Jeffrey B. Wenger

Why Unemployed Men with Criminal Records Could Be Key to Solving the U.S. Labor Shortage

American employers are panicked about the lack of willing workers. They shouldn't be. There are plenty of Americans who want to work. If you're an employer, you may be wondering where all these potential employees are hiding. They aren't hiding—they've been applying to your job openings, and you've been screening them out.

Is the Fight for $15 Going to Cost Low-Wage Workers Their Health Insurance?

Minimum wage increases can lead to reductions in employer-sponsored health insurance for some workers and their dependents. If policymakers want to raise the minimum wage, they should look beyond standard labor market outcomes and take into account other potential effects.

Most Americans Consider Themselves Middle-Class. But Are They?

There are different ways of determining who should be considered middle-class. But there is one thing they have in common: All reveal that the middle class in the United States is shrinking.

38 Million Have Applied for Unemployment—but How Many Have Received Benefits?

Unemployment Insurance may need substantial reform to its application process, but it has weathered the COVID-19 pandemic unemployment disaster. Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, the new program intended for workers who are not part of the employer tax base, has not.

Is the Unemployment Rate Now Higher Than It Was in the Great Depression?

The extent of COVID-19's effect on the labor market will be catastrophic for many workers and businesses. Matching the unemployment rate peak set by the Great Depression is not even necessary to establish the historic nature of the downturn that we're living through.

The Second Wave of COVID Consequences

Economists closely watch measures of consumer confidence because they are highly predictive economic indicators. New consumer data reveals likely long-term and prolonged economic fallout.

Many Americans Face Bullying, Harassment, and Abuse at Work, but Bosses Can Help

Workers are experiencing high levels of hostile behaviors at work. Nearly one in five American workers have been subjected to some form of verbal abuse, unwanted sexual attention, threats, or humiliating behavior at work, with younger non-college educated workers bearing the most risk.

Working for $7.25 an Hour: Exploring the Minimum Wage Debate

Critics of raising the minimum wage argue that proponents are ignoring the laws of supply and demand, that it would generate unemployment. Recent theory suggests that increasing wages results in higher quality workers entering the market and improving the quality of the employee-employer match, raising productivity and lowering turnover.

One in Five Hourly Employees Working Overtime Not Properly Compensated

Most laws as old as the Fair Labor Standards Act regularly need tuning up. But its overtime provisions are complicated because some workers are exempt from being covered. A survey of more than 1,500 employed adults finds that employers are violating the rules.

Report

A Revised Recruiting Resource Model for Achieving the Army Personnel Strategy: Accounting for Digital Advertising

Using an updated version of RAND’s Recruiting Resource Model, the authors analyze how observed and alternative mixes of advertising, recruiters, and bonuses affect the Army’s ability to achieve recruiting goals and the cost of doing so.

Report

Military-to-Civilian Occupational Matching: Using the O*NET to Provide Match Recommendations for the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force

The authors employ a unique method for military-to-civilian occupational matching by comparing survey data collected from service members in selected military occupations with similar data previously collected for civilian occupations.

Journal Article

The Value of Working Conditions in the United States and Implications for the Structure of Wages

We document variation in working conditions in the United States, present estimates of how workers value these conditions, and assess the impact of working conditions on estimates of wage inequality.

Journal Article

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Workers with a Criminal History

In this article, we use data from the NLSY97 COVID-19 Supplement to examine the extent to which workers with a criminal history record had employment disruptions during the early months of the pandemic.

Report

Assessing Pittsburgh's Science- and Technology-Focused Workforce Ecosystem

RAND Corporation researchers characterize the science- and technology-focused (STF) workforce ecosystem in the Pittsburgh region and suggest policy changes and investment opportunities to help propel the region's STF sectors in the future.

Tool

Science and Technology-Focused Postsecondary Options in the Pittsburgh Area

RAND researchers compiled a list of science- and technology-focused (STF) providers and programs in the Pittsburgh area. Potential students can filter the list to find out which types of degrees or certificates can be earned in which STF fields.

Report

Guidance on When to Estimate a Future Price Factor: Development of Criteria and Thresholds

A future price forecast can help the Federal Emergency Management Agency and communities seeking its Public Assistance estimate construction costs. Researchers created a framework for determining when such a forecast could be useful.

Report

Forecasting Public Recovery Expenditures' Effect on Construction Prices and the Demand for Construction Labor

Researchers developed cost-estimating tools and estimated future construction costs for Puerto Rico's recovery from Hurricane María. This report documents their approach, data, findings, and recommendations.

Research Brief

Future Price Forecasting in the Wake of Large-Scale Disasters: The Case of Puerto Rico After Hurricane María

Large-scale disaster recovery projects in isolated areas likely require unique future price forecasting. This brief describes an occupational analysis and model to estimate the effects of recovery on the price of labor, materials, and equipment. 

Report

A Risk Assessment of National Critical Functions During COVID-19: Challenges and Opportunities

This report presents a framework for assessing risk that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) poses to the National Critical Functions, describes challenges in implementing the framework, and provides recommendations for improving it.

Journal Article

State Minimum Wage Increases Delay Marriage and Reduce Divorce Among Low-Wage Households

Across data sources, among men and women earning low wages, a one-dollar increase in the state minimum wage predicts a 3%–6% decline in marriage entry and a 7%–15% decline in divorce one and 2 years later.

Journal Article

Barred from Employment: More Than Half of Unemployed Men in Their 30s Had a Criminal History of Arrest

We investigate what portion of the pool of unemployed men in the United States have been arrested, convicted, or incarcerated by age 35.

Journal Article

A Consumption-Based Definition of the Middle Class

In this paper, we develop a consumption-based measure of the middle class that closely follows economic theory of constrained optimization.

Journal Article

The Effect of the Minimum Wage on Employer-Sponsored Insurance for Low-Income Workers and Dependents

Minimum wage increases lead to reductions in employer-sponsored insurance coverage in families with incomes below 300% of the federal poverty level.

Commentary

Limited Opportunity: Changes in Employment and the American Middle Class

Belonging to the American middle class has become more challenging. The authors of this Perspective discuss the subtle but important changes that have blocked many pathways into the middle class and propose starting points for building new ones.

Commentary

Who Is Middle Class?

Depending on definition, the middle class has been either receiving less income (as a share of total) or shrinking in size since the 1970s. Lower-income Americans and their children will likely have limited opportunities for upward mobility.

Research Brief

The American Working Conditions Survey Finds That Nearly Half of Retirees Would Return to Work

According to the American Working Conditions Survey, more older workers report having meaningful work compared with their prime-age counterparts, and nearly half of retirees would return to work under the right conditions.

Report

An Analytic Inventory of DHS Headquarters Business Processes

This report provides an inventory of U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) analytic capabilities in the including current capabilities in use for decisionmaking, as DHS establishes an Analytic Agenda.

Report

Developing a National Recruiting Difficulty Index

The U.S. Army recognizes that the recruiting environment has a significant impact on its ability to recruit. This report presents a forecasting model that measures recruiting difficulty to forecast a difficult or easy recruiting environment.

Journal Article

Parents with an Unemployed Adult Child: Consumption, Income, and Savings Effects

In this paper, we directly approach the potential costs, inefficiencies, and inequities of aiding family members.

Report

Comparing Ex-Servicemember and Civilian Use of Unemployment Insurance

Drawing from a data set with unemployment compensation for ex-service members and unemployment insurance claims from 2002 to 2012, this report provides a first portrait of the job search process of ex-service members relative to that for civilians.

Journal Article

Can Income Diversification Explain the Growing Entrepreneurship Gap by Age?

The key result of our analysis is that income diversification has become increasingly important in determining entrepreneurship, but that younger households became less likely over time to have income from multiple sources. At the same time, older households maintained their income diversification and their likelihood of working as entrepreneurs became more responsive to having substantial income from non-business sources such as capital income and Social Security benefits.

Tool

The American Working Conditions Survey Data: Codebook and Data Description

This codebook describes the content and structure of the American Working Conditions Survey data (AWCS) which was fielded on the RAND American Life Panel (ALP) in 2015.

Research Brief

How Americans Perceive the Workplace: Results from the American Working Conditions Survey

Half of American workers say that they work in their free time to meet workplace demands, 63 percent feel that they are doing useful work, and 46 percent of retirees age 50 and older say that they would return to work if conditions were right.

Report

Working Conditions in the United States: Results of the 2015 American Working Conditions Survey

This report presents detailed findings from the 2015 American Working Conditions Survey about the prevalence and distribution of working conditions across the American workforce by age, gender, and education.

Report

Helping Soldiers Leverage Army Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities in Civilian Jobs

Discusses the results of occupation surveys administered to soldiers in ten of the most populous Army military occupational specialties (MOSs) to develop improved crosswalks between military and civilian occupations.

Research Brief

Improving Employment Prospects for Soldiers Leaving the Regular Army

Discusses the results of a new approach to develop an improved crosswalk between Army military occupational specialties (MOSs) and civilian occupations, highlighting ten of the Army's most populous combat and noncombat MOSs.

Journal Article

Push or Pull: Changes in the Relative Risk and Growth of Entrepreneurship Among Older Households

Entrepreneurship among older adults is on the rise, especially in households with greater access to income from interest, dividends, and capital gains.

Draft

The Fair Labor Standards Act: Worker Misclassification and the Hours and Earnings Effects of Expanded Coverage

Using data from the RAND American Life Panel, this paper quantifies the frequency that employers violate the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act's overtime rules.

Journal Article

The Immediate Hardship of Unemployment: Evidence from the U.S. Unemployment Insurance Program

This paper uses a unique administrative database collected by the U.S. Department of Labor from 2002-09 to examine whether reservation wages fall as workers wait longer to apply for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits.