Employment Archives - Public Seminar

Economy

You Are Entitled to Live Your Own Life—If Your Employer Allows It

How the business of cobbling together a living became a new form of unpaid labor

October 17, 2024 • by Phyllis Jeffrey

I know someone, a nurse, who doesn’t have health insurance. His employer, a staffing agency, bounces him from assignment to assignment—sometimes with only a day’s notice. Engaged in skilled care work that is profoundly dependent on the ability to maintain human relationships, he often finds himself treated more like a ...

You Are Entitled to Live Your Own Life—If Your Employer Allows It

History

‘Scenarios of Uncertainty’ in Britain’s steel communities

January 20, 2020 • by Tosh Warwick

In November 2019, it was announced that the most recent manifestation of ‘British Steel’ had been saved following the purchase of the ailing firm by the Chinese Jingye Group. The £70m takeover promises to save thousands of jobs and bring in £1 billion investment. The news brought relief for those ...

‘Scenarios of Uncertainty’ in Britain’s steel communities

Migration

Lockstitch Lives

Migrants in the Megacity

December 16, 2019 • by Shikha Silliman Bhattacharjee

Yogesh is one of the people you meet in Lockstitch Lives – Migrants in the Megacity. This interactive documentary, produced by Society for Labour and Development and HELM Studio, transports you to the neighborhoods of Gurgaon, where you witness the rugged daily realities of scores of families like Yogesh’s. Using 360-degree multimedia, Virtual Reality, photography ...

Migration

Post-Workers of the World, Unite!

Reconciling Open Borders and Post-Work Politics

December 6, 2019 • by James Chamberlain

Labour party members passed a motion at the 2019 conference asserting that “free movement, equality and rights for migrants are socialist values and benefit us all.” This socialist framing of freedom of movement emphasizes that migrants are workers and marks a clear contrast with Bernie Sanders’s description of open borders as a “right-wing ...

Uncategorized

The Unemployment Rate Is Not a Fact

Our country’s most trusted economic metric is only a political artifact.

July 5, 2019 • by Patrick Sheehan

The year was 1875 and Carrol Wright was upset. The mustached state senator from Massachusetts thought that American workers had a problem. Just not the problem that the workers thought they had. Following the financial Panic of 1873 and nosediving wages, Americans were launching wildcat strikes, torching railroad stations, and fighting ...

Uncategorized

Committees Are for Straight People

LGBTQ people want equality now — here are three things you can do

June 30, 2019 • by Jessica Halem and Jen Manion

Queer, trans, and gay people have long been refused work, denied advancement opportunities, and fired for reasons relating to their being out -- and sometimes too proud. Employment nondiscrimination protections matter but they do not address subtler forms of bias in hiring and promotion, such as whether LGBTQ people who ...

Feature

Older Men’s Bargaining Power Hit by 36% Decrease in Job Tenure

2.9% unemployment rate for workers age 55 and older in December

January 5, 2019 • by Teresa Ghilarducci

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) today reported a 2.9% unemployment rate for workers age 55 and older in December, which represents no change from November. Despite the low headline unemployment rate, changes in job tenure over the last 30 years have reduced older workers' bargaining power, especially older men. In 1987, the ...

Older Men’s Bargaining Power Hit by 36% Decrease in Job Tenure

Feature

Older Workers at Risk in Next Recession

November 2018 Unemployment Report for Workers Over 55

December 10, 2018 • by Teresa Ghilarducci

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) today reported an unemployment rate of 2.9% for November, an increase of 0.1 percentage points from October. Older workers are benefiting from a historically low unemployment rate. Now is the time to prepare for older workers' higher risks in recessions. Older workers least prepared for retirement are most likely ...

Feature

The Unfolding Welfare Crisis in the UK

Will a system designed for universal care become a universal catastrophe?

December 4, 2018 • by Christian Garland

Chris Gold of Shepton Beauchamp, Somerset -- one of the “test” areas in which Universal Credit is in operation -- was found to have died of natural causes. Despite suffering a stroke in 2015, Gold had lost his Employment Support Allowance after being declared “fit for work,” and then in ...

Feature

How to Save 8.1 Million Seniors from Poverty by 2045

July 2018 Unemployment Report for Workers Over 55

August 5, 2018 • by Teresa Ghilarducci

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an unemployment rate of 3.1% for workers age 55 and older for the month of July, which represents no change from June. While the headline unemployment rate for older workers is at an historic low, an increasing share of older workers are in bad jobs with low and stagnant wages. Without access ...

How to Save 8.1 Million Seniors from Poverty by 2045

Feature

Unstable or Low-Wage Jobs Make Up More than Half of Older Workers’ Job Growth

April 2018 Unemployment Report for Workers Over 55

May 6, 2018 • by Teresa Ghilarducci

The Bureau of Labor Statistics today reported a 3.0% unemployment rate for workers age 55 and older in April, a decrease of 0.2 percentage points since March. While this number is low, we continue to hear stories of older workers struggling in the modern economy, such as Doug Schifter, a livery cab driver in ...

Unstable or Low-Wage Jobs Make Up More than Half of Older Workers’ Job Growth

Feature

Wage Increases Leave Women and Older Workers Behind

February 2018 unemployment report for workers over 55

March 12, 2018 • by Teresa Ghilarducci

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) today reported a 3.2% unemployment rate for workers age 55 and older in February, an increase of 0.2 percentage points from January. While low unemployment is finally leading to wage increases for some prime-age men, women and older workers are being left behind. In the last year, ...