Real Labor Research Articles

Labor resources as a characteristic of labor potential and their structure

One of the characteristics of labor potential is the ability to work among its carriers indiv i duals, groups and the population, by which are also studied other characteristics (demography, health, social and economic activity, professional competencies, etc.). On the basis of working capacity is determined the most general indicator of the labor potential of population, namely, labor resources. This indicator is structured according to a number of qualitative parameters. They make it possible to identify labor resources used in public production, as well as unused reserves. Their involvement in labor is becoming relevant in the context of the modern need to increase the self-sufficiency of the economy, and hence, to increase these resources. However, their growth is limited for demographic reasons. To assess the available reserves, labor resources are ranked according to the characteristics of economic activity. In descending order, the categories are distinguished according to their relation to the labor force: the real labor force (employed and unemployed), potential labor force (not employed, but willing to work) and not included in the labor force (not willing to work). Calculations for these categories showed that in 2021, the real labor force dominated in the labor force (85.6%). The potential contingent accounted for a miserable amount (slightly more than one percent), and for those who did not want to work — a little more than 10%. But among those not included in the labor force, more than two thirds of this category were those who had objective reasons for being unemployed, as well as those employed in unpaid but useful domestic work. Factors influencing the structure of labor resources are considered by regions of the Russian Federation. They showed dependence of this structure on the birth rate, aging of the population, internal migration, and, above all, on the parameters of employment and unemployment, which play a leading role among the factors for improving this structure.

Evaluation of weather-productivity models of construction labour for tropics

PurposeWeather is one of the main factors affecting labour productivity. Existing weather-productivity models focussed on hot and cold climates paying less attention to the tropics. Many tropical countries are expected to be the most areas affected by accelerated climate change and global warming, which may have a severe impact on labour health and productivity. The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the existing models can be used to predict labour productivity based on weather conditions in the tropics.Design/methodology/approachFive models are identified from the literature for evaluation. Using real labour productivity data of a high-rise building project in Malaysia, the actual productivity rate was compared with predicted productivity rates generated using the five models. The predicted productivity rates were generated using weather variables collected from an adjusting weather station to the project.FindingsCompared with other models evaluated in this paper, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) was found to be the best model to predict productivity based on the case study data. However, the result shows only a 57% accuracy level of the USACE model indicating the need to develop a new model for the tropics for more accurate prediction.Originality/valueThe result of this study is perhaps the first to apply meteorological variables to predict productivity rates and validate them using actual productivity data in the tropics. This study is the first step to developing a more accurate productivity model, which will be useful for project planning and more accurate productivity rate estimation.

Model of world technological and economic efficiency frontiers

The model generalizes the classical concept of the world's technological frontier. The article is devoted to the theory of comparative analysis of the efficiency of national economies using the non-parametric method of data shell analysis (DEA). The proposed model summarizes the classical concept of the world's technological frontier. Algebraically, it is the solution to the well-known linear programming problem, which determines the countries that use the best combinations of capital and labour to produce a unit of output. Geometrically, it is the envelopment of the states of the studied countries in the plane of relative volumes of factors of production ("technological plane"). Authors add to this problem three other problems and the classical equation of nominal national income distribution between the factors of production. The first of these problems identifies countries that have the best combinations of real labour and capital prices. Analogously, the geometric solution to this problem authors defined the world economic frontier. It is the envelopment of the states of countries in the plane of real prices of production factors ("economic plane"). The other two frontiers consist of countries with the best combinations of parameters of the national function of product price distribution and product volume distributions between labour and capital. The economic frontier, built by the envelopment method of the price distribution function, can be depicted on the technological plane as an envelopment of the worst technological conditions. Similarly, the technological frontier, built by the envelopment method of product distribution functions, can be depicted on the economic plane as the shell of the worst economic conditions. Approbation of the model on data from 13 countries in 2017 revealed a geographical axis in the direction of "northwest-southeast" on the European continent.

Black Women Watchers

Black Women Watchers Wendy M. Thompson (bio) I remember the first time I went into labor. It was as though I was being forced to dance to a new choreography. The pain gripped and twisted the whole of my body, my lower back folding inward, my five-foot body contorting to music only I could hear, moving on a stage only I could access. Each sudden lightning strike of pain reminded me that in that moment, my body was not my own but was shared by the small thing—a girl, they told me, who might have a congenital anomaly, so we were on high alert—pushing inside. My mother, who had given birth multiple times without anesthesia, reminded me of her mother, who had also given birth multiple (nine) times without anesthesia in a foreign country, and told me I was not the first woman to go into labor. She said this to me while panicked and driving to a hospital in Fremont at night, where I had intentionally chosen a young Asian American female doctor and knew that there would be Black female medical staff present, among many other nurses of color who would at the very least, see me and attend to my body. Unlike in the videos and manuals I was given by the birthing center, there was no defining marker between the beginning of real labor and the moment when pain arrived to fight me for my body. There was no breaking of water. There was no voice outside of me that gently guided me into the golden meadow of motherhood. Just sharp violent pains that, if I were to describe it to a counselor later, had no color, no smell, and weren't even five minutes apart. I barely remember standing in front of two panicked male front desk staff with swollen legs and feet, wearing a loose-flowing housedress while I struggled to pull my driver's license out of my wallet. One of the staff [End Page 165] members, a young Chinese man, ran—literally, ran!—to get me a wheelchair and quickly wheeled me up to my room. Then someone helped me onto the bed before leaving me alone. Everything that came after that, the breathing, the rotating nursing staff, the pushing, the family members who stopped by, the white female doctor who came in to get my signature in the event that I died during delivery, ran together like watching a movie in fast-forward. Everything except for the Black nurse who I never saw at first but who came to me after I let out what I can only now describe as a wild animal sound. Alone in a room on the labor and delivery floor in this hospital, a cry was heard through my open door by another Black woman, a nurse, who wasn't even assigned to me but was conveniently (or divinely) right outside my room and who I would never see again during the rest of my stay at the hospital. I will never forget how she came in, looked at me, and immediately said, "Don't worry, honey. I'm going to go call the anesthesiologist to come right now." No need to explain on a scale of one to ten. No need to prove my pain according to a white man's threshold. Just a matter-of-fact acknowledgment that a baby was coming, her mama was in great pain, and there needed to be some immediate action taken. With a little sugar on top. Honey. ________ I thought about this birthing experience and the traumatic one that would follow seven years later in Minnesota after reading a post made by writer Kiese Laymon on social media on January 4, 2021. Kiese wrote: My mother had major spine surgery. It was terrifying. She's still trying to recover. When she finally woke up, all she could talk about was this Haitian nurse who told her it would be okay because there would be a Black resident in the operation room watching. We talked more and she made it clear that even if she would have had a Black surgeon, she really wanted a...

Cyclical signals from the labor market

Abstract We consider which labor market variables are the most informative for estimating and nowcasting the US output gap using a multivariate trend-cycle decomposition. Although the unemployment rate clearly contains important cyclical information, it also appears to reflect more persistent movements related to labor force participation that could distort inferences about the output gap. Instead, we show that the alternative U-2 unemployment rate (job losers as a percentage of the labor force) provides a more purely cyclical indicator of labor market conditions. To a lesser extent, but consistent with a link of the output gap to real labor costs in a New Keynesian setting, we also find that average hourly earnings are informative about the output gap.

Increasing labor income and real unit labor costs in Brazilian agrobusiness

Abstract This study analyzes the interactions between per worker labor income (PWLI), labor productivity, real unit labor costs, and the relationship between relevant employee (IPCA) and employers (GDP deflators) prices, specifically focusing on Brazilian agrobusiness. For that purpose, labor productivities of the entire agrobusiness sector and its segments were calculated from 2004 through 2015. We found that the gap between agrobusiness sector deflators and the IPCA did not play a preponderant role to mitigate the effect of PWLI growth of 3.81% annually on real unit labor cost (CURT), which only increased 0.21% annually. In turn, CURT was contained by productivity gains, boosted mainly by agriculture. Without this productivity growth, CURT would have increased at 3.7% annually, thus making unviable the observed simultaneous gains for employers and employees in the Brazilian agrobusiness sector. The result for the primary agrobusiness segment should be highlighted. Even with an annual increase of 4.07% in PWLI, the 7.24% annual growth in productivity implied on an average annual reduction in CURT (-2.56%); without this significant productivity growth, the same increase in PWLI would have boosted CURT by 4.7% annually.

ПРОИЗВОДИТЕЛЬНОСТЬ ТРУДА В РЕГИОНАХ РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ: СУЩНОСТЬ, ФАКТОРЫ И РЕЗЕРВЫ РОСТА

The focus of state policy on eliminating the country's technological lag behind world leaders actualizes the problem of finding mechanisms to increase labor productivity in Russia. The purpose of the article is to analyze the dynamics of social, hourly and real labor productivity in the regions of the Russian Federation, as well as to study the features of the implementation of federal projects and programs aimed at increasing the level of labor productivity. Using the method of multidimensional grouping, the clustering of subjects of the Russian Federation by the level of labor productivity was carried out, the features of labor productivity in each of the groups were identified, and the factors that have a negative impact on the growth of labor productivity were identified. The results of the analysis of the implementation of the national project "Labor Productivity" in the regions of the Russian Federation are presented.

Iraida Ivanovna Semenova

Iraida Ivanovna Semyonova turns 80 years old. She devoted fifty of them to the undivided service of man, science, and the upbringing of the younger generation of doctors. Working as an obstetrician-gynecologist for more than half a century is a real labor feat

Transformation of the Business Process Manager Profession in Poland: The Impact of Digital Technologies

The increasing role of emerging technologies, such as big data, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive technologies, cloud computing, and mobile technologies, is essential to the business process manager profession’s sustainable development. Nevertheless, these technologies could involve new challenges in labor markets. The era of intelligent business process management (BPM) has begun, but how does it look in real labor markets? This paper examines the hypothesis that the transformation of the business process manager profession has been caused by certain determinants that involve the need for an improvement in BPM skills. The main contribution is a model of the dimensions of the impact of digital technologies on business process management supplemented with skills that influence the business process manager profession. The paper fills the gap in research on perspectives of the impact of digital technologies on business process management, considering both a literature analysis and labor market research. The purpose of the literature review was to identify the core dimensions that drive the use of emerging technologies in business process management. The labor market study was conducted in order to analyze the current demand for core skills of business process managers in the Polish labor market with a particular emphasis on the intelligent BPM concept. Additionally, to study the determinants that slow down the iBPM concept’s development, the digital intensity level of the enterprises and public administration units in Poland was studied. Finally, a fuzzy cognitive map presenting the core determinants of the business process manager profession’s transformation is described.

Information technology for career guidance of creatively gifted university students. Developmental activities

The article concludes the description of the standard regional infocommunication system “Student and Labor” (ST), begun by the authors in previous publications in the “Informatics and Education” journal. This system is an integral part of the regional system for identifying, developing and involving creatively gifted youth in labor activity, starting from high school age. The S&T system is aimed at identifying and developing university students who are creatively gifted in the field of science and technology in the process of their gradual involvement in real labor activities in cooperation with leading enterprises in the region. The S&T system is aimed at identifying and developing university students who are creatively gifted in the field of science, technology and technology in the process of their gradual involvement in real labor activity in interaction with the leading enterprises of the region. Organizational and informational issues of its creation and functioning were discussed in previous articles, this article presents tools that allows a student to most effectively plan the developmental content of his activities, taking into account individual goals and interests, available resources, as well as a wide range of opportunities provided by the surrounding socio-economic environment. The central part of the toolkit is an individually adjustable optimization mathematical model. The article provides a formalized description of this model and considers an example of its use.

Econo Lodge, Toronto, and: The Blueberries Were on Sale

Econo Lodge, Toronto, and: The Blueberries Were on Sale Alison Harney (bio) Econo Lodge, Toronto Liz Claiborne died, my friend calls from her motel bed. I lean outof the bathroom, comb wet tangles from my hair. Rising, she tosses the magazine, peels her green T-shirt to reveal a body I have always known:a flat lanky girl, a young woman plumping, bursting, and now this graceful slimming. How old she looks. How good. I do not say it, knowing her bodycan be an enemy, and the dangerous agility of compliments. As her shower begins to steam, I crave samosas, stuffed grape leaves, the yolk of a boiled egg. She is my oldest, dearest friend, so I trust her maps and restaurants. She lets me link elbows, whisper dreams, nods as my lungs bluster with air. Here, you need this, a dirty man handed me his ice cream sandwich. You're pregnant; it's good for you. I was leaning on the car, she was in the hotelreturning keys. Unable to mutter I'm not, I let the cold wrapping meet the metal hood. I was wearing my favorite dress, the one that makes me feel girlish. Damncrazies. Will you eat it? She asked laughing, and handed me my bag. Yesterday morning, while driving east, I told her about phantom pregnancies, about womenconvinced they are with child—how the brain believes, the hormones encourage, the body responds and swells. Steering along the silence of Lake Ontario,we reveled at all that misplaced wanting—how a wish takes root, then resource. [End Page 135] Digging for a loud album, I told her that eventually these women "miscarried;"real labor pains extirpating desire, leaving the body veracious. The Blueberries Were on Sale so I bought a casetheir skins splittingagainst my teeth. The garden grewin the night rain,wagging all its tails. The child slept. The fan rattled and turnedits rocking ellipseas summer slippeddeeper into longer, hotter days.I could not sleepfor the solstice moon,and I could not stopwatching his knuckles as they chopped mintand squeezed limes, picked seedsfrom our drinks. Thesewrinkled hinges giving.So I stared and grew flushed and continuedto move closer. [End Page 136] Alison Harney Alison Harney earned an mfa in poetry from UNC Wilmington. Her poems have appeared in journals including the Iowa Review, Southeast Review, and Poetry East. She lives with her husband, girls, and cats in Atlanta, where she created Writing Room ATL in 2019. Copyright © 2021 University of Nebraska Press

To care for or to accompany? Determining factors for an inclusive work environment in Community Social Services of Andalusia (Spain)

AbstractThis article, the result of a research and development project funded by the Spanish administration, analyzes the impact of the dynamics of social inclusion carried out by the Municipal Social Services Centers in the region of Andalusia (Spain). The research follows a qualitative methodology, centered on the analysis of normative, operative, and discursive dimensions. This research shows how the social intervention carried out in these centres is conditioned by two very different realities. On the one hand, there is a set of regulations that, from a theoretical point of view, is committed to social integration. On the other hand, a daily context with a high level of interferences and assistance demands that hinder a real labour activation and social integration. This situation generates great organisational pressure and conditions professional praxis. Several factors play a role in this situation: The ideas held by the people involved in the professional intervention, knowledge management, networking, and the relationship between client and professional. The study concludes that to reinforce the inclusive capacity of social services increasing the resources and number of professionals is not enough, focusing on the models of management and intervention in a collaborative fashion is also necessary.

The relationship between exchange rate and structural change: an approach based on income elasticities of trade

Abstract We analyse the hypothesis that variations in the income elasticities of the demand for exports and imports are influenced by the difference between the actual and industrial equilibrium levels of real effective exchange rates. The industrial equilibrium is defined as the exchange rate level that equalises real unit labour costs between local producers of manufactured goods and their trading partners. To test our hypothesis, based on data between 1995 and 2014 from the World Input-Output Database (WIOD), a sample of 43 countries was built. First, the actual and the industrial equilibrium real effective exchange rates were calculated; then, the income elasticities were estimated for each country during this period. A dynamic panel data model was adopted to estimate the relationship between these elasticities and the differences between those exchange rates. The results suggest that the magnitude of these differences modifies the income elasticities of trade, potentially contributing to structural change.

Надзор фабричной инспекции за промышленными заведениями Российской империи XIX — начала XX веков

The value of supervision over industrial institutions at the stage of active formation of industrial production in Russia in the 19th — early 20th centuries is shown. The role of the factory inspectorate and other state bodies aimed at controlling the production process, as well as the spheres of interaction of the enterprises with the state is defined in the article. Based on the example of the activities of the factory inspectorate, the criteria are formed to determine the desired balance of rights and obligations in the structure of legal relations, which is required to comply with the interests of the state and business entities. Delineation of the powers of the factory inspectorate helps to identify the areas where state control is needed. At the same time, further study of the implementation of control and supervisory functions of the state in the field of industrial production is substantiated. The need to regulate this kind of relationship is indicated considering the modern realities where the merger of technological and organizational processes is objectively taking place, and the algorithms are built into the structure of legal relations. The issues of legal regulation of the industrial sector of the economy raised in the study indicate the unsolved fundamental problems of the theory of law, namely, the scope and significance of technical and legal regulation in the mechanism of management of the society, its scope in the structure of social regulation. The studied historical material allows to assert that the supervision in industry creates the basis for safety and real labor protection at the industrial objects. Introduction of the institute of factory inspectors became an important factor in building the labor protection system at the factories and plants. With the help of this institute, the norms were implemented aimed at ensuring trouble-free functioning, including at explosive and fire-hazardous industries of the Russian Empire in the 19th — early 20th centuries.

Information technology for career guidance of creatively gifted university students. Region aspect

The article continues the description of the functioning of the typical regional information and communication system “Student and Labor” (SAL), begun by the authors in No. 8-2020 of the “Informatics and Education” journal. This system is aimed at identifying and developing university students who are creatively gifted in the field of science, techniques and technology in the process of their gradual involvement in real labor activity in cooperation with the leading enterprises in the region. The algorithm of functioning and the organizational structure of the “Student and Labor” system, informational, scientific, methodological and motivational aspects of interaction between students and enterprises on the basis of continuous measurement of the index of the prospects of interaction between a student and an enterprise are considered in detail. This index includes 10 components, the main of which is the creative index of research works / projects carried out by the student, taking into account the interests of the enterprise. In turn, the creative index is calculated on the basis of a multi-criteria assessment of a work / project according to 15 particular criteria. “Convolution” into scalar values of individual components and criteria of the index of the prospects of the student’s interaction with the enterprise and the creative index of the work / project is carried out in the most objective way using the so-called universal coefficients of importance.

Pain track analysis during gestation using machine learning techniques

During the gestation period women experience Braxton Hicks which is called the false labor, contractions during the second trimester. These contractions are not in regular intervals and also they are often unnoticed. The real labour or the true labour contractions develop late in the third trimester of the gestation usually beyond 36th week (excluding pre-term birth). Some women often fail to identify these pains in the third trimester of the gestation where an efficient facial recognition algorithm along with the support vector machine (SVM) helps them to identify these pains and take optimum care of themselves. The authors in this paper convey a mechanism to identify the pains effectively by creating a database of images pertaining to the pregnant women, her emotional states through out the pregnancy. Using MATLAB the algorithm of decision tree is implemented and the values obtained from them help us analyze the pain type efficiently.

Optimal investment for a retirement plan with deferred annuities allowing for inflation and labour income risk

We construct an optimal investment portfolio model for an individual investor saving in a retirement plan. The investor earns stochastic labour income with both permanent and temporary shocks, and has access to equity, conventional bond, inflation-indexed bond and cash, as well as two types of deferred annuities: nominal and inflation-protected. The objective function consists of power utility in terms of real retirement income from the annuities as well as bequest from remaining wealth in tradable securities. Asset returns are represented by a vector autoregressive model underpinned by Nelson–Siegel real and nominal yield curves. The optimization problem is solved numerically using multi-stage stochastic programming with a hybrid scenario structure combining a scenario tree with scenario fans. Our numerical results show that deferred annuities are bought early and in increasing amounts during the working lifetime of the investor, with portfolio risk declining with age. Welfare is diminished by 40% if deferred annuities are not available. Inflation-protected deferred annuities are marginally more important in the presence of real labour income risk, but nominal deferred annuities are bought as a cheaper alternative if real yields are low or negative. Portfolio composition and annuity allocation vary depending on financial market expectations, but our central result about the importance of deferred annuities is robust to a variety of financial market conditions.

Developing Skills to Unlock Kenya’s industrial Growth: The Influence of Provision of Modern Teaching and Learning Equipment in TVET in Kenya

This study explores the influence of modern teaching and learning equipment on improving vocational education quality and employment rates and its long-term effect on Kenya’s journey to achieve industrialisation by the year 2030. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey research design. Stratified random sampling was used to sample 172 students. Data was collected using questionnaires and analysed through the theoretical lenses of globalisation and vocationalism. The results show that the provision of modern equipment has improved Kenyan TVET classrooms to meet industrial standards and allowed the development of essential skills. Also, there has been improved collaboration between TVET institutions and local industries, exposing TVET students to the real labour market while still in college. The TVET students had also improved confidence in themselves and they had acquired employability skills. The findings of this study further revealed that the government of Kenya has increased its efforts in revitalizing the TVET institutions with modern teaching and learning equipment to improve the quality of training in those institutions.

Comparative analysis of energy technology gap estimation in SADC, EU, and ASEAN via the energy metafrontier

The study employs the data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach with three inputs (real capital stock, labor, and energy consumption) and one output (real gross domestic product; real GDP) to examine the energy technology gap at the country level and focuses on three regional organizations, including Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), European Union (EU), and Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN), by using the energy metafrontier during the period from 2005 to 2013. With 44 observations (8 in SADC, 28 in the EU, and 8 in ASEAN) and a total of 396 decision-making units in the study, the empirical results show that energy technology in ASEAN hit the energy metafrontier in 2012 and 2013, while energy technology in EU was inferior to that of SADC from 2005 to 2011 after being compared together under the metafrontier framework. There is also a convergent phenomenon on the degree of dispersion in the energy technology gap ratio in both ASEAN and EU after 2008 except for that in SADC. Finally, this study finds that the correlation between real GDP and CO2 emissions exhibits a multi-N-type shape for ASEAN.

THE ANALYSIS OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT AND ITS AFFECTING FACTORS IN INDONESIA

Foreign Direct Investment gave benefits in improving Indonesia's economics matters in Indonesia. Conseptually, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) more benefecial because no return to the investor such as debt in foreign country, beside Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in a country will be followed by transfer of technology, know-how, management skills, the risks of business was smaller and more profitable. However, the problem of global economic that occured affecting the development of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Indonesia decreased and the growth became slowly. Then domestic and global factors weren’t stable influencing the decrease Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Indonesia. Therefore, it’s needed to examine the factors influencing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). This study aimed to know and analyze some factors affecting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Indonesia consisting gross domestic product, the level of real interest, exchange rates, labour produtivity, and exports. The affecting analysis be done in short-time by using Error Correction Mechanism = ECM technique. It was used time series data from 2000 to 2013 using Eviews 6.0. The type of data used was secondary data obtained from Indonesia Bank (BI), Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and United Nations Economic Social Commision for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). The results of this study showed that gross domestic product, the level of real interest, exchange rates, and labour productivity had positive affection significantly on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Indonesia. While the exports had negative affection significantly on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Indonesia. From determination coefficient (R2) showed that the variables explained 97.13 percent on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Indonesia while the rest 2.87 percent was explained by variables out of models (not studied).