Search

The authors analyze the potential effects of automation on the jobs of truck drivers and conclude that media accounts predicting the imminent loss of millions of truck-driving jobs are overstated. Their conclusion is based on three main factors. First, the count of truck drivers is often inflated due to a misunderstanding of the occupational classification system used in federal statistics. Second, truck drivers do more than drive, and these non-driving tasks will continue to be in demand. Third, the requirements of technology, combined with complex regulations over how trucks can operate in the United States, imply that certain segments of trucking will be easier to automate than others. Long-haul trucking (which constitutes a minority of jobs) will be much easier to automate than will short-haul trucking (or the last mile), in which the bulk of employment lies. Although technology will likely transform the status quo in the trucking industry, it does not necessarily imply the wholesale elimination of the demand for truck drivers, as conventional accounts suggest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent estimates in standard models of wage determination for both unionization and occupational licensing have shown wage effects that are similar across the two institutions. These cross-sectional estimates use specialized data sets, with small sample sizes, for the period 2006 to 2008. The authors’ analysis examines the impact of unions and licensing coverage on wage determination using new data collected on licensing statutes that are then linked to longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) from 1979 to 2010. They develop several approaches, using both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses, to measure the impact of these two labor market institutions on wage determination. The estimates of the economic returns to union coverage are greater than those for licensing statutes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between performance-based pay and widening wage inequality using data from the Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC). The results suggest that jobs using performance-based pay have made only a modest contribution to increased inequality during the 1994 to 2010 period. These results contrast with those reported by Lemieux, MacLeod, and Parent (2009), who investigated the relationship between performance-based pay and wage inequality using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. They found that pay for performance accounted for about one-fifth of the growth in the variance of male wages between the late 1970s and the early 1990s, and for almost all of the increase in wage inequality in the top quintile during the same period. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The authors estimate inter-industry wage differentials using the Bureau of Labor Statistics's National Compensation Survey (NCS) dataset. The NCS dataset has a number of distinct advantages over household survey datasets typically used for this purpose, in part because its establishment data contain information on job content and more accurate measures of industry and occupation. The authors find that controlling for job functions substantially lowers inter-industry wage variation. To the extent that job function proxies for productivity, a substantial portion of inter-industry wage variation may be explained by worker sorting on (observed) ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a number of surveys now measure employee training, serious gaps remain in our knowledge of such fundamental matters as how much training takes place, who provides it, and who gets it. The authors explore these questions using the 1995 Survey of Employer-Provided Training, which, because it collected data from employers as well as employees, enables a more complete analysis of the correlates of training than has been possible before. While there are some differences across the measures of training incidence and intensity, the authors find that establishments that provided generous benefits to their employees and used innovative workplace practices also provided more training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors estimate the extent to which establishments have adopted six alternative work organization practices. Findings from the 1993 Survey of Employer Provided Training show that some 42% of all establishments used at least one of these practices, and among establishments with 50 or more employees the figure was nearly 70%. Establishment characteristics that were positively related to the use of the practices were the recent introduction of new technology; large size; manufacturing as the primary activity; incentive-based compensation; the provision of generous benefits; and the use of extensive training. The choice of practices varied greatly among establishments, with no apparent "best practice." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using 17 measures of job quality from the 1980 Census, the Current Population Survey, and the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, the authors perform a cluster analysis that groups 621 jobs covering 94% of the work force into six job categories (termed "contours"), a job classification closely resembling those suggested by labor market segmentation theory. The distribution of employment over the period 1973-90 shifted sharply away from the two middle-quality contours toward the two highest-quality contours. The two lowest-quality contours show no decline in employment share in the 1980's. The declining relative position of employed black and Hispanic men stems from both a worsening job mix relative to white men and a sharp drop in the quality of low-skill jobs. Female workers experienced both a greater shift away from jobs in the lower-quality contours and higher real earnings growth within each job contour than male workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]