfare law's elements that affect low-wage labor: work requirements, time limits, relaxed protections, and expanded state authority. Outlines high-road versus low-road policies in terms of economic development, human resource development, and administration. (SK)