Job Crisis Research Articles

America’s Job Crisis and the Role of Regional Economic Development Policy

The biggest issue facing the United States in recent years is the poor economy, most dramatically illustrated by the lack of job creation. The lack of jobs is not a phenomenon that began with the 2007-2009 Great Recession and sluggish recovery, but has been a feature of the entire early 21st Century. There are federal fiscal and monetary policy responses that would help lift job creation. Yet, in lieu of federal efforts, state and local officials have aggressively promoted job creation by a host of schemes including cluster-based policies and tax incentives and subsidies. While data are hard to come by, anecdotal evidence suggests that state and local efforts to lure businesses with generous inducements have escalated to a feverous pitch. The distinctive feature of such efforts is that governments are increasingly more inclined to offer these inducements to individual firms or industries as opposed to general business tax cuts for all firms, in which the former is a case where officials are “picking winners,” while in the latter, markets and relative comparative advantage determine business location. State and local officials justify such “picking winners” as a way to fend off competition in neighboring jurisdictions and as a way to make their region more competitive. In this paper I examine whether these efforts have helped matters.

The American Jobs Crisis and its Implication for the Future of Employment Policy: A Call for a New Jobs Compact

The author proposes a new Jobs Compact to close the nation's jobs deficit, to create sufficient high-quality jobs to raise wages and end thirty years of wage stagnation, and to update and strengthen labor and employment policies. A set of market and institutional failures are identified as root causes of these problems, and local innovations and policy proposals are suggested for overcoming them. Achieving these objectives will require a stronger voice in national policymaking as well as proactive efforts to mobilize and coordinate the constituencies that share an interest in and responsibility for employment policy and practice. The author calls on the president and the secretary of labor to lead these efforts by mobilizing and engaging business, labor, women, ethnic, community, and education leaders at regional and national levels.

Why Is the Focus on Innovation and New Technologies As the Solution to the Jobs Crisis?

While creating new industries and innovative technologies may be a long-term solution to systemic unemployment, they will take years to move from concept to development and finally deployment. The existing U.S. workforce is not prepared to undertake radical changes in the life skills needed to succeed in these new high-tech industries. The job mix in our current economy is weighted to the service sector by more than 80%. Within the call center sector alone, we have lost more than 7 million jobs to India and the Philippines and other low-cost markets. While these jobs are not the highest paying and are certainly not glamorous, they are jobs that are easily learned and can absorb large numbers of workers right now. Why can?t we act to protect these jobs and reverse the migration of call center work back to the United States?

Coping with the unemployment crisis in Europe

Abstract.Since the 1970s, Europe has been plagued by a chronic unemployment crisis, which has escalated with the current Great Recession. The author discusses a number of relevant elements in this regard, including the extent to which social dialogue and social pacts have been successful in reforming labour markets and pension systems, the effect of active labour market policies and the characteristics of “resilient” economies. She concludes with the need to rethink social dialogue, social safety nets, the granting of loans – especially to SMEs – and the coordination of macroeconomic policies to increase labour demand.

The Social and Eocnomic Impacts of the Global Financial and Economic Crisis

This paper examines the social and economic impacts of the global financial and economic crisis and highlights a global jobs crisis involving widespread job losses, increased unemployment and wage repression in developed countries, and characterized by a growing informal economy, increased vulnerable employment and working poverty in developing countries. It briefly reviews the reach of the crisis across demographic and social groups, showing its varied effects on the employment and income of women and men, its disproportionate effect on youth and the strain it imposed on various vulnerable groups in terms of reduced income. In so doing, this paper highlights the dire consequences that individuals and their families face in both developed and developing economies. It concludes by highlighting some of the major challenges faced in addressing the jobs crisis, and suggests that, besides employment generation and income support, other forms of social protection will be of utmost importance in overcoming the effects of the crisis. The global financial and economic crisis triggered sharp output contractions in almost all industrialized economies in 2009 for the first time in the post-Second World War era. Besides the direct impacts of this contraction in developed economies, subsequent declines in cross-border trade and the rising cost of finance had serious negative effects on emerging and developing economies. In particular, as businesses cut production in response to lower aggregate demand, workers were shed in large numbers, sharply increasing unemployment worldwide. Between 2007 and the end of 2009 there was an unprecedented increase in the numbers unemployed (International Monetary Fund and International Labour Organization, 2010). This reported increase in unemployment most likely underestimates the true depth of the problem, since job loss figures are based on official labour statistics, which in many developing countries only covers employment in the formal economy, mainly in urban areas. Beyond job losses, the quality of employment also deteriorated in both developed and developing countries. Across the globe, many workers who did not lose their jobs were forced to accept reduced working hours as well as lower wages and benefits. In developing countries, a large number of workers lost their jobs in export sectors and were forced into informal and vulnerable employment elsewhere. Although the global economy recovered more quickly than expected largely due to coordinated stimulus packages, unemployment is still high. The situation is being further aggravated by austerity measures in most developed economies. The Great Recession has thus created a jobs crisis. The increased job insecurity due to the recession has resulted in sustained and devastating impacts on individuals, families, households and their communities. Communities are affected when manufacturing jobs disappear as a result of plant closures or workforce downsizings, or when young people relocate to other cities and towns in search of better job opportunities. Such job losses since 2008 have pushed countless families into financial and economic hardship, resulting in the loss of homes to foreclosure and increases in poverty, debt and bankruptcy, especially in the United States and other advanced economies. Because work is intimately related to several dimensions of individual well-being, job losses and worsening job and economic insecurity have also been associated with increased poor health, psychological hardship and family dissolution (Stucklerand others, 2009b). The recession has also affected various social and economic groups in very different ways. In general, women have been disproportionately adversely affected, but in some economies, the adverse impacts on men have been more severe than on women. In other economies, less skilled workers, youth, older persons and migrant workers have suffered in terms of lost jobs, benefits and earnings. These effects have also varied across and within regions and countries. The global economic downturn has had wide-ranging negative social outcomes for individuals, families, communities and societies, and its impact on social progress in areas such as education and health will only become fully evident over time. During times of financial and economic crisis, households often adopt coping strategies, such as making changes in household expenditure patterns; however, these can negatively influence education, health and nutrition outcomes, which may lead to lifelong deficits for the children affected and thus perpetuate the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Given the fragility of the economic recovery and the uneven progress in major economies, social conditions are expected to recover only slowly. The The Social and Eocnomic Impacts of the Global Financial and Economic Crisis www.iosrjournals.org 51 | Page increased levels of poverty, hunger and unemployment will continue to affect billions of people for years to

The job crisis in Kosovo – an assessment of the country’s employment policy

The job crisis in Kosovo – an assessment of the country’s employment policy

Game Changer

Game Changer

The Deliberate Low-Wage, High-Insecurity Economic Model

In contrast to the general biases of orthodox economists, the jobs crisis in America is not inevitable or natural—and more important, does not contribute to more economic efficiency through lower wages or more productivity. It is the result of deliberate political policy choices the nation has made at least since the early 1980s, when productivity was rising on a secular basis at a slow rate. Also, the policy choices were made before the rise of very low-wage emerging markets like China’s. In sum, there has been a low-wage, high-unemployment policy regime in the rich world, and especially in the United States, for a generation.

Conference to focus on solutions to the jobs crisis in STEM fields

The inaugural “U.S. News STEM Solutions 2012: A Leadership Summit,” which will take place 27–29 June in Dallas, Tex., will bring together hundreds of leaders in business, education, and government to develop solutions to the jobs crisis in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. With unemployment rates high at the same time that many STEM jobs are going unfilled, the conference will focus on what is working now and what is needed to develop successful local, state, and national action plans to accelerate the development of the STEM workforce in the United States. A broad array of STEM workforce issues will be examined, including how to engage young students and how technology can better align educators with job creators and the skill sets that are required. Summit organizers hope that a key result of the conference will be a national consensus on best practices and the steps needed—in both the short and long term—to ensure a competitive workforce. Another summit objective is to find effective ways to increase public awareness of STEM and its connection to jobs.

Vocational training, employability and the post-2008 jobs crisis: Responses in the European Union

Vocational education and training measures have featured prominently in the responses of EU member states to the economic crisis that erupted in 2008. Existing training programmes have been expanded and new programmes introduced. In addition, employers and trade unions have negotiated new entitlements to education and training. This article explores the various training measures that have been adopted since the start of the crisis and compares countries with different types of training systems. Particular attention is paid to the UK, Ireland and Germany. The article also examines the role that training measures have played in governments’ active labour market programmes. While the European Commission has called for a ‘training-first’ approach to the unemployed, the article suggests that ‘work-first’ principles are becoming even more dominant.

The Neet. the Lost Bet

AbstractIn the present scenario, education plays a very strategic role. It is an investment with a postponed productivity, unfortunately uncertain, but necessary. It is, especially today, an investment both on the personal and on the social level, a necessary bet. Especially in this period when the occupation is linked to the capability of handling your own flexibility, the outcomes of the personal fields depend especially on the quantity and quality of personal, cultural, economic and social means which are already at every person's disposal. With the following risk to start a widespread process of social immobilization and temporary occupation of a larger group of new poor people.The an acronym for Not Educational, Employment or Training are, potential, some of these new poor. They are less qualified people or however they are not ready to improve their own competences according to a life long learning plan in order to respond to the requirements of a market that calls for a competition upwards. Neet risk strongly to face a situation of structural unemployment which will force them to a condition of irreversibly weak people, with following expenses as lack of working forces both on a personal level but also on a economic and social level.Within this worrying and dangerous phenomenon, women have a particular weakness, that is a result of traditional gender representation and specific labor market characteristics. This analysis is focused on Apulian female Neet, on their school career and the educational idea, on their strategies of seeking a job, and on their future perspectives. And it aimed to observe different types of female Neet, according to the complexity of this phenomenon.Keywords: education system, job market, women1. Betting on educationIn the present scenery, where job crisis shows a structural character, education represents not only a means to face the current changed setting, but the only strategy to do it. Even though it is not free from the limits and paradoxes already introduced by Bordieu and by all the French conflicting school1, it could allow, on certain conditions, to go beyond social destinies, in an attributable way, by granting spaces or, at least, glimmers of acquisition. Education plays a very strategic role and shows itself, especially today, as an investment both on the personal and on the social level, a necessary bet. It is an investment with a postponed productivity, unfortunately uncertain, but necessary. The individual social position is strongly influenced by the education level, «by the amount of information and knowledge that people can create and exchange within a web not, where they are placed» (Ferri 2011, 142). Especially in this period when the occupation is linked to the capability of handling your own flexibility (Ceri 2003), by making it an opportunity of change and professional and personal enrichment rather than a threat against the possibility to plan consistent professional careers and existential walks. The match to play with this incertitude becomes different according to the stake you have got when you start playing. It can strongly interfere with personal «chances of life» (Dahrendorf 1981, 38 sgg.). The outcomes of the personal fields depend especially on the quantity and quality of personal, cultural, economic and social means which are already at every person's disposal, with the following risk to start a widespread process of social immobilization and temporary occupation of a larger group of new poor people. Inside the society of knowledge and learning, all the possessed competences and abilities become some of the frontiers of the new disparities and they can interfere strongly with, and sometimes determine, people's job career and walk of life.The theme of competences becomes central in the scenery of strategies in the medium and long term, which are able to help people to manage their job careers in times of flexibility. …

Public attitudes towards migrant workers in Asia

Public attitudes play an important role in shaping policy towards migrant workers and have an impact on the status and well-being of migrants. Although governments and international organizations often point to the mutual benefits of migration for countries of origin and destination, studies have shown that the public generally hold negative perceptions of migration and migrant workers. The public’s fears and apprehension are particularly intense in light of the global economic downturn and jobs crisis. This paper looks at the knowledge and attitudes of the public in Asian host societies to migrant workers drawing upon the International Labour Organization (ILO) research conducted in four countries in Asia. The paper also presents various studies and research findings from across the world and further explores strategies for influencing public attitudes and promoting integration. The ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers (2007) recognized the need to promote harmony and tolerance in destination countries towards migrant workers and following this, the 4th ASEAN Forum on Migrant Labour (a meeting of member states, trade unions, employer organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Southeast Asia) in October 2011 put forward specific recommendations to promote a positive image, and the rights and dignity of migrant workers in the region.

Job's Crisis of Language: Power and Powerlessness in Job's Oaths

When Job loses everything, it may seem that what he has left are words. Yet, testing the limits of language in his new situation through a series of curses and oaths, Job becomes increasingly aware that his previously powerful words have been sapped of their former force. Although commonly supposed that, in his final oath of ch. 31, Job effectively forces God to answer him, this article argues that Job's call for God's response is a ruse, based on his experience of God's silence and absence. In ch. 31, Job speaks seemingly powerful words, fully aware of their powerlessness; his aim is to invest them with the power they lack by convincing his hearers that they are in fact powerful.

Introduction to the Special Issue on Jobs and the Future of the US Economy

This special issue of the Review presents selected and revised papers from the October 2010 Conference on Jobs and the Future of the US Economy held at Howard University. It includes several bold “outside the box” proposals for addressing the endemic conditions of unemployment and racism in the U.S. economy. These include augmented and targeted Keynesiani deficit finance, functional finance, a federal jobs guarantee, industrial policy, realignment of the federal budget, and financing jobs programs with a Tobin tax. Additional papers examine the historical and political experience with the struggle against unemployment. The goal of this special issue of the Review is to help broaden and intensify the national debate over today's jobs crisis.

PROTOCOL: Post‐basic Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Interventions to Improve Employability and Employment of TVET Graduates in Low‐ and Middle‐income Countries

PROTOCOL: Post‐basic Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Interventions to Improve Employability and Employment of TVET Graduates in Low‐ and Middle‐income Countries

Confronting the Jobs Crisis

We argue that increasing effective demand via traditional Keynesian stimuli is inadequate to resolve the job crisis in the U.S. Rather, we need a radical restructuring of the job market that necessitates a national industrial policy. We claim that to achieve such a restructuring we need a mass social movement that goes beyond standard legislative lobbying. We conclude with two sets of questions. The first set asks about the creation of new social movements, the second about leadership coming from forces within the current social movements

Flexicurity, employment protection and the jobs crisis

The concept of ‘flexicurity’ has become ubiquitous in the labour market policy recommendations of the European Commission. EU member states have been encouraged to increase labour market flexibility while maintaining security through the promotion of ‘employability’ and an ‘adequate’ floor of unemployment benefits. The economic crisis that erupted in 2008 has, however, provided flexicurity measures with a strenuous test. As this article demonstrates, those countries that have maintained relatively strong employment protections have tended to experience fewer labour market disruptions than countries with weaker employment protections. The article also suggests that while there has been some convergence in employment and social protection policy across Europe, the trend has been towards less security rather than ‘flexicurity’.

Was Brownomics Socially Correct ?

On Monday 26 January 2009, the Guardian published the results of a poll entitled “Who led us down the Road to Ruin – Twenty-five people at the heart of the meltdown”. The economic crisis was evoked as being “not a natural phenomenon but a man-made disaster in which we all played a part”. This paper will try in a first part to question the hypothesis whether this recession was either a “natural phenomenon” or a “man-made disaster”. It will thus make an attempt at measuring the collective, individual, national, international and supra-national responsibilities in the British slump. The United Kingdom’s economy and economic policy from 1997 to 2010 will be put under close scrutiny in order to encompass the role of the different actors.The second question will be about the social impact of the economic crisis in the United Kingdom. This paper will first try to define the term “brownomics” analyzing the main features of Brown’s social policy from 1997 to 2010. Then, issues such as the job crisis, skill shortages, over-indebtedness and finally social and salary discrepancies will be examined to find out about what has become of the British economic model which fluctuates between liberalism and neo-Keynesianism.

Confronting Racism, Capitalism, and Ecological Degradation: Urban Farming and the Struggle for Social Justice in Black Los Angeles

This article examines the role of capitalism in the ecological crisis and the jobs crisis facing the Los Angeles African American community. We argue that sectors of Black Americans, like many people in the Global South, are being pushed out of the formal system of capitalist employment. To address this, we look to delinking and the development of economic experiments rooted in community economic self-determination based on anti-capitalist values. We report on a small urban farming project that we are starting.

Public History, Grim News, and Historical Views

This issue of The Public Historian comes to you as scholarly documents of another sort are delivered to hundreds of other historians, nearly as many as will receive this journal. Those other documents are doctoral diplomas, around eight hundred of them in the U.S. alone this spring. Their conferral might give heart to us all that the profession continues to attract and train bright new recruits, if not for the plunge in the number of jobs in higher education that awaits their recipients. The recent issue of the AHA’s Perspectives on History reports that the past year brought a sharp drop in academic jobs. The AHA anticipates more of the same this year, as the number of those completing Ph.D.s in history rises (Robert Townsend, “GrimYear on the Academic Job Market for Historians,” Perspectives, January 2010). Those trends will sound familiar to the generation of you who remember a similar job crisis in the 1970s–80s. Even thosewho didn’t live through that period know a bit about its significance to our field: it was amid the difficulties of that moment thirty years ago that “public history” came to be. The exact nature of the relationship between the job crisis and the establishment of the new field is subject to different views. For some founders of the field, the correlation of crisis and reinvention of the profession was strong; for others, a different set of motives inspired “going public.” Whatever the relative contribution at the time, the association of public history with crisis employment seems to have stuck, carrying through to this day. If higher edu-