workforce

The National Academy of Sciences meets to discuss issues facing members of groups underrepresented in the Academys membership. Topics discussed include a strategy for engaging K-12 students in science, mentoring minority women in science, and making science accessible.

According to the author, adopting an evolutionary process perspective suggests limits to outsourcing due to governance inseparability and partly tacit complementarity of capabilities as well as related disaggregation costs, including the costs of knowledge codification in the specification of interfaces in supplier/buyer relations, loss of absorptive capacity and integrating capabilities in the suppliers system.

The update analyzes the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ growth projections for the core occupational
classifications of IT workers—computer engineers, systems analysts, computer programmers, database administrators, computer support specialists and all other computer scientists—to assess future U.S. demand.

The report from the Progressive Policy Institute serves as a guide to state and local policy makers for implementing the Workforce Investment Act. The author describes the law and the tools provided by the act, discusses the key challenges state and local areas face and offers promising strategies for creating a New Economy employment and training system.

The report from the Progressive Policy Institute proposes a new a federal initiative, Community Workforce Partnerships, to catalyze a holistic approach to a communitys employment needs; to give workers access to training, education, and other critical support services; and to help the firms where they work modernize to meet the demands of the New Economy.

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation study finds that the state’s high-tech workforce is dramatically larger than previously reported by national rankings. The study also found that 65,674 workers in the auto industry alone are high tech and not counted by AEA.

The 21st Century Workforce Commission report offers recommendations for developing the nations new high- tech workforce. The report provides an analysis of how leadership in regional partnerships of education, business and government can effectively address critical shortages of skilled workers in information technology jobs.

The National Commission on Entrepreneurships survey results reveal that despite the media and Wall Street attention given to dot-coms, only 13.1 percent of recent college graduates would like to work for the start-up, Internet-based businesses given a choice. Fortune 500 companies were the preferred choice for 42.2 percent of the survey respondents, while 24.7 percent opted for small businesses (specifically not dot-coms). The survey was conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

The report describes the importance and
complexity of information technology work force issues, shares innovative practices from around the country, and lays out some options for government, industry, educators, and workers.

The Progressive Policy Institute report offers a new agenda for labor market policy to expand the winners circle created by the global economy. An agenda focusing on three areas of public policy is provided as well.