People Management & Work in a Global Context, Labor Market in the United States - Case Study Example

LЕ MАNАGЕMЕNT & WОRK IN А GLОBАL СОNTЕХT Author’s Name Course Instructor Institution City Date of Submission People Management & Work in a Global Context Introduction The world is based on either the co-ordinated market economy or the liberal market economy. Among the developed countries, the United States is the best example of the liberal market economy. The market mechanisms are used in solving the issues which arise between the suppliers, the employees, the employers, the customers and the financiers in the country. The LMEs are characterized by free market economies. The decentralization of the economies, industrial relations, and the collective bargaining takes place in the enterprise. LME’s have short-term relations which are also adversarial between the economic factors, for example, the government and the international institutions. The characteristics of the economy in the United States indicate the features which make the country a prime example of LME unlike other capitalist economies such as India and Britain. Labor Market in the United States of America in the Present and the Past The labor market of the United States, like all the regions in the world is continually changing. The earlier Labor Market Economy has not been sustainable in the economy of the United States, and therefore, there are aspired changes which will change the labor market economy in the United States all round. The significant failures of the earlier systems include the increasing level of unemployment, the stagnant wages, and recovery of the economy requires many changes. The changes include the individual choices, technological revolution increment of client sophistication and the demographic changes (Caputo 2001, p. 2). The changes in the United States give a comparison of the labor market in the past and the present labor market, thereby indicating the changes in the economy of US as in other countries. The production shift over the years in the United States can be compared since 2005 to 2015 and even in the recent years. The management and professions as well other related occupations have grown by 5%, while the service occupations also grew by 1%. The rate of the growth of higher wage jobs and high wage is increasing. Similarly, the low wage jobs in the United States also grow alongside he low wages, and the trend continues over the years. The middle skill jobs, on the other hand, have reduced drastically. The disparities of income and wealth have been exacerbated by the increased polarization (Autor 2006, p. 5). The women were once the minority group in the labor market of the United States. In 1900, the number of women in the labor market of United States was represented by 18.3%, but the number grew up to 27.4%. In 2015, the number of women in the workforce of United States increased up to 46.8 (Boston 2015, p. 62). The world is advocating for gender equality in all fields of the workforce, and the number of women in the workforce may continue increasing over the years. U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics The economy of the United States of America is recovering and growing towards the economic sustainability. The Bureau of Labor Statistics denotes that the economy of the United States will increase the jobs by 9.8 million by 2024 with accordance with the experienced growth in the labor market over the last ten years (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2012, p. 2). However, the economy of America is subject to economic, and the political factors and hence, the projections of the Bureau of Labor projects are just estimations. The participation of the labor force since the last recession has indicated the increase of the rate of 55 aged participants in the workforce. The work forces of the people who are aged between 16 and 24 have also decreased according to the recession, which was carried out recently in the United States. There is also increment in demand for healthcare and social services and the rate of growth of related jobs such as healthcare assistant jobs and social assistance jobs. According to the estimations of the BLS, the service providing industries will increase third populations by 9.3 million due to the new jobs created. The goods producing industries, on the other hand, are expected to create about 790,000 new jobs. However, the construction sector is not expected to have many changes, and more importantly, it is not expected to increase. The projections of BLS further indicate that the manufacturing industry will lose about 814000 jobs. The mining industry, on the other hand, is likely to increase the new jobs by 80, 000 over the next ten years (DPE 2016, p. 5). There is an increasing trend of the growth in population comprising of the school-aged children, the increase of the school-aged population will trigger the demand for the post-secondary education, library occupations, and training. The demand and the population increment in the education sector will cause the growth rate in the sector to grow by about7.6% of the above workforce. By 2024, 700,000 jobs will be created in the education sector. The technological advancement in the digital era is increasing the usage of computers in the United States of America. The dependence on computers in the US is oriented in the business as well as in the personal uses. The mathematical and the computer-related occupations will also increase the rate of the digital transitions, especially in businesses. Creation of 531, 400 jobs in the information technology sector will lead to its growth by 13.1%. Software and application development is projected to experience an increment of 18.8% between 2014 and 2024. However, the occupation is threatened by its nature of being highly offshorable. The projections of the software development are compromised. STEM occupations are projected to increase by the largest margin among all the occupations in the United States of America. The sector is expected to enlarge by 3.07 million jobs by 2024. The proportion of the occupations will increase by more than 15% by 2024. Occupations such as architecture and engineering are expected to increase much from the last recession number which was 150000. The increment of the proportion in these occupations will lead to the recovery of the economy of the United States of America (Beede 2011, p. 7). Additionally, the recession showed that the office, as well as the administrative workers, was vulnerable to losses of jobs; the group of occupation experienced a loss of 1.7 million jobs in the last recession. The jobs lost were many than the expected increase of 466000 new jobs (Kochan 2016, p. 420). Disparities between Employment and the Growing Wealth The United States of America has been experiencing disparities between the employment and the growing wealth. The inequality between the two factors is continuing to grow in the country. The rate of unionization has declined, and it is a partial cause of the inequality which exists between the employment and growing wealth in the United States (Greer 2017, p. 202). Wage stagnation is also another factor which has accelerated the rate on the disparity between growing wealth and employment. The health costs in the US have increased over the last decade, and the tax policies are oriented to the favor of the wealthy class, hence the gap between the growing wealth and employment is continuing to grow. One-third of all the wealth in the United States was held by the wealthy class by 2012. The bottom 90% of the population of America regarding wealth held only 27 of the combined wealth (www.blis.gov 2008, p. 4). The recent recession is the indicator of the owners of the wealth were the minority wealthy populations (Toossi 2002, p. 15). Wealth polarization in the United States is extreme, with the average real income per every family in the US being 17.4%. The recession also resulted as a result of the incapability of the workers to find permanent employment in the United States as others look for long-term job vacancies. The rate of unemployment in last year was 4.7%, which was a decrease from the rate of unemployment in the previous year which was 5.5%. The marginally attached workforce was added up to 5% of the total unemployed population in the US (Baldwin 2009, p. 4). However, according to the report on the labor market of United States in 2007, the part-time related unemployment had gradually decreased. The decrease in the unionization has contributed to a significant extent to the top income shares and less distribution in the labor market of the United States (Groshen 2005, p. 3). The American trend is the same as the report of 2015 by the International Monetary Fund indicates that other 20 industrialized countries where the increase overall inequality between the employment and growing wealth is correlated to the erosion of the minimum wealth. Labor Market and Age in the United States The Baby Boomer generation in the United States is remaining in the labor market longer than the stipulated retirement age. The low wages, as well as the uncertainty in the economy as well as the inadequacy of the retirement plans, are some of the reasons why the older generation in the United States is taking much time before the retirement. The factors represent the barriers towards the labor market. The younger generation, on the other hand, has a small percentage of representation in the labor market of the United States due to the hindrances to entry into the labor market. The barriers to entry by the young people and the barriers to exit by older people are factors which affect the labor market of the United States, and it is likely to continue affecting it in future (Borjas 2003, p. 1335). The difficulties faced by retirees alongside the lack of a retirement plan by the employers are the challenges of adapting to the retirement life. Most of the older employees in the US save part of their income, although it does not return the required resources for the retirement. Lack of financial plan which is long-term also attributes to the lack of enough retirement resources, especially with the recent retirees. The labor provided by men and women who are between the age of 62 and 79 is continuing to increase in the US since the mid-1990s. The age group works towards creating better retirement resources and reducing the retirement years hence they remain in the labor market for long (Hacker 2006, p. 109). Women and Gendered Economy There has been a significant increase of the educated women who have both bachelors and master’s degrees than women. In 2015, women represented about 52% of the employees in the management occupation. Regardless of the qualifications in the occupation, the women only earn 79 cents per every dollar which is earned by the men with the same qualifications. Gender inequality is still being exercised in the United States regarding the income earned by men and women. The gap of gender disparity is more conspicuous with families where both parents earn, and they have children. The report by the Institute for Women Policy Research and the AFL-CIO shows that if gender equality were observed in the United States, the women’s earnings would reduce the level of poverty to a great extent. Shifting and Declining of the Union Membership The labor unions have declined regarding membership for the last two decades. Several factors have led to the decline of the union membership as well as its shifting; offshoring of jobs and technological shifts are some of these causes. The legislation was harsh on the employers and hence contributed to the decline in the membership. Initially, the unionized workers were in the goods-producing industries unlike in the present-day America where the union members are mainly in the public sector ( Abwod 1982, p. 354). The political climate has a significant impact on the labor unions in the United States. Some states have union membership which is less than 5%. The union membership is compensated by the ‘Right-to-Work.' The states include GA, UT, TX, NC, and SC. State unionization in a particular state has effects on the wages of all the employees regardless of their membership status to the labor unions (Hall 2009, p. 452). Conclusion In brief, the United States of America is not unique among the LME’s but an archetype of LMEs. United states have characteristics which make it a prime example of the liberal economy. The labor market is continually varying with the social changes and technological advancement. Gender inequalities also have impacts on the labor market in the United States. The political factors, polarization, and unionization are also factors which influence the labor market in the US. All these features are an indication that the United States is a great example of a country with a labor market economy. References Read More