With the ringing in of 2018 Dr. Stephanie Thomas, Lecturer in the Department of Economics at Cornell University, weighed in on employment projections for the new year.
In the article 2018’s Best Places to Find a Job by Richie Bernardo Stephanie Thomas states that the health care and social assistant sectors will see the largest increase in employment. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projected that these sectors will add almost four million jobs by 2026.
Regarding relocation for employment Thomas thinks that “…the decline in geographic mobility can be explained in part by two key driving forces. First, the American workforce is getting older. Older individuals have fewer years remaining in their work life, as compared to younger individuals. If an older individual were to relocate, s(he) has fewer years over which to reap the gain from relocation. Additionally, gains from relocation may not be positive; it depends on the reason for the separation from employment.”
According to the most recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ jobs report, the national unemployment rate has dropped to a 17-year low of 4.1 percent. Dr. Thomas also shared her thoughts on types of programs that have demonstrated effectiveness in helping unemployed individuals find work. She stated “In my experience, retraining programs geared toward structurally unemployed individuals are the most effective.”
According to Thomas, some of the features that successful programs share include Flexible and innovative training approaches, closes alignment between training and the real-world job, combined commitment of employer and/or industry with the training program, and coordination of education, training and support services strategies.
Dr. Stephanie Thomas is a Lecturer in the Department of Economics at Cornell. She studies labor economics, Compensation, and Law and Economics. Her research focuses current research interests focus on the relationship between performance pay, worker motivation and productivity.
