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Journal Article
Temps have a permanent place in the workforce
Newsletter
Explaining the decline in teen labor force participation
Fewer teenagers are participating in the labor force today than at any point since WWII. At just under 44%, teen labor force participation is 15 percentage points below its peak in the late 1970s. Why has there been a long-run secular decline in the work activity of young adults, and why has it sharply accelerated in the last five years?
Journal Article
The growing wage gap: is training the answer?
Training programs targeted toward lower skilled workers to a much greater extent than is currently the case could play an important role in narrowing the wage gap. Specific strategies would include assisting firms to develop their own programs, improving the school-to-work transition for non-college-bound high school graduates, and providing displaced workers with the skills needed to take new jobs in growing sectors of the economy.
Journal Article
Investing in the front line or the new art of cutting metal
Working Paper
Do returns to schooling differ by race and ethnicity?
Using data from the U.S. Decennial Census and the National Longitudinal Surveys, we find little evidence of differences in the return to schooling across racial and ethnic groups, even with attempts to control for ability and measurement error biases. While our point estimates are relatively similar across racial and ethnic groups, our conclusion is driven in part by relatively large standard errors. ; That said, we find no evidence that returns to schooling are lower for African Americans or Hispanics than for non-minorities. As a result, policies that increase education among the ...
Journal Article
A leaner, more skilled U.S. manufacturing workforce
While the U.S. manufacturing sector has contracted sharply since the early 1980s, employment in high-skill manufacturing occupations has risen by an impressive 37 percent. An investigation of the growth in high-skill manufacturing jobs reveals that virtually all of the nation's industries have shared in this trend. Moreover, skill upgrading has occurred in all parts of the country, even those experiencing severe employment losses.
Journal Article
Worker skills must expand to meet long-term demands
Journal Article
Government-subsidized training: a plan for prosperity?
Many analysts believe that the United States should subsidize training to increase its workers' skills because employers don't provide enough. This Commentary asks whether the present level of training is truly insufficient, or whether firms' incentives may already be in synch with the social costs and benefits of training.
Journal Article
Human resources needs in the evolving financial sector
As banks, securities houses, and insurance companies offer increasingly similar services, how have their human resource needs changed? An analysis of survey data reveals that all three industries have come to rely more heavily on high-skilled labor; however, the educational and occupational profiles of their workforces have not become substantially more alike.