To improve the employment rates and earnings of Americans workers, we need to create more coherent and effective education and workforce development systems, focusing primarily (though not exclusively) on disadvantaged youth and adults, and with education and training more clearly targeted...

The author uses data from a 1992-94 survey of employers in four metropolitan areas to investigate the effects of skill demands, as measured by hiring requirements and job tasks, on the wages and employment of newly hired workers. Skill demands were generally associated with lower employment of...