Joblessness among American youth, particularly among nonwhites, has become an issue of increasing national concern. Unemployment rates among such groups, even when adjusted for macroeconomic events such as recessions, continued to rise throughout the post-war period. Statistics also appear to...

Fundamental changes in labor market patterns among U.S. prime-age men over the past two decades have been the focus of numerous recent research studies and media accounts. Increases in wage inequality and in male joblessness are the most important of these changes; assertions of an increase in...

In this working paper, Lawrence Buron, Robert Haveman, and Owen O'Donnell examine the possible reasons for the underutilization of labor among various segments of the male work force by studying foregone hours, or the gap (in terms of hours) between the amount of time actually worked and...

The trend in national policy over the past two decades has emphasized self reliance and a smaller role for government in society. Given this ideological shift, the Official poverty measure, which is based on the premise that all families should have sufficient income from either their own...