Statement of Henry S. Farber Before the Commission on the Future of Worker-Management Relations

Testimony_Farber_022494.pdf: 251 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Trends in Worker Demand for Union Representation

The dramatic decline in the demand for union representation among nonunion workers over the last decade is investigated using data on worker preferences for union representation from four surveys conducted in 1977, 1980, 1982, and 1984. Relatively little of the decline can be accounted for by shifts in labor force structure. However, virtually all of the decline is correlated with an increase in the satisfaction of nonunion workers with their jobs and a decline in nonunion workers' beliefs that unions are able to improve wages and working conditions.

Employment Insecurity: The Decline in Worker-Firm Attachment in the United States

Long-term employment relationships have long been an important feature of the labor market in the United States. However, increased international competition and the wave of corporate downsizing in the 1990s raised concerns that long-term employment relationships in the United States were disappearing. I present evidence in this study, based on data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) from 1973-2006, that long-term employment relationships have, in fact, become much less common for men in the private sector. Mirroring this decline in tenure and long-term employment relationships, there has been an increase in “churning” (defined as the proportion of workers in jobs with less than one year of tenure) for males in the private sector as they enter their thirties and later. In contrast, women have seen no systematic change in job durations or the incidence of long-term employment relationships in the private sector. There has been an increase in job durations and the incidence of long-term employment relationships in the public sector, with the increase more pronounced for women. I conclude that 1) the structure of jobs in the private sector has moved away from long-term relationships, 2) this decline has been offset for females by their increased attachment to the labor force, and 3) the public sector has been less susceptible to the competitive forces that are likely causing the changes in the private sector. It seems clear that more recent cohorts of workers are less likely than their parents to have a career characterized by a “life-time” job with a single employer.

Job Loss and the Decline in Job Security in the United States

Job tenure and the incidence of long-term employment have declined sharply in the United States. However, rates of job loss as measured by the Displaced Workers Survey (DWS), while cyclical, have not increased. This presents a puzzle that has several potential solutions. One is that, while overall rates of job loss have not increased, rates of job loss for high-tenure workers have increased relative to those for lower-tenure workers. Another is that there has been an increase in rates of job change that is not captured in the limited questions asked in the DWS. Some of this seemingly voluntary job change (e.g., the taking of an offered buy-out) may reflect the kind of worker displacement that the DWS was meant to capture but is not reported as such by workers. In this study, I address these issues by 1) documenting the decline in job tenure and longterm employment using data from various supplements to the Current Population Survey (CPS) from 1973-2006, 2) documenting the lack of secular change in rates of job loss using data from the DWS from 1984-2006, and 3) exploring the extent to which the observed patterns result from a relative increase in rates of job loss among high-tenure workers. I find that the decline in job tenure and long-term employment is restricted to the private sector and that there has been some increase in job tenure and long-term employment in the public sector. I find no secular changes in relative rates of job loss in either sector that could account for these trends. Reconciliation of the trends in the tenure and displacement data must lie with a failure to identify all relevant displacement in the DWS.

Is the Company Man an Anachronism? Trends in Long Term Employment in the U.S., 1973-20061

The wave of corporate downsizing in the 1990s focused attention on the role of long-term employment relationships in the United States. Given 1) the importance that these relationships have played historically, 2) the general view that long-term jobs are “good jobs,” and 3) the suspicion that long-term employment relationships are becoming less common, I carry out a systematic investigation of the extent to which long-term employment relationships have, in fact, become less common. Specifically, I examine age-specific changes in the length of employment relationships for different birth cohorts from 1914-1981 using data from various supplements to the Current Population Survey (CPS) from 1973 through 2006. After controlling for demographic characteristics, I find that mean tenure and the fraction of workers reporting at least ten and at least twenty years of tenure have both fallen substantially. This decline is concentrated among men, while long-term employment relationships have became slightly more common among women. Mirroring this decline in tenure and long-term employment relationships, there has been an increase in “churning” (defined as the proportion of workers in jobs with less than one year of tenure) for males as they enter their thirties and later. This pattern suggests that more recent cohorts are less likely than their parents to have a career characterized by a “life-time” job with a single employer.

Employment Insecurity: The Decline in Worker-Firm Attachment in the United States

Long-term employment relationships have long been an important feature of the labor market in the United States. However, increased international competition and the wave of corporate downsizing in the 1990s raised concerns that long-term employment relationships in the United States were disappearing. I present evidence in this study, based on data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) from 1973-2006, that long-term employment relationships have, in fact, become much less common for men in the private sector. Mirroring this decline in tenure and long-term employment relationships, there has been an increase in “churning” (defined as the proportion of workers in jobs with less than one year of tenure) for males in the private sector as they enter their thirties and later. In contrast, women have seen no systematic change in job durations or the incidence of longterm employment relationships in the private sector. There has been an increase in job durations and the incidence of long-term employment relationships in the public sector, with the increase more pronounced for women. I conclude that 1) the structure of jobs in the private sector has moved away from long-term relationships, 2) this decline has been offset for females by their increased attachment to the labor force, and 3) the public sector has been less susceptible to the competitive forces that are likely causing the changes in the private sector. It seems clear that more recent cohorts of workers are less likely than their parents to have a career characterized by a “life-time” job with a single employer.

What do we know about job loss in the United States? evidence from the displaced workers survey, 1984-2004

Labor market ; Displaced workers