Related UI Researchers

Publications on Work/Income

Boomers will probably want to work longer than earlier cohorts, but their continued work requires that employers hire and retain them. Employers value older workers for their maturity, experience and work ethic, but worry about out of date skills and high costs. Slower overall labor supply growth will increase demand for older workers and occupations with higher shares of older workers will increase modestly as a share of all jobs. Future jobs will require less physical demands and more cognitive and interpersonal skills, trends that favor educated older workers, but job opportunities for less educated older workers may remain limited.

The occupations that already employ above-average shares of workers age 55 and older rely on an educated workforce and are expected to grow at least 20 percent by 2016, double the 10 percent rate forecast for the national labor force. A new study examines how changes in the nature of work, different occupations, the characteristics of older workers, and overall labor force growth might affect future job prospects for older Americans.

This paper is a response to New Safety Net Paper 6, "Weathering Job Loss: Unemployment Insurance" by Margaret Simms.

Welfare programs require people to work, but some low-income adults struggle with major personal challenges that make it hard to find or hold down a job. In this summary, Loprest and Martinson recommend both short-term changes to current programs and longer-term efforts through a program for competitive federal matching block grants to states. These grants would support efforts to integrate programs that alleviate barriers to work with employment services and to evaluate these initiatives so policymakers can better understand what works.

This paper is a response to New Safety Net Paper 6, "Weathering Job Loss: Unemployment Insurance" by Margaret Simms.