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The landscape of medical specialty choice is dynamic, undergoing significant changes as students' progress through undergraduate and graduate medical training. These shifts are influenced by various factors, with financial considerations becoming increasingly relevant among medical students' preferences. This study conducts a retrospective analysis of specialty match rates and physician compensation, suggesting a potential trend where primary care fields, though fundamental to healthcare, appear less competitive and often associated with less financial reward compared to other specialties. The existence of this disparity is not without consequences. It contributes significantly to the ongoing and anticipated primary care physician shortages. This situation requires a comprehensive approach to tackle the complex factors influencing medical students' career choices. Understanding these dynamics is critical for healthcare policy and planning. This paper investigates how financial considerations sway medical students' specialty choices, emphasizing the economic disparities between primary care and other specialties.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify and prioritize the mental health needs of rural communities in Texas Public Health Region 11 utilizing the Delphi method. Rural individuals face unique challenges when attempting to receive treatment for serious mental illness and mental health care. Stigma, a lack of privacy when seeking treatment, a shortage of mental health workforce professionals, a lack of culturally competent care, affordability, and transportation are all factors that complicate the need for treatment. This study utilized the Delphi method to engage rural community members in identifying and addressing critical issues related to mental healthcare delivery in their county. The sample for this study was selected from the population which comprise Texas Public Health Region 11 communities that were identified as rural communities within Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA) using an exponential nondiscriminatory snowball sampling method. Knowledge gained from the study will help to address challenges and critical issues in mental healthcare delivery in rural communities, such as workforce shortages, access issues, anonymity, stigma, integration of mental health services into primary care, and suicide prevention. The study's implications for refining, developing, and increasing rural mental health research, and implications for practice for mental health treatment providers in rural communities are discussed.

This article examines post-study work rights (PSWR) policy in three major international higher education destinations -- Australia, Germany and Canada -- through a comparative case study approach. The study found that PSWR policies typically have several objectives: to attract more international students; fill labour shortages; internationalise higher education, retain highly skilled migrants, and to improve outcomes for international graduates. Although some of these objectives appear to have been realised in each of the three countries, it remains unclear whether such policies have improved outcomes for international graduates.

This article discusses the nationwide shortage of sports officials, best practices and solutions, and how current physical educators, coaches and SHAPE America members in general can help address the shortage and educate youths on the value of sportsmanship.

Purpose: This study is to examine and develop sector skills strategies and action plans for the textile and apparel (T&A) sector. Design/methodology/approach: The paper used a participatory action qualitative method anchored on the Skills for Trade and Economic Diversification (STED) framework, utilising the workshop-based approach with 24 key stakeholders of the sector. Content analysis was used with the help of Nvivo software. Findings: The findings revealed that there are skills shortages, skills gaps, skills mismatches and skills diversification programmes available through higher education and work-based learning. Further, there are labour supply challenges such as national skills policy and strategy, government and stakeholder coordination, funding, relevance of curriculum and qualifications, access to practicals and the absence of a clear national vision for the sector. Research limitations/implications: This study possesses an inherent limitation in terms of generalising the findings derived from qualitative research. Originality/value: This research is among the first of its kind to assess skills needs and gaps through the lens of STED framework, which has been overlooked in previous literature. Importantly, this study provides vocational insights into skill needs in the sector.

One major criticism of Universal Basic Income is that unconditional cash transfers discourage recipients from working. Evidence to date has largely relied on targeted and/or conditional transfer programs. However, it is difficult to draw conclusions from such programs because universal transfers may induce a positive demand shock by distributing cash to a large portion of the population, which may in turn offset any negative labor supply responses. We estimate the causal effects of universal cash transfers on short-run labor market activity by exploiting the timing and variation in size of a long-running unconditional and universal transfer: Alaska's Permanent Fund Dividend. We find evidence of both a positive labor demand and negative labor supply response to the transfers. Small negative effects on the number of hours worked are found for women, especially those with young children. In contrast, we find an increase in the probability of employment for males in the months following the distribution. Altogether, a $1,000 increase in the per-person disbursement leads to a 0.8 percent labor market contraction on an annual basis.

This research examines regional skill problems and the strategies adopted to reduce skill shortages by a set of employers (n = 16). The data collected in 2019 in a northern region in Portugal indicate considerable and persistent shortages of engineering and IT graduates and non-graduates for operational jobs. The employers implement anticipative strategies interacting with the education system, and the city council has developed a multi-stakeholder partnership. However, the most widespread strategy is remedial and consists of employer-provided training. Employers believe that the partnership has been a fruitful way of expanding economic activities, but further efforts are required to alleviate skill shortages.

Special education teacher shortages result in unqualified teachers working with students who have disabilities. Past research has focused on national shortages and the number of special education teachers in schools, but fewer studies have examined the number of new special education program completers, an important aspect of the potential special educator pipeline. In this study, we used publicly available data to examine long- and short-term trends in the number of program completers, if these trends were related to the number of students with disabilities over time, and if trends varied by state. Using graphs and multilevel modeling, we found that trends in the special education teacher pipeline varied dramatically by state, that national averages might be substantially influenced by large states, and that trends in recent years suggest a decline in special education program completers. We discuss the implications of these findings for ensuring that all students with disabilities have access to teachers with special education training.

This qualitative research study explores the ways that academic librarians in England undertake and perceive classification and cataloging work to engage in wider decolonization initiatives. The research consisted of semi-structured interviews, and thematic analysis was used to identify key themes. The study found that the participant librarians highly value this work based on a perception of its moral importance, rather than concrete proof of impact. Benefits from a decolonization perspective were not always clear. Challenges include staffing shortages and technological limitations.

School psychology is experiencing a shortages crisis. There is also lack of national data regarding current recruitment practices. Understanding these practices is essential to overcome these personnel shortages. In this national study, 151 school psychology programs within the US and its territories were surveyed. Participants were chosen from a national comprehensive list of school psychology programs compiled by the research team. The survey was created through a detailed review of relevant literature and distributed by email using Qualtrics. Various recruitment strategy domains were examined. Findings suggest that program representatives perceived program location to be most important and program cost the least important for students choosing their programs. Furthermore, respondents indicated a general consensus regarding the importance of establishing a recruitment pipeline. Moreover, programs within smaller communities appeared to be more involved in recruitment pipeline efforts. Descriptives for recruitment strategy domains are presented and implications are discussed.

We analyse labour demand and mismatch for educational traits in information and communication technology (ICT) occupations, taking into account the areas of education, occupations and skills in demand, and the supply of labour. We based our analysis on almost 40 million online job offers and a CAWI survey of people aged 18-65 in Poland. The analysis uses official classifications, and considers both job-related and transversal skills. To analyse an objective measure of mismatch, we compare job requirements stated in job offers to the declared characteristics of potential labour supply, and present demand and mismatch for skills across occupations. We also model a declared educational mismatch and its determinants, including educational profiles of surveyed participants. In order to further investigate the mismatches in ICT fields of education, occupations and skills, we compare them with the mismatches in other occupational groups. The analysis concludes with direct educational policy recommendations, including the Sectoral Qualifications Framework for ICT occupations in Poland. Our approach shows the complete educational characteristics of skill demands and skill mismatches.

Despite the importance of a thriving workforce in sustaining organizational success, prior research pays little attention to how individualized human resource (HR) practices can help individual employees to thrive at work. Drawing on the theoretical underpinnings of conservation of resources theory, we investigate whether, how, and when development idiosyncratic deals (i‐deals) can contribute to individual thriving. We contend that possessing development i‐deals will motivate individuals to engage in approach job crafting, which in turn promotes their experience of thriving at work. We further contend that high‐quality leader–member exchange will enhance the function of development i‐deals in triggering approach job crafting and subsequent thriving experiences. Results from a two‐wave survey involving 278 managers in a pharmaceutical firm in China and a three‐wave survey among 178 managers working in various organizations in the UK support our hypotheses. Our findings provide new insights for practitioners seeking to design customized HR practices to support a thriving workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research interest in thriving at work has burgeoned over the past decades, but little is known about how human resource (HR) practices affect employees' thriving at work. Drawing upon self‐determination theory and person‐organization fit theory, we developed and tested a moderated mediation model to explain how fun HR practices influence employees' thriving at work. The results of two studies, a scenario experiment (N = 164) and a time‐lagged survey (N = 253), supported our hypotheses. Specifically, the findings revealed that fun HR practices relates positively to employees' thriving at work. Autonomous motivation partially mediates the abovementioned relationship. Furthermore, fun HR practices translate into higher autonomous motivation and subsequent thriving at work for employees with higher preference for workplace fun. Our research contributes to the existing literature by identifying fun HR practices as an antecedent of thriving at work and revealing the psychological mechanisms through which fun HR practices affect employees' thriving at work. The practical implications, limitations, and future research avenues are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a discrete-time mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model for a generalised flexible job-shop scheduling problem as represented by a state-task network. The problem is characterised by reentrant flow, sequence-dependent changeover time, machine downtime, and skilled labour requirements. Two preprocessing procedures are proposed to reduce the size of the MILP model, and represent a major contribution of the research. The procedures reduce the number of assignment variables by exploiting job precedence and workforce qualifications. Machine availability for each task is determined as a function of possible start and end times, given duration, and maintenance schedule. The overall objective is to maximise the number of scheduled tasks while minimising their total finish time. Computational experiments are conducted with real and randomly generated instances. The results show that optimal solutions can be obtained for medium-size problems within a reasonable amount of time, primarily due to the use of the preprocessing procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying executives' industry affiliation with categorical membership, this study examines how moving to a different industry impacts mobility-compensation outcomes. On the demand side, we propose that audience ambiguity and commitment concerns regarding cross-category moves limit the potential compensation of industry-changing executives. On the supply side, we argue that executives might accept smaller monetary rewards in exchange for acquiring experience in a new domain. Since category status also affects audience evaluations of candidates and candidates' desire to affiliate with a specific social category, we further hypothesize that both demand and supply mechanisms are moderated by status differences between an executive's origin and destination industries. Our analysis of voluntary mobility and compensation patterns of S&P 1500 executives supports these arguments: industry-changing executives realize lower compensation than closely matched within-industry movers. As expected, the compressing effect of changing industry on compensation is contingent upon status differences across industries. Executives who transition to higher-status industries face more stringent compensation discounts, while those moving to lower-status industries experience similar compensation variation as within-industry movers. Our study advances category and status-attainment research by incorporating the influence of industry prestige on career outcomes of cross-category moves, while casting light on the individual consequences of executive mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, achieving higher levels of flexibility in manufacturing systems is necessary to maintain and enhance competitiveness. Accordingly, a new generation of production machine, namely Reconfigurable Machine Tool (RMT), has recently been introduced that can be effectively adapted to changes. Nevertheless, such systems are more worker-reliant, and neglecting workforce aspects results in suboptimal or even infeasible production schedules. In this regard, this study investigates an integrated lot-sizing and scheduling problem benefiting from RMTs under workforce constraints. First, a novel Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model is provided to formulate the problem. Afterward, to confront the high complexity of the problem, an efficient Decomposition Heuristic (DH) empowered by a tailored feasibility cut is devised. A combination of MILP and Constraint Programming (CP) is employed in the DH to model the relevant master and sub-problems, respectively. Finally, the performance of the DH compared to the MILP model and an extended lower bound is evaluated. Moreover, the advantages of utilizing RMTs in the system are explored based on four defined key performance indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Good data on the size and composition of the independent contractor workforce are elusive. The authors carried out a series of focus groups to learn how independent contractors speak about their work. Based on those findings, they designed and fielded a telephone survey to elicit more accurate and complete information on independent contractors. Roughly 1 in 10 workers who initially reported working for an employer on one or more jobs (and thus were coded as employees) were independent contractors on at least one of those jobs. Incorporating these miscoded workers into estimates of main job work arrangements nearly doubles the share who are independent contractors to approximately 15% of all workers. Taking these workers into account substantively changes the demographic profile of the independent contractor workforce. Probing in household surveys to clarify a worker's employment arrangement and identify all low-hours work is critical for accurately measuring independent contractor work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon the labour-augmented K+S Agent-Based Model (ABM), this paper develops a two-country North-South ABM wherein the leader and the laggard country interact through the international trade of machines. The model aims to address sources of asymmetries and possible converge patterns between two economies belonging to a currency union, that are initially differentiated only in terms of the education level they are able to ensure. Education is modeled as a macro-level public policy differently targeting three levels, that is primary, secondary and tertiary. After being educated, when workers enter the labour force, they face a segmented labour market, divided into three types of qualifications and resulting functions deployed inside firms, i.e. basic, medium and advanced occupations. The three markets are heterogeneous in terms of both requested education level and minimum offered wage. We experiment with different education and trade settings. Ultimately, we are interested in understanding the coupling effects of asymmetries in education, which reverberate in segmented labour markets and differentiated growth patterns. Notably, our focus on capital-goods trade, rather than on consumption goods, allows us to investigate a direct link between productive capabilities in complex products and country growth prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using an institutional lens, we investigate the isomorphic effects of both external and internal contexts on human resource management (HRM) systems. Our analysis uses data from 4768 organizations across 34 countries to focus on the similarities in HRM systems. By employing distance matrices, a commonly adopted method in geographic science, we find that both external and internal contexts affect (dis)similarities in HRM systems. Organizations in similar environments exhibit more similar HRM systems. Furthermore, we find that the devolvement of HRM activities from HRM to line management reduces the similarity of HRM systems across organizations. By contrast, a strong strategic position of HRM does not yield a comparable effect. Our study's main contributions include elucidating the multifaceted relationship between context and HRM, highlighting the HRM department's role in this relationship, clarifying the context–HRM connection via the concept of isomorphic pressures, and illustrating the use of distance matrices as tool with great explanatory power for the analysis of similarities among HRM phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using proprietary data from AngelList Talent, we study how startup job seekers' search and application behavior changed during the COVID-19 downturn. We find that workers shifted their searches and applications away from less-established startups and toward more-established ones, even within the same individual over time. At the firm level, this shift was not offset by an influx of new job seekers. Less-established startups experienced a relative decline in the quantity and quality of applications, ultimately affecting their hiring. Our findings uncover a flight-to-safety channel in the labor market that may amplify the procyclical nature of entrepreneurial activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most US workers have health insurance plans sponsored and subsidized by their employers. The US Affordable Care Act (ACA) improved and expanded the availability of non-employer-based health insurance, with protections for pre-existing conditions, guaranteed issue, and community rating in non-group markets. Using National Health Interview Survey data for 2009 to 2018 and a difference-in-differences modeling approach, this study finds that the ACA increased self-employment in 2015 and 2016 among US adults with higher demand for health insurance. The probability of self-employment increased by 1.4 to 1.8 percentage points among adults ages 30 to 64 with at least one pre-ACA declinable condition and no alternative source of health insurance through a spouse's employer or public programs. However, these effects were short-lived. As uncertainty about the long-term viability of the ACA's health insurance exchanges increased in 2017 and 2018, the probability of self-employment among individuals with high demand for insurance fell to pre-ACA levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial planners are often asked by their clients about Social Security's minimum and maximum benefit amounts. Some people with little attachment to the labor force believe that they nevertheless can receive some guaranteed minimum Social Security benefit. And people with substantial earnings, especially over the contribution and benefit base, want to know how much of their retirement-income needs will be met by Social Security--and how much they need to provide from other sources. We can answer those questions for our clients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responding to policy initiatives on fair recruitment and the eradication of recruitment fees, and research calls to focus on the labor supply chain, we provide a synthesis of scholarly and policy work on the issue of "recruitment deception" and its role in the organization of labor for exploitation. Recognizing that this topic is not explicitly theorized in management research, our analysis draws together concepts, arguments, and insights from across the social sciences and policy arenas to provide clarity on the meaning and prevalence of recruitment deception, with explanations on where and how it occurs, the actors involved and the mechanisms and tactics through which it is enacted. Attention is drawn to the key tactics and strategies labor recruiters use to exploit the labor of migrant workers; namely, misinformation, recruitment fees, identity document confiscation, debt, and grooming or trauma-bond recruiting. These tactics are organized into four exploitative capacities that we argue characterize a regime of enmeshment that starts with the abuse of vulnerability and then advances into recruitment deception, exploitation, and coercive control. The article concludes with an overview of initiatives and areas for future research that can help to reduce recruitment deception and pave the way for more responsible recruitment practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We document the size and scope of the industry of for‐profit vendors that now handles a considerable proportion of human resource tasks for individual US employers, a collection we describe as the human capital industry. Outsourcing these tasks changes how the human resources function is executed in ways we describe below. This change should matter to researchers if they are interested in choosing topics that have relevance, and it should also matter to teachers of human resources who want to present an accurate description of practice to students. Aside from the now remarkable size of the HR industry, arguably its most important attribute is its marketing efforts, which now drive the agenda for the field of HR. A concern about that agenda is that it often creates the perception of challenges for management when in practice no evidence of those challenges exists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does providing nontransferable months of parental leave earmarked for fathers, as mandated by the European Union to its member countries since 2019, increase their participation? To answer that question, the authors investigate the consequences of a 2015 French reform that designated up to 12 months of paid leave for fathers while simultaneously reducing the maximum paid leave for mothers by the same number of months. Although the benefits were low, parental leave could be taken on a part-time basis, which can be more attractive to fathers. Using administrative data and comparing parents of children born before and after the reform, the authors find that in response to a 25 percentage point (pp) decline in mothers' participation rate triggered by the reform, fathers' participation increased by less than 1 pp, primarily through part-time leave. The reform increased mothers' labor earnings, but it had no significant impact on fathers' earnings. Overall, the substitutability of parental leave between parents appears to be low and, as a result, earmarking alone does not substantially increase fathers' participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most minimum wage studies are identified on small, plentiful, mostly expected wage changes, spread out over time. A recent set of changes have instead been large, rapid, and unexpected, following the "Fight for $15" movement. Alberta is the first North American province, state, or territory to have this $15 minimum wage, with an unexpectedly large increase (47%) occurring over a short time horizon (3 years). The employment effects of this policy are estimated using a synthetic control approach on Labour Force Survey data. Similar to the existing literature, workers moved up the wage distribution, increment by increment, but with a higher distributional reach. Employment losses occurred at similar elasticities, but with large level changes, mostly among younger workers. Newer to the literature, regional employment losses were found in four of the five non-urban economic regions, but not in Alberta's two main cities, showing the significance and nuance of regional heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the gaps in strategic human resource management (SHRM) research exposed by the COVID‐19 pandemic in order to guide future SHRM research in the context of environmental crises. Using evidence from Danish companies and public organizations collected using a mixed‐methods sequential design, we discuss whether existing SHRM frameworks can adequately frame and deliver the academic knowledge needed to address the novel challenges posed by the pandemic. We formulate guidelines for future research that will shape discussions of the role of SHRM in building organizational resilience in the face of environmental crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study a problem from a real-world application, in which a daily set of orders must be processed following two stages, consisting of preparing perishable products on benches and allocating them to conveyors to be packed in disposable trays. Daily decisions must be made regarding the number and start time of working shifts, the number of workers and their allocation to machines, and the scheduling of orders in a two-stage flexible flow shop environment. The flow shop environment of the studied problem is common in many industries of perishable products, making the problem very general. The problem involves a number of operational constraints, and three objective functions that are minimised in a lexicographic way. To solve the problem, we implement a constructive heuristic and embed it within three metaheuristics: a Random multi-start algorithm (MR), a Biased random key genetic algorithm (BRKGA), and a Variable neighbourhood search (VNS) based one. We perform computational experiments over a set of realistic instances, and present a lower bound obtained from a constraint programming model for the scheduling counterpart. The results of the experiments show that the BRKGA is the most effective in practice for the integrated problem of workforce allocation and scheduling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employer Wage Subsidy Caps and Part-Time Work. I See i Kelly, Erin L. Yang, Duanyi, Erin L. Kelly, Laura D. Kubzansky, and Lisa Berkman. I See i Kelly, Erin L. Wright, Chris F. I See i Arnholtz, Jens. Schatz, Ronald W. I The Labor Board Crew: Remaking Worker-Employer Relations from Pearl Harbor to the Reagan Era. i Reviewed by Joseph A. McCartin. Employer Wage Subsidy Caps and Part-Time Work. [Extracted from the article]