Search Results

This chapter examines the falling demand for low-skilled workers in Europe. It draws on data from the European Union Targeted Socio-Economic Research project, NEWSKILLS, which analysed the position of low-skilled workers in France, Germany, UK, Sweden, Netherlands, and Portugal. It argues that policies should help low-skilled workers increase their skills to prevent high unemployment and inactivity rates, which leads to social exclusion.

This chapter examines the key features of labor immigration programs in high and middle-income countries in practice. After providing an overview of existing academic and policy literature that comparatively discusses labor immigration policies in different countries, the chapter constructs and analyzes two separate indexes that measure the openness of labor immigration programs in forty-six high- and middle-income countries to admitting migrant workers, as well as the legal rights (civil and political, economic, social, residency, and family reunion rights) granted to migrant workers admitted under these programs. The empirical results show that labor immigration programs that target the admission of higher-skilled workers are more open and grant migrants more rights than programs targeting lower-skilled workers. Among programs in upper-high-income countries, labor immigration programs can be characterized by a trade-off between openness and some migrant rights.

This chapter discusses the importance of artisan workshops in the development of the machine manufacturing industry. Silk-reeling and coal mining, which played the significant role in Japan’s industrialization, depended on these workshops with low priced boilers and pumps. This association is an example of the way positive linkages worked between small-scale production and leading export-oriented industries. Similar interconnections contributed to the establishment of modern machine manufacturing factories by providing training for skilled workers and forming markets for machinery.

The shift toward skilled immigrants in the legal immigration systems is by now a well-documented phenomenon. This chapter argues that a forecast of the developments in the supply of and demand for skilled labor in the United States suggests that robust demand for skilled labor will continue to outstrip its supply. One can expect that the shift in immigration systems toward skilled immigrants will continue. Perhaps the most reluctant country to make this shift has been the United States, which has traditionally relied on family unification and refugee admissions for the bulk of its legal immigrants. Demographic shifts caused by changes in the size and composition of the population, combined with patterns of educational attainment and labor-force participation, will also affect the supply of skilled workers.

The authors investigate the extent to which the logic of flexibility that underpins the OECD’s Job Study can explain the relative labor-market performance of the United States and the United Kingdom. Greater labor-market flexibility should be associated with relatively lower unemployment and higher employment of less-skilled workers, particularly young workers and those with lower levels of formal education: lower labor costs should “price” these workers back into jobs. Their principal findings call into question this central orthodox thesis. Labor market outcomes of both young and less-skilled workers in the flexible United States and United Kingdom are no better and frequently are far worse than those of their counterparts in most of the rest of the OECD. Regarding the U.K., Schmitt and Wadsworth conclude that “the serious restructuring of the country’s labor market since the early 1980s appears to have produced no noticeable improvement in the labor market prospects facing less-skilled workers in the 1990s relative to the 1980s.” Indeed, they find that all of the improvement in U.K. unemployment rates is accounted for, not by workers being priced into the labor market, but by workers dropping out of the labor market.

This chapter examines the impact of trade with less developed countries (LDCs) on labour markets using a newly developed data set that links trade flows by industry and country to labour market outcomes in a sample of OECD countries from 1970 to 1992. Two extreme views are considered: that trade is the sole determinant of labour market problems and that trade has no effect on Western workers. Results failed to support either of the views.

Both the coal and the cotton industries in Britain were subject to important technological innovations during the years 1880-1930. The implications such innovations had for work practices reflect much about the attitudes and expectations which prevailed on both sides of industry and provide some insight into the relationship between the work experience and class identities. The decline of Britain’s established export industries in the early 20th century has been traced to technological conservatism and the survival of organisational structures inappropriate to altered competitive conditions. Of late, however, a sturdy defence of British entrepreneurship has been mounted, arguing that technical and organisational choices represented the most rational and profitable course in prevailing market circumstances. This chapter examines such points to elucidate the role accorded labour, particularly skilled workers, in the leading industries of south-central Lancashire.

This chapter explains why concerns about the education system in America in bringing the opportunity bargain are well founded. It begins by studying the globalization of highly skilled workers, or those who have achieved a college education. It then emphasizes the need to form a link between learning, economic development, and education. Finally, the chapter shows some early signs of America losing part of its advantage in the knowledge wars through a retreat from science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects.

This chapter examines the effects of international trade on the French labour market. Between 1977 and 1993, trade with countries with GDP per capita less than that of France resulted in job losses of around 350,000, mostly low-skilled workers. However, this loss was mainly due to changes in trade balance rather than the factor content of trade. Trade affected the productive efficiency of industries and the average skill of their labour demand. These effects were not specific to trade with developing countries.

In this chapter, Wren and Rehm show that, in tandem with the process of deindustrialization itself, one of the most striking demographic changes which has occurred in the labor markets of the economically advanced democracies since the 1970s has been the movement of large numbers of highly skilled workers from sheltered professional jobs in “welfare” sectors (such as government, education, and health) to highly paid positions in private and internationally traded service sectors (like business services and finance). The political significance of this change cannot be underestimated. In the past, highly skilled public sector workers have formed an important part of the cross-class coalition in support of Left-wing parties: public sector workers at all skill levels are predisposed both to vote for Left governments and to favor relatively high levels of welfare state provision. Making use of public opinion data from a set of thirteen OECD countries, Wren and Rehm show, however, that when highly skilled workers instead occupy jobs where they are exposed to international competition, their concerns for economic competitiveness are more likely to cause them to vote for lower levels of welfare state spending (and lower taxes) and redistribution, and to switch their partisan allegiances toward Right-wing parties. The authors conclude that as more and more highly skilled workers make the transition into exposed sectors (as a result of the expansion in trade and employment in high-end services), the cross-class coalition in support of redistribution, welfare state spending, and Left-wing parties may be increasingly undermined in many countries.

This chapter examines the effects of globalisation on the demand for low-skilled workers in Europe and the United States. Although there is little evidence that globalisation is the main cause of the unemployment of low-skilled workers in Europe, it may play a greater role in the future if structural adjustments are slow. There is also a lack of evidence that the growth of exports from developing countries is due to low labour standards. It is argued that domestic reforms are the key to solving Europe’s labour problems.

This chapter examines the impact of trade on European labour markets using data on relative commodity prices and intra-sectoral skill levels. Drastic restructuring in unskilled labour-intensive industries is observed in terms of downsizing and upgrading of skills. Competition from developing countries affects a significant number of industries, but the adjustments taking place at the industry level are not as simple as those predicted by Heckscher-Ohlin.

Africa is a region of considerable, essentially intra‐continental migration, consisting of regional movement by refugees, undocumented migrants, and seasonal labour migrants. Emigrants to northern countries include skilled workers, students, semi‐skilled and unskilled workers and recently autonomous female migrants. The trends and patterns of international migration in and from Africa are shaped by rapid population growth, unstable politics, escalating ethnic conflicts, persistent economic decline, poverty, and environmental deterioration. The traditional pattern of migration is increasingly feminizing, migration destinations are diversifying, movements are more clandestine and spontaneous, and commercial migration is rapidly replacing labour migration.

The U.S. labor market has undergone dramatic changes and the situation has particularly worsened for low-skilled workers. A new consensus has emerged in certain circles that the American labor market and educational system are unable to produce the necessary skills for workers. This chapter examines the analytical and empirical foundations of the new consensus and summarizes the facts that motivate recent concerns about the labor market.

Cutting edge R&D requires highly differentiated skilled labor. The H-1B and L-1 visa programs exist in part to allow U.S. firms access to such skilled foreign labor but have been accused of hurting U.S. workers. This chapter provides an analysis of the role of these programs in encouraging U.S. R&D and in affecting opportunities for skilled U.S. citizens. We develop a model in which firms source differentiated labor globally. In their sourcing, multinational firms have an advantage relative to non-multinationals because they can procure foreign talent at low cost in the countries in which they own affiliates. This advantage results in higher R&D intensity of firms with greater multinational reach. We also show that if worker talent is sufficiently differentiated across countries, these programs increase the demand for U.S. skilled labor. Turning to firm-level data on visa usage, we show empirically that U.S. multinationals use skilled worker visas more intensively than non-multinationals and that the country pattern of this sourcing is highly correlated with the location of U.S. foreign affiliates abroad. Our results suggest that multinationals have an advantage relative to non-multinationals in sourcing foreign talent and that this contributes to their advantage in developing new technologies.

This book examines the forces which helped shape working class identities in Britain during the years 1880-1930. Reflecting the analytical weight given to developments at the point of production, the early chapters concentrate primarily on the world of work. If employers’ readiness to delegate responsibility for workplace operations to selected groups of skilled workers was apparent in both the coal and cotton industries through the 19th century, its implications for labour unity varied markedly. Divisions appeared most pronounced in the cotton trade, more especially in preparatory and spinning departments, where a relatively small number of adult males exercised authority within a predominantly female and juvenile workforce. This book also looks at work experience, trade unions and industrial relations, employment in the coal and cotton industries in Lancashire, industrial welfare in the two industries, the working-class family, and electoral politics in the coal and cotton trades.

In 1958, conditions in Detroit’s auto industry went from bad to worse. Unemployment often exceeded 15 percent, easily double the national rate. Rampant inflation made things worse. Well over 250,000 Detroiters were out of work most of the year, and for several months more than 300,000 were jobless. UAW contracts with automakers expired that summer, but unlike in 1955, during the 1958 recession the union had no leverage to combat layoffs. Nevertheless, many business leaders insisted that autoworkers had it too good. Desperate times also brought a resurgence of scapegoating, particularly targeting married women autoworkers. Skilled workers were especially upset, as two-thirds of them were laid off by late 1958. Industry forecasts predicted a grim future

During the 1954 recession, tens of thousands of Detroit autoworkers experienced prolonged layoffs and relied on unemployment pay and secondary jobs. Industry officials and civic leaders denied that there was a recession, blamed any problems on negative thinking, and tried to convince the public that volatility in the auto industry was normal and of no great concern. Many Detroiters blamed working women and southern white migrants for high unemployment. Automation contributed to joblessness, while some UAW skilled workers benefited from building the new machinery. The demise of independent automakers and local auto suppliers resulted in thousands of additional lost jobs. While many autoworkers returned to work late in the year, most remained concerned about how long the upswing would last.

Labour flows from the poor to the rich nations have been a crucial component of international economic relations at least to the extent that it affects political debate in the developed countries. While international wage differentials should be the major driving force behind such movements, mass migration has also been caused by political violence, oppression, and natural calamities. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a broad overview of the literature on international migration, identify the major areas of research, and reflect on the contemporary policy perspective from the viewpoint of the developing world. The chapter discusses the source country perspectives on how capital inflow may lead to greater outflow of skilled workers and subsequently develops a model to provide a theoretical explanation behind such empirical observations.

This is the first of five country case studies on income inequality, and looks at the case of India. Discusses the differences between the approach taken to liberalization in India (the Delhi Consensus) and the standard approach (the Washington Consensus); the Delhi Consensus has emphasized the slow liberalization of trade and very gradual privatization, and has avoided capital account liberalization. This prudent approach has sidestepped major shocks, and the changes in inequality consequent upon these reforms have been relatively modest, although rural inequality has risen at a slower pace than have urban and overall inequality. The rise in inequality is attributed to three factors: a shift in earnings from labour to capital income; the rapid growth of the services sector, particularly the FIRE sector (banking, financial institutions, insurance, and real estate), with a consequent explosion in demand for skilled workers; and a drop in the rate of labour absorption during the reform period, associated with an increase in regional inequality, especially in the incidence of rural poverty. The chapter has five sections: Introduction: Salient Economic Performance Aspects and Recent Policy Reforms—an outline of the economic performance of the Indian economy since the 1950s, with a brief overview of the economic reforms initiated; Trends in Inequality and Poverty in India—an analysis trends in aggregate inequality and poverty, with suggested explanations; Poverty and Inequality at the State Level—an outline of the major characteristics of poverty and inequality at the level of individual Indian states; and Tentative Conclusions.