Skill complementarity in production technology: New empirical evidence and implications

Danish manufacturing firm data reveal that 1) industries differ in within-firm worker skill (= wage) dispersion, and 2) within-firm skill dispersion positively correlates with firm productivity in industries with higher average skill dispersion. We argue that these patterns reflect technological differences between industries: firms in the “skill complementarity” industries profit from hiring similarly able workers, while the “skill substitutability” firms thrive on skill differences. Our study produces a robust, data-driven and theoretically validated classification of industries into the complementarity and substitutability groups, unveils hitherto unnoticed technological heterogeneity between industries within the same economy, and illustrates its importance through simulations.

Does Education Prevent Job Loss during Downturns?: Evidence from Exogenous Schools Assignments and COVID-19 in Barbados

Canonical human capital theories posit that education, by enhancing worker skills, reduces the likelihood that a worker will be laid off during times of economic change. Yet, this has not been demonstrated causally. We link administrative education records from 1987 through 2002 to nationally representative surveys conducted before and after the onset of COVID-19 in Barbados to explore the causal impact of improved education on job loss during this period. Using a regression discontinuity (RD) design, Beuermann and Jackson (2020) show that females (but not males) who score just above the admission threshold for more selective schools in Barbados attain more years of education than those that scored just below (essentially holding initial ability fixed). Here, in follow-up data, we show that these same females (but not males) are much less likely to have lost a job after the onset of COVID-19. We show that these effects are not driven by sectoral changes, or changes in labor supply. Because employers observe incumbent worker productivity, these patterns are inconsistent with pure education signaling, and they suggest that education enhances worker skill.

Appropriate Assembly Instruction Modes: Factors to Consider

Presented is a literature study into the importance of how information in assembly instructions in manual assembly is presented, more specifically how various factors such as the complexity of the assembly itself, the mental and physical workload of the worker, as well as the experience and skill level of the worker affect the requirements for information presentation. The requirements made by Industry 4.0 on flexibility in production lines and an increased number of variants produced causes increased demands on workers, which leads to more cognitive demands being made on assembly workers. Studies exist around assembly instruction modes, but have in many cases ignored factors such as worker skill level, mental workload, and task complexity and how these affect the requirements for information presentation, which is a major contribution of this study. The findings are that no single solution fits all requirements, but that the aforementioned factors should be taken into account.

Employer Decision Making

The decisions employers make are of critical importance to sociological understandings of labor market stratification. While contemporary research documents employment outcomes with ever-growing precision, far less work examines how employers actually make decisions. In this article, I review research on the process of employer decision making, focusing on how employers evaluate, compare, and select workers in personnel decisions. I begin by summarizing the most prevalent theories of employer decision making in sociology, grouping them into competency-based, status-based, and social closure–based approaches. A common thread underlying much of this work is the assumption that employers are utility maximizers who base decisions on systematic, even if flawed, cognitive calculations of worker skill and workforce productivity. I then turn to recent research from sociology and beyond that challenges this notion and highlights the importance of understanding how employers themselves—their emotions, identities, and environments—affect decisions. I conclude by suggesting directions for future research.

Manufacturing Production Companies Can Gain Strategic Global Advantage Using Lean Six Sigma

How the implementation of Lean Six Sigma in manufacturing production companies in the global environment can positively affect innovation, quality, education, productivity, standard of living, and ethics is discussed in this chapter. Examples by notables like Dr. W. Edwards Deming and the Chegg Study point out a serious misalignment between what is actually needed in manufacturing production worker skill sets and what is available. The chapter demonstrates the interconnectivity of, and responsibility for, the welfare of citizens of the world. It shows how Lean Six Sigma implementation can influence Gross National Product and Gross Domestic Product, which in turn determine quality of life for a nation's citizens. The chapter offers solutions like fostering industry, academics, and government relationships for the abatement of problems such as less government funding for public education and equipping college students with the right skill sets for more complex jobs in manufacturing production industries.