Search

Extensive evidence demonstrates that patriarchy runs less rampant in the United States due to civil rights, social reform, and the feminist movement, among other causes. Indeed, American women have made [...]

A study was conducted to investigate the influence of the structural positions of different demographic groups in the science and engineering labor force on their access to the allocation of favorable work experiences. Findings indicate that U.S.-born white males receive advantages in allocation and evaluation decisions from all evaluators.

A growing proportion of the U.S. workforce will have been raised in disadvantaged environments that are associated with relatively high proportions of individuals with diminished cognitive and social skills. A cross-disciplinary examination of research in economics, developmental psychology, and neurobiology reveals a striking convergence on a set of common principles that account for the potent effects of early environment on the capacity for human skill development. Central to these principles are the findings that early experiences have a uniquely powerful influence on the development of cognitive and social skills and on brain architecture and neurochemistry, that both skill development and brain maturation are hierarchical processes in which higher level functions depend on, and build on, lower level functions, and that the capacity for change in the foundations of human skill development and neural circuitry is highest earlier in life and decreases over time. These findings lead to the conclusion that the most efficient strategy for strengthening the future workforce, both economically and neurobiologically, and improving its quality of life is to invest in the environments of disadvantaged children during the early childhood years. child development | early experience | economic productivity | critical and sensitive periods | brain development

AMERICANS are working. But how many of them? The answer to that question can have profound political consequences. Employment was a big issue in the 2004 presidential campaign, as George [...]

Each year there is an exchange of academics across the northern border of the United States because of the nature of academia. Canadians gain employment at American universities whereas Americans accept position at Canadian institutions. An American citizen, Mary Kathryn Barbier talks about the surprise he received at two on-campus interviews at Canadian universities in Spring 2002.

Income inequality has been increasing across the United States, but little is known about changing income inequality in nonmetropolitan counties. Data from the 1980 and 1990 Summary Tape Files of the U.S. Census of Population and Housing are used to estimate ordinary least squares models of change in income inequality. Household income inequality increased in a smaller share of nonmetro than metro counties from 1980 to 1990, and increases in income inequality were influenced more strongly by economic restructuring in nonmetro than in metro counties. Other factors, such as change in household structure, demographic composition, and labor supply and job quality, were generally similar in affecting income inequality in nonmetro and metro counties. The greater importance of economic restructuring in nonmetro counties indicates the lesser diversity and smaller size of local economies, and their greater vulnerability to forces of economic restructuring.

This paper reports results from a life satisfaction survey (LSS) conducted with a college-educated sample of 345 respondents. The overall objective of this paper to compare some results of this life satisfaction survey with some of the findings of a recent Inc./Gallup poll of Americans at work. The survey instruments are not identical, but certain areas cover similar variables. It is in those areas where comparisons are made. The Gallup poll surveyed 800 people, and is supposedly a random sample of Americans, who are 18 or older and work at least 30 hours a week. The LSS study is directed at a more specific sample of educated respondents. Interestingly, both surveys revealed high work or job satisfaction results. However, LSS has more variable components (24) of life satisfaction, and a ranking of the components reveal that a college-educated sample is more satisfied with personal components versus professional components of their lives. The Gallup poll reported that a significant percent of workers who didn't currently own a business said they dreamed of starting one. More men reported the dream of business ownership compared to women. LSS reported a similar trend. However, the LSS instrument provided a timeline for entrepreneurial dreams, and therefore provides more insight into when people wanted to start their own business., INTRODUCTION According to Seglin (1998), 'employee satisfaction reigns'. Based on the annual Inc./Gallup survey of Americans at work, Seglin (1998) reported that 71% of Americans claim a job satisfaction of [...]

This study examined the extent to which opportunities for social mobility (as measured by occupational mobility) have or have not continued to expand for black males since the early 1970s. Among the findings of this study were: (1) intergenerational occupational mobility for both black and white males were associated with their fathers' occupational attainment, however black males experienced greater downward mobility than white males; (2) intergenerational occupational persistence levels were greater for white males than for black males; and (3) race continues to influence the occupational mobility of black males., David Featherman, in an article entitled 'Opportunities Are Expanding,' assessed the degree to which social mobility exists in contemporary American society.(1) Featherman sought to determine whether the offspring of lower [...]

The immigration problem is difficult to contain because total control of illegal entry into the US is impossible. Immigrants reduce job opportunities available to Americans, as their willingness to work for lower wages makes them a better choice for employers. The problem of immigrants can be solved only if social and economic conditions in their countries of origin are improved. The National insurance scheme should include the immigrants, and a minimum wage-rate should be fixed to make their income taxable to ensure that Americans do not pay for the immigrants' sustenance.

The current recession has severely affected the US labor work force. As of Jul 1992, 17 million workers were unemployment or underemployed, comprising 13.2% of the work force. This current recession is significant because of its duration. It has resulted in permanent job destruction and has mainly affected white collar workers. In addition to increasing job destruction, wage trends have been declining from 1989 to 1992.

Previous research on job satisfaction largely ignores possible race differences in its determinants. This study examines two explanations of a race/job satisfaction relationship: a structural perspective focuses on objective job rewards; a dispositional, on the role of worker orientations. The former implies that characteristics of jobs, firms, and industries affect all workers' satisfaction similarly, regardless of race; the latter, that race leads to distinctive job needs and values and thus contributes to black/white differences in the sources of satisfaction. Analysis of recent national survey data supports the structural model: similarities outweigh differences in the predictors of job satisfaction across races. Blacks' lower workplace satisfaction is a function, not of racial differences in the process that determines satisfaction, but of their lower scores on the factors that tend to promote it.

Expectations of the American people about possibilities of finding quality jobs are discussed.