International Unemployment project

As part of CURP's role as coordinator of a series of international research projects devoted to examining the labor market data used in developed countries and the need for creating a "new cross-national architecture for labor market statistics," the Center collaborated with experts from eleven nations to analyze the measure of unemployment. The question at hand was whether the way unemployment is measured is consistent from country to country or if the disparities in the level of joblessness across countries could simply be traced to different statistical methods.

The conclusion was that the large unemployment rate differences found between many European countries and the U.S. were not due to statistical idiosyncrasies. After years of effort by international statistical agencies, the data gathering processes had been made nearly perfectly comparable across countries. The problem was changes in the nature of work - the growth in part-time employment, in hours of work per worker, in self-employment, and in the so-called "underground economy" - have made the standard unemployment statistics no longer good measures of labor market capacity, performance, and well-being. Statistics developed at the end of World War II - when the typical job was full-time in the manufacturing sector - no longer adequately reflect the diversity of employment and unemployment today.

The findings of the International Unemployment Project led to a second phase of research - assembling a better set of economic indicators for the 21st century.

FMCS Case Study project

CURP and the U.S. Department of Labor's Federal Management and Conciliation Service (FMCS) have enjoyed a productive working relationship since CURP's founding. CURP produced a series of seven case studies for FMCS, focusing on new models of labor-management relations and specifically the role of third party intermediaries in forging these new relationships. Through analysis of real work experiences between companies and labor, the case studies revealed how best to mediate and act with the latest mediation tools. These studies brought about new ways of looking at cooperative instead of purely adversarial models for labor-management relations.

The case studies included profiles and analysis of Magma Copper, Circus Circus (Mandalay Resort Group), Ford Cleveland Engine Plant #2, Quaker Oats, Bechtel Nevada, Minnesota Hospitals, and Cesar Chavez High School. The case studies were the first CURP-FMCS project. Currently underway is the creation of an FMCS Resource Kit.

The case studies are available online at the FMCS website.

International Labor Market Statistics project

Good public policy requires up-to-date, relevant statistics. While CURP is devoted to developing "think and do" projects around urban and regional issues, its staff also has expertise in labor market policy and labor statistics. This has proven useful in its role as coordinator of a series of international research projects devoted to examining the labor market data used in developed countries and the need for creating a "new cross-national architecture for labor market statistics." With experts from eleven nations, the project's first phase set out to analyze whether the way unemployment is measured is consistent from country to country or the disparities in the level of joblessness across countries could simply be traced to different statistical methods.

The first phase concluded that the large unemployment rate differences found between many European countries and the U.S. were not due to statistical idiosyncrasies. After years of effort by international statistical agencies, the data gathering processes had been made nearly perfectly comparable across countries. The problem was changes in the nature of work - statistics developed at the end of World War II no longer adequately reflect the diversity of employment and unemployment today.

Thus, the second phase of this research has been devoted to assembling a better set of economic indicators for the 21st century. If successful, this project will help create alternative ways for governments and the media to diagnose the economic health of nations. This is particularly important for misleading or obsolete indicators can lead to bad policy by central banks, employers, and by government agencies.

For more information on the International Labor Market Statistics project, please contact Barbara Hamilton.