Laid Off, Laid Low

With the economy changing rapidly and inequality on the rise, a greater number of working and middle class Americans are now facing unemployment. Families experience this risk as the stress of insecurity, which manifests in voting trends and the undercutting of loyalties that bind workers to firms. Instead of developing institutions to cushion this risk, American policy has increased the extent to which risk falls on the individual and the family. The privatization of risk is pervasive in American society. It hurts individuals and threatens social cohesion. Examining the risks of unemployment and related public policy, Laid Off, Laid Low is a crucial book for policymakers, social scientists, and all who care about the public good. -- Craig Calhoun, president, Social Science Research Council

Tackles the relationship between the privatization of risk, and focuses on - health care and health insurance; employment insecurity and labor markets; pensions, assets, and social security; the pharmaceuticals industry; and natural disasters and homeland security.Laid Off, Laid Low provides a sobering portrait of the ailing American labor system and the social and political consequences of increasing job insecurity. It proves that the health of the labor market is not a transitory issue brought low by the factors of recession, but a serious concern reflecting deep structural problems in American society. In this book, economists, sociologists, and public policy and political scientists reveal how the American labor market has grown particularly problematic for new job-seekers, trends that are not obvious when averaging the entire population. The contributors to this volume focus instead on changing job patterns between generations, which show that the job prospects for young Americans are more short-term than their predecessors, and that white-collar managers, once members of the most privileged sector, are now experiencing a faster negative rate of change. As this book makes clear, Americans will soon face epic job losses, irreversible trends in downward mobility, and long-lasting economic insecurity-politically polarizing outcomes that will cause even more anxiety among families. Encompassing a number of different disciplines, the prominent scholars of Laid Off, Laid Low provide a full analysis of today's most pressing economic issues. Contributors: Sheldon Danziger and Ben Keys: "Unemployment Risk among Low Wage Workers: 1970-2000"; Hank Farber: "Employment Insecurity: The Decline in Worker-Firm Attachment in the United States"; Elizabeth Jacobs and Katherine Newman: "Rising Angst? Change and Stability in Perceptions of Insecurity"; Philipp Rehm: "Partisan Politics and Labor Market Risks"; Ann Huff Stevens: "Holding Firm: The Stability of Long-Term Employment in the US, 1969-2004"