Is Welfare Reform Succeeding?

Welfare Reform and the Earned Income Tax Credit have apparently caused a dramatic increase in the labor force participation rates of single parents. Between the first quarters of 1994 and 1998, labor force participation rates rose 25.4 percent for never-married women caring for children, rose 15.5 percent for mothers separated from their spouse and rose 4.9 percent for divorced single mothers. By contrast, unmarried individuals and separated and divorced women who were not caring for children lowered their rates of participation in the labor market. The rise in the labor force participation rates of single parents between 1994 and 1998 increased the labor force by 1,111,000. The total increase in the labor force due to changes in participation rates was 1,178,000. Thus, single parents, who accounted for only 6.2 percent of the labor force in 1994, were responsible for almost all of the increase in the overall labor force participation rate between 1994 and 1998. This unanticipated increase in labor supply may be one of the reasons why wage inflation has been so moderate since 1992. The EITC and welfare reform have increased the level of output that is consistent with non-accelerating inflation and may have even shifted the NAIRU, though probably not by much

BLS Spotlight on Statistics: Women in the Workforce Before, During, and after the Great Recession

[Excerpt] A major factor that contributed to the growth of the U.S. labor force in the second half of the twentieth century was the remarkable increase in the labor force participation rate of women. During this time, the U.S. economy experienced economic growth that increased the demand for labor. Baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) began entering the labor force in large numbers in the early 1960s as they reached working age. Coupled with the rapidly increasing labor force participation rate of women, this resulted in a large influx of women into the labor market. After peaking in 1999, the labor force participation rate of women has continuously declined. During this time, the baby-boom generation aged and the economy experienced the impacts of the severe 2007–09 recession. BLS projects women\u27s labor force participation rate to continue its decline in the 2014–24 decade

Labor force plans and labor force status

Many U.S. women who were in their late 60s at the turn of the century were still employed. These women graduated from college in the 1950s, an era when women’s labor force participation was low. Data from the U.S. Department of Labor Women's Bureau Survey of the college class of 1957 was used to examine labor force expectations of these women when they completed college. Logit analysis was applied to four labor force categories: full-time, part-time, unemployed, and not in the labor force. In 1957, many women underestimated their future labor force participation. By 1964, though, the trend toward increasing future work expectations may have begun. After examining the retirement literature and factors encouraging older women to continue working, Current Population Survey data on college-educated women aged 65 to 69 in 2003 were used to explore the labor force participation of this cohort later in life.education, labor force, labor force expectations

The Hispanic Labor Force in the Recovery

[Excerpted] At nearly 23 million, people of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity represented 15 percent of the United States’ labor force in 2010. By 2018, Hispanics are expected to comprise 18 percent of the labor force. In 2010, 59 percent of Hispanics aged 16 and over were employed and just under 1 in 5 of those employed were working part-time. Forty-one (41) percent of all employed Hispanics in 2010 were women, compared to 46 percent among employed whites. Women represent a smaller share of the Hispanic labor force both because of the high labor force participation of Hispanic men and the lower labor force participation rate of Hispanic women compared to whites

Economic Reform and Changing Patterns of Labor Force Participation in Urban and Rural China

In this project, we employ data from the Chinese population censuses of 1982, 1990, and 2000 to examine reform-era changes in the patterns of male and female labor force participation and in the distribution of men’s and women’s occupational attainment. Very marked patterns of change in labor force participation emerge when we disaggregate the data by age cohort, marital status, sex, and rural/urban location. Women have decreased their labor force participation more than men, and urban women much more than rural women. Single young people in urban areas have decreased their labor force participation to stay in school to a much greater extent than single young people in rural areas. The urban elderly have decreased their rates of labor force participation while the rural elderly have increased theirs. We also find evidence of the feminization of agriculture.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40173/3/wp787.pd

Trends in the aggregate labor force

Trend growth in the labor force is a key determinant of trends in employment and gross domestic product (GDP). Forecasts by Macroeconomic Advisers (MA) have long anticipated a marked slowing in trend growth of the labor force that would contribute to a slowing in potential GDP growth. This is reflected in MA's forecast that the aggregate rate of labor force participation will trend down, especially after 2010, largely in response to the aging of the baby boom generation, whose members are beginning to approach typical retirement ages. Expectations for a downward trajectory for the participation rate and a slowing in trend labor force growth are not unique. However, this article reports on MA research suggesting that the opposite is possible: that the slowdown in trend labor force growth could be relatively modest and that the trend in the aggregate rate of labor force participation will decline little, if at all, over the next decade.Labor supply

Immigration Policy and Organized Labor: A Never-Ceasing Issue

[Excerpt] Over its long history, few issues have caused the caused the American labor movement more agony than has the issue of immigration. It is ironic this is the case since most adult immigrants directly join the labor force as do eventually most of their immediate family members. But precisely because immigration affects the size, skill composition and geographical distribution of the nation\u27s labor force, it also influences local, regional and national labor market conditions. Hence, organized labor can never ignore the public policies that determine immigration trends

Meeting Agendas

Collection of meeting agendas for the U.S. Secretary of Labor\u27s Task Force on Excellence in State and Local Government Through Labor-Management Cooperation (1994-1996)

The Effects of Female Labor Force Participation on Obesity

This paper assesses whether a causal relationship exists between recent increases in female labor force participation and the increased prevalence of obesity amongst women. The expansions of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in the 1980s and 1990s have been established by prior literature as having generated variation in female labor supply, particularly amongst single mothers. Here, we use this plausibly exogenous variation in female labor supply to identify the effect of labor force participation on obesity status. We use data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and replicate labor supply effects of the EITC expansions found in previous literature. This validates employing a difference-in-differences estimation strategy in the NHIS data, as has been done in several other data sets. Depending on the specification, we find that increased labor force participation can account for at most 19% of the observed change in obesity prevalence over our sample period. Our preferred specification, however, suggests that there is no causal link between increased female labor force participation and increased obesity.female labor force participation, obesity, earned income tax credit