Title

Plant Closings and Worker Displacement: The Regional Issues

Year

1988

Abstract

Howland examines the relationship between regional employment shifts and plant closures and describes the implications of that relationship for displaced worker study. Her findings support an argument against industrial policy as a means of slowing the pace of worker dislocation as well as against concession in wages, utility bills, and taxes as strategies for retaining local jobs. Howland also presents several policy options for both national policy makers and local economic development officials, and argues for increased federal support for local takeovers of closing branch plants and subsidiaries and for financial and adjustment assistance for displaced workers.

Contents

  1. Plant Closings: The Problem and Current Policy
  2. The Dun and Bradstreet Data
  3. Spatial Patterns of Plant Closings, Job Dissolution, and Economic Growth
  4. Plant Closures and Regional Rates of Profit
  5. Local Employment Growth and the Reemployment Success on Displaced Workers
  6. Summary, Policy Implications and Directions for Further Research

Sponsorship

Financial support provided by the Upjohn Institute, the Computer Science Center at the University of Maryland, the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of Maryland, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

ISBN

9780880990622 (pbk.)

Subject Areas

EMPLOYMENT and COMPENSATION; Job security; Dislocated workers; Job stability; REGIONAL ISSUES; Regional and urban studies