Work Sharing: The Quick Route Back to Full Employment

“The author briefly outlines the recent experience of other countries with work sharing in addition to discussing the experience in the United States in the states that have the program in place. In addition, the author discusses some issues of implementation that would have to be addressed to make work sharing programs more attractive. Lastly, the author examines the likely impact of work sharing on productivity” (p.1). (Abstractor: Author)

• “Work-sharing programs would create an institutional structure that pushes toward less work per worker, countering the current bias towards longer hours by fixed cost nature of benefits such as health care insurance. If this leads to a reduction in labor supply (measured in hours) from the portion of the workforce without college degrees, this could lead to upward pressure on their wages, which would help to reverse some of the rise in wage inequality over the last three decades” (p.11). • Work sharing could reduce productivity by providing jobs to less-educated workers who otherwise would not have been employed. “It would be very difficult to view this decline in productivity as a negative development” (p.11). • “If work sharing can prevent workers from dropping out of the labor force and keeps them employable, then it could mean that the economy will sustain a permanently higher employment-to-population ratio” (p.10). • “By keeping workers employed (through work sharing), programs might help keep workers employable” (p.10). • “By keeping workers employed at shorter hours, work sharing will save firms the costs associated with finding and training new workers when demand expands” (p.10). (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2011
• Author(s): Baker, Dean
• Organizational Author(s): Center for Economic and Policy Research
• Funding Source: Funding source not identified
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Melissa Mack
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies