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.

Under pressure: pulmonary hypertension associated with left heart disease.

© ERS 2015.Pulmonary hypertension (PH) associated with left heart disease (PH-LHD) is the most common type of PH, but its natural history is not well understood. PH-LHD is diagnosed by right heart catheterisation with a mean pulmonary arterial pressure ⩾25 mmHg and a pulmonary capillary wedge pressure >15 mmHg. The primary causes of PH-LHD are left ventricular dysfunction of systolic and diastolic origin, and valvular disease. Prognosis is poor and survival rates are low. Limited progress has been made towards specific therapies for PH-LHD, and management focuses on addressing the underlying cause of the disease with supportive therapies, surgery and pharmacological treatments. Clinical trials of therapies for pulmonary arterial hypertension in patients with PH-LHD have thus far been limited and have provided disappointing or conflicting results. Robust, long-term clinical studies in appropriate target populations have the potential to improve the outlook for patients with PH-LHD. Herein, we discuss the knowledge gaps in our understanding of PH-LHD, and describe the current unmet needs and challenges that are faced by clinicians when identifying and managing patients with this disease

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.

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.