What's increasingly happening, he explains, is that as the workforce shifts towards more flexible labor, part-time workers end up with inconsistent hours.
These fears, and the reality of rapid workforce shifts, are helping fuel the populist ideas gaining traction in the American presidential election — along with populist movements in Europe and Asia.
For example, the postwar baby boom generation is aging and the employment-to-population ratio of teenagers has been falling: both of these changes should lead to reduced dynamics as the workforce shifts from subpopulations with high rates of mobility to subpopulations with low rates of mobility.
As the workforce shifts, our society is challenged in finding enough STEM talent.
Between 1950 and 1960, Chrysler cut its Detroit workforce in half, resulting in a loss of almost 60,000 urban jobs, as the corporation decentralized and automated its workforce, shifting production to points south and outlying areas in Michigan.
Considering a large proportion of today's workforce performs shift work -- approximately 15 million Americans, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics -- the findings are troublesome, Benedict said.
This effect refers to a selection process that leads to a workforce of shift workers who are healthier than day workers.
Much of that fall came in the state-backed banks, where bonuses were down, and the make-up of the workforce has shifted towards lower-paid staff.
Researchers believe the extra output should be attainable by making a series of reforms, including by allowing more women to join the workforce, and shifting those who are already in paid work into more productive jobs, such as out of agriculture and into manufacturing.
One $2.9 million grantee, Helicos BioSciences Corp. of Cambridge, Massachusetts, restructured this spring, shedding half of its workforce and shifting its focus to diagnostics.
