Robert Browne and Full Employment

Among the valuable contributions Robert Browne made in his career was the role he played in shaping the “Equal Opportunity and Full Employment Bill of 1974” that was introduced by Congressman Augustus Hawkins of California. Browne defined full employment as “a condition in which all persons willing and able to work, no matter what their race, gender, or national origin would be guaranteed a job”. In his view, if the private sector was unable to produce full employment, the government should act as the employer of last resort. Language in support of that view was included in the Hawkins bill. Robert Browne believed only a national policy to achieve that goal would eliminate racial disparities in employment and unemployment—a long term reality in the American labor market. The 1974 Hawkins bill was met with only tepid Congressional support, little notice from civil rights leaders, and no response from the business community. Little was done to advance full employment legislation until Senator Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota embraced the cause in 1975. Negotiations with Congressman Hawkins led to the development of the “Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1975,” a legislative measure to replace the Employment Act of 1946. The new bill was commonly known as the Humphrey–Hawkins Full Employment Bill. Robert Browne offered far less support for the new bill than for the original full employment bill introduced by Mr. Hawkins. The Humphrey Hawkins Bill failed to provide explicitly a job guarantee for all workers, and included an inflation target to make price stability co-equal with full employment as a national policy objective. The Humphrey–Hawkins Bill was enacted into law in 1978, and remains the nation’s policy dictum on full employment to this day.     

Historical Amnesia: The Humphrey-Hawkins Act, Full Employment and Employment as a Right*

Economist William A. Darity has proposed a federal job guarantee with decent wages for all job seekers, an idea with deep, but largely forgotten, roots in US history.The article briefly explores some New Deal job-creation efforts and President Franklin Roosevelt??s proposal for an Economic Bill of Rights. It then focuses on two major attempts to secure full employment through legislation. The Full Employment Bill of 1945 was defeated; the compromise, the Employment Act of 1946 did not have full employment as its goal. After years of struggle, a much-weakened Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978 passed, but then was violated and virtually ignored. Full employment shifts power from capital to labor, so major opposition can be expected from efforts to obtain it. Proponents need more power and a strong movement, including at the grassroots level, pushing for jobs for all--not just jobs for me or my group. Publicizing the benefits of past job programs and reintroducing the idea of a decent-paying job as a right are suggested, as well as making decent jobs for all the center of economic policy. This requires a fundamental break with neoliberalism and reallocating political power away from big business and Wall Street toward middle and working-class people and the working- and non-working poor.     

如何拓展高职院校毕业生的就业空间

毕业生就业率是职业教育的生命线,提高毕业生就业率不仅要靠高职院校培养出大量具有成熟择业心理、熟练求职技巧、正确就业观念的高素质专业人才,而且也需要高职院校建立完善的就业市场和宽广的就业渠道.     

从劳资关系看劳动就业——兼评《劳动合同法》

就业是民生之本,是社会稳定之要,因而也是各级政府工作的重中之重。然而我国就业形势不容乐观乃是不争的事实。要解决就业问题,根本的前提是立法导向当应明确劳资关系的本质是共生共存的关系,相生互利的关系,而非相反。无论是立法还是政府的任务应是扶持、保护用人单位生成壮大、健康发展,培育就业土壤,广开就业门路,把充分就业作为解决社会问题的优先目标,尽可能地为劳动者造就实现其劳动力商品价值的机会则是真正保护了全体劳动者的根本利益。     

Bold Policies for Economic Justice

The U.S. is characterized by a longstanding pattern of large structural racial inequality that deepens further as a result of economic downturn. Although there have been some improvements in the income gap up until around the mid 1970s, the employment gap, and the racial wealth gap - two dramatic indicators of economic security - remains exorbitant and stubbornly persistent. We offer two race-neutral programs that could go a long way towards eliminating racial inequality, while at the same time providing economic security, mobility and sustainability for all Americans. The first program, a federal job guarantee, would provide the economic security of a job and the removal of the threat of unemployment for all Americans. The second program, a substantial child development account that rises progressively based on the familial asset positioning of the child??s parents, would provide a pathways towards asset security for all Americans regardless of their economic position at birth.     

Eastern Germany and the conflict between wage adjustment,investment, and employment: A numerical analysis

Eastern Germany and the Conflict between Wage Adjustment, Investment, and Employment: A Numerical Analysis. — In this paper, some light is shed on the dynamics of the adjustment process in eastern Germany by studying the linkages between the dynamics of wage adjustment, investment, and employment. An extended dynamic investment model, which includes adjustment costs for capital and revision costs for investment, is presented. This model is specified according to the east German economy and analyzed numerically by an optimization method based on direct collocation. Results are obtained for the time horizon of adjustment and for the implications of different wage strategies on the path of investment and employment.     

浅谈就业促进的两种主要方式

扩大就业机会,提高就业质量和水平,不仅是当前的一项重要工作,更是一项长期的战略任务。笔者以自身长期的实践工作经验,结合正在实施的《就业促进法》,从创业带动就业,指导促进就业两个方面对我国当前的就业形式进行深入分析。     

Employment and Earnings: A Case Study of Urban Detroit

This paper investigates the roles of manufacturing employment, neighborhood poverty, and family structure in determining wages among Detroit, MI workers, just prior to the current economic crisis. Employment in manufacturing has been crucial for blacks and whites: 39% of black and of white men in the Detroit metropolitan area worked in manufacturing in 2000. Regression analysis in this paper estimates employment in manufacturing raised wages 15.8% for all workers in the metropolitan area, 24.4% for blacks and 13.8% for whites. It finds a higher wage penalty (4.7%) for blacks in non-manufacturing industries than is found when manufacturing sector jobs are included (2.6%). Wage returns to education were greater in the non-manufacturing employment sector, especially for blacks. Residence in the poorest central city neighborhoods reduced wages significantly for white manufacturing and non-manufacturing workers. Its coefficient was insignificant for black workers. Gender and marital status effects on wages differed between blacks and whites in magnitude: White women suffered a larger penalty for their sex than black women (22.6 versus 9.6%) yet black men enjoyed a greater return to marriage than white men (27.5 versus 25.0%). Controlling for manufacturing reduced the gender wage gap and the returns to marriage for men. These findings suggest greater accessibility for women; and lower returns to marriage in non-manufacturing sectors. Among employed blacks access to manufacturing jobs has been their main source of decent wages. The adverse effects of the industry??s job loss in the 1980s and 1990s impacted all Detroit residents. Other high wage industries have employed relatively few blacks, have not paid them well; and have suffered job loss and slow growth over the period. Education could have raised wages for non-manufacturing workers, but not as much as access to manufacturing jobs. Today as in 2000, Detroit??s residents desperately need job creation or relocation to the central city; and job training and anti-discrimination policy enforcement throughout the metro-area. All of these would be necessary to offset job loss and reduce inequality and poverty in Detroit. The extent to which blacks will benefit from 2010?C11 improvements in manufacturing employment in Detroit depends upon whether private companies and the state provide equal access to the jobs and the training new technologies require.     

Real wages,investment and employment: New evidence from West German sectoral data

Real Wages, Investment and Employment: New Evidence from West German Sectoral Data. — Non-separable capital adjustment costs imply that investment directly affects the demand for labour and therefore justify not only the lagged dependent variable but also the presence of investment expenditures or Tobin’s valuation ratio Q in labour demand estimation. On this basis, the authors estimate a very parsimonious specification of demand for blue-collar workers in a panel of 32 West German industries. They find much larger short-run real wage employment elasticities than previous research, and robustly significant positive effects of investment or Tobin’s Q on labour demand.     

Declining long-term employment in Japan

This paper documents the secular decline of average job tenure in Japan based on microdata from two representative government surveys: the household-based Employment Status Survey (ESS) and the establishment-based Basic Survey on Wage Structure (BSWS). Male workers born in 1970 have experienced about 20% fewer years of job tenure than those born in 1944 at a given age, based on an analysis of ESS data. The decline of the long-term employment relationship is uniformly observed across firm sizes and industries. Among job changers, the fraction of voluntary job changes, as well as that of job changes associated with wage increase, has been stable.     

我国境外就业中介制度评析

目前我国境外就业中介法律制度初步建立,但是存在许多问题,没有发挥应有的作用。本文首先分析了存在的问题,在阐明我国涉外劳务中介法律制度的基础上,从比较法的角度,对国际劳工组织及外国有关立法进行分析,并提出建议:我国境外就业中介应厘清管理关系和职能,从有利于求职者和劳动者权益保护的方向发展。     

山西省第三产业促进就业水平的实证分析

就业是民生之本。扩大就业、促进再就业,关系我国改革开放的大局,关系人民生活水平的提高,关系国家的长治久安。本文通过山西省第三产业发展及就业增长的有关数据,对山西省第三产业发展对就业增长的影响做实证分析,以期能为发展第三产业促进就业增长提供证明。     

城市化与失地农民就业

随着我国城市化进程的加快,农村土地征用面积越来越大,被征地农民的就业问题变得日益突出。怎样保证农民失地不失业,成为了城市化进程中又一个需要迫切解决的问题。本文主要通过对失地农民就业情况的调查、分析和研究,为失地农民的就业问题做出一些有益的探索。     

大学生工作搜寻的“摘麦穗”效应——风险容忍视角下的大学生就业满意度分析

基于299份来自广东、江西、安徽和上海等地高校部分2014-2016年毕业大学生的问卷调查数据,利用SPSS19.0软件进行cox半参数模型回归和调节效应检验。结果表明,大学生工作搜寻就如同"摘麦穗",一是工作搜寻时间的影响因素是多样的,人际交往能力更强的大学生,在资本充足的基础下,为追求下一份更好的工作,会选择延长搜寻时间。本省外市、外倾性更强、情绪更不稳定、应聘能力更强的大学生,因其高水平的表现能力,或迫切期望实现就业的心态,而选择早早定下工作岗位。二是工作搜寻在风险容忍影响就业满意度中存在调节效应。具体地,不同群体中,工作搜寻所发挥的调节效应有所不同。在低风险容忍群组中,随着工作搜寻时间的延长,风险容忍较高的大学生所表现出的就业满意度越低。而高风险容忍群组中,工作搜寻的调节效应没有通过显著性检验。     

《劳动合同法》背景下和谐劳动关系的构建——基于东至县实施情况的调查与思考

《劳动合同法》自2008年实施至今已逾两年,为深入了解《劳动合同法》在基层实施的基本情况,文章选择东至县作为样本展开调查,介绍了该法实施后对东至县劳动关系带来的影响以及实践中存在的一些问题。最后,还提出了对于解决上述问题的一些建议与思考,以期为保障和促进《劳动合同法》的有效实施提供参考。     

Labor adjustment,productivity and output volatility: An evaluation of Japan’s Employment Adjustment Subsidy

This paper provides a quantitative examination of the impact of Japan’s Employment Adjustment Subsidy, a major employment insurance policy since 1975, on labor adjustment, productivity and output fluctuation in the iron and steel sector. A partial equilibrium industry model with heterogeneous establishments and aggregate uncertainty shows that the EAS reduces steady-state labor productivity by encouraging labor hoarding, and in some cases, preventing the exit of least efficient establishments. The EAS also reduces job flows and increases average establishment-level employment. Although the impact on productivity is roughly proportional to the size of subsidized workers in most cases, the effects of the subsidy on output and employment volatility are more than proportional. First, the subsidy can lead to a sizable increase in output fluctuations over business cycles by symmetrically increasing the output response to shocks. This result is achieved through lower output via a subsidy during unfavorable times and higher output via less time and money spent on hiring during favorable times. Second, the subsidy meets its primary objective of reduced employment volatility. The reduction can be considerable when firing costs are high.     

对东北地区增值税转型的思考

增值税转型的突出问题是财政缺口,弥补这个缺口需要寻找更多的财政收入来源;投资过热也不容忽视,应扩大试点范围,对投资正确引导,均衡投资,避免盲目集中投资;就业问题关系社会稳定也要关注,国家完善社会保障制度,可缓解就业压力。企业的减负效果不太明显,随着制度的不断完善,会有改观,企业应做长远的打算。     

Return on Investment from Training Programs and Intensive Services

This study includes the likelihood of finding a job and retaining employment as well as eligibility for unemployment benefits to estimate the return on investment (ROI) for both job training and intensive services programs. The augmented ROI for job training programs and intensive job services from California One-Stop Centers are positive. This suggests that these programs do provide benefits. The estimated augmented ROI for individuals enrolled in job training programs and intensive job services are similar. In contrast, traditional approaches that omit important employment characteristics significantly overestimate the ROI. Monte Carlo simulations show that changing program costs affect the augmented ROI for training programs but have minimal impact on the augmented ROI for intensive services.     

Is Informal Job Experience of Youth Undermining their Labor-Market Prospects in Transition Economies?

The objective of the paper is to investigate if previous informal employment experience of youth affects later labor-market outcomes in transition economies. We consider the effects on employment, decent job and wages. Some theories suggest that previous informal job experience may extend informality later and negatively impact decent employment and wages, while others argue that informal jobs may provide training, networks and working attitudes to young workers hence improving their formal employment and wage potential. We rely on the newly-produced School to Work Transition Surveys for seven transition economies of Southeast Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Our results robustly suggest that early informality of youth is negative for the later labor-market outcomes. However, for the wage, there is limited evidence that the negative effect potentially turns positive for long informal job experiences. The negative effect of informal job on later outcomes is stronger for females, while any differences between the two regions of transition economies are neither systematic nor robust.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: Can Japanese Agriculture Survive?: A Historical Approach by Takekazu Ogura. Industrial Growth, Employment, and Foreign Investment in Peninsular Malaysia by Lutz Hoffmann and Tan Siew Ee.