Employment adjustment in steel industry: The U.S. and Japan compared

This study purports to compare employment adjustment process in steel industry between the U.S. and Japan in the period 1974-1988. In response to production decline after the Oil Shock of 1973, Japanese steel companies reduced working hours, but not employment. In the 1980s, however, they adopted a new policy: reduction of both employment and working hours. U.S. steel companies reduced both employment and working hours in the 1970s. They changed their adjustment policy in the mid-1980s: reduction of employment and an increase in working hours.