Data on workplace injuries, safety concerns, and provisions for safety
equipment and job training suggest that workers supplied by temporary staffing
agencies to building and construction contractors in the Atlanta metro area work in
substandard safety conditions. Agency-supplied temps cite inadequate job training
and insufficient provisions for safety equipment as reasons for their safety concerns.
Temporary agency workers in Atlanta’s building and construction industry
experience substandard safety conditions in part because non-standard employment
Chirag Mehta
Workplace Safety in Atlanta's Construction Industry: Institutional Failure in Temporary Staffing Arrangements
Education for All: Chicago's Undocumented Immigrants and Their Access to Higher Education
The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) recently estimated that approximately 432,000 undocumented immigrants currently reside in Illinois. Many of these immigrants arrive in Illinois as young children and received their schooling in the State. Currently, many students without legal immigration status do not fulfill their educational goal of attending college.
Chicago's Undocumented Immigrants: An Analysis of Wages, Working Conditions, and Economic Contributions
Undocumented immigrants are strongly committed to working in the United States and they make significant contributions to the economy. Undocumented workers account for approximately 5% of the Chicago metro area labor market and represent a growing segment of the low-wage workforce. Undocumented immigrants earn low wages, work in unsafe conditions, and have low rates of health insurance.
Social Security Admistration's No-Match Letter Program: Implications for Immigration Enforcement and Worker's Rights
The U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) began its employer “no-match letter” program to help properly allocate the billions of dollars of contributions collected from workers with incorrectly filed Social Security numbers (SSNs). Under the program, SSA sends letters to employers every year that identify the Social Security numbers of employees who do not match names or numbers in SSA’s records.
Living With Welfare Reform: A Survey of Low-Income Families in Illinois
In July of 1997, the nation’s welfare system was dramatically changed by the implementation of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). One of the primary goals of this new program was to decrease the number of families receiving welfare benefits. While the TANF caseload numbers have decreased significantly, advocates argue that many families, although not currently receiving TANF, are still trapped in poverty.
This report looks more closely at the experiences of families who have left TANF and at the reasons
Persistent Unemployment in Illinois: The Case For Reauthorizing Federal Temporary Extended Unemploment Compensation Benefits
November 2003 marked two years of recovery for the U.S. economy. Government reports have trumpeted the good news: growth in the gross domestic product reached its highest level in nearly two decades, businesses are investing again, and exports edged up slightly.
An Assessment of the Walmart Store Proposed for Chicago's West Side
The prospect of the opening of a new Wal-Mart store on the west side of Chicago has raised concerns about its potential impact on existing retailers. While Wal-Mart and its advocates suggest that the store will have a positive impact by adding jobs and income to the local economy, a more careful analysis is necessary to understand the net benefits associated with the proposed development. This study assesses the likely impact of a new Wal-Mart store on other local retailers and the resulting employment and tax revenue impacts on the City of Chicago and its residents.
Contingent Work and the Staffing Industry
Economic analysts are increasingly pointing to a newly emerging economy where greater flexibility, ongoing workplace transformation, and enhanced responsiveness to market pressures are the new rules of the game. At the center of this “new economy” is the phenomenon of contingent work, fueled both by employers’ desires to increase flexibility while reducing costs and by a growing number of staffing agencies that have formed to service these needs.