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Workplace and Industry Studies


 
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The Nursing Workforce Challenge: Public Policy for a Dynamic and Complex Market (Research Report)
Randall R. Bovbjerg, Barbara A. Ormond, Nancy M. Pindus

Nurses are health care's backbone, spending the most time with patients, and working with teams of caregivers in institutions and serving as advanced practice nurses in primary care settings. Short-term shortages wax and wane, but concerns about a shortage are more serious now because the next decade may see more older nurses retiring than new ones entering the workforce. Education needs to be augmented and improved, but no precise estimation method can show how many nurses society "should" produce. Policy should focus more on nurses' scopes of practice and aligning how they are treated and paid with the value they add to patient care.

Posted to Web: August 31, 2009Publication Date: August 31, 2009

A better way to get educated, employed (Commentary)
Robert I. Lerman

If you think apprenticeship sounds like a relic from centuries past — good enough for Ben Franklin but a no-go in a 21st-century economy — think again, Institute Fellow Robert Lerman explains in a commentary for thestate.com

Posted to Web: August 03, 2009Publication Date: August 03, 2009

Who Are Low-Wage Workers? (Research Brief)
Pamela J. Loprest, Gregory Acs, Caroline Ratcliffe, Katie Vinopal

This brief examines the size and characteristics of the low-wage workforce and whether low-wage workers experience wage growth. We define low-wage workers as workers whose hourly wage rates are so low that even if they worked full-time, full-year their annual earnings would fall below the poverty line for a family of four. This wage rate is $8.63 in 2001, equivalent to $10.50 in 2008. Almost one-third of all workers ages 16 to 64 are low-wage workers in 2001. From 2001 to 2003, we find some evidence that low-wage workers are moving to higher wage jobs. But, the majority of low-wage workers either remain in low-wage jobs or are not working at all.

Posted to Web: June 26, 2009Publication Date: June 01, 2009

Fresh Ideas On Work-Life Balance Explored in New Book (Press Release)
The Urban Institute

Work-Life Policies, a new Urban Institute Press book, explains that even the most generous policy does little to accommodate workers' outside responsibilities if a job's structure or colleagues' attitudes undermine the policy. Work-Life Policies details the latest research—from sociologists, psychologists, lawyers, and management scholars—and underscores the importance of tailoring effective accommodations for all employees: male or female, parents or childless, salaried or hourly, near the end of one's career or new to the workforce.

Posted to Web: March 26, 2009Publication Date: March 24, 2009

Will Changing Job Demands Boost Older Workers' Prospects? (Series/Older Americans' Economic Security)
Richard W. Johnson, Gordon Mermin

Employment is now less physically demanding and less likely to entail difficult working conditions than before, a trend that might spur employment at older ages. However, the shift to a knowledge-based economy has increased cognitive demands and placed a premium on mastering the latest technical skills. Between 1971 and 2006 the share of workers in cognitively demanding jobs (requiring such skills as reasoning, writing, and decisionmaking) increased from 25.7 to 34.8 percent. This development may curtail opportunities for older workers with limited education or those who lack recent training.

Posted to Web: September 26, 2008Publication Date: September 01, 2008

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