Word: labored
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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What is this Stakhanovite society? No, not Japan, for all its renown as the exemplar of dedicated labor. South Korea? Taiwan? West Germany? No, again. Every one of the trends cited is occurring in the U.S. -- the very country Richard Nixon once said was being overtaken by a "new welfare ethic that could cause the American character to weaken." Nixon need not have worried: 15 years after he voiced his forebodings, and as Labor Day approaches, every indication is that 112.7 million Americans by and large are working as hard as ever, and sometimes harder, even where the vaunted computer...
Neither story is that unusual. Moonlighting was once thought to be a temporary phenomenon made necessary by the ravages of inflation. But as inflation has abated in the '80s, the practice has only increased. At last count, in May 1985, the Labor Department found that 5.7 million workers, or 5.4% of all those employed, held more than one job. That was up from 4.9% in 1980, the double-digit-inflati on year, and the highest proportion in more than two decades. The number of moonlighting women in the labor force jumped 40% between 1980 and 1985, to 2.2 million, three...
...Some labor specialists think these trends may soon begin to reverse as work-force demographics change. A shortage of workers owing to the low birthrates of the '60s and early '70s is already being felt by employers who try to hire youths for entry-level jobs. Columbia University Professor David Lewin predicts that as the birth dearth works through the ranks of the labor force, "employees are going to have the upper hand in bargaining power." Job insecurity will subside, he thinks, and workers will win higher wages, lowering the pressure to put in more hours...
...there are probably enough Kathy Davises and Armajene Clarks left to keep the work ethic alive, if in something less than pristine form. Admittedly, the current high level of labor activity is not entirely a happy trend. A long-term decline in real incomes is nothing to celebrate, and leisure undoubtedly has its rewards. Even so, it is not disheartening that John Hardison and millions of others evidently feel something similar to fondness for hard work...
BUSINESS: The work ethic is alive, as Americans labor harder than ever...