| 50-5693 | JK692 | MARC | | Social & Behavioral Sciences Business, Management & Labor | | Public jobs and political agendas: the public sector in an era of economic stress, ed. by Daniel J. B. Mitchell. Labor and Employment Relations Association, 2013 (c2012). 259p bibl ISBN 0913447056 pbk, $29.95; ISBN 9780913447055 pbk, $29.95. Reviewed in 2013jun CHOICE. | | This volume contains nine essays, plus an editor’s introduction, dealing with public employment issues mostly in the US. (One deals with OECD countries, and the concluding essay addresses Trinidad/Tobago.) All essays are at least very good. David Lewin’s essay on the great recession’s effects on employment and compensation is excellent, providing a wealth of information and generally solid interpretations of the data. William Rodgers provides insights into the disproportionate decline in African American employment during the recession. Essays six and seven, dealing in depth with compensation, are also excellent. Editor Mitchell, in the introduction, presents some valuable preliminary data and writes, “Lewin [in essay 1] … notes the large size of government employment … roughly one-sixth of the U.S. workforce.” While this is accurate, government’s share of employment peaked around 1975 and has been steadily declining since. Federal government employment has been declining as a share of the total since about 1950, while state and local government employment (combined) has been roughly stable as a share of total employment after peaking in 1975. Despite such occasional missteps, this volume as a whole makes a valuable and timely contribution. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. — D. A. Coffin, emeritus, Indiana University Northwest |
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