Limited Unionization and (Lack of) Government Aid Hold Back American Workers
<snip>WASHINGTON — The US labor market is hot. Unemployment is at 3.8 percent, a level it’s hit only once since the 1960s, and many industries report deep labor shortages. Old theories of what’s wrong with the labor market — such as a lack of people with necessary skills — are dying fast. Earnings are beginning to pick up, and the Federal Reserve envisions a steady regimen of rate hikes.
So why does a large subset of workers continue to feel left behind?
The unemployed, in particular, receive relatively little assistance. US unemployment benefits provide less support in the first year of unemployment than those in any other country in the study, and the maximum length of benefits in a typical US state, 26 weeks, is shorter than in all but a handful of countries. In some states, the maximum benefit length is less than half of that.
Only 12 percent of US workers were covered by collective bargaining in 2016. Among all nations the OECD tracks, only Turkey, Lithuania, and South Korea have been lower at any point this millennium.<snip>
Link to Article:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2018/07/04/limited-unionization-and-government-aid-hold-back-workers-study-says/qM5bqMZ7qMVnAFVjDRduVP/story.html
