How veterans and non-veterans fare in the U.S. job market
Veterans of prime working age generally fare at least as well as non-veterans in the U.S. job market, though there are differences in the work they do.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Veterans of prime working age generally fare at least as well as non-veterans in the U.S. job market, though there are differences in the work they do.
Classes have ended for the summer at U.S. public schools, but a sizable share of teachers are still hard at work at second jobs outside the classroom.
Most Americans like labor unions, at least in the abstract. A majority (55%) holds a favorable view of unions, versus 33% who hold an unfavorable view, according to a Pew Research Center survey from earlier this year. Despite those fairly benign views, unionization rates in the United States have dwindled in recent decades. As of 2017, just 10.7% of all wage and salary workers were union members, matching the record low set in 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Despite some ups and downs over the past several decades, today’s real average wage in the U.S. has about the same purchasing power it did 40 years ago. And most of what wage gains there have been have flowed to the highest-paid tier of workers.
Allegations about sexual misconduct by prominent men in politics, entertainment, media and other industries have reverberated across the United States in recent months, drawing attention to issues of gender equality in the workplace and in broader American society.
Although manufacturing jobs have fallen over the past three decades, improved productivity has kept manufacturing output rising – contrary to what many Americans believe. But over the past few years, productivity growth has been sluggish at best.
Much of U.S. job growth over the past 25 years has been in occupations that require higher levels of education, training and experience – a trend that seems likely to continue, based on our analysis of official government job-growth projections.
Assuming all of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees are confirmed, he will have one of the most heavily business-oriented Cabinets in U.S. history. Five of the 14 people Trump has nominated to be Cabinet secretaries have spent their entire careers in the business world, with no public office or senior military service on their resumes.
Americans generally support paid family and medical leave, according to a new Pew Research Center survey, but relatively few workers have access to it. Access to paid leave varies considerably by industry, type of employer and employer’s size.
Immigrants made up 17.2% of the total U.S. workforce in 2014, or about 27 million workers. Private households were the biggest immigrant-employing “industry,” followed by textile, apparel and leather manufacturers and the farm sector.
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