International Journal of Manpower: Volume 20 Issue 3/4

Sleight of hand: The political success and economic failure of job training policy in the United States

Gordon Lafer

For the past 20 years, job training has been promoted as the US Federal Government’s primary labour market policy for improving the employment opportunities of low‐income…

How strong is the case for targeting active labour market policies?: A review of efficiency and equity arguments

Neil Fraser

The article assembles efficiency and equity arguments for and against targeting the long‐term unemployed in active labour market policies (ALMP), and refers to evidence from…

A new deal or new disadvantage?: British ethnic minorities and Government training

Emmanuel Ogbonna, Mike Noon

In Britain, welfare‐to‐work has been hailed as a radical initiative to help those that are socially and economically disadvantaged in society. The New Deal promises to offer young…

Jobs for the girls: A study of the careers of professional women returners following participation in a European funded updating programme

Sue Shaw, Mary Taylor, Irene Harris

This paper uses the findings of a recent study of professional women returning to work after a career break. It critically examines their return to work following attendance of a…

Search methods and transitions into employment and inactivity: An analysis of linked records from the Labour Force Survey

Peter Urwin, J.R. Shackleton

This paper sets out to evaluate the effect of search method employed (broadly defined here as formal or informal) on the probability that an individual will move out of…

Vocational training as a force for equality?: Training opportunities and outcomes in France and Britain

Lætitia Hocquet

This article presents an estimation of the incidence and the impact on wages of employer provided training in two countries with different legal systems concerning this type of…

Skilling the unskilled – a question of incentives?

Stefan C. Wolter, Bernhard A. Weber

The sudden slump in the labour market of the 1990s made it necessary for Switzerland to alter its labour market policy, which from being almost exclusively passive became an…