The Job Training Charade

By Gordon Lafer

Book Overview

Job training has long been promoted as a central policy response to poverty and unemployment. Both Democrats and Republicans have trumpeted training as the answer to everything from welfare to NAFTA. The Job Training Charade provides a comprehensive critique showing that training has been a near-total failure. Even more dramatically, the book shows how politicians have ignored repeated reports of the program's failure, and have kept funding a policy they know cannot work. Gordon Lafer first examines the economic assumptions and track record of training policy. He goes on to provide a political analysis of why job training has remained so popular despite widespread evidence of its economic failure. The author concludes that job training functions less as an economic prescription aimed at solving poverty than as a political strategy aimed at managing the popular response to economic distress. The Job Training Charade is a landmark book showing how a bipartisan consensus may coalesce behind a phantom policy that serves political needs while ignoring economic realities.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801489512
• ISBN13: 9780801489518
• Release Date: July 2004
• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 8.9"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

David vs. Goliath

Gordon Lafer shows us clearly the etiology of the federally-funded job training programs such as JTPA and today WIA. He shows us clearly why these programs are political responses and not actually based in "the truth" of unemployment at all. There are too few jobs available to help poor people with a band-aid approach. Although he does not come out and say it, Lafer's implication is that the CETA program, public funding of jobs, was more to the point for poor people. The government then acts as the employer of last resort. He probably feels, and I agree, that it will come to that again soon, because corporate America is out to make a profit, not help the workers, and unions? Well, they're shrinking and losing even the little say-so they did have, witness the grocery strike right now in Southern California. So, eventually, probably sooner than later, there will be many idle people lingering and you know what the devil does with idle lingering people. The only redeeming element of politics that we can find in Lafer's scathing analysis of Ronald Reagan and his ilk, is that what goes around comes around. Politics goes in cycles. CETA had its day, just as the New Deal did, and the War on Poverty. Now we're in the thick of a backlash period, but it can't last. That is, if it does last, it won't be the same old U.S. anymore, will it? More like Unbrave New World? Diximus.

This is an outstanding book

Lafer's analysis is first rate. All the numbers are there, but what makes this book exceptional is the clear and accessible writing Lafer uses to present the material. Anyone who wants to know the politics and the economics behind job training efforts in the United States will LOVE this book. For anyone interested in the ever growing influence of corporate America into matters of national economic and educational policy, Lafer's _The Job Training Charade_ is essential reading.

Perfect analysis of why people hire workers

You need to read this book.It shows clearly the motivations employersuse to make hiring decisions.Dr. Lafer shows the true reasons hire/not hiredecisions are made.It fits perfectly with an economic model: cost.He shows, through government statistics and interviewswith employers, the true motivations for hiring.It's all about cost (obviously). But i'm not summarizing! The book gives a muchbetter description of this huge trend, affectingeach of our lives. It starts out with an analysis of the job trainingprogram for lesser educated persons. The chapterthat affects me, the 2nd one, "Does education really matter"is 20+ pages of information (not opinion) of whypeople hire. It's so easy to say "there is a skills mismatch".Yet, i've seen organized people rise to prominent positions based solely on their abilities to listen to their boss, and beorganized. Learning more and more from universities won't save you.You need to understand what the reasons are.The writing style is very clear. You're not confusedwith arcane economic jargon. The facts are laid out,and the supporting details are put in footnotes. I read a lot of books on employment, advancement,the job trends of the future. This book explains so many of the true reasons. And when you understand the general premise, it fits perfectly with the low costeconomic model sweeping the world.