The deteriorating labour market position of low‐skilled workers challenges economic efficiency and social equity. Four aspects are examined: joblessness among the low‐skilled; the prevalence of low pay among women; persistence in low pay; and the overlap between low pay and household poverty....

Using a large panel of employees from the New Earnings Survey, examines the subsequent earnings transitions of those who were in the lowest quintile of the earnings distribution in 1976. Traces the quintile earnings positions in 1984 and 1991 of three age groups of 1976 – the young, the...