Introductory Material

Studies in the News is a very current compilation of items significant to the Legislature and Governor's Office. It is created weekly by the State Library's Research Bureau to supplement the public policy debate in California’s Capitol. To help share the latest information with state policymakers, these reading lists are now being made accessible through the State Library’s website. This week's list of current articles in various public policy areas is presented below.

Service to State Employees:

• When available, the URL for the full text of each item is provided.

• California State Employees may contact the State Information & Reference Center (916-654-0206; cslsirc@library.ca.gov) with the SITN issue number and the item number [S#].

• All other interested individuals should contact their local library - the items may be available there, or may be borrowed by your local library on your behalf.

ECONOMY

OUTSOURCING

Offshoring, Importing Competition, and the Jobless Recovery. By Charles L. Schultze. Policy Brief. No. 136. (The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC) 2004. 8 p.

Full Text at: www.brook.edu/comm/policybriefs/pb136.pdf

["A widespread perception has arisen that a major culprit behind the dearth of jobs was the growing practice of U.S. firms to relocate part of their domestic operations to lower-wage countries abroad. In fact, after the 2001 recession, U.S. domestic production rose substantially, but output-per-worker productivity jumped so sharply that instead of rising, employment declined. That is the real cause of the jobless recovery."]

[Request #S4144]

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Services Offshoring: Background and Implications for California. By Jon D. Haveman and Howard J. Shatz, Public Policy Institute of California. (The Institute, San Francisco, California) 2004. 56 p.

Full Text at: www.ppic.org/content/pubs/OP_804JHOP.pdf

["This paper provides background information for policy consideration of the offshoring of services. The authors describe the concept of offshoring, explain its appeal, and put the phenomenon in both its historical and current context. The paper explains how technology and business services offshoring fits into the growing globalization of the U.S. and world economies. It concludes by discussing some policy implications and describing how much more data and analysis are required for the development of effective policy."]

[Request #S4145]

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EMPLOYMENT

CALIFORNIA

Bay Area Jobs: The Impact of Offshoring and Other Key Trends. By A.T. Kearney. Prepared for Bay Area Economic Forum and Joint Venture Silicon Valley. (The Forum, San Francisco, California) September 2004. 33 p.

Full Text at: www.jointventure.org/initiatives/globalsiliconvalley/FBAJoffshore04BWFINAL.pdf

["This study analyzed how offshoring and major trends are impacting the composition and future of jobs in the Bay Area. It offers a baseline profile of the job market – a close-up view of employment by industry, occupation and other variables. The findings are based on 120 interviews, analysis of 9,000 job listings in two leading Bay Area industries — semiconductor and software — chosen to represent manufacturing and services, and an extensive review of secondary literature."]

[Request #S4146]

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Trends in U.S. Health Insurance Coverage, 2001-2003. By Bradley C. Strunk and Robert C. Reschovsky. Tracking Report. No. 9. (Center for Studying Health System Change, Washington, DC) 2004. Various pagings.

Full Text at: www.hschange.com/CONTENT/694/?topic=topic01#abs_top

["A report found that nearly nine million U.S. residents younger than age 65 lost employer-sponsored health coverage between 2001 and 2003. Employer-sponsored health coverage has declined as workers lost jobs and health coverage and employed workers have been 'priced out' as health insurance premiums increased while salaries did not."]

[Request #S4147]

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Wages, Health Benefits, and Worker's Health. By Sara R. Collins and others, the Commonwealth Fund. (The Fund, New York, New York) October 2004. 16 p.

Full Text at: www.cmwf.org/usr_doc/Collins_workers_IB_788.pdf

["This study ... finds a deep divide in the U.S. labor force and an urgent need for expanding access to comprehensive and affordable coverage to working Americans and their families."]

[Request #S4159]

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The High Cost of Cheap Labor: Illegal Immigration and the Federal Budget. By Steven A. Camarota, Center for Immigration Studies. (The Center, Washington, DC) 2004. 48 p.

Full Text at: www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscal.pdf

["Illegal immigrants cost the federal government more than $10 billion a year, and a program to legalize them would nearly triple the figure, a study said.... The study ... concluded that illegal immigrants did not constitute a significant drain on welfare programs, receiving much less in social services than citizens and legal residents. However, it found that undocumented immigrants paid nearly 75% less per household in federal taxes, on average. Some work off the books, but the majority who pay taxes are unskilled, low-wage workers with little income tax liability." Los Angeles Times (August 26, 2004) A15.]

[Request #S4148]

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The Bottom Line: Setting the Real Standard for Bay Area Working Families. By the United Way of the Bay Area. (The United Way, San Francisco, California) 2004. 28 p.

Full Text at: www.nedlc.org/TheBottomLine.pdf

["One in four Bay Area families can't afford the basics of housing, food, health and child care without government aid, according to this report. The study looks at income and prices across the region to come up with a 'self-sufficiency' standard for each of the nine Bay Area counties. It found that across the region 493,058 of 1,996,186 households lived below the standard." CDPI Early Education in the News (October 10, 2004).]

[Request #S4149]

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Economic Development and the Knowledge Economy in California's Inland Empire: Progress or Stagnation. By Louis Tornatzky and Matt A. Barreto, Tomas Rivera Policy Institute. (The Institute, Los Angeles, California) 2004. 38 p.

Full Text at: www.trpi.org/PDFs/IE.pdf

["The report examines the reasons why high-tech and high-paying jobs are not as prevalent in San Bernardino and Riverside counties as in neighboring counties."]

[Request #S4152]

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State-by-State WIA Program Participation Data-Program Year 2002. By the Center for Law and Social Policy. (The Center, Washington, DC) 2004. 4 p.

Full Text at: www.clasp.org/DMS/Documents/1092859816.04/State_WIA_Data_PY_2002_Final.pdf

["These tables provide state-by-state data on Workforce Investment Act participation for program year 2002, which was recently made available by the Department of Labor." Moving Ideas (September 1, 2004) 1.]

[Request #S4150]

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Building a Strong Management Workforce in State Government: Testimony. By Stephen Rhoads, Stategic Education Services. Presented to the Little Hoover Commission. (The Commission, Sacramento, California) June 24, 2004. 4 p.

Full Text at: www.lhc.ca.gov/lhcdir/management/RhoadsJun04.pdf

["We all need to stop making our state workers the scapegoat for all the state's problems.... You should survey exiting managers, staff who are thinking about becoming managers, and union leadership. And the recent reports suggesting that large numbers of senior managers will be retiring need to be broken down by select departments/commissions, by geographical area, and by subject area. The demographics of our workforce will not be the same for all departments across the state."]

[Request #S4153]

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Maintaining a Quality State Workforce: Testimony. And "Skills of Effective Public Sector Managers": PowerPoint Presentation. By Carol D. Chesbrough, Department of Financial Institutions. Presented to the Little Hoover Commission (The Commission, Sacramento, California) June 24, 2004.

Full Text at:

["Skill of effective public sector managers. What skills are required of public sector managers and supervisors? Do managers and supervisors in state agencies have access to the training, tools and resources they need to successfully lead public sector organizations?"]

Testimony. 3 p.:
http://www.lhc.ca.gov/lhcdir/management/ChesbroughJun04.pdf

PowerPoint Presentation. 8 p.:
http://www.lhc.ca.gov/lhcdir/management/ChesbroughJun04PowerPoint.pdf

[Request #S4154]

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Hiring, Compensation and Promotions: Testimony. By Michael T. Navarro, Department of Personnel Administration. Presented to the Little Hoover Commission. (The Commission, Sacramento, California) June 24, 2004. 2 p.

Full Text at: www.lhc.ca.gov/lhcdir/management/NavarroJun04.pdf

["Supervisors and managers in general are recruited within State service and, more specifically, from within their own employing agency. There is little recruitment of supervisors or managers from outside State service. The two most identifiable reasons are: Appointments to State service must be made from lists established through competitive examination under the merit system.... Recruiting from outside State service has been difficult."]

[Request #S4156]

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Increasing the Visibility of the Invisible Workforce: Model Programs and Policies for Hourly and Lower Wage Employees. By Corporate Voices for Working Families. (Corporate Voices for Working Families, Washington, DC) April 2004. 92 p.

Full Text at: www.cvworkingfamilies.org/downloads/model%20programs%20&%20policies%20for%20lower-wage%20employees.pdf

["This report presents the findings from a study that identifies model programs and policies for hourly and lower wage workers in 15 different organizations -- companies that have recognized the value of these employees and who are working to make 'invisible workers visible.'"]

[Request #S4158]

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Who Benefits From the New Overtime Regulations? A Data Analysis of the U.S. Department of Labor's Assessment. By Kirk A. Johnson, The Heritage Foundation. (The Foundation, Washington, DC) August 16, 2004. 15 p.

Full Text at: www.heritage.org/Research/Labor/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/security/getfile.cfm&PageID=67856

["The U.S. Department of Labor's new overtime regulation ... has broad implications for the more than 100 million workers who are subject to the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. This is an economic analysis of who will be affected by the rules within the new regulation."]

[Request #S4160]

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Berkeley's Betrayal: Wages and Working Conditions at Cal. By Gretchen Purser, and others, University Labor Research Project. (The Project, Berkeley, California) September 2004. 34 p.

Full Text at: berkeleysbetrayal.org/bbetrayal.pdf

["A study by UC Berkeley graduate students accuses Cal of a 'betrayal' of campus workers in the form of substandard pay and indifference to workplace welfare.... They found 'people struggling to make ends meet on wages that fall well below a living wage for the Berkeley area -- commuting long distances to save on rent, crowding into inadequate housing, taking second jobs.'" San Francisco Chronicle (September 14, 2004) 1.]

[Request #S4155]

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CBO's Projections of the Labor Force. By Paul Burnham and others, Congressional Budget Office. (The Office, Washington, DC) September 2004. 29 p.

Full Text at: www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/58xx/doc5803/09-15-LaborForce.pdf

["This paper presents the Congressional Budget Office’s projections of growth in the labor force from 2004 through 2014. It also discusses several key sources of uncertainty surrounding the two main factors that determine the size of the labor force: the size of the adult civilian noninstitutional population; and changes in the fraction of that population that is either working or actively looking for work—the labor force participation rate."]

[Request #S4151]

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A New Full-time Norm: Promoting Work-life Integration Through Work-time Adjustment. By Cynthia Negrey, University of Louisville. (Institute for Women's Policy Research, Washington, DC) August 2004. 36 p.

Full Text at: www.iwpr.org/pdf/C357.pdf

["This paper is an argument for a new, shorter, full-time work norm in the United States. It examines the context of 'time famine' as a product of women’s increased labor force participation and an increase in household total employment hours, a caregiving gap, bifurcation of aggregate work hours, and a gap between workers’ actual and ideal work hours."]

[Request #S4161]

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Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. By the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. (The Bureau, Washington, DC) September 22, 2004. 17 p.

Full Text at: www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cfoi.pdf

["Workplace fatalities rose slightly to 5,559 last year, with the most deaths occurring in the construction and transportation industries. Latino workers continued to have the highest on-the-job death rate." Sacramento Bee (September 23, 2004) D7.]

[Request #S4162]

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[This section links to items in Studies in the News since the last Employment, Training, Vocational Education and Welfare to Work Supplement.]

"Employment, Education and Human Services" IN: Studies in the News, 04-53 - 04-58 (August 2004).

[Includes: "Labor cost and farm expenses;" "Biotechnology jobs in California;" "Wal-Mart employees need subsidizing;" "Women, child care and long-term earnings;" "International equity index of work and family;" and others.]

[Request #S4163]

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"Employment, Education and Human Services." IN: Studies in the News, Issue 04-64 (September 2004).

[Includes: "State of working California;" "Modernizing overtime regulations;" "Poverty and uninsured on the rise;" "Pension reform in San Diego;" and others].

[Request #S4164]

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