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This paper investigates dynamic changes in instrumental (i.e., work‐related) tie‐seeking patterns and the structure of a communication network following a downsizing event—whereby many employees are simultaneously eliminated from a network. Our analysis spans a two‐year period and applies a resource‐ and network‐change approach to examine how survivors develop revised resource‐acquisition strategies while repositioning themselves after a downsizing. Our results demonstrate that two temporary logics of tie formation—a suspension of within‐unit homophily and a preference for seeking ties with long‐tenured employees—help employees acquire betweenness centrality during the disruption period. Specifically, we find that disruption initiates a transitional period after downsizing in which new tie‐making logics are employed, including seeking out ties with long‐tenured employees and employees outside of one's department. We observed post‐disruption, during the stabilization period after downsizing, where logics used for tie‐making in the disruption period were abandoned, pre‐disruption tie‐making logics were resumed, and betweenness centrality remained relatively constant. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of these results and suggest future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides new evidence that US state policies can affect the location of manufacturing activity. The paper extends the literature by analyzing industry-level panel data from 1974–1994. Results from the two-stage empirical model support ex ante intuition that divergence in state policy and/or characteristics affects specific manufacturing industries differently. Econometric techniques employed herein address many of the criticisms of previous work in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper establishes a new fact about the compositional changes in the pool of unemployed over the US business cycle. Using microdata from the Current Population Survey for the years 1962-2012, it documents that in recessions the pool of unemployed shifts toward workers with high wages in their previous job and that these shifts are driven by the high cyclicality of separations for high-wage workers. The paper finds that standard theories of wage setting and unemployment have difficulty in explaining these patterns and evaluates a number of alternative theories that do better in accounting for the new fact. (JEL E24, E32, J31, J63, J64) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether different labour market characteristics amplify or dampen the local labour market impacts from Chinese import competition exposure. I exploit state‐level variation in initial, pre‐shock labour market characteristics and regional variation across local labour markets in exposure to Chinese imports for identification. I find that local labour markets in states with higher union density experience more severe adverse consequences as a result of increased import exposure. Conversely, higher initial minimum wages help mute the negative impacts of the China shock. I also provide some evidence that exceptions to employment‐at‐will legislation can affect employment responses to increased Chinese imports. Finally, examining all policies together in an index, I show that higher levels of policies intended to benefit and protect workers can actually magnify the extent of the damage inflicted by import competition. My results suggest that initial labour market characteristics and policies can play an important role in understanding why local labour markets react differently to trade shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the persistence of gender inequality in public administration in the UK and globally. The implications for the continued under-representation of women are explored. The data reveals vertical and horizontal occupational gender segregation which the paper argues, drawing upon representative bureaucracy research, has policy outcomes for beneficiaries of public services. The recent social movement campaigns and media coverage about sexual violence against women (for example MeToo) have highlighted the prevalence of this egregious issue; the publication of the gender pay gaps in UK organizations, despite the Equal Pay Act (1970), demonstrates continued inequalities; and as this paper demonstrates the data on women in public administration reveals the persistence of gender inequality in public sector employment. This has implications for public administration institutions. The paper argues that the lack of representation of women and other minorities has policy outcomes for the legitimacy, trust, integrity in public institutions, and public policy productivities and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies the effect of the Affordable Care Act's dependent coverage mandate on health insurance coverage and labor market outcomes among young adults by exploiting the discrete change in health insurance coverage at age 26. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that aging out from the ACA's dependent coverage mandate is associated with up to a 4.2-percentage-point decrease in private insurance coverage at age 26. We also find that aging out from the mandate is significantly associated with an increase in the probability of being employed. However, we do not find any significant changes in hourly wage, weekly working hours or job mobility at age 26. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports that American Forest & Paper Association has introduced an interactive job board in the U.S.

This paper is the first in a two-part series documenting an in-depth, descriptive snapshot of TR educational programs in the US and Canada, as of 2018. The 2018 study is the fifth installment of a decades-long research project that captures descriptive snapshots-in-time of TR curricula. The intent of this study was to capture descriptive data on TR curricula in the United States and Canada as of 2018. The study results describe TR curricula in five areas: (a) accreditation, (b) curriculum/internship, (c) university and unit, (d) faculty, and (e) student characteristics. This paper, Part A, reports on: (a) university and unit, (b) faculty, and (c) student characteristics portions of the research. A 64-item online survey was sent to 91 TR program directors with 67 usable surveys (73.6% return rate). Respondents reported that the TR programs are located in mid-sized to large schools with university enrollments of 3,000 and above. Results showed that TR programs are housed in a variety of colleges, but most frequently in colleges with Health in their title. TR faculty tend to hold adjunct positions with master's-only degrees. Wide ranges are evident in the number of students enrolled per TR program. Recommendations are made for future curricular studies and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section critiques a paper by Kim B. Clark and Lawrence H. Summers published in this same issue of Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, which argues that most unemployment, even in tight labor markets, is characterized by relatively few persons who are out of work a large part of the time. The first commenter commends Clark and Summers for putting the labor market in a comprehensive empirical perspective. According to him, the paper is strong in emphasizing the size and significance of large flows into and out of the labor force. One of the authors' main themes is that the dynamic analysis of the labor market has overemphasized turnover and slighted long duration of unemployment. But in the commenter's view, the authors somewhat overstate their conclusions. Meanwhile, the second commenter notes that the paper is challenging, full of new information and insights. In his view, the paper has a number of messages: it presents a wide variety of new facts and ways of looking at unemployment as a probability process; it rejects temporary layoffs as an important explanation of the overall level of unemployment; it minimizes the importance of search theory and the general idea that unemployment is a privately or socially productive use of time; and it disposes of some kind of widely accepted new view of unemployment that rests on the idea of high turnover.

This section presents several comments about a paper by Edward Gramlich published in this same issue of Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, which develops systematic and comprehensive estimates of who bears the burden of an increase in national unemployment in the U.S. as of June 1974. According to the first commenter, the paper by Gramlich represents a useful attempt to study in some depth the differential effect on family income of cyclical changes in the level of unemployment. The findings are interesting and important. In general they confirm what other, less intensive, studies have led us to expect. But the cross-section data used permit detailed analysis that is not possible in more aggregative time-series studies. The author has been ingenious in developing his relationships one step at a time and in using the variables in his regression equations. The first commenter found quite useful the analysis of transfer payments in the final part of the paper. And he particularly appreciated Gramlich's careful treatment of unemployment insurance, which provides an antidote to some of the more sweeping claims regarding the disincentive effects of this form of transfer income. Meanwhile, the second commenter says that Gramlich has written a good straightforward paper.

Last responders constitute an occupational category that includes all those who are involved in the postmortem care of deceased persons and their families. The work of last responders is often considered "dirty work" and, as a result, stigmatized. Last responders are aware of this stigma, and stigma consciousness has been associated with negative health outcomes. Despite the wide acknowledgment of stigma among last responders, specific risk, or protective factors for experiencing stigma have not been investigated. This paper aims to identify determinants of stigma among last responders in the United States. The data for this study were obtained from a national cross-sectional survey of last responders. The survey included a measure of stigma and multiple sociodemographic characteristics. A hurdle model was used to assess the association between the characteristics of last responders and their perceived stigma. Respondents were predominantly male (55.1%), White non-Hispanic (90.2%), and employed full-time (96%). Seventy-seven percent reported having experienced at least one form of occupation-related stigma. There was no significant association between the experience of stigma and any socio-demographic variables. The experience of stigma is nearly ubiquitous among last responders—>75% of last responders in the sample experienced at least one form of stigma. Another aspect of its ubiquitous nature is the lack of evidence that stigma was experienced differentially across sex, race/ethnicity, employment type, and length of years as a last responder. Interventions are needed to decrease stigma among last responders and to support last responders in managing the consequences of the stigma they experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Americans with disabilities have historically faced substantial barriers to employment participation. The state-federal vocational rehabilitation (VR) program has played an important role in increasing the employment opportunities of Americans with disabilities through the provision of services and supports designed to lead to high-quality employment, independence, self-sufficiency, and full integration into the community. OBJECTIVE: The Vocational Rehabilitation Technical Assistance Center for Quality Employment (VRTAC–QE) was designed to bring together the broad range of existing quality employment strategies and supporting practices, identify and implement new ones, and incorporate them into an integrated training and technical assistance plan, consistent with the circumstances and priorities of each State VR agency that requests technical assistance. METHOD: In the present paper, we present the results of a needs assessment survey conducted among State VR rehabilitation counselors and professionals in cooperating rehabilitation agencies and services. RESULTS: The purpose of the present study was to determine technical assistance and training needs of State VR counselors in four practice domains: (a) outreach services, (b) pre-employment transition services, (c) vocational rehabilitation services, and (d) employment services. CONCLUSION: Implications and future directions are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before the racial integration of schools in the southern United States, predominantly African American schools were staffed almost exclusively by African American teachers as well, and teaching constituted an extraordinarily large share of professional employment among southern Blacks. The large-scale desegregation of southern schools that occurred after passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act represented a potential threat to this employment base, and this paper estimates how student integration affected Black teacher employment. Using newly assembled archival data from 759 southern school districts observed between 1960 and 1972, I estimate that a school district transitioning from fully segregated to fully integrated education, which approximates the experience of the modal southern district in this period, led to a 41.7% reduction in Black teacher employment. Additional results, including event-study specifications and models with extensive controls for concurrent policy changes, strongly suggest that these employment reductions were a causal effect of integration and not due to school district self-selection into desegregation. To study the broader impacts of reduced teaching employment, I estimate race-specific changes in occupations and earnings in the decennial Censuses and find that displaced southern Black teachers either entered lower skill occupations within the South or migrated out of the region to continue teaching and that integration-induced displacement led to substantial earnings reductions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing recognition in the fields of public health and medicine that social determinants of health (SDOH) play a key role in driving health inequities and disparities among various groups, such that a focus upon individual-level medical interventions will have limited effects without the consideration of the macro-level factors that dictate how effectively individuals can manage their health. While the health impacts of mass incarceration have been explored, less attention has been paid to how the "war on drugs" in the United States exacerbates many of the factors that negatively impact health and wellbeing, disproportionately impacting low-income communities and people of colour who already experience structural challenges including discrimination, disinvestment, and racism. The U.S. war on drugs has subjected millions to criminalisation, incarceration, and lifelong criminal records, disrupting or altogether eliminating their access to adequate resources and supports to live healthy lives. This paper examines the ways that "drug war logic" has become embedded in key SDOH and systems, such as employment, education, housing, public benefits, family regulation (commonly referred to as the child welfare system), the drug treatment system, and the healthcare system. Rather than supporting the health and wellbeing of individuals, families, and communities, the U.S. drug war has exacerbated harm in these systems through practices such as drug testing, mandatory reporting, zero-tolerance policies, and coerced treatment. We argue that, because the drug war has become embedded in these systems, medical practitioners can play a significant role in promoting individual and community health by reducing the impact of criminalisation upon healthcare service provision and by becoming engaged in policy reform efforts. A drug war logic that prioritises and justifies drug prohibition, criminalisation, and punishment has fuelled the expansion of drug surveillance and control mechanisms in numerous facets of everyday life in the United States negatively impacting key social determinants of health, including housing, education, income, and employment. The U.S. drug war's frontline enforcers are no longer police alone but now include physicians, nurses, teachers, neighbours, social workers, employers, landlords, and others. Physicians and healthcare providers can play a significant role in promoting individual and community health by reducing the impact of criminalisation upon healthcare service provision and engaging in policy reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1950s, the number of doctorate recipients has risen dramatically in the United States. In this paper, we investigate whether the longevity of doctorate recipients’ publication careers has changed. This is achieved by matching 1951–2010 doctorate recipients with rare names in astrophysics, chemistry, economics, genetics and psychology in the dissertation database ProQuest to their publications in the publication database Web of Science. Our study shows that pre-PhD publication careers have changed: the median year of first publication has shifted from after the PhD to several years before PhD in most of the studied fields. In contrast, post-PhD publication career spans have not changed much in most fields. The share of doctorate recipients who have published for more than twenty years has remained stable over time; the shares of doctorate recipients publishing for shorter periods also remained almost unchanged. Thus, though there have been changes in pre-PhD publication careers, post-PhD career spans remained quite stable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on efforts of the U.S. Department of Labor to analyze labor market and labor policymaking. It mentions efforts to reduce the unemployment rate; and statistics related to the changes in total private employment provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; and an increase in long-term unemployed and prolonged durations in unemployment. It also reflects on unemployment during the Great Recession of 2008 and the recovery to be explained by changes in gross domestic product (GDP).

The article discusses role of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to meet job challenges faced by workers in the U.S. It mentions first jobs challenge for stronger macroeconomic performance with more rapid economic growth and employment expansion to alleviate the high cyclical unemployment; and efforts to address longer term secular trends of rising labor market inequality, growing educational wage gaps and labor market polarization. It also mentions challenges regarding training and employment programs.

In this issue of the ILRReview, the first five articles provide important new evidence on gender and employment. The papers were all independently submitted and were refereed through the usual editorial process. Because the papers' unifying theme is gender and labor market outcomes, the Editors felt that creating a symposium out of this new body of work would serve the research community studying gender, as well as the policymakers concerned with gender and labor market outcomes. All of the articles use new data sources or advanced statistical techniques to greatly enhance our understanding of gender and employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, written by the members of the American Economic Association (AEA) Ad Hoc Committee on the Job Market, provides an overview of the market for new Ph.D. economists. It describes the role of the AEA in the market and focuses in particular on two mechanisms adopted in recent years at the suggestion of our Committee. First, job market applicants now have a signaling service to send an expression of special interest to up to two employers prior to interviews at the January Allied Social Science Associations (ASSA) meetings. Second, the AEA now invites candidates who are still on the market, and employers whose positions are still vacant, to participate in a web-based 'scramble' to reduce search costs and thicken the late part of the job market. We present statistics on the activity in these market mechanisms and present survey evidence that both mechanisms have facilitated matches. The paper concludes by discussing the emergence of platforms for transmitting job market information and other design issues that may arise in the market for new economists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a response to a critique of a study on the impact of the U.S. government's WIN2 program on welfare costs and recipient rates. The equation being attacked is supported by numerous variables which did not significantly alter the results reported in the paper. Two additional modifications of the analysis designed to test the robustness of the estimated WIN2 program was provided as a footnote. For the critique to be substantial it must prove that the use of county level data does significantly alter the conclusions.

The paper investigates employment effects of falling exports from China to the EU and US during the great trade collapse of 2008-9. The paper uses fixed multiplier analysis to address employment effects resulting from input-output production linkages between trade and employment as well as from associated changes in household income and expenditures. Main findings are that substantial negative employment effects resulted in China from these linkages; that a large share of these employment effects were income-induced; and that industries in which women workers were disproportionately represented were harder hit through these linkages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: This paper will set up a general equilibrium model with a distorted labour market to explore the effects of an environmental tax and union bargaining power on formal employment and the informal competitive wage. We find that when the government raises the environmental tax, both formal employment and informal competitive wage would fall. In addition, we confirm that a policy of labour market reform would increase both formal employment and the informal competitive wage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers a discussion of the different policy responses for unemployment benefits and jobs subsidies in the U.S. An evidence in the literature on the causal relationship between unemployment and opioid use and the national uniformity of the Earned Income Tax Credit and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are explored. The political economy objections to place-based policies and the potential covariates of the spatial variation of employment-to-population ratio are also outlined.

Between 1957 and 1990, nearly 100 nuclear reactors were constructed throughout the U.S., and nuclear power currently accounts for 20 percent of electricity production nationwide. Nuclear plants are often constructed in small communities for which they constitute a large source of employment and income. To date, 24 nuclear reactors have undergone decommissioning, and more are expected in the future, particularly as nuclear reactors age and face increasingly strict regulations. This paper examines the effects of nuclear decommissioning over time at the county-level on measures of employment, income, and population using difference-in-differences regression and propensity score matching. Panel data are obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau, and cover the years 1975-2014. The analysis finds that nuclear decommissioning is associated with positive and statistically significant increases in employment and per capita income over time. Results suggest that nuclear decommissioning may actually be a positive force in regional economic development, and concludes with limitations of the approach and implications for future research. As an emerging area of research, this paper is meant to build on previous work, as well as to provide a basis for further discussion and debate on the economic future of nuclear host communities and regional economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence on the labor‐market effect of immigration focuses on permanent migrants, though a large share of international labor mobility is temporary and seasonal. This paper estimates the marginal native employment effect of policy restrictions on foreign seasonal farm workers in the United States. It exploits two natural experiments: a legal requirement to give hiring preference to natives, and an exogenous change in natives' next‐best employment options during the Great Recession of 2007–2008. The local elasticity of natives' occupational labor supply is 0.0015, implying a minimal marginal effect of seasonal work visa restrictions on native employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a reaction paper to the article in this journal issue entitled Human Service Cartels: The Soft Repression of the Mediocracy by David Stoesz. As such, it addresses two significant questions about the Stoesz article. One question is as follows: Are we really talking about a cartel? The other question is as follows: Isn't it the power elite that promotes societal control and repression? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Little is known about the length of working life, even though it is a key indicator for policy-makers. In this paper, we study how the length of working life at age 50 has developed in the United States from a cohort perspective. Methods We use a large longitudinal sample of U.S. Social Security register data that covers close to 1.7 million individuals of the cohorts born from 1920 to 1965. For all of these cohorts, we study the employment trajectories and working life expectancy (WLE) at age 50 by gender and nativity (native-born/foreign-born). For the cohorts with employment trajectories that are only incompletely observed, we borrow information from older cohorts to predict their WLE. Results The length of working life has been increasing for the native-born males and females, and the younger cohorts worked longer than the older cohorts. However, WLE might soon peak, and then stall. The gap in WLE between the native-born and the foreign-born has increased over time, although latter group might be able to catch up in the coming years. Discussion Our findings show that studying employment from a cohort perspective reveals crucial information about patterns of working life. The future development of the length of working life should be a major concern for policy-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides descriptive information regarding the composition of the Latinx population of the United States. I note differences in educational attainment and occupational mobility confirming findings by other authors–Latinix individuals continue to experience a stalled mode of incorporation in America. The paper also discusses policy implications, giving special attention to the changing character of the American economy. For Latinix people to advance socially and financially, they will need greater access to specialized technical skills. Without deliberate action on the part of government, the prospects seem dismal. Limited progress in educational institutions and the labour market threatens the future of children and grandchildren of Latinx immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, which draws on two years of qualitative research, I examine the ways in which refugees are positioned and position themselves in job training programs and in their initial US jobs. I provide examples of how 'factishes', a combination of facts and fetishes, are fabricated and position the refugees, and those working with them, in discourses associated with migration. Moving from notions of humanitarian aid to economic utility, trainers and employers position the refugees as economic stabilizers, capable of performing low-skill jobs, which US-born workers do not often choose, and which undocumented Mexican migrants do not 'deserve'. In doing so, they also position themselves as helpful humanitarians. The positioning is useful in securing initial employment for the refugees but not in longer term career advancement. Some of the refugees challenge the positioning, modifying the factishes to improve their employment prospects and possibly their long-term integration into society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Service offshoring raises the fear of job loss for high‐skilled workers, unlike goods offshoring, because workers at home compete with highly educated workers in low‐income countries. This paper examines whether the increase in the United States's service offshoring to India has reduced the domestic employment of the occupations with greater exposure to Indian service imports. To account for endogeneity, I instrument for the growth of the United States's service imports from India by exploiting the change in Indian exports to European countries. Service offshoring reduces total employment from 2000 to 2006; however, this effect disappears overall and becomes positive for college‐educated workers in the later period from 2006 to 2016. Unlike goods offshoring, the employment effect is largely driven by college‐educated workers, and the employment growth in the later period is larger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) and border closure to asylum seekers during the COVID-19 pandemic created a humanitarian crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. This paper outlines the public health challenges and health care access barriers for asylum seekers living in a tent encampment in Matamoros, Mexico resulting from these policies. Thirty participants, including asylum seekers (n=20) and health care professionals (n=10) in the Matamoros asylum camp, were interviewed. Public health challenges included environmental exposures and inadequate infrastructure; poor sanitation and disease control; and limited safety, nutrition, education, and employment. Health care access barriers included lack of continuity of care and emergency services, resource insufficiencies, and interpersonal barriers. Policy responses to address these challenges include outlawing MPP and other immigration policies that infringe on human rights, collaborating with international partners, and implementing more creative and community-based approaches to asylum processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sudden termination of nearly 40% of U.S. WIL experiences during the summer of 2020 caused employers to quickly adapt to virtual WIL experiences. What employers learned from these adjustments to their traditional WIL practices and perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of virtual experiences form the basis of this paper. Over 350 employers provided comments to a special set of questions pertaining to virtual WIL experiences in their organizations. A strong virtual experience required constant communicate, set schedules, structured workflow, and prepared supervisors to handle remote student employees. The advantages included more innovative practices, safe experiences, and cost savings for both students and the organization. Virtual experiences present challenges, including organizational enculturation, loss of serendipitous connections, and inability to provide hands-on learning opportunities. For virtual experiences to play a more prominent role, issues around tacit knowledge acquisition, trust building, serendipity, and mentoring need to be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores how paid and unpaid labor history over the life course influence women's cardiovascular disease. U.S. women comprise about 50% of the paid workforce and perform the majority of unpaid labor. However, the influence of women's work on their health is under-researched. Our sample was drawn from the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study, a cohort of post-menopausal women in the U.S. aged 50–79 at recruitment. Women were categorized into five groups according to paid labor history: worked in paid jobs consistently throughout adult life; left the workforce early; entered the workforce later; discontinuous work history; never worked outside the home. Live birth history (none, at least one, missing) served as a proxy for unpaid labor in prime age. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate the hazard ratio of CVD associated with different paid work histories. We then assessed the effect of unpaid labor on the relation between paid labor and CVD. Paid labor participation was not associated with CVD risk among women without unpaid labor after adjusting for age, education, and birth cohort. Among those with unpaid demands, leaving the workforce early or having discontinuous work history was protective. In this U.S. sample, the association between paid work participation history and CVD risk depends on the presence of unpaid labor. Our results demonstrate the necessity of including work – paid and unpaid – in consideration of women's health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines how the status of Dominican women in the United States improves as a consequence of waged employment. Considers the ideological forces which root women in the household and discourage collective struggles in the workplace and suggests that the middle-class aspirations of Dominican families are in contradiction to their children's future employment opportunities. (KH)

A Canadian librarian relates her experience of being expelled from the United States, where she had an eight-month library job, after her four-month B-1 visa expired. Immigration laws and regulations affecting employment of Canadian librarians by U.S. libraries are explained and potential problems for both librarians and employers are described. (CDD)