255 - Thematic Session. Labor Market Restructuring and Hard Times for Families and Individuals

Session Submission Type: Paper Session

Abstract

The restructuring of the labor market and labor force over the past several decades has created hard times for large numbers of individuals and their families. The three presentations in this thematic session will discuss a number of issues related to the impacts of labor market restructuring, including: the Earned Income Tax Credit’s tremendous role in boosting the incomes of the poor and the rise of poor households living on less than $2 a day in the U.S.; the consequences of precarious work for family formation and individual well-being in the U.S. and other industrial countries such as Japan; and the nature and consequences of the growth of informalization of work in retail jobs. The presentations will also discuss the kinds of social policies that are needed to address these negative consequences of labor market restructuring.

Sub Unit

• Thematic Sessions

Session Organizer

• Arne L. Kalleberg, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Presider

• Beth A. Rubin, University of North Carolina-Charlotte

Individual Presentations

• Work Is Still Not Enough: Big Winners and Big Losers in the Post-Welfare World - Kathryn J. Edin, Harvard University; Ruby Mendenhall, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• The Impacts of Precarious Work on Families and Individuals - Arne L. Kalleberg, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

• Job Fragmentation, Informalization, and Degradation: Evidence on Why it’s Happening and Why it Doesn’t Have To - Chris Tilly, University of California-Los Angeles