"What makes a job good? A predictable schedule, regular paycheck, time off, health insurance, opportunities for training and advancement? What would it take to make more jobs better jobs, and what might be the limits to such improvement? The vertically integrated corporations of the past, with their career ladders, clear pay scales, and workers' benefits (from health insurance to PTO to pensions), have been gradually replaced by outsourcing and subcontracting, the use of staffing agencies, and increasing proportions of part-time and freelance workers. Globalization, technological change, market pressures favoring short-term gains, shifts in consumer demands, and declines in union membership have changed how workers and businesses operate in the economy. The demands of economic competition in the US have sent industries and employers to cutting labor costs any way they can. As the economy has recovered since the 2008 crisis, concern over the number of jobs available has abated, with unemployment in the U.S. under four percent. Despite the availability of jobs, millions of people are paid poorly and unpredictably, experience little upward mobility, and lack the safety nets of health insurance and other workers' benefits. Meanwhile, concern about types and quality of jobs has focused on smart technologies, freelancing, and subcontracting, overlooking the consistent low wages and poor working conditions of people who cook and serve food, provide residential care, and work as day laborers. The contributors to this volume explain why lowering labor costs in the short term can increase companies' costs overall, as lower productivity, high turnover, and customer dissatisfaction affect the bottom line. Contributors analyze industries individually, identifying sector-specific opportunities to improve employment to supplement the overarching strategies of regulation, training, and pressuring employers. What could work in home health care (e.g., convincing health insurance agencies that providing more training and greater responsibilities to long-term health care workers will save money and increase retention) may not work in the restaurant industry, where people can advance by moving to different employers, or in retail, where the organizational structure has fewer layers of possible advancement. From "win-win" strategies that benefit employers and workers to regulatory or organizational measures that could mitigate The contributors to this volume have deep expertise ..."
