Labor Markets | Econofact

Concentrated Poverty and the Disconnect Between Jobs and Workers

By David Neumark·January 22, 2019
University of California, Irvine

The Issue:

High levels of joblessness have been characteristic of extremely high-poverty neighborhoods in primarily urban settings. Many challenges stand in the way of generating jobs in these areas. These include low skills among potential workers, inadequate and decaying infrastructure, racial discrimination in ...
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Understanding Trends in U.S. Labor Force Participation (VIDEO)

By Karen Dynan and Jay C. Shambaugh·December 3, 2018
Harvard University and George Washington University and The Hamilton Project, Brookings Institution

Excerpt from webinar with Karen Dynan (Harvard University), Jay Shambaugh (George Washington University, and The Hamilton Project at The Brookings Institution), and Eduardo Porter (New York Times), October 23, 2018. A collaboration between EconoFact and The Hamilton Project, Brookings.

The Issue:

The share of ...
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Who Benefits from a Higher Minimum Wage?

By Jonathan Meer·November 27, 2018
Texas A&M University

The Issue:

Raising the minimum wage is broadly viewed as a policy that combats poverty. Most of the focus of the debate over the minimum wage has been on whether raising it leads to job losses, but an overlooked key point is which workers see their wages rise with an increase in the minimum wage.

The workers who

How Can We Know if There is Discrimination in Hiring?

By David Neumark·October 27, 2018
University of California, Irvine

The Issue:

Groups of workers that differ by personal characteristics such as gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, past criminal record, physical appearance or disability often exhibit measurable differences in wages and employment. However, it is difficult to identify and measure the extent to which differences ...
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The Chilling Effect of Non-Compete Agreements

By Matt Marx and Ryan Nunn·May 20, 2018
Boston University and The Hamilton Project, Brookings Institution

The Issue:

American workers are often asked to sign away their right to work through non-compete clauses in employment contracts. Non-competes restrict a person's ability to work for or to start rival firms, leaving workers with diminished bargaining power and fewer options for pursuing career opportunities. It ...
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Race and Ethnicity Within Widening Income Inequality in the United States

By Randall Akee·May 10, 2018
University of California, Los Angeles

(A ratio of 1 means representation in the top 10 percent is commensurate with a group's representation in the overall labor force. A ratio greater than 1 represents an overrepresentation of that group in the top decile and a ratio of less than 1 represents an underrepresentation).

The Issue:

There are significant ...
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Could Increasing Market Power Among Firms be Hurting Workers’ Wages?

By Ioana Marinescu·April 22, 2018
University of Pennsylvania

(Click here for a larger version of the map)

The Issue:

Wages for the typical American worker have been stagnant since the late 1970s, growing only 0.2 percent per year on average when adjusting for inflation. Increasing competition with low-wage workers abroad, automation, the decreasing power of unions, and ...
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What Happened To Women’s Rising Participation in the Workforce?

By Sandra Black, Audrey Breitwieser and Diane Schanzenbach·December 6, 2017
University of Texas at Austin, The Brookings Institution and Northwestern University

The Issue:

For decades, the share of women who are employed was steadily rising in the United States, contributing to economic growth and serving as a countervailing force to a slow decline in the share employed among men. In recent years however, the upward trend among women has reversed: Labor force participation ...
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Why do Women Continue to Make Less than Men?

By Francine D. Blau and Lawrence M. Kahn·September 22, 2017
Cornell University

The Issue:

In 2016 women who worked year-round and full-time earned, on average, around 81 cents for every dollar earned by men. Though still substantial, the difference in women’s average earnings relative to men’s has narrowed considerably since the 1970s. But the largest improvement in women's wages relative ...
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