New Rules for a New Economy: Employment and Opportunity in Post-Industrial America

Three quarters of the American workforce is now employed in services, a substantial portion in low-paying, dead-end jobs. Can the service economy do as well by the American worker as the old manufacturing economy? Can the widely shared prosperity that accompanied steady increases in productivity and performance in manufacturing be replicated in the services? They can and they will, the authors of this timely book contend, but only if outmoded policies and practices are brought into line with the new economy. New Rules for a New Economy explains why this must be accomplished and how we can start.The authors call for new, decentralized institutions suited to a dynamic economy in which change is constant and rapid. In particular, they see a need for job ladders and worker associations that cut across firm boundaries. These institutions would foster individual and collective learning, mark out career paths, and facilitate coordination among both individuals and organizations in a networked economy. The authors propose new rules to reshape labor market institutions and policy, improving economic performance and opportunities for workers. Unusual in providing a comprehensive theoretical perspective that is grounded in detailed case research, this book points the way to a better future, not just for elite knowledge workers but for everyone.

About the Author :
Howard Wial is the former Director of the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is coauthor of New Rules for a New Economy, also from Cornell, and coeditor of Urban and Regional Policy and Its Effects.

Review :
"Written by economic consultants, this book is a treatise on the changing demographics of the American workforce and how corporations should work to alter job patterns in order to adapt to evolving employment trends... Despite the technological and economic growth since WWII, the majority of manufacturing jobs remain low paying and provide few prospects for future growth. According to the authors, there is little chance that the level of service provided by these workers will improve without changes in these jobs. Among the strategies the authors advise: raising the minimum wage and expanding training programs across different companies... Quite interesting."-Publishers Weekly "A concise survey of labor market problems and innovative approaches to deal with them. Recommended for public, academic, and professional library collections."-Choice "One key proposal for buttressing the power of workers in a global economy is the creation of craft-type unions, which cut across companies in an industry... New Rules for a New Economy has something to offer, at a time when people are trying to understand the combination of economic vigor and risk with which we live."-Michael J. Mandel, Business Week "A comprehensive theoretical perspective that is grounded in detailed case research, New Rules For a New Economy points to the way to a better future, not just for elite knowledge workers, but for everyone. New Rules For a New Economy is a superb contribution to today's policy discussions on shaping the American economy for the needs of service sector workers in the new millennium."-Wisconsin Bookwatch "New Rules for a New Economy is long overdue. Authors Herzenberg, Alie, and Wial deliver a keenly perceptive study, broad in scope but also generous in case-study-based detail... To understand work in the United States today, this is the single most important book to read... The authors have produced a compelling guide to the workplace of today and shown the possibilities for a better workplace of tomorrow."-Chris Tilly, Dollars and Sense "This thought-provoking book ... makes a persuasive case that supra-enterprise institutions can and should regulate the new economy and are not some residue of an earlier phase of 'organized capitalism' which has had its day."-Edmund Heery, British Journal of Industrial Relations. 2000 "This book combines thoughtful scholarship with a bold, innovative reconceptualization of the service sector and its relation to the U.S. economy. The authors succeed admirably in presenting a complex, nuanced argument in a clear and accessible way. A stellar achievement that breaks new ground."-Harley Shaiken, University of California, Berkeley "We have few good studies of employment in the service sector even though 75 percent of Americans now work there. This book lays the foundation for future work and employment policy. It provides a creative and useful framework for thinking about service work by drawing on field research in a wide range of industries, including health care, retail, airlines, information services, finance and insurance. A must-read for industry analysts, policymakers, and researchers."-Rosemary Batt, Cornell University "Stephen Herzenberg, John Alic, and Howard Wial understand the social and organizational ecology of America's 'postindustrial' service economy better than anybody else. Three-quarters of all of us work there, so if you want to know why wages are stagnant and social inequality is growing, this is the place to start. And in their New Rules for a New Economy, the authors propose the kind of reforms-simultaneously practical and radical-necessary to do something about it."-Nelson Lichtenstein, University of Virginia "I would recommend New Rules for a New Economy: Employment and Opportunity in Postindustrial America. Its new perspective on work systems in the services age is unique and most valuable to all who are increasingly involved in such matters."-Donald Frey, Former Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Bell and Howell