Employment Books

Every once in a while, a book is published that siginificantly advances knowledge. Thus, it is with great pleasure that I state that Dr. Nemata Amelia Blyden's book is bound to be regarded as one of the greatest books on West Africa produced in this decade. This brilliant, synchronic, historical tour de force teaches us about the trans-oceanic migration of West Indians from the Caribbean to Sierra Leone in the decades after slavery was abolished in the British colonies in 1807. Employing both primary and secondary sources, Dr. Blyden in the eight chapters of this book chronicles how the West Indians who immigrated to Sierra Leone during this period came to occupy numerous positions in the colony and the colonial administration; how they became an important minority, albeit not always well-liked; and the impetus for their power and influence. More tantalizing is how Dr. Blyden skillfully weaves together the economic, political, psychological and social contexts of the time (1808-1880) to tell this fascinating history in an interpretive style. In essence, any student of history and the social sciences should get a copy of this book. It represents effulgent scholarship

Justice shall you pursue. This is Jimmy Breslin at his best, it reads like he talks, which can cause you to read a sentence twice or three times, but you get used to it. Eduardo Gutierrez was an illegal immigrant from Mexico; he was barely 21 years old when he was killed in a construction accident in Brooklyn on November 23, 1999. Born in San Matías Cuatchatyotla, to a very shy 15 year old woman, he lived a lonely life filled with fear in Brighton Beach/Brooklyn, sharing one bathroom and an apartment with 8 other illegal men, always in fear of capture and deportation. His life ended in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, when Eduardo fell three stories and drowned in wet cement. The builder, his employer, hired and exploited illegal workers with impunity. Breslin characterizes him as "a crook with blueprints." Everyone knew his long record of violations, but he was untouchable; he was a friend of Giuliani administration, his bagman had given Giuliani's campaign $83,000 in 1996. Eugene O. and his son Richie (a police chaplain wannabee who ran to Belgium to avoid the law he loved so much) were politically connected in the powerful Satmar-Hasidic community. In 1993, a city inspector cited his construction project as the worst building he had seen in a decade. After Eduardo's death, the press forgot about him. But Breslin went to his funeral in Mexico and came back to the USA over the border like the other illegal workers, citing the Border Patrol's stats on drownings and deaths on the route. This is Eduardo's recreated story, filled with stories of his struggle to get to NYC and the aftermath of his death. So much of New York is built on illegal labor, so it is important to read

Single moms spin numerous "plates" in life, juggling so many daily responsiblities. Parenting is difficult, even when there are two parents involved, but parenting alone can become overwhelming. This is where Brenda Armstrong's book shines! It is practical. It is insightful. It is encouraging. Most of all, this book offers hope and encouragment to single moms who want to not only survive but to thrive. I would highly recommend it!

Faith Baldwin's 1931 classic pulp romance Skyscraper is as pulp as it comes. If you like your prose purple and your entendres doubled, this is the book for you.

Plucky young Lynn Harding has come to Manhattan to conquer the world; working as a sales researcher for Seacoast Bank, she catches the eye of up-and-comer Tom Shepherd. Sadly, the young lovers can't be married, or else Lynn will lose the job that she loves so much. While she and Tom wrestle with the question of whether or not they have a future together, dashing older man David Dwight has designs on the lovely Lynn. Will she fall into his louche clutches? Will she and Tom be forced to separate forever? Will Lynn get to keep her job at the bank?

While the plot is laughably dated, Baldwin's writing holds up as well as any modern romance--the Feminist Press has chosen well for its Femmes Fatales line.

I have looked at no less than 25 sniper books in my job and I have found this book to cover all areas in great detail. A very good book.

The book analyses data from three surveys, documenting the experiences of a representative sample of employed and unemployed people in six towns in Britain in 1986 and 1987. The towns were Aberdeen and Kirkcaldy in Scotland, Northampton and Coventry in the Midlands, Rochdale in the North-west and Swindon in the South-west.

THE EFFECTS OF UNEMPLOYMENT

The book shows how unemployment damages people's health and welfare. The authors see unemployment as the extreme case of the almost universal phenomenon of job insecurity. "Those in insecure labour market positions suffered from a series of major disadvantages in terms of personal welfare. The unemployed, the insecure low-paid, and the insecure non-employed stood out from other groups in the degree of financial difficulty they confronted and in the extent to which they had been forced to cut living standards in recent years. Labour market insecurity was also linked to the type and quality of people's housing ... Those in more disadvantaged labour market positions had poorer psychological and physical health and were obliged to make more frequent use of local health services." "There is a direct causal link between job insecurity and poor psychological health." Unemployed people who moved into secure jobs got better; those who moved into insecure jobs got only a little better. Job loss also had a destructive effect on marriages and on social life. But, contrary to myth, the experience of unemployment led to a stronger attachment to collectivist principles.

The industrial genocide of the 1970s and 1980s hit young people most heavily, particularly those who would previously have gone into manufacturing jobs. Class origin determines occupation, due to the lack of education and of apprenticeships; and the nature of the occupation determines the chances of unemployment. Both links are getting stronger, because there is far less social mobility and far more inequality. So although all jobs are more insecure, manufacturing jobs are even more so.

THE CAUSES OF UNEMPLOYMENT

In the debate about the causes of the vast growth in unemployment, employers and their governments blame the 'supply-side', ie the working class. They say that wages and benefits are too high, that trade unions distort supply, that the unemployed are work-shy, that there is a 'culture of poverty' which distinguishes an 'under-class'.

The work attitudes of the unemployed were not different from those of the employed, and did not affect their vulnerability to unemployment. Nor were their work histories different: "The unemployed had not experienced significantly more jobs or shorter average tenure in their longest jobs." "Those that were currently unemployed were clearly not, on the evidence of their past work histories, inherently unstable members of the work-force." "There was no evidence that differences in either employment motivation or in the flexibility of attitudes to job search affected the time that it took people to find work again." Most significantly, work attitudes did not predict who did and who did not get jobs.

Welfare does not reduce employability, skill or will to work. Claimants and non-claimants seeking work had the same work attitudes. The level of benefits had no effect on the duration of unemployment. There is though a 'benefits effect' for women married to men who had been out of work for a year. Benefit rules take away any income earned by the wives of unemployed men on means-tested benefit, on a pound for pound basis, beyond a low threshold (£4 pre-1988). So lower-paid wives can face effective marginal 'taxation' rates of over 90% when they work.

In all, the book is an excellent piece of research, which refutes all the lies about unemployment. It shows that full employment is necessary for any society that wants to be able to call itself civilised.

Excellent Guide to Today's Market. I've already used the Info Tech Employment books. Well worth the money. This is written from an Insiders View -- how to develop a career from the ground up, and how to position yourself to get the best money and move with the times and profession. Learning is for a lifelong activity -- and this shows you how to do it.

This is a fantastic book---well-researched with great characters and a really interesting story. It won several awards when it was released (so you have to wonder: why is it out of print?!).
I really recommend it for young girls---Binnie is a great role model and her struggle to find independence and a future in early 19th century America is one which should appeal to most girls.
Binnie is a bobbin-girl in a Lowell mill during the 1830s. When the mill-owners cut the women's wages, Binnie and the women who live in her mother's boarding house must decide whether to strike or not. Binnie's decision is colored by both her indignation over the unfairness of the cuts and her concerns about her mother's position (will her mother lose her job as a boarding house operator if her daughter joins the strike?). The questions Binnie confronts and her struggle to address them are incredibly real and well-handled (Lord is a very gifted writer and her characters ring true thro'out the book).
The book also provides insights into the position of the Irish in early 19th century America as well as the overall position of women (an especially chilling scene demonstrates how few rights women had---one of the women working in the mill is pursued by an abusive husband who is given the right to seize his wife's hard-earned wages).
Buy this book instead of one of the Dear America books. It is so much better!!

This is an excellent collection of chapters by experts who are clear, articulate and accessible to a general audience. The focus is on policy strategies to raise women's incomes, which still only average 55% of men's in this country.
The policies discussed are
* implementing real welfare reform
* paying people for parenting
* increasing public subsidies for childcare
* reforming social security to benefit older women
* increasing the minimum wage
* re-focusing the movement for pay equity
* organizing more women in unions
* strengthening affirmative action
* opening the trades to women, and
* encouraging women and girls to enter math-based occupations.
Strong introductory and concluding chapters make the case for the need to raise women's incomes, and point out the potential of a broadly-based, multi-pronged political effort to do just that.

James Kraft, a historian at the University of Hawaii/Manoa, tackles a huge but underexplored topic: the impact of the major technological innovations of the early twentieth century on the livelihood of the performing musicians. For those interested in the lives of musical stars, whether in the classical or popular fields, this book will be disappointing. Kraft regards music-making as very much a business: this is a history of the struggles of organized labor, in the form of the American Federation of Musicians, to maintain job security and incomes for their rank-and-file members in the face of two revolutions that changed the business of supplying music to the masses forever. The first was the advent of sound movies, which in a very few years wiped out the livelihoods of thousands upon thousands of musicians who had performed live music for showings of silent films in moviehouses across the nation. The second was radio, which quickly proved a boon for the sound recording industry, further eroding the need for live performers.

STAGE TO STUDIO is an absorbing and carefully researched chronicle. As a performing musician I emerged from reading it more aware of just why it is that it is so difficult to make a living as a musician now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, and grateful to Petrillo and other major players in the AFM who, against all odds, struggled to preserve work and benefits for the beleaguered members of their union.