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We offer a unified analysis of the growth of low-skill service occupations between 1980 and 2005 and the concurrent polarization of US employment and wages. We hypothesize that polarization stems from the interaction between consumer preferences, which favor variety over specialization, and the falling cost of automating routine, codifiable job tasks. Applying a spatial equilibrium model, we corroborate four implications of this hypothesis. Local labor markets that specialized in routine tasL · differentially adopted information technology, reallocated low-skill labor into service occupations (employment polarization), experienced earnings growth at the tails of the distribution (wage polarization), and received inflows of skilled labor.

In this article, we examine wage negotiations as a specific instance of claims-making, predicting that the capacity to make a claim is first a function of the position, rather than the person, and that lower-status actors—women, migrants, fixed-term, part-time, and unskilled workers—are all more likely to be in positions where negotiation is not possible. At the same time, subordinate-status actors may be less likely to make claims even where negotiation is possible, and when they do make wage claims they may receive lower or no returns to negotiation. Analyses of wage negotiations by more than 2,400 German employees largely confirm these theoretical expectations, although the patterns of opportunity, agency, and economic returns vary by categorical status. All low-status actors are more likely to be in jobs where negotiation is not possible. Women, people in lower-class jobs, and people with temporary contracts are less likely to negotiate even when given the opportunity. Regarding returns, agency in wage claims does not seem to improve the wages of women, migrants, or working-class individuals. The advice to “lean-in” will not substantially lower wage inequalities for everyone, although men who lean in do benefit relative to men who do not.

Past research has emphasized two critical economic concerns that appear to generate anti-immigrant sentiment among native citizens: concerns about labor market competition and concerns about the fiscal burden on public services. We provide direct tests of both models of attitude formation using an original survey experiment embedded in a nationwide U.S. survey. The labor market competition model predicts that natives will be most opposed to immigrants who have skill levels similar to their own. We find instead that both low-skilled and highly skilled natives strongly prefer highly skilled immigrants over low-skilled immigrants, and this preference is not decreasing in natives' skill levels. The fiscal burden model anticipates that rich natives oppose low-skilled immigration more than poor natives, and that this gap is larger in states with greater fiscal exposure (in terms of immigrant access to public services). We find instead that rich and poor natives are equally opposed to low-skilled immigration in general. In states with high fiscal exposure, poor (rich) natives are more (less) opposed to low-skilled immigration than they are elsewhere. This indicates that concerns among poor natives about constraints on welfare benefits as a result of immigration are more relevant than concerns among the rich about increased taxes. Overall the results suggest that economic self-interest, at least as currently theorized, does not explain voter attitudes toward immigration. The results are consistent with alternative arguments emphasizing noneconomic concerns associated with ethnocentrism or sociotropic considerations about how the local economy as a whole may be affected by immigration.

We investigate the role of skill complementarities in production and mobility across cities. The nature of the complementarities determines the equilibrium skill distribution across cities. With extreme-skill complementarity, the skill distribution has thicker tails in large cities; with top-skill complementarity, there is first-order stochastic dominance. Using wage and housing price data, we find robust evidence of thick tails in large cities: large cities disproportionately attract both high- and low-skilled workers, while average skills are constant across city size. This pattern of spatial sorting is consistent with extreme-skill complementarity, where the productivity of high-skilled workers and of the providers of low-skilled services are mutually enhanced.

Based on urban household survey data, the authors find that skill premia increased significantly across all regions of China between 1995 and 2002, but only in coastal regions between 2002 and 2007. By then, these regions also displayed much wider wage inequality and thus contributed more to overall urban wage inequality than non‐coastal regions. While privatization was the main driver of skill premia in 1995–2002, China's (regionally uneven) integration into the global economy became the dominant influence in 2002–07. Reducing skill premia and inequality, the authors argue, calls for reform of the Hukou registration system which impedes skilled labour mobility and possibly also growth.

Over the past thirty years, U.S. manufacturing plants invested heavily in automation machinery. This paper shows these investments substituted for the least-skilled workers and complemented middle-skilled workers at equipment and fabricated metal plants. Specifically, it exploits the fact that some metropolitan areas experienced faster growth in the relative supply of less-skilled labor in the 1980s and 1990s due to an immigration wave and the tendency of immigrants to regionally cluster. Plants in these areas adopted significantly less machinery per unit output, despite having similar adoption plans initially. The results imply that fixed rental rates for automation machinery reduce the effect that immigration has on less-skilled relative wages.

PurposeGiven advances in digitalization and automation, manufacturing employees are facing the increasing threat of being substituted by smart machines and robots. The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework that explains as well as can be used to study career sustainability of workers in the fast-paced, continuously changing manufacturing landscape.Design/methodology/approachAfter tracing the evolution of manufacturing sector in China, the authors review existing literature on career sustainability and then propose a new framework. The authors then describe two fictive cases and illustrate the applicability of the four-dimensional framework in helping understand the lived experience of objects in these fictive cases.FindingsThe proposed dynamic framework of career sustainability constituted by four intricately interconnected dimensions (i.e. resourceful, flexible, renewable and integrative) is useful in understanding the fictive cases and hopefully will guide future research on career sustainability in manufacturing or similarly fast-past, dynamically changing environments.Practical implicationsThe framework of career sustainability facilitates manufacturing employees to accurately evaluate the sustainability of their careers, whereby they can choose to continue, shift or re-orient their career paths during the transitional period toward digitalized manufacturing; it also enlightens employers to think about how to enhance the job security and engagement of workers by helping prolong their careers and re-design their career plans.Originality/valueThis paper proposes a novel yet context-specific framework to understand and study sustainability of careers. In addition to helping us understand how careers evolve during transformational periods, it also offers fruitful avenues for further research.

Objective This article examines how unemployment affects the separation risk of heterosexual coresiding couples, depending on couples' household income and whether men or women become unemployed. Background Unemployment may decrease the separation risk as a drop in resources makes separation more costly—or it may increase the separation risk if unemployment creates stress and reduces the quality of couple relations. Moreover, unemployment may be more detrimental for couples if men rather than women, or low‐earners rather than high‐earners, become unemployed. Method This article adopts a couple perspective and assesses heterogeneous effects of unemployment on separation based on longitudinal data—large household panels from Germany and the UK using discrete‐time event history models. Results For both countries, results show that the annual separation rate almost doubles after an unemployment spell: It increases from 0.9% to 1.6% per year. This effect does not vary when men or women lose their job. The separation risk after unemployment is somewhat higher for low‐income couples than high‐income couples in the UK, but overall differences are small. Conclusion Findings show that unemployment does not strengthen unions, but makes them more vulnerable—regardless of which partner becomes unemployed and regardless of a household's economic resources.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the impact of 2022 economic crisis, on the care of paediatric patients with epilepsy, focusing on medication adherence, clinic visit compliance, and seizure control.MethodA mixed-method study with a qualitative and quantitative component was conducted at a tertiary level Paediatric neurology unit. A focus group discussion among 30 caregivers was done and thematically analyzed. An interviewer-administered questionnaire including a validated self assessment collected quantitative data in a random sample of 120 caregivers. Aim was to capture the financial, social, and healthcare challenges.ResultsFour major themes emerged:financial, unavailability of medications, compliance, and social challenges. Around 90% of caregivers reporting financial struggles due to reduced income and loss of occupation, resilience was evident, with one parent stating, ‘We kept fasting to buy the medications my child needs.’Majority of mothers were unemployed [92%], and fathers were unskilled workers [52.5%]. Majority of parents were educated up to ordinary level. Most unskilled workers lost income during the crisis[n=35]. Most children had generalized motor seizures [54.74%], while half (52%) of the caregivers relied solely on free healthcare services. Clinic visits compliance remained high (90.5% before vs. 90.1% during), and medication adherence was stable (89.5% before vs. 88.4% during). Provision of medications from public sector was drastically reduced during crisis. Seizures were increased in 20% of population.The current income of the family didn’t have a statistical significance to the compliance to clinic visits and medication, (p=0.85, p=078 respectively)The paediatric epilepsy self-assessment questionnaire revealed parents are motivated [mean 2.53,4.19] to provide care for the children, at the cost of other siblings. [mean 2.61,3.36]ConclusionsThe economic crisis in Sri Lanka did not significantly alter medication adherence, clinic visit compliance, with some effect on seizure control. The caregivers faced considerable financial and social challenges. The provision of care for children with epilepsy remained minimally effected, highlighting the resilience of healthcare system and the caregivers.Abstract 8299 Table 1Thematic analysisFinancial difficulties Difficult to purchase medicationDifficult to afford transport (includes public transport fares)Change in job patternsAlternative extreme methods such as begging Compliance Difficult to provide for other childrenPoor compliance to clinicsPoor compliance to medication Unavailability of medication Increase of breakthrough seizures due to poor complianceUnavailability of medication in the private pharmaciesUnavailability of medication in government sector free of charge Social AttitudesFrustration in patientsChange in clinic patterns in hospitalsSpecial and time needed to care for child with more disability AcknowledgementsWe thank the caregivers who participated in this study and the staff at Teaching Hospital Kurunegala for their support during the research.ReferencesJayawardena R, Kodithuwakku W, Sooriyaarachchi P. The impact of the Sri Lankan economic crisis on medication adherence: An online cross-sectional survey. Dialogues in Health 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dialog.2023.100137Remedium one. (n.d.). Health care structure in Sri Lanka. Retrieved August 28, 2023, from https://www.remediumone.com/why-sri-lanka/disease-burden/The Lancet Regional Health – Southeast Asia. (2023). Sri Lanka – Health in the middle of a crisis. IWanigasinghe J, Arambepola C, Murugupillai R, Chang T. Age, sex and ethnic differentials in the prevalence and control of epilepsy among Sri Lankan children: a population-based study. BMJ. 2019.

Construction labors play critical roles in executing the project. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to provide and review using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach that the skilled and unskilled labor force impact on project performance which has been overlooked in the previous literature in the context of the public construction industry in developing countries, like Pakistan. To achieve the objective of this study, a hypothetical model was developed and empirically examined by using Structural Equation Modeling. Data were gathered through a questionnaire survey method. In total, 400 construction practitioners responded to the questionnaire on behalf of their organization. The results revealed that unskilled labor has a significant negative impact on project performance during the construction phase, whereas the results confirmed that skilled labors have a significant positive impact on project performance in enhancing the success rate of the project in the public construction industry. These results could be used by construction experts to elaborate a broader and rooted view of the labor skills affecting the project performance. The results provide adequate information to policy and decision makers concerning labor skills being a compulsory part of the operational strategy in accelerating the better execution and success of construction projects. The current study adds to the construction project management literature by examining the effect of labor skills on project performance positively or negatively, and the hypothesized model was developed that should be adopted by practitioners to ascertain labor skills for the successful execution of the project.