Publisher's Synopsis
Fluctuations in foreign demand for exports have often been more important than fluctuations in domestic demand and imports in causing changes in industry employment, especially in the early 1980s and mid-1990s. But jobs differ in quality and workers differ in skills. What have been the trends since 1979 in the relation of trade to "good" jobs, and did more skilled American workers gain relative to less-skilled workers - or did the reverse occur more often? In this volume, Lori G. Kletzer builds on her recent definitive study of the American workforce for the W.E. Upjohn Institute to document the intensity and evolution of the relationship between trade and US employment. She will analyze, on an industry-by industry basis, the links between (1) rising import shares and job decline and (2) and export shares and employment growth. Kletzer estimates gains and losses of wage and hours associated with changes in exports and imports, for different skill groups in different US industries. This analysis then allows her to assess a range of future US policy options with respect to both trade and the workforce.
