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Institute for Workplace Studies-----------------Professor Samuel B. Bacharach

School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies

Cornell University

16 East 34th Street, 4th floor--------------------Stuart Basefsky

New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau

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MONTHLY LABOR REVIEW (15 August to 15 September 2014]

http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/home.htm

[Click on title below for access]

2014

• Consumption patterns and economic status of older households in the United States 09/15/2014
  http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2014/article/pdf/consumption-patterns-and-economic-status-of-older-households.pdf
  [full-text, 22 pages]
  
  This article holistically maps the consumption patterns of older Americans and compares the economic status of different groups (clusters) of elderly U.S. consumers. Using data from the 2010–2011 Consumer Expenditure Survey, the analysis focuses on the consumption patterns of households whose heads or spouses were age 65 and over. Our factor and cluster analyses revealed six consumption clusters (listed in order of cluster size): “basic-need-meeters,” “housing burdened,” “healthcare burdened,” “transportation burdened,” “happy retirees,” and “balanced budgeters.” We found that substantial financial vulnerabilities exist for the first three groups, which represent approximately 74 percent of older Americans, and that these vulnerabilities are due to expenses for housing, healthcare, and everyday necessities. These results demonstrate the need for more effective provision and targeting of healthcare services for the vulnerable consumption groups and highlight the importance of timely retirement planning.
  
  
• Husbands’ job loss and wives’ labor force participation during economic downturns: are all recessions the same? 09/09/2014
  http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2014/article/pdf/husbands-job-loss-and-wives-labor-force-participation-during-economic-downturns-are-all-recessions-the-same.pdf
  [full-text, 32 pages]
  
  Earlier research showed an added-worker effect for wives when their husbands stopped working during the Great Recession (December 2007–June 2009) but not when husbands stopped working in recent years of prosperity (2004–2005). By including one recession per decade for the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, this article builds upon that research by using Current Population Survey data to compare wives’ labor force responses to their husbands stopping work across three recessions to determine whether wives’ employment responses during the Great Recession differed from those during earlier recessions. Additionally, we hypothesize motivations for wives entering the labor force and consider the occupations they enter. Across all three recessions included in this study, wives entered the labor force more often when their husband stopped working. More nuanced analyses show that during both the Great Recession and the 1990–1991 recession, wives were more likely to seek work and find a job if their husband became not employed, while in the 1981–1982 recession wives were more likely to seek work but less likely to find a job. We also find that wives who started a job during the Great Recession or the 1990–1991 recession were more likely to enter service occupations than professional or managerial occupations, but this was not the case during the 1981–1982 recession. Furthermore, during the three recessions, college-educated wives who started a job were more likely than wives with less education to enter professional and managerial occupations relative to service occupations or other occupations. However, these newly employed college-educated wives were somewhat more likely to enter service or other occupations than their college-educated counterparts who were employed continuously.
  
  
• Millennials after the Great Recession 09/09/2014
  http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2014/beyond-bls/pdf/millennials-after-the-great-recession.pdf
  
  An often-discussed topic regarding the Great Recession is its effects on millennials. The recession has caused them to defer decisions about home and car purchases and also marriage. The decisions millennials make now in the aftermath of the recession’s effects can reverberate for years. In “The economic plight of millennials” (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, EconSouth, January–April 2014), author Mark Carter looks at the financial hardships facing millennials.
  
  
• Repeat use in the U.S. unemployment insurance system 09/04/2014
  http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2014/article/pdf/repeat-use-in-the-u-s-unemployment-insurance-system.pdf
  [full-text, 27 pages]
  
  This article uses administrative data from seven states to examine repeat use in the U.S. unemployment insurance (UI) system in 2003, a period of moderate unemployment. Findings show that more than half of recipients on temporary layoff and nearly a third of displaced recipients became repeat users, that is, started a new UI claim within a year of the end of their initial claim. Repeat use was more prevalent for workers with weak prior attachment to the workforce, those employed in cyclical sectors or blue-collar jobs, low-education workers, and older workers. Further analysis shows that repeat users collected substantially higher benefit amounts than nonrepeat users, causing a substantial burden on the UI Trust Fund. Finally, the article presents evidence that providing reemployment assistance to displaced recipients may be an effective policy for reducing repeat use and alleviating its burden on the UI Trust Fund.
  
  
• Stay-at-home mothers through the years 09/04/2014
  http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2014/beyond-bls/pdf/stay-at-home-mothers-through-the-years.pdf
  
  For decades, the number of stay-at-home moms had been declining, but a recent report by the Pew Research Center shows that the number of stay-at-home mothers has risen in recent years. In the report, titled “After decades of decline, a rise in stay-at-home mothers”  (Pew Research Social and Demographic Trends, April 7, 2014), researchers D’Vera Cohn, Gretchen Livingston, and Wendy Wang analyze data from the Current Population Survey, the American Time Use Survey, and Pew’s public opinion polls to show how the proportions of employed and stay-at-home mothers have changed over the years.
  
  
• No time to play in the USA? 09/04/2014
  http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2014/book-review/pdf/no-time-to-play-in-the-usa.pdf

Book Review:

Free Time: The Forgotten American Dream. By Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt, Philadelphia, PA, Temple University Press, 2013, 250 pp., $89.50/ cloth; $34.95/ paperback; $34.95 e-book

• Is overeducation with underpayment a lifelong problem? 08/27/2014
  http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2014/beyond-bls/pdf/is-overeducation-with-underpayment-a-lifelong-problem.pdf

Many workers have more education than is required for the job they hold, but this education disconnect is generally thought to dissipate as workers climb a career ladder. New longitudinal research shows, however, that some overeducated workers continue to receive lower wages over the long term.

 

A National Bureau of Economic Research working paper by Brian Clark and Arnaud Maurel from Duke University and Clément Joubert from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill titled “The career prospects of overeducated Americans” uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and Current Population Survey to look at overeducation’s effects on employment and wages over time. To analyze these effects, the researchers tracked almost 5,000 college graduates for 12 years after they entered the workforce.

 

 

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