Hidden Unemployment: Discouraged Workers and Public Policy

(Hardback)

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This timely and important work addresses the controversy surrounding discouragement among the unemployed. Using an unprecedented set of national and local studies, and drawing on disparate research in nearly every social science discipline, the authors produce an original, highly detailed portrait of discouraged workers. From their analysis they offer recommendations on what can be done to promote employment and reduce long-term dependency on government assistance. Other timely issues discussed are chronic minority unemployment, worker dislocation through plant closings, the impact of low wage jobs on reducing poverty, the feminization of poverty, the plight of the working poor, and the importance of the family.

Reviews

An analytic study of an important segment of the population--discouraged workers. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics identifies discouraged workers on the basis of responses to its monthly Current Population Survey' (CPS). This study uses the 1984 Special Plant Closing Supplement' to the CPS to examine the process of discouragement and to compare discouraged workers among themselves, with other unemployed, and with the general labor force. A chapter of case studies supplements the quantitative analyses. Concluding chapters identify the needs of discouraged workers and suggest suitable public policies. Useful bibliography and index. Buss is the author of many books; Redburn is an economist at the US Office of Management and Budget and has coauthored two other books with Buss. Recommended for all libraries serving economics, government, and social work students. Upper-division and graduate collections.-Choice
"An analytic study of an important segment of the population--discouraged workers. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics identifies discouraged workers on the basis of responses to its monthly Current Population Survey' (CPS). This study uses the 1984 Special Plant Closing Supplement' to the CPS to examine the process of discouragement and to compare discouraged workers among themselves, with other unemployed, and with the general labor force. A chapter of case studies supplements the quantitative analyses. Concluding chapters identify the needs of discouraged workers and suggest suitable public policies. Useful bibliography and index. Buss is the author of many books; Redburn is an economist at the US Office of Management and Budget and has coauthored two other books with Buss. Recommended for all libraries serving economics, government, and social work students. Upper-division and graduate collections."-Choice

Author Bio

TERRY F. BUSS is professor of urban studies and senior research associate at the Center for Urban Studies, The University of Akron. His latest books coauthored with Roger J. Vaughan and published by the Council of State Planning Agencies, include: On the Rebound: Developing a Human Service Response to Plant Closings (1988), A State Strategy for Preventing and Treating Rural Poverty (1988), Picking Up the Pieces: Economic Recovery After a Plant Closin (1988). He is now working on a book about the the working poor and welfare poor. F. STEVENS REDBURN is an Economist with the United States Office of Management and Budget. He is the co-author, with Terry Buss, of Responding to America's Homeless (Praeger, 1987) and Revitalizing the U.S. Economy (Praeger, 1987). He is currently working on banking and housing issues.