Established in 1915, Monthly Labor Review is the principal journal of fact, analysis, and research from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an agency within the U.S. Department of Labor.

Each month, economists, statisticians, and experts from the Bureau join with private sector professionals and State and local government specialists to provide a wealth of research in a wide variety of fields—the labor force, the economy, employment, inflation, productivity, occupational injuries and illnesses, wages, prices, and many more.

Volume 131, Number 2
February 2008

Studying the labor market using BLS labor dynamics data 3
Three relatively new data sources add depth and context, and they ultimately provide a better understanding of movements in the labor market
Zhi Boon, Charles M. Carson, R. Jason Faberman, and Randy E. Ilg

Youth enrollment and employment during the school year 51
CPS data show that teenagers are attending school at higher rates than ever before; at the same time, they are less frequently employed during the school year
Teresa L. Morisi

Labor productivity trends since 2000, by sector and industry 64
Unlike the late 1990s, when rapid output gains led to increased productivity growth, reductions in labor hours were an important contributor to such growth
Corey Holman, Bobbie Joyneux, and Christopher Kask

Gender and nonstandard work hours in 12 European countries 83
Labor force surveys conducted in several European countries in 2005 indicate high levels of nonstandard work hours, differing in some way by gender
Harriet B. Presser, Janet C. Gornick, and Sangeeta Parashar

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The February Review

This very full issue of the Monthly Labor Review publishes research and findings on quite disparate labor market topics. Work schedules, productivity trends, wage variation, and employment patterns among young people are among the topics covered.

The articles published this month reflect the depth and breadth of labor market data and analyses currently being produced.

Such depth and breadth are suggested in this month’s cover illustration, itself prompted by our initial article, authored by four Bureau economists. Commonly known data on net labor market outcomes—unemployment rates being a familiar example—are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of understanding the full extent of labor market dynamism.

BLS now regularly issues a number of data series that depict the remarkably fluid nature of actions taken by employers and employees on a continual basis: businesses opening and closing, expanding and contracting; employees being hired, quitting, or being laid off; workers shifting between employment, unemployment, and being in and out of the overall labor force. Potential analyses of these data series, succinctly described in the article, allow for a much richer understanding of current economic conditions. What lies beneath merits close attention, indeed.

Sometimes aggregate measures such as overall pay trends may mask substantial variety beneath the surface.

As reflected in the title of their article, Krista Sunday and Jordan Pfuntner ask probing questions about how wages vary among workers in the same job within the same business establishment. They review previous studies on this subject and suggest a number of factors that contribute to wage spreads, including pay compression, tenure-based pay scales and how narrowly job systems are defined within a business. They primarily use occupational pay data from the Bureau’s National Compensation Survey, and in innovative ways.

Trends in education among young people and how such trends relate to workforce preparation, career choice, skills development, and other socioeconomic phenomena are always of interest to guidance counselors, educators, parents, and employers. The article by Teresa L. Morisi, which examines over two decades worth of data from the Current Population Survey, highlights shifts in school enrollment and work patterns among teenagers since the mid-1980s. Is it too pithy to say that school is in, work is out?

Trends in labor productivity—often thought of as being among the key determinants of societal living standards—are closely watched by researchers and policymakers. The marked growth in output per hour in the latter half of the 1990s was one of the most widely noted and reflected-upon developments of the long economic expansion in that decade.

Three BLS economists update us on trends since the beginning of the new century, and find that productivity gains are continuing in many industries, but—again looking below the surface—what accounts for that growth differs in some pivotal ways from what came before.

Our fifth and final article this month, by Harriet B. Presser, Janet C. Gornick, and Sangeeta Parashar examines the extent of nonstandard work hours in several European countries.

They provide substantial context and discussion for the consequences of workweek reduction measures adopted in those countries, specifically in regard to when employees’ hours are worked and gender differences thereof.

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The following departments appear in Monthly Labor Review with varying frequencies:

• Labor month in review summarizes the current issue each month and digests selected publications and news releases from the BLS. Read it for a quick overview of an issue's offerings and an update on what is new in labor statistics.

• The law at work explains legal decisions pertaining to the working world.

• Book reviews analyze the merits of today's hottest books for the Review audience.

• Précis briefly summarizes articles, newsletter items, reports, working papers, etc., from the tremendous amount of information that passes across the MLR editors' desks.

• Letters to the editor give readers an opportunity to hear other readers' opinions.

• At issue is a synopsis of a "hot topic" that will keep you "in-the-know."

• Regional trends present regional tabulations from the Current Population Survey.

• International report features accounts of economic and labor developments in other countries.

• Technical notes explain new statistical methodologies or programs conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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