8: Labor and Employment
Conduct a broad range of studies on work experience, education and training, consumption, and the relationships between education,
age, experience, worker satisfaction, and success
Other Information:
Labor research at NORC encompasses a broad range of studies on work experience, education and training, consumption, and the
relationships between education, age, experience, worker satisfaction, and success. As the institutional home of the Society
of Labor Economists and the Journal of Labor Economics, the study of labor is a central component of NORC's capacities. For
example, some of the most prominent labor economics datasets are housed in the Economics, Labor and Population Department:
these include the two National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth, the 1979 and 1997 cohorts (NLSY79 and NLSY97). Each has involved
national probability samples with over-samples of minority populations. The NLSY79 also includes the derivative surveys, the
Children of the NLSY79 and the Young Adult Survey. The former involves administering cognitive assessments to the children
of the female NLSY79 respondents. The response rate on the most recent survey of the 1997 cohort was 83%, and the response
rate on the most recent survey of the 1979 cohort was 80%. NORC also collects one of the best sources of information about
family finances in the United States, the Survey of Consumer Finances. Sponsored by the Federal Reserve Board, this triennial
survey collects information concerning household financial characteristics and behavior. Data from this study inform a wide
variety of economic policy decisions across the government, and they also serve as a basis for longer-term research on the
economic state of the American family. The survey collects information from approximately 4,500 respondents. NORC conducted
this survey for the fifth time in 2004, and is currently engaged in the 2007 data collection. Many of NORC's other projects
examine the labor market outcomes of individuals. For example, in work for the Department of Labor, NORC staff used NLS79
data to examine the labor market outcomes of recently discharged young veterans at one, 13, 26 and 39 weeks after their exit
from the military. That portion of the project was completed in mid-November 2006. In the spring of 2007, a second analytical
report will describe and analyze the dynamics of labor market outcomes for veterans relative to their civilian counterparts.
A similar analysis for the Department of Defense used NLS79 data to compare the labor market outcomes of recent military retirees
and their spouses with those of civilians. In another example, NORC collects data to evaluate selected programs funded through
the John Chafee Foster Care Independence Program. This examines the impact of the Independent Living Programs on outcomes
such as educational attainment, employment rates and stability, interpersonal and relationship skills, non-marital pregnancy
and births, and delinquency and crime rates.
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