The Replacements
Source: Victoria K. Sicaras, Public Works Magazine, Vol. 139 no. 5, May 2008
As baby boomers retire, public agencies must transform themselves into employers of choice for the next generation.
Source: Victoria K. Sicaras, Public Works Magazine, Vol. 139 no. 5, May 2008
As baby boomers retire, public agencies must transform themselves into employers of choice for the next generation.
Source: Ryan A. Dodd, Dollars & Sense, March/April 2008
Dark clouds are now looming over America's economic future. As first the stock market boom and then the housing boom have come to an end, along with the fountains of cheap credit that were their mainspring, the perennial gale of unemployment is blowing in. The president and Congress have addressed the downturn with tax rebates and talk of "debt relief." Meanwhile, public infrastructure is crumbling. Workers' wages are stagnating while their work hours are rising. Health insurance is becoming less and less affordable for the typical family. And as U.S. military spending escalates, government spending on essential services is drastically reduced.
All of these facts serve to remind us that capitalist economies are inherently unstable and structurally incapable of creating full employment at decent wages and benefits. While tax rebates and debt relief may provide some minor protection from the coming economic storm, these measures are temporary--and inadequate--responses to a perpetual problem. As an alternative to these ad hoc policies or, worse yet, the free-market fundamentalism still widely preached in Washington, some economists and policymakers, in the United States and abroad, are touting a policy that seeks to end unemployment via a government promise to provide a job to anyone ready, willing, and able to work.
Source: Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect, April 2008
For three decades, the supply of good jobs has been dwindling. The causes include globalization, deregulation, and weaker worker protections, such as minimum-wage laws and government defense of the right to unionize. Now, after three decades of stagnant incomes, we are heading for a severe recession. Higher unemployment will reduce worker bargaining power even further. The cure will require a much more active government role in the economy -- both as a regulator and as a source of funds.
In the same 30 years, the service sector has exploded as a source of jobs. The American work force has gone from 28 percent factory workers and 72 percent service workers in 1978 to 16 percent factory workers and 84 percent service workers today. But the service sector encompasses tens of millions of bad jobs -- in routine clerical work, retail sales, fast food, low-end human services -- and a relatively small number of very well compensated professional positions, among them doctor, lawyer, scientist, and investment banker.
Here is a very straightforward proposal. Let's have a national policy to make every human-service job a good job -- one that pays a living wage with good benefits, and includes adequate training, professional status, and the prospect of advancement -- a career rather than casual labor.
Source: Center for State and Local Government Excellence
A new Center for Excellence poll finds that most Americans are unaware that state and local public health departments are facing a serious shortage of skilled professionals that could put the health and lives of citizens at risk.
Most Americans don't see it as a problem. As many as 45 percent of public health workers are expected to retire within the next five years. But the poll of 1,200 adults, which was conducted for the Center by by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, finds that only one in three Americans see this as a major problem for state governments, and only one in four see it as a problem for local government.
"We count on public health professionals to prevent the spread of disease, protect us from bioterrorist threats, make sure our food is safe to eat, and our air is safe to breathe," said Elizabeth Kellar, executive director of the Center for State and Local Government Excellence.
"Those closest to the public health infrastructure know that the safety net is fragile. The public sector workforce is older than the private sector's, and state and local governments are facing their greatest turnover ever. Public health is an area that already faces critical shortages, so there is no time to lose."
Source: National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO)
An upcoming shortage of state IT government workers is predicted by many to be evident and quickly approaching. As the state IT workforce begins to face the challenges of a potential worker shortage, and as it evolves to reflect the modern workforce of the future, employee recruitment and retention tactics must be examined in order to attract and retain top IT talent. A product of NASCIO's State IT Workforce Working Group, this brief focuses on these recruitment and retention tactics for state CIOs by examining traditional and innovative recruitment strategies, successful retention initiatives and state best practices in each of these areas. By taking steps to augment a potential state IT worker shortage, state CIOs will be better prepared to face these challenges as they arise.
Full report (PDF: 800 KB)
Source: Harry Holzer, Robert I. Lerman, Urban Institute, March 18, 2008
From the summary:
This paper analyzes data on recent employment and wage trends, as well as projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, to analyze the likely future demand for workers in "middle-skill" jobs - i.e., those requiring more than secondary school but less than a bachelor's degree. Contrary to recent assertions that demand for middle-skill jobs will shrink dramatically (creating an "hourglass" or "dumbbell" labor market), we find that demand for such jobs will remain quite robust. The growth in supply of workers with these skills will also likely shrink as "Baby Boomers" retire and are replaced by immigrants. Thus, education and training programs that help less-educated workers gain these skills remain a worthwhile investment. Written for the Workforce Alliance, Washington D.C.
Source: Towers Perrin, Press Release, February 20, 2008
Based on the Global Workforce Study 2007
Stamford, CT, February 20, 2008 - Some of the most pervasive beliefs about the workforce have recently been challenged by findings from Towers Perrin's 2007 Global Workforce Study - among them, that workers are highly stressed, that they resent the demands of new technologies and that they dislike their bosses.
To understand what drives employees to perform and succeed, Towers Perrin recently surveyed nearly 90,000 employees in 18 countries. The survey, which explored the drivers of workforce engagement - employees' willingness to go the extra mile to help their companies succeed - also exploded many of the myths that surround today's workforce.
Source: Katherine Barrett & Richard Greene, Governing Magazine, March 2008
Information is king. No single idea emerges more clearly from year-long research done for the 2008 Government Performance Project. As always, this report focuses on four fundamental areas of government management: Information, People, Money and Infrastructure. But this year, the elements that make up the information category -- planning, goal-setting, measuring performance, disseminating data and evaluating progress -- overlap with the other three fields to a greater degree than ever before. Information elements, in short, are key to how a state takes care of its infrastructure, plans for its financial future and deals with the dramatic changes affecting the state workforce.
Get individual state report cards via dropdown menu.
See also:
Pew Center on the States
Source: Lauren Eyster, Richard W. Johnson, Eric Toder, Urban Institute, March 4, 2008
From the summary:
As the U.S. population ages and the number of people reaching traditional retirement ages increases, employers need to do more to attract and retain older workers, many of whom are highly experienced, knowledgeable, and skilled. Successful approaches include offering formal and informal phased retirement options and creating flexible work arrangements, such as part-time work, flexible schedules, job sharing, telework arrangements, and snowbird programs. Federal, state, and local governments, as well as nonprofit organizations and post-secondary educational institutions, help older workers find employment and secure job training. They also educate employers about the value of older workers.
Source: Center for State and Local Government Excellence, March 2008
From the summary:
A new Center for Excellence poll finds that most Americans are unaware that state and local public health departments are facing a serious shortage of skilled professionals that could put the health and lives of citizens at risk.
See also:
Fact Sheet: The Impending Shortage in the State and Local Public Health Workforce
From the abstract:
In testimony on the ramifications of inadequate investments in workforce development, Senior Fellow Harry Holzer told a House Appropriations subcommittee that the very low earnings and employment of millions of Americans generate high poverty rates and impose huge costs on the U.S. economy. The research evidence, while somewhat mixed, shows that many public investments in workforce development are cost-effective at raising the earnings of low-income workers.
Source: Genevieve Gencianos, PSI
The world lacks more than four million health care workers and this has been clearly stated by the World Health Organisation. This means that every country in the world has a shortage of health care workers. But where will these millions come from? A quick fix for rich countries is to recruit them in poorer ones. PSI is now campaigning for a code of practice in the international recruitment of health care workers.
Source: Jon Honeck, Policy Matters Ohio, February 2008
Policy Matters Ohio has today released a new report, Meeting the Challenge: Improving Dislocated Worker Services in Ohio. The report finds that Ohio's rapid response program has failed to spend available federal WIA funds and that Ohio's local workforce areas have served few individuals through their dislocated worker programs, providing intensive services or training to only 3145 individuals statewide in PY 2006. The report, authored by Policy Matters Ohio economist Jon Honeck, advocates that Ohio adopt three reforms: (1) set numerical targets for local areas to serve minimal levels of dislocated workers with intensive services or training and require corrective action plans for local areas not meeting the targets, (2) review local area procedures for determining eligibility for WIA services and develop rules that reduce barriers to WIA services, and (3) standardize and improve rapid response services to improve the flow of dislocated workers into one-stop centers for easier and quicker provision of services to workers.
See also:
● Press release
● Executive Summary
Source: Megha Bahree, Forbes, Vol. 181 no. 4, February 25, 2008
That garden stone, handmade carpet or embroidered T-shirt you just bought was probably made by child labor.
Every time you buy an imported handmade carpet, an embroidered pair of jeans, a beaded purse, a decorated box or a soccer ball there's a good chance you're acquiring something fashioned by a child. Such goods are available in places like GapKids, Macy's, ABC Carpet & Home, Ikea, Lowe's, and Home Depot. These retailers say they are aware of child-labor problems, have strict policies against selling products made by underage kids and abide by the laws of the countries from which they import. But there are many links in a supply chain, and even a well-intentioned importer can't police them all.
"There are many, many household items that are produced with forced labor and not just child labor," says Bama Athreya, executive director of the International Labor Rights Forum in Washington, D.C. It's a fact of a global economy, and will continue to be, as long as Americans (and Europeans) demand cheap goods--and incomes in emerging economies remain low. If a child is enslaved, it's because his parents are desperately poor.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, USDL 08-0090, January 23, 2008
About 60.8 million people volunteered through or for an organization at least once between September 2006 and September 2007, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The proportion of the population who volunteered was 26.2 percent. This 0.5 percentage point decrease in the volunteer rate follows a decline of 2.1 percentage points in the prior year. The volunteer rate had held constant at 28.8 per- cent from 2003 through 2005, after rising slightly from its 2002 level of 27.4 percent.
These data on volunteering were collected through a supplement to the September 2007 Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS is a monthly survey of about 60,000 households that obtains information on employment and unemployment among the nation's civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and over. Volunteers are defined as persons who did unpaid work (except for expenses) through or for an organization.
Source: Felice J. Freyer, Providence Journal, January 26, 2008
So far, the number of foreign nurses in Rhode Island is small. Of the 20,553 nursing licenses, only 79 belong to foreign-trained nurses, some of whom probably have not yet arrived. Rhode Island Hospital's 20 foreign nurses work among 1,800 bedside nurses at the hospital.
But, here as elsewhere, the trend is clearly growing -- held in check, at least for now, by limits on the number of visas the State Department will give out. Rhode Island Hospital has offered jobs to 133 additional foreign nurses who are waiting for visas. Kent Hospital has 26 foreign nurses "on the way."
Nationwide, 12 percent of those who took the qualifying exam for a nursing license last year were educated overseas.
Source: National Association of State Chief Information Officers
The predicted shortage in the state government IT workforce has been discussed and debated for a decade. A product of NASCIO's Corporate Leadership Council (CLC) Public Private Partnership Working Group, State IT Workforce: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow? (PDF; 993 KB) is a research survey that was designed to assess the current and future landscape of the state IT workforce. Covering such topics as anticipated state IT workforce retirements, employee recruitment and retention, and options for future state IT staffing and service structures, this online survey garnered 46 state responses--among the highest response rates of any NASCIO survey. The results of this survey provide states with a broad perspective on state IT workforce issues as a whole, and also allow CIOs to further assess the IT employment outlook within their respective states.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, August 2007
From the summary:
This report, Charting the U.S. Labor Market in 2006, includes graphs and text describing the U.S. labor market in 2006. Highlights include information about educational attainment, race and Hispanic ethnicity, women, and families.
These data were compiled from several statistical programs of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and are presented together to give an overview of the employment and unemployment situation for the nation that presents both recent data and historical trends over time.
Source: Patrick Purcell, Congressional Research Service, Order Code RL30629, September 7, 2007
As the members of the "baby boom" generation (people born between 1946 and 1964) approach retirement, the demographic profile of the U.S. workforce will undergo a substantial shift: a large number of older workers will be joined by relatively few new entrants to the labor force. According to the Census Bureau, while the number of people between the ages of 55 and 64 will grow by about 11 million between 2005 and 2025, the number of people who are 25 to 54 years old will grow by only 5 million. This trend could affect economic growth because labor force participation begins to fall after age 55. In 2006, 91% of men and 76% of women aged 25 to 54 participated in the labor force. In contrast, just 70% of men and 58% of women aged 55 to 64 were either working or looking for work in 2006.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2007
Working in the 21st Century is a portrait of the U.S. workforce at the beginning of the New Millennium: a set of charts and related information about subjects ranging from education levels to retirement plans.
You can view a "slideshow" of the chartbook on this website: START HERE.
You can go directly to any topic or chart that appears in Working in the 21st Century by clicking on it in the Table of Contents below; links are also provided to PDFs of the charts and to text files that contain the numbers underlying the charts. You can return to this Working in the 21st Century home page by clicking on "Chartbook Home" on any HTML page of the chartbook.
Source: Richard W. Johnson, Urban Institute, Discussion Paper 07-05, September 24, 2007
From the summary:
The economic burden of an aging population depends partly on older adults' employment rates, which in turn depend partly on employers' willingness to hire and retain them. This report reviews the literature on managerial attitudes toward older workers. Although the available evidence is incomplete and sometimes inconsistent, many firms appear to have serious reservations about older workers. Employment prospects may be especially bleak for rank-and-file workers and those with limited skills. Managerial attitudes toward older workers may improve in the future, however, as the population and workforce age.
Source: Frank Langfitt, NPR Morning Edition, September 7, 2007
There were 4,000 fewer jobs in August, marking the first monthly decline in four years, the Labor Department said, confounding analysts who had forecast a moderate gain for the period.
Many financial analysts had said they believed August would show about 110,000 new jobs. Instead, the number dipped for the first time since August 2003.
Related articles:
4-Year Growth in Jobs Ends; Stocks Plunge
Source: Jeremy W. Peters, New York Times, September 7, 2007
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Monthly Labor Review, Vol. 130 nos. 7/8, July/August 2007
Categories: Income Inequality/Gap, Safety & Health, Statistics, Workforce
Articles include: Price highlights, 2006: energy goods retreat, moderating producer prices; Railroad-related work injury fatalities; Earnings by gender: evidence from Census 2000; Labor force status of families: a visual essay.
Source: Stuart Greenfield, Center for State and Local Government Excellence, 2007
There are about 84 million baby boomers -- defined to be those aged 42 to 61 in 2006 -- who account for more than 30 percent of the U.S. population and more than 45 percent of total nonfarm employment last year. As the cutting edge of the baby boom generation begins their seventh decade, this aging trend will have an impact on the general workforce and an even more pronounced impact on the public sector workforce.
Source: IPMA-HR, EquaTerra, 3006_082007
From the summary:
Two of the most critical activities within the human resources (HR) domain are recruiting and staffing. This involves identifying and attracting the right people to fill positions, ranging from upper management and key decision-maker roles to entry-level personnel. Finding the right person for each position and doing so in a cost-effective and timely manner is a challenge for any organization, but it is becoming especially difficult for public sector entities. This IPMA-HR research study sought to understand what public sector HR organizations do to identify and attract qualified applicants, what methods and strategies work well, and what difficulties organizations encounter in these efforts. The white paper is available here.
Source: Fiscal Policy Institute, Labor Day 2007
From the press release: (scroll down)
Four years into an economic expansion, New Yorkers finally got a slight raise last year, according to this year's edition of The State of Working New York. In particular, the troubled upstate economy has experienced encouraging payroll growth, with Buffalo leading the way. But overall, these modest gains stand out against a backdrop of worrisome long-term trends.
See also:
Executive Summary
Recommendations
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, August 2007
From the summary:
The report shows that the American labor market is strong and resilient. Labor market indicators describe an economy that is creating jobs, expanding output, and rewarding work with good compensation. Since job growth began recovering in 2003 from the effects of the last recession, the economy has tallied 46 consecutive months of job gains (through June 2007, the latest data available for this report). Employment has reached record heights. The report also recognizes that, even as our economy grows steadily, there are challenges. The United States and the world are experiencing a major economic transformation. Technology has accelerated the pace of change, and the United States is transitioning to a knowledge-based economy.
The American economy is creating good jobs. The majority of employment growth over the past six years was in occupations with above-average compensation (wages plus benefits). This trend is likely to continue in the future, and most new jobs projected for the future are expected to be filled by persons with some kind of post-secondary education. Education to gain the knowledge and skills that are in demand is the key to success in America's dynamic labor market.
See also:
Chartbook
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, CB07-FF.13, July 9, 2007
Once again the U.S. Census with a treasure chest of fast facts. Here are a few:
The first observance of Labor Day is believed to have been a parade of 10,000 workers on Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City, organized by Peter J. McGuire, a Carpenters and Joiners Union secretary. By 1893, more than half the states were observing a "Labor Day" on one day or another, and Congress passed a bill to establish a federal holiday in 1894. President Grover Cleveland signed the bill soon afterward -- designating the first Monday in September as Labor Day.
•Who Are We Celebrating?
152.8 million
Number of people 16 and older in the nation's labor force in May 2007. In the nation's labor force are 82.1 million men and 70.7 million women.
•Another Day, Another Dollar
$41,386 and $31,858
The 2005 annual median earnings for male and female full-time, year-round workers, respectively.
•Our Jobs
Top Three Occupations in the United States
Americans work in a wide variety of occupations. Here is a sampling:
Teachers - 6.8 million
Farmers and ranchers - 784,000
Hairdressers, hairstylists and cosmetologists - 767,000
•15.9 million
Number of commuters who leave for work between midnight and 5:59 a.m. These early birds represent 12 percent of all workers.
•3 million
Number of workers who face extreme commutes to work of 90 or more minutes each day.
From abstract:
We use variation in medical malpractice payments driven by the recent "medical malpractice crisis" to identify the causal effect of rising health insurance premiums on wages, employment and the distribution of part-time and full-time work. We estimate that a 10 percent increase in health insurance premiums reduces the aggregate probability of being employed by 1.2 percentage points, reduces hours worked by 2.4 percent, and increases the likelihood that a worker is employed only part-time by 1.9 percentage points. For workers covered by employer provided health insurance, a 10 percent increase in premiums results in an offsetting decrease in wages of 2.3 percent. Thus, rising health insurance premiums may both increase the ranks of the unemployed and place an increasing burden on workers through decreased wages for those with employer health insurance and decreased hours for those who may be moved from full time jobs with benefits to part time jobs without.
Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers' Health Research Institute, 2007
Many nurses and physicians are among the baby boomers who will start to retire in the next three to five years. The federal government is predicting that by 2020, nurse and physician retirements will contribute to a shortage of approximately 24,000 doctors and nearly 1 million nurses. While hospital leaders voice much of the concern over possible shortages, the implications extend throughout the labor-intensive, trillion-dollar United States health system. It's expensive to educate new nurses and doctors. Taxpayer-funded Medicare spends $8 billion a year for residence training of physicians alone.
While the U.S. has more physicians and nurses today than ever before, they are not distributed or deployed efficiently. Shortage projections tend to be built around today's often dysfunctional system, which makes them problematic. However, while future shortages are certainly worrisome, the bigger issue for health industry leaders today lies in orchestrating care in an increasingly complex and converging healthcare labor market.
Source: Craig Copeland, Employee Benefit Research Institute, Vol. 28 no. 8, August 2007
From press release:
As an increasing percentage of older Americans are in the labor force, the trend toward more full-time, full-year work among older workers occurs across virtually every demographic group, according to an article published today by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).
These trends mark a significant change in behavior for individuals age 55 and older, the article says, and are likely driven by their need to obtain affordable employment-based health insurance (as opposed to unaffordable or unavailable coverage in the individual market) and the need to continue to accumulate savings in employment-based defined contribution retirement plans.
From press release:
Naomi C. Earp, Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), today released the Annual Report on the Federal Work Force for Fiscal Year (FY) 2006, covering October 2005 through September 2006. The comprehensive report, which informs and advises the President and the U.S. Congress on the state of equal employment opportunity (EEO) government-wide, is available on the agency’s web site.
The 58-page annual report follows the structure of the requirements set forth in the EEOC’s Management Directive (MD)-715 and includes practical tips for improving EEO performance. Data in the report are presented both in individual agency profiles and in government-wide aggregate form. MD-715, which became effective in October 2003, is an extensive guidance document for federal agencies promoting EEO principles and best practices.
The report shows that in FY 2006, federal employees and applicants filed 16,723 complaints alleging employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability and reprisal – down seven percent from just over 18,000 complaints in FY 2005 and nearly 20,000 complaints in prior years.
+ PDF
The proportion of the United States labor force ≥65 years of age is projected to increase between 2004 and 2014 by the passing of age 65 of the large post-World War II baby boom cohorts starting in 2010 and their greater longevity, income, education, and health. The aging of the U.S. labor force will continue to at least 2034, when the largest of the baby boom cohorts reaches age 70. Thus, the average health and functional capacity of persons age 65+ must improve for sufficient numbers of elderly persons to be physically and cognitively capable of work. This will require greater investments in research, public health, and health care. We examine how disability declines and improved health may increase human capital at later ages and stimulate the growth of gross domestic product and national wealth.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, CB07-86, June 18, 2007
The U.S. Census Bureau, in partnership with 31 states, has launched a series of reports on older workers that presents a detailed picture for people 55 and older in the work force.
Individual reports will present data at the county and metropolitan area levels for 2004, based on data from the Local Employment Dynamics (LED) program.
“The retirement of baby boomers will have a huge impact on the work force,” said Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon. “Businesses and planners need a better understanding of labor force trends, the loss of experienced workers and the payout of retirement benefits.”
The first report, The Geographic Distribution and Characteristics of Older Workers in Iowa: 2004, highlights the age composition of the state’s work force, job gains and losses for older workers by industry, industries in which older workers are concentrated and their job stability and earnings. More extensive data are in tables available on the Internet.
Reports will be issued on a flow basis for the other 30 partner states:
• Second wave: Maine, Vermont, Arkansas, Hawaii and Indiana.
• Third wave: Maryland, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Colorado, Delaware, Kentucky and South Carolina.
• Fourth wave: Alabama, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.
• Fifth wave: California.
During the past decade, private insurers, business enterprises and the Federal government have implemented or proposed changes in health care delivery and financing. These payers were reacting to unprecedented increases in health-related expenditures amid hypercompetitive global markets. Simply, the cost of providing adequate health care to employees and the population at large had become very high.
Some viewed the community health worker (CHW) workforce as a component of cost-effective strategies addressing the health care needs of underserved communities. However, there was little rigorous, comprehensive research about the CHW workforce.
This report describes a comprehensive national study of the community health worker workforce and of the factors that affected its utilization and development.
Recent decades have seen a revolution in women’s work, marked by gains in labor force participation, college study, occupations and entrepreneurship. A commitment to education and work suggests U.S. women will continue to fare better at work, but it’s hard to imagine they’ll match recent decades’ rate of progress.
The growth of their labor force participation has leveled off in recent years, suggesting the surge of women into the job market has run its course. Women’s share of business ownership has risen only modestly. With a large portion of today’s women already seeking higher education, further increases in the share of college graduates will come only slowly. Women approach or have achieved parity in many professions.
The past 50 years’ experience suggests, however, that U.S. women will respond to incentives and opportunities. They’ve shown a desire to channel their efforts into sectors and occupations that are likely to grow. It’s a good formula for further progress in the workplace.
Source: Joan Fitzgerald and Andrew Sum, American Prospect, Vol. 18 no. 5, May 2007
One out of every six full-time U.S. workers earns less than 125 percent of the poverty line—under $18,865 a year for a family of three. And the share of low-wage workers is considerably higher in many of the sectors with the most job growth: retailing, hotel and food services, health care, and human services. Full-time workers in the bottom tenth of the wage distribution saw their weekly earnings decline by about 1 percent over the past six years, reversing the trend of rising wages that occurred from 1995 to 2000. For low-skilled youths, finding even a bad job has become more difficult. The problem is especially acute for young black men, with only 33 percent of black high school dropouts able to secure any type of job, and only 25 percent working full time in 2005.
Workforce development can be a promising strategy, but by itself it cannot compensate for inadequate schools, the serial disadvantages of poverty in early childhood, and a labor market that often leads only to more low-wage jobs. Workers would have a far better chance of improving their earnings if they were better educated before they entered the workforce, and if education and training were complemented by other labor market interventions such as higher minimum wages, stronger unions, and a national strategy of creating good jobs.
In October 2002 the Council of State Governments (CSG) and the National Association of State Personnel Executives (NASPE) conducted a workforce survey of all state agencies. The resulting report, “State Employee Worker Shortages: The Impending Crisis,” noted that state governments could lose more than 30 percent of their workforce to retirement, private-sector employers, and alternative careers by 2006, and that health agencies would be the hardest hit.
The findings from the CSG/NASPE workforce survey appeared to confirm the anecdotal evidence and other information that was emerging about the pending crisis in the state public health workforce. The combination of that evidence and the CSG/NASPE findings were so compelling that ASTHO concluded a broader inquiry and analysis of state public health workforce trends were warranted. Consequently, in November and December of 2003, ASTHO surveyed its members, the senior health officials of the 57 states and territories (and the District of Columbia), on a wide spectrum of workforce trends and indicators. ASTHO received responses from 37 states. This report contains the results of the survey.
Source: Abraham Mosisa and Steven Hipple, Monthly Labor Review, Vol. 129 no. 10, October 2006
After a long-term increase, the overall labor force participation rate has declined in recent years. Although there was a sharp rise in participation among individuals aged 55 years and older, this increase did not offset declines in the participation rates of younger persons. Using labor force estimates from the Current Population Survey (CPS), this article analyzes historical trends in labor force participation, focusing primarily on recent trends. The analysis highlights changes in labor force participation among various demographic groups, discusses possible reasons for those changes, and explains how the changes affected the overall participation rate.