Word: collars
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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These are not isolated, exotic cases. Nationwide, the fraction of the work force earning wages that are inadequate to lift a family out of poverty rose from 25.7% in 1979 to 31.5% in 1987. During the '80s, the average hourly compensation of all blue-collar workers, computed in constant dollars, fell $1.68, according to the Economic Policy Institute, and those who were earning the least tended to lose the most. In what some sociologists call the "new working class" -- which is disproportionately made up of minorities and the young and female of all races -- work may be a fine ingredient...
...leads are not the problem; they illuminate their roles. Fox, an icon of sunny impudence, plays a blend of his two most famous roles: the sassy kid from Family Ties and the cherubic go-getter in the Back to the Future trilogy. And Hurt, Hollywood's white-collar star, mines wit and pain from a static character. The actor can get wondrously glum when he plays a smart guy flummoxed by fate, which is why he should have been cast as the hero-victims in Presumed Innocent and The Bonfire of the Vanities. Instead he got The Doctor, whose style...
...have struck particularly hard. The troubled banking sector alone has lost more than 100,000 jobs as a result of consolidations and closings since 1989; the recent wave of megamergers will only accelerate the trend. BankAmerica's $4.5 billion acquisition of Security Pacific will reportedly eliminate 10,000 white-collar jobs, or 11% of the companies' total work force. "People who get laid off when banks merge don't get rehired," says David Wyss, an economist with the consulting firm Data Resources. "That is a permanent, structural change...
...layers of management," says a company spokesman. "These are our ways of staying alive and being competitive." In Detroit, Ford, Chrysler and General Motors have eliminated 350,000 jobs since 1979, a reduction of 36%. The Big Three plan to lop off another 20,000 white-collar positions this year...
Layoffs have been turning the lives of midlevel managers and other white- collar workers upside down. Bruce Deberry, 38, earned $60,000 a year in 1989 as a project manager for Digital Equipment Corp. while living comfortably in the university town of Durham, N.H. Sensing that layoffs were imminent, Deberry quit to get a jump on changing jobs. But he has found only short-term consulting work and has earned just $10,000 so far this year. He now faces bankruptcy and foreclosure on his home. "The worst part is the feeling that I'm all washed...