Extending Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) to Service Workers: How Many Workers

[Excerpt] Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) provides income support and training assistance to workers who become unemployed for certain trade-related reasons. Only workers who make an article (i.e., manufacturing workers) are eligible for TAA. Under current law, service workers who become unemployed for a trade-related reason (e.g., outsourcing) are ineligible for TAA. Several bills in the 110th Congress (S. 1848, H.R. 910, H.R. 3589, H.R. 3920) would expand TAA to include service workers and public sector employees. The available data indicates that the number of displaced manufacturing workers in offshorable occupations from 2003 to 2005 (489,000) roughly equals the number of TAA-certified manufacturing workers over the same period (450,000). There were 840,000 workers displaced from offshorable nonmanufacturing occupations from 2003 to 2005, suggesting that the pool of TAA-eligible workers could have increased by over 170% if service workers had been eligible for TAA. In January 2006, nearly three times as many employed nonmanufacturing workers were in offshorable occupations (20.7 million) than employed manufacturing workers in offshorable occupations (7.7 million), suggesting a large increase in the pool of potentially eligible TAA workers. This report will be updated as circumstances warrant

Identifying High Demand Occupations and Understanding the Needs of Northeast Ohio Manufacturers: Focus Group Summary Report

While the current economic climate is challenging, it provides an opportunity to assess critical workforce and talent issues facing the manufacturing community. In March 2009, Dr. Joel Elvery of Cleveland State University’s Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs released the Employment and Wage Trends of Manufacturing Occupations in the Cleveland-Elyria PMSA analysis. The analysis identified occupations that appear to be “pain-points” for employers - or open positions that are hard to fill and thus, in high demand

Future gender relations in global restructuring processes case study evidence from knowledge-intensive, manufacturing and service occupations

Global restructuring processes have not only strong implications for European working and living realities, but also have specific outcomes with regard to gender relations. The following contribution analyses in which way global restructuring shapes current gender relations in order to identify important trends and developments for future gender (in)equalities at the workplace. On the basis of a large qualitative study on global restructuring and impacts on different occupational groups it argues that occupational belonging in line with skill and qualification levels are crucial factors to assess the further development of gender relations at work. Whereas global restructuring in knowledge-based occupations may provide new opportunities for female employees, current restructuring is going to deteriorate female labour participation in service occupations. In contrast, manufacturing occupations can be characterised by persistent gender relations, which do not change in spite of major restructuring processes at the work place. Taking the institutional perspective into account, it seems to be crucial to integrate the occupational perspective in order to apply adequate policy regulations to prevent the reinforcement of gender related working patterns in the near future.Global restructuring, gender, work organisation, occupational restructuring

Understanding Occupational and Skill Demand in NJ's Manufacturing Industry

The manufacturing industry employs over 460,000 workers in New Jersey. Jobs in the industry have undergone tremendous changes in recent decades. Technology is affecting industry productivity and has changed the way work is done. Workers must have technical expertise to understand the underlying principles of the production process and to interact effectively with the technology used to control these processes. This report summarizes the skill, knowledge, and educational requirements of key manufacturing occupations in the food processing, chemical processing, glass production, and printing/publishing sectors. It also identifies strategies for meeting the workforce challenges facing the industry

Earnings of culture workers: findings from Canadian Census data

A study of earnings in the culture sector is important to an understanding of the vitality of this sector. It is also an issue of significant interest to many culture organizations and lobby groups. The Canadian Framework for Culture Statistics1 classifies 48 occupations2 as culture occupations. Using data from the 1996 and 2001 Censuses of Population,3 this article discusses the employment income in culture occupations4 and compares it with the employment income of all occupations.Culture; Canada; Earnings; Workers

Related Variety, Unrelated Variety and Regional Functions: Identifying Sources of Regional Employment Growth in Germany from 2003 to 2008

This article analyses how regional employment growth in Germany is affected by related variety, unrelated variety and the functions a region performs in the production process. Following the related variety literature, we argue that regions benefit from the existence of related activities that facilitate economic development. However, we argue that the sole reliance of related variety on standard industrial classifications remains debatable. Hence, we offer estimations for establishing that conceptual progress can indeed be made when a focus for analysis goes beyond solely considering industries. We develop an industry-function based approach of related and unrelated variety. Our findings suggest that related variety only in combination with a high functional specialization of the region facilitates regional growth in Germany. Additionally, also unrelated variety per se fails to wield influences affecting development of regions. It is rather unrelated, but functionally proximate variety in the groups “White Collar” and “Blue Collar Workers” positively affects regional employment growth.related variety, unrelated variety, regional functions, functional specialization