Divergent Paths:  Economic Mobility in the New American Labor Market


Source:    The Russell Sage Foundation
Active:    7/1/98-6/30/00
Investigator:  Martina Morris

As workplaces are reorganized, there are potentially important effects on upward mobility.  The impact on young adults in particular - in how they enter the labor market, acquire skills and establish their careers - is not well understood.  Yet such information is clearly key to current discussions about education and training policy, especially for the majority of workers who do not attain a four-year college degree. We compare the first 16 years of work experience for two cohorts of young adults from the National Longitudinal Surveys.  One cohort entered the labor market during the late 1960s and the 1970s, the other during the 1980s and early 1990s, affording a rare look at trends over time in career development and mobility.


Please send comments or suggestions to  morrism@u.washington.edu.
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