Who's Not Working and Why Employment, Cognitive Skills, Wages, and the Changing U.S. Labor Market

Why wages have become unequal, why wages in high-skilled jobs have risen while others have stagnated or fallen.

Presenting a radically different view of the operations of the labor market, in this 1999 book Professors Pryor and Schaffer explain the growing inequality in wages and how those with the least education are being squeezed out of the labor market. Why have wages in those jobs requiring extra-high cognitive skills risen while all other wages have stagnated or fallen? And why are more university graduates taking high-school jobs? The authors of this volume present data revealing that jobs which require a high educational level are increasing more slowly than those with somewhat lower requirements. However such jobs are increasing faster than those requiring still less formal education. Professors Pryor and Schaffer also show how women are replacing men in jobs which require higher levels of education and, moreover, how those with high cognitive skills are replacing those with lower cognitive skills.

Acknowledgements; Part I. Introduction: 1. The changing labor market; Part II. Employment, Cognitive Skills, and Job Displacement: 2. Cognitive skills, education, and other determinants of employment; 3. Upskilling and educational upgrading of occupations; 4. Labor force displacement mechanisms; Part III. Wage Levels and Distribution: 5. Wage levels; 6. The Distribution of Hourly Wages; Part IV. Alternative Approaches: 7. Five misleading theories about joblessness; 8. Notes on subjective and institutional factors; Part V. Implications and Interpretations: 9. Final observations; Appendices; Bibliography; Name index; Subject index.

A radically different view of the operations of the labor market. Professors Pryor and Schaffer explain why wages have become more unequal, why wages in those jobs requiring extra-high cognitive skills have risen and why all other wages have stagnated or fallen in the last quarter century.