Overview
Employer practices such as hiring, scheduling, promotion, supervision, and on-the-job training determine workers’ day-to-day reality and long-term prospects in the labor market. The growing prevalence of independent contractors and contingent workers underscores the continued fissuring of employer-employee relationships.
Working Knowledge
Skills and training
April 08, 2022
How Randomized Evaluations Build Evidence to Inform Workforce Program Design, Policy, and Investment
Four takeaways from J-PAL North America and WorkRise joint panel on the power of randomized controlled trials in generating evidence to inform and guide decisionmaking and investment in workforce training.
Employer practices
January 24, 2022
New Evidence Shows Internal Labor Markets Favor Higher-Wage over Lower-Wage Workers
A recent paper from researchers at the MIT Sloan School of Management finds occupational stratification limits the benefits that internal hiring can bring to the workers who most need upward mobility.
Employer practices
January 25, 2022
New and Noteworthy: Research on predictable scheduling laws, postsecondary decisionmaking among youth, and more
New and Noteworthy highlights new research and data to inform policies, practices, and programs designed to strengthen workers’ economic security and pathways for mobility in the US labor market.
Research
Employer practices
July 01, 2021
Skills, Degrees, and Labor Market Inequality
In a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, researchers demonstrate that workers with college degrees have dramatically better access to higher-wage occupations where the skill requirements exceed the workers’ observed skill compared to workers without degrees.