Suchergebnisse

The current focus of the economic & labor market is on full employment, & based on myths concerning the relation of people to work. A proposal is made utilizing state, community, & private companies & the current government spending to make a more equitable job market. Suggested are changes in the minimum wage law, payment for unpaid individuals (those raising children or doing volunteer work), midcareer professional training, allowing those over 65 to work if desired, more part-time jobs & job sharing, grants for those wishing to take time off for public service, a guaranteed annual income, & an end to immigration. A local council would place people with satisfying jobs, counsel employers in the restructuring of jobs, & lobby for more flexible jobs. Allowances would be made for persons dissatisfied with a job to create work for those who want it. Total employment can be achieved through opening up the labor market, removing institutional rigidities, & offering people greater freedom to choose when & where they will work. Modified HA.

The prime concern of current labor and economic policy is so-called full employment. Clearly, this pursuit of an adequate supply of jobs is essential, particularly in the midst of a recession. But even the achievement of full employment would leave many basic and enduring employ ment problems unaffected—problems such as subemploy ment, underemployment, low-level employment and in voluntary employment. Society fails to respond to these problems because the performance criteria for the economy are directed towards measuring the quantity of jobs and not their quality. Moreover, we have developed a panoply of myths and rationalizations to support the single-minded pursuit of more jobs and lower unemployment rates. These myths blind us to the fact that the nature of employment is a powerful influence on such social problems as poverty, family disorganization and delinquency. Rather than pursuing full employment, then, a more inclusive and appropriate goal might be total employment. This condition—one in which everyone who desires a job would be reasonably assured of finding a satisfying one—can not be achieved through a single, monolithic government program. "Total employment" would be the state of equilibrium in the economy achieved as the result of workers' making free choices about when, where and in what jobs they work. Freedom of choice of workers could be enhanced by removing the artificial barriers and constraints that currently prevent them from realizing their personal employment needs. The policy would even permit reluctant workers to leave the work force, thus opening jobs for willing but unemployed workers.

Each month employment reports are eagerly awaited by economic analysts and small and large investors alike. The Employment Situation Report provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports both the unemployment rate and the total number of jobs in the economy; both statistics indicate the overall health of the economy.

Cover title. ; Includes bibliographical references. ; Mode of access: Internet.

SUMMARYUsing a new 16‐country data set we demonstrate a robust negative employment‐total factor productivity trade‐off 1870–2004. Widely disparate cross country employment growth had a powerful long term influence on productivity dispersion. Unexceptional US productivity growth principally resulted from her exceptional employment growth rather than from her initially high productivity levels. The negative externalities associated with higher employment are shown to have dominated the diminishing of total factor productivity gaps among the 16 countries, and led to the erosion of US productivity leadership over the twentieth century.