A Future of Good Jobs?

America's Challenge in the Global Economy

“A Future of Good Jobs? could hardly be better timed with respect to current trends in the American economy. While most of these trends—widening wage inequality, underemployment of the less educated, increased global competition, and cutbacks in health insurance and retirement coverage—are far from new, it is only recently that policymakers and mainstream economists have come to acknowledge that they are not necessarily self-correcting. The practical, concrete remedies offered in this book are especially welcome in that they are sensitive both to the realities of the U.S. labor force and to the needs and resources of U.S. employers.”

-Jodie Allen, Senior Editor, Pew Research Center

“Timothy Bartik and Susan Houseman have assembled a first-rate team of economists to assess the problems of struggling workers. They offer cogent analyses of America’s workplace problems. More important, they provide a timely set of prescriptions to address those problems. Many writers wring their hands at the challenges facing workers who are at the bottom of the pay ladder. The authors of this volume focus on the more difficult task of crafting humane but tough-minded solutions to the problem of shrinking wages.”

-Gary Burtless, The Brookings Institution

“Leading policy analysts not only frame the major challenges facing U.S. labor policy in this book, but they provide possible solutions. Growing inequality, declining coverage and generosity of employer-sponsored benefits, soaring health insurance costs, less job security, and a sharp decline in the employment of less educated men are serious problems. The presidential candidates, economic policy analysts, and concerned citizens would do well to study the ideas in this book to prepare for the challenges ahead.”

-Richard A. Hobbie, Executive Director, National Association of State Workforce Agencies

Can the U.S. economy generate healthy growth of “good” jobs—jobs that will ensure a steady improvement in the standard of living for the middle class and that will offer a way out of poverty for low-income Americans? In this timely book, leading policy analysts examine the challenges facing current U.S. labor market policy and propose concrete steps to make American workers and employers more competitive in a global economy.

Signs of trouble for U.S. workers
The difficulty that the United States will have in generating good jobs and improving living standards for all Americans is readily apparent in problems already facing middle-class and low-wage workers:

• Growing income inequality
• Declining coverage and generosity of employee benefits
• Less job security, in part due to increased trade
• A sharp drop in employment among less-educated men.

At the same time that these economic forces are placing strains on middle-class and low-wage workers, institutions that historically have reduced income inequality have significantly weakened. Most notable are the decline in the value of the minimum wage and the decline in union representation.

• Reform the delivery of education and training by implementing curricula that are more closely tied to workplace needs
• Provide universal health coverage through a combination of government, employer, and employee contributions
• Help dislocated and older workers by expanding and revamping employment and training programs and wage insurance programs
• Help low-skilled workers get better jobs by elevating labor standards, helping employers raise worker skills, expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, and reducing barriers to employment for those with criminal records.

327 pp. 2008
$40 cloth ISBN 0-88099-332-4 / ISBN-13 978-0-88099-332-6
$20 paper ISBN 0-88099-331-6 / ISBN-13 978-0-88099-331-9

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