workforce

The Commonwealth’s legislature is currently considering a proposal that would increase the state minimum wage in two steps over the next two years to $8.25 per hour by 2007. Advocates on both sides of the issue have each released a report on the bill’s likely economic impacts. In this report, the author reviews the arguments on both sides of the issue. In doing so, the author discusses
and critiques, where applicable, the evidence presented in the two reports that have been issued on either side of the debate.

The author analyzes the impact of human capital on local employment growth for the case of West Germany (1977-2002). Findings reveal robust evidence that skilled cities grow faster than unskilled ones, but the need not indicate localized human capital externalities are at work.

According to the study, between 2000 and 2005, Ohio lost 204,308 jobs. This represents a loss of 3.8 percent of all employment in Ohio in just a five year period. The loss resulted in an aggregate loss in Ohio quarterly payroll earnings of $633 million.

This report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York analyzes the long-term upgrading of skills in the U.S. manufacturing workforce since the peak of manufacturing employment in the early 1980s. The authors quantify the growth in high-skill manufacturing jobs and show that skill upgrading has been occurring across industries, even in those experiencing employment losses, and in all parts of the country, even in regions where employment losses have been severe.

This paper generates a pattern of technology adoption endogenously, and shows that it causes the wages of some workers to fall. A dynamic extension shows that workers without transferable skills become worse off throughout the period of transition to the modern technology.

The author finds that young college graduates are two to five times more likely than less educated workers to reside in a state with high labor demand at the time they entered the market. Among college graduates, cross-state migration by college graduates equalizes the wage impact of early career labor demand shocks in their home states.

The article recounts a variety of statistical trends among the Ninth District Indian Reservations population, with particular focus on Indians living on district reservations. Measurements include population growth, education and income.

This study reports on the findings of the Job Migration Task Force established by ACM to examine the issues surrounding the migration of jobs within the computing and information technology field and industry. The authors cited educational policy and investment in research and development as critical elements for countries to stay competitive in todays global environment for Information Technology.

This paper studies the impact of outsourcing on individual wages. In contrast to the standard approach in the literature, the authors focus on domestic outsourcing as well as foreign outsourcing. They use a panel data set of workers in Danish manufacturing industries to show that domestic and foreign outsourcing affect wages as predicted by the theory.

This study examines the impact of raising the minimum wage in South Dakota. An analysis was conducted for four different scenerios regarding minimum wage. Based on standard economic theory, the analysis determined the impact in terms of the benefits and costs of an increase in the minimum wage rate.