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This paper examines the major changes to the face of poverty in Great Britain over the past few decades, assessing the role of policy, and compares and contrasts this with the patterns seen in the United States, using harmonised household survey data. There are various commonalities between the countries, including a shift in the composition of those in poverty towards working‐age households without children, who have not been the focus of policy attention. There are also big differences, with a steadily increasing share of poverty in Great Britain – but a stable share in the United States – found in households with an adult in paid work. This perhaps explains why the anti‐poverty focus in Great Britain is now squarely on the plight of working households, while in the United States it is focused on labour force participation among the low skilled – even though, as we show, the United States has, for decades, been accustomed to in‐work poverty comprising a significantly higher proportion of overall poverty than in Great Britain.

We study the impact of network homophily on labor market outcomes in a search‐and‐matching model with two job search channels: the formal market and social contacts. There are two worker types: low‐skilled and high‐skilled workers. The homophily level determines whether the referral networks of the two types are mixed or segregated from each other. We show that there exists an intermediate homophily level that minimizes the unemployment rate and maximizes the wages of low‐skilled workers. Complete integration does not maximize the welfare of low‐skilled workers, unless it improves their productivity. We argue that our model can explain the empirical findings on the labor market effects of the Moving‐to‐Opportunity experiment and the integration of immigrants.

This article explores knowledge transfers in international migration and development through insights from Pacific Island seasonal workers participating in Australia's Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP). We discuss actual and potential horticultural knowledge transfers that are enabled when circular migrants are engaged in agriculture in their place of migration origin and destination. Transfers identified by seasonal workers themselves include: technologies to improve horticultural production, exposure to different crop types, and techniques to improve crop yields. We argue that SWP migrants should be reframed as knowledge holders (not ‘unskilled’ or ‘low-skilled’ labourers), and reflect on how knowledge transfers can be better supported to enable benefits for communities of origin and destination.

To what extent do economic concerns drive anti-migrant attitudes? Key theoretical arguments extract two central motives: increased labour market competition and the fiscal burden linked to the influx of migrants. This article provides new evidence regarding the impact of material self-interest on attitudes towards immigrants. It reports the results of a survey experiment embedded in representative surveys in 15 European countries before and after the European refugee crisis in 2014. As anticipated by the fiscal burden argument, it is found that rich natives prefer highly skilled over low-skilled migration more than low-income respondents do. Moreover, the study shows that these tax concerns among the wealthy are stronger if fiscal exposure to migration is high. No support is found for the labour market competition argument predicting that natives will be most opposed to migrants with similar skills. The results suggest that highly skilled migrants are preferred over low-skilled migrants irrespective of natives’ skill levels.

A significant number of foreign-trained skilled immigrants are employed in low-skilled service sector jobs in major Canadian cities. However, there is no study to understand their physical and mental health status. We hypothesized that most of these immigrant workers have elevated physical and mental health problems because of lowered self-esteem, job dissatisfaction, and work-related stress. A survey questionnaire containing 49 questions was designed to collect quantitative data (n = 146) from skilled immigrants working as taxi drivers, convenience store workers, and gas station workers in the city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Analysis of the data involved the use of descriptive as well as inferential statistics to understand the predictors of self-reported health status. Skilled immigrants who are working in an occupation that underutilizes their knowledge, skills, and experience are found to have elevated levels of work-related stress, poor quality of life, and deteriorated physical and mental health. Ethnic origin of the participant, level of education, years spent on current occupation, degree of job satisfaction, level of work-related stress, Body Mass Index (BMI), and chronic health conditions are good predictors of self-reported health of skilled immigrants working in these occupations. Resume Les immigrants hautement qualifies et les emplois peu qualifies : les defis de sante au quotidien Un nombre important d'immigrants qualifies et formes a l'etranger occupent des emplois exigeant peu de qualifications dans le secteur tertiaire des grandes villes canadiennes. Cependant, aucune etude n'a ete menee a ce jour qui aborde la question de leur etat de sante physique et mentale. Nous emettons l'hypothese selon laquelle la plupart de ces travailleurs immigres souffrent de problemes de sante physique et mentale severes en raison de la baisse d'estime de soi, l'insatisfaction de l'emploi, et le stress lie au travail. La conception d'un questionnaire compose de 49 questions avait pour objectif de recueillir des donnees quantitatives (n = 146) aupres de travailleurs qualifies issus de l'immigration et travaillant dans la ville d'Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, comme chauffeurs de taxi et preposes dans des depanneurs ou dans des stations de service. L'analyse des donnees a repose sur des statistiques descriptives et inferentielles pour comprendre les facteurs predictifs de l'etat de sante auto-declare. Il ressort que les immigrants qualifies dont l'activite professionnelle valorise peu les connaissances, competences et experiences ont des niveaux eleves de stress lie au travail, une mauvaise qualite de vie et un etat de sante physique et mentale degrade. L'origine ethnoculturelle, le niveau de scolarite, le nombre d'annees a exercer cette activite professionnelle, le degre de satisfaction au travail, le niveau de stress lie au travail, l'indice de masse corporelle (IMC), et les problemes de sante chroniques constituent des facteurs predictifs de l'etat de sante auto-declare des immigrants qualifies qui exercent ces activites professionnelles.

We examine the impact of the 2007 Legal Arizona Workers Act (LAWA) on employment outcomes of low-skilled legal workers. We use the synthetic control method to select a group of states against which the labor market trends of Arizona can be compared. Our results suggest that contrary to its intent, LAWA does not appear to have improved labor market outcomes of legal low-skilled workers who compete with unauthorized immigrants, the target of the legislation. In fact, we find some evidence of diminished employment and increased unemployment among legal low-skilled workers in Arizona. These findings are concentrated on the largest demographic group of workers-non-Hispanic white men. While they are less likely to find employment, those who do have on average higher earnings as a result of LAWA. The pattern of results points to both labor supply and labor demand contractions due to LAWA, with labor supply dominating in terms of magnitude.

Wir untersuchen die Auswirkungen von Zuwanderung auf das Arbeitsangebot einheimischer Frauen. Insbesondere betrachten wir die Auswirkung des Anstiegs geringqualifizierter Zuwanderer, die im Haushaltssektor arbeiten, auf hoch- und geringqualifizierte einheimische Frauen. Wir modellieren individuelle Entscheidungen uber die Haushaltsproduktion und testen die wichtigsten Aussagen dieses Modells anhand eines harmonisierten Datensatzes (CNEF). Unsere Stichprobe enthalt Lander mit unterschiedlich groszugiger Familienpolitik. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass mit einem hoheren Anteil an Migranten im Dienstleistungssektor eines lokal begrenzten Arbeitsmarktes die einheimischen hochqualifizierten Frauen ihr Arbeitsangebot erhohen. Gleichzeitig steigt die Partizipationsrate unqualifizierter einheimischer Frauen. Daruber hinaus zeigen wir, dass diese Effekte in Landern mit restriktiverer Familienpolitik starker ausfallen.

This article studies the implications of temporary emigration for the welfare of a source country. The framework is one of general equilibrium, where the economy's stocks of both capital and labor are endogenously determined by the saving and migration decisions of optimizing agents. Simulations of the model suggest that for realistic values of the parameters, welfare of nonmigrants of the source country is maximized when the migrants are employed abroad for a period in the range of roughly 8�12 years. The ideal duration is found to be an increasing function of the international wage differential, migration costs, and the degree to which the rights of migrants are protected in the host country.

The Joyce Foundation’s Shifting Gears initiative was launched in 2007 with the goal of increasing the number of workers in six Midwestern states who earn credentials that are valued by employers in their local labor markets. This chapter summarizes the policies adopted by Illinois and Wisconsin to support the implementation of career pathways and bridge programs to both improve the employment opportunities of low-skilled, low-income adults and enhance the competitiveness of the regional workforce.

This paper examines the link between crime and labor market opportunities in Japan. To consider this link, we estimate the crime supply function first introduced by Becker using panel data for Japanese prefectures. The main empirical results are as follows. First, we expect that increasing the number of police will reduce crime, regardless of its type (i.e. whether referring to total crime, violent crime or larceny). Second, crime rates are generally lower in prefectures where a low-skilled individual can find a job more easily. Third, the effects of wages for low-skilled workers on crime, especially larceny, are significantly negative, whereas average wages in a prefecture do not appear to affect crime. Fourth, the prefectures with lower educational standards are expected to suffer more crime than other prefectures. Finally, prefectures with higher Gini coefficients on schooling years are also expected to suffer more crime than other prefectures.

Considering labor market effects of international outsourcing on more disaggregated industry levels, a sector bias appears showing that low skilled labor receives a wage premium when international outsourcing takes place in low skill-intensive industries. However, there is no empirical evidence supporting this pattern. Applying a panel data analysis for Germany, this paper provides new empirical evidence for the existence of the sector bias of international outsourcing: significant results confirm the decreasing wage gap if international outsourcing takes place in low skill-intensive industries. If international outsourcing takes place in high skill-intensive industries, the wage gap increases.

Education and skill are increasingly used by states around the world as a central organizing principle in the regulation of migration flows. Immigration theorists have often claimed that use of education and skill to determine “who should get in” to a country is non-discriminatory, innocent and legitimate. Using the example of Canadian immigration policy, this article argues in contrast that skill-based migration regimes are discriminatory, violate core principles of public education provision, unjustly create second-class tiers of immigrants officially classified as “low skilled” in receiving countries, and contribute to a growing problem of “brain drain” of the highly skilled from sending countries worldwide.

We use the Bay Area Longitudinal Surveys (BALS) to examine skill requirements, the joint use of English and non-language skills, and wages in low-skilled jobs. Results show that low-skilled jobs—even those open to workers with limited English—require English language skills. Furthermore, most make joint use of English and non-language skills with the ability of any specific English skill set to enhance varying with the job’s specific non-language skill required and industry.

We use data on motives of international outsourcing and location choices from a recent survey of European companies to assess the labour market repercussions at home. Employing Tobit models we differentiate between job losses as well as job creation for high and low skilled employees at the sector level in ten European home countries. Our findings are in conflict with public concerns about adverse employment effects resulting primarily from cost-oriented sourcing in low wage locations. The quantitative impact on job losses remains modest in the case of cost-saving motives. The simple divide between low and high wage locations hides substantial heterogeneity within both groups. We also find that job losses are typically compensated partly by new job creation, particularly for high skilled workers.

Using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, this research indicates that unobserved heterogeneity substantially biases cross-sectional estimates of union wage effects upward for both males and females. Estimates of the union wage premium for male workers between the ages of 25 and 64 fall from 8.7 percent to 5.2 percent after controlling for unobserved heterogeneity. For females aged 25 to 63 the estimated 4.0 percent cross-sectional union wage premium falls to 1.9 once unobserved heterogeneity is controlled for. The results also indicate positive sorting by unobserved skills into union membership, especially among low skilled male and female workers. There is also evidence of negative sorting into unions among the most highly skilled.

State sponsored employment agencies are an important source of job matching in Britain. This study tracks Jobcentre use in Britain over the previous decade and the effectiveness of Jobcentre use in securing entry into employment for those who utilise its services. Amongst the unemployed, use of Jobcentres is highly counter-cyclical. This can be attributed principally to the changing composition of the stock over the economic cycle. In good times, there are relatively more short duration, voluntary quits in the stock, who tend to rely on Jobcentres least. Jobcentres are found to have a significant positive effect on the job entry rates of its clients. The greatest beneficial impact is amongst those, the low skilled and the long term unemployed with the lowest exit rates from unemployment.

This paper shows that the immigration of some low skilled workers can be of advantage for the low skilled natives when the host economy suffers from unemployment due to trade unions and an unemployment insurance scheme. This benefit arises if trade unions have appropriate bargaining power and preferences for members' income, labor market discrimination against immigrants is strong enough and the unemployment tax rate is low.

Described and discussed are comparative employment policies and programs for people with intellectual and other disabilities in Australia, Finland, and Sweden. The dominant economic and social policies of many Western countries are such that they continue to place considerable pressure on the development and maintenance of employment programs for people with intellectual and physical disabilities, particularly for those with high support needs. The authors note that these policies often result in tension between the simultaneous achievement of person-centered principles for people with disabilities and a desire for improved service efficiencies and accountability. In addition, a concern raised by specialists in all three countries is the demise of low skilled jobs, which traditionally have attracted people with intellectual disabilities. It is proposed that improving the level of education and training available for people with intellectual disabilities may improve their employment opportunities. In this vein, key aspects of these countries’ respective support programs were identified as an aid to policy-makers and service providers reconciling the disparities between employment needs and opportunities.

This paper provides a critical review of the impact of technical change on the structure of relative wages and employment, and considers some alternative explanations for the immiseration of low skilled workers. In the absence of any clear and distinguishing policy blueprint, the paper also seeks to clarify the major issues raised by our discussion for employment policy.

This paper investigates the impact of ‘outsourcing’ on the relative wages and employment of the low-skilled in the UK. In contrast to previous studies which proxy outsourcing by imports from all countries, we examine whether the source of imports is important. We disaggregate UK imports according to individual supplier countries and construct import penetration terms for different groups of countries - ie, distinguishing between imports from industrialized countries and imports from low-wage countries - for each 4-digit industry within the broader categories of textiles and non-electrical machinery. Our econometric results show that imports from low-wage countries have made a significant contribution to the decline in the relative wages and employment of the less-skilled in the UK, with no discernible effect resulting from imports originating from industrialised countries. The estimates suggest that rising imports from low-wage countries may account for about 40 per cent of the rise in the wage bill share of skilled workers, and approximately one-third of the increase in their employment share, in the UK textiles sector during the period 1970-1983. We also offer some limited evidence that the degree of outsourcing may differ across industries and that large currency appreciations may have a disproportionately large impact on the economic fortunes of the less-skilled, partly by creating an increased ‘threat’ of outsourcing.

The article seeks to open up a critical discussion around the idea of emotional labour as skilled work. It has been suggested by some commentators that many front-line service jobs, traditionally thought of as low skilled in terms of their technical aspects, may actually constitute a form of skilled work, since they require their holders to perform skilled emotional labour in their dealings with customers. Such discourses hold out the possibility of progress not only in intellectual terms but also with regard to improving the status and pay of many low-waged service workers. The article subjects these claims to critical scrutiny and argues that applying the label ‘skill’ to all forms of emotion work is extremely problematic.