Divergent Paths: Economic Mobility in the New American Labor Market - Hardcover

Bernhardt (Center on Wisconsin Strategy, U. of Wisconsin, Madison), Morris and Handcock (sociology and statistics, U. of Washington), and Scott (educational statistics, New York U.) combined efforts in a five-year project examining new trends in career opportunities in the contemporary American labor market. Focusing on young white males, their study compares the experiences of a sample group of workers entering the job market in the 1960s to a sample of workers entering the market in the late-1970s. The study's results show increasing inequality between the upwardly mobile and the growing number of workers in low-wage careers. Areas of focus in the study include rising job instability; changes in the effects of job instability on workers' wages and careers; changes in long-term wage growth; the role of job stability in achieving long-term wage growth, and the extent to which education mediates this process; and the growth of the "low-wage trap." They conclude with a discussion of the causes of the increase in inequality, and policies which could reverse the trend. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

ANNETTE BERNHARDT is Senior Research Associate at the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, University of Wisconsin, Madison. MARTINA MORRIS is the Blumstein-Jordan Professor of Sociology and Statistics at the University of Washington, Seattle. MARK S. HANDCOCK is Professor of Statistics and Sociology in the Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle. MARC A. SCOTT is Assistant Professor of Educational Statistics at the School of Education, New York University.