Work Sharing

Résumé du livre

This monograph reviews the history and current relevance of work sharing and assesses the issues, policy options, job creation potential, and likely social and economic impacts related to the concept. Chapter 1 overviews work sharing in the past and work sharing as an alternative to the problem of unemployment in the future. Chapter 2 reviews issues of work sharing. These considerations are consolidated into the categories of impacts on productivity and price stability, job creation and preservation, level of participation and aggregate employment impact, social equity and targetability, flexibility of implementation and termination, administrative costs and regulatory effectiveness, and secondary social concerns. Chapter 3 focuses on seventeen public policies designed to redistribute existing and prospective employment opportunities through work sharing. They are grouped into four major categories: (1) subsidized worktime reductions (6 policy options), (2) limitation of worktime (5 options), (3) long term time-income trade-offs (4 options), and (4) voluntary time-income trade-off options for individuals (2 options). Chapter 4 compares work sharing options and then compares the most promising with other approaches to combatting unemployment. (YLB)