Squeezing the Middle Class
Policy brief, 6 pp.
August 2005
Local analysis of new Census data uncovered a shift in the income levels of Santa Clara County families: the middle class is stagnating, the number of upper-income households is shrinking, and many more households are dropping into the lowest income classes. Combined with the growing cost of living, this trend suggests that Silicon Valley’s economy is undergoing a transformation which, if not checked, will continue to drive family incomes down and push inequality up.
Link to full report
Read our opinion piece on this issue

Apprenticeship Programs in Santa Clara County
Program chart, 3 pp.
April 2005
This resource for jobseekers and workforce development professionals summarizes requirements, application process, and job wages and benefits for 34 trade apprenticeship programs in Santa Clara County.
Link to full report

Temporary Hourly Employees at the City of Palo Alto
Policy brief, 8 pp.
October 2004
This brief analyzes a new survey of temporary hourly workers employed by the City of Palo Alto, finding that the City’s current system of temp work creates high costs for the City and the community. Looking to a model adopted by the County of Santa Clara as a best practice, it offers recommendations for reforming Palo Alto’s temporary employment practices.
Link to full report
Read more about our efforts to hold government accountable

The Economic Effects of Immigration in Santa Clara County and California
Report, 51 pp.
September 2004
More than a year in the making, The Economic Effects of Immigration takes a fresh look at immigration’s influence on Silicon Valley through an economic lens. It examines the multiple roles immigrants play in the local and state economies, as workers, taxpayers, and entrepreneurs, and finds that without immigrants filling these roles, the emergence of Silicon Valley as an international center of high-tech innovation would have been impossible. It also refutes common misperceptions about immigration, finding, for example, that increased immigration to a region does not raise unemployment or lower wages for the residents already there.
[Link to executive summary]
Link to full report

The Cardea Project: Understanding the Recession’s Effect on Women: Tools for Empowerment
Report, 85 pp.
June 2004
Working Partnerships USA collaborated with the Office of Women's Policy to produce a report analyzing the effects of the recession on low income and working women in Santa Clara County. This project identified the roots of the crisis that women now face: women's lower incomes, the high cost of living, the weakening of the safety net and greater family responsibilities. It emphasizes that low income women are not just those below the official poverty line, promoting instead the concept of a “self-sufficiency standard” that would allow all families to fulfill their basic needs.
[Link to executive summary]
Link to full report

Economic Opportunity in a Volatile Economy: Understanding the Role of Labor Market Intermediaries in Two Regions
Research project
May 2004
Over the last three decades, American workers have witnessed marked changes in their jobs and earnings. Global competition, new technologies, and employer restructuring are bringing a distinct shift in the employment relationship, including an erosion of career ladders within individual firms. One response to these shifting employment conditions has been a rapid growth of labor market intermediaries (LMIs), ranging from temporary agencies and professional associations to union hiring halls and community-based organizations.
Read more about labor market intermediaries

This collaborative study with the Center on Wisconsin Strategy examines the role of labor market intermediaries in two major metropolitan areas: Silicon Valley, California and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. By comparing intermediary use in the two regions, it allows us to explore the ways in which intermediary activity is shaped by the particular economic characteristics of a prototypical "new economy" region and a prototypical old, industrial manufacturing-based region.

Jobs with a Future
The Jobs with a Future series, developed and published jointly with the Silicon Valley Workforce Investment Network, examines prospects, challenges, and best practices in three regional industries: health care, hospitality, and child care. For each sector, the first report analyzes challenges and potential obstacles to growth, while the second report focuses on solutions—offering concrete suggestions on steps that can be taken to improve services, productivity, profit, and performance.

The findings of the Jobs with a Future project emphasize the need to promote high-road industry models that provide good jobs to our region’s residents, rather than subsidizing low-road employers in a race to the bottom.

Jobs with a Future: Successful High-Road Partnerships in the Child Care Industry
Report, 21 pp.
July 2004
[Link to executive summary]
Link to full report

Jobs with a Future: Regional Growth Strategies and Strong Career Ladders for the Hospitality Industry
Report, 53 pp.
July 2004
[Link to executive summary]
Link to full report

Read more about our hospitality industry projects

Team San Jose
Hotel Workers Rising
Hayes Mansion [Link: Focus Areas>Organizing and Leadership Development>Accomplishments>Support for Worker Organizing#]

Jobs with a Future: Designing Health Care Career Ladders that Work
Report, 45 pp.
July 2004
[Link to executive summary]
Link to full report
Read about our additional health care work

Jobs with a Future: The Child Care Industry
Report, 28 pp.
July 2003
[Link to executive summary]
Link to full report

Jobs with a Future: The Hospitality Industry
Report, 35 pp.
July 2003
[Link to executive summary]
Link to full report

Jobs with a Future: The Health Care Industry
Report, 63 pp.
July 2003
[Link to executive summary]
Link to full report

Temporary Employment in Stanford and Silicon Valley
Report, 39 pp.
June 2003
This report examines the growing phenomenon of temporary work , its extent and character in Silicon Valley, and the issues which arise from the patterns of temporary employment in Santa Clara County. It analyzes a new survey of temporary employees at Stanford University and Hospitals, and offers recommendations for employers to ensure that temporary work conforms to basic community standards.
[Link to executive summary]
Link to full report

Walking the Lifelong Tightrope:  Negotiating Work in the New Economy
Economic Status Report, 90 pp.
May 1999
Walking the Lifelong Tightrope examines the striking changes in California's economy over the past decade and the implications of this transformation for the state's working families. The report details how workers at all income levels are increasingly vulnerable to rapid changes in our volatile, information-based economy and how inequality has become more and more entrenched in California's economic structure. To decrease economic insecurity and volatility, the report proposes news ways for government, business and labor to develop new institutions and policies that protect working families, provide effective bridges from low-paid to high-paid occupations and industries, and provide life-long learning opportunities.
[Link to executive summary]
Link to full report

Growing Together or Drifting Apart? Working Families and Business in the New Economy
Economic Status Report, 68 pp.
January 1998
A status report on social and economic well-being in Silicon Valley, documenting a range of social and economic indicators relevant to working families in Santa Clara County. This study helped provide a baseline for the Community Blueprint process.
[Link to executive summary]
Link to full report

Shock Absorbers in the Flexible Economy: The Rise of Contingent Employment in Silicon Valley
Report, 20 pp.
May 1996
Shock Absorbers documents the rise of temporary work, independent contractors, and other forms of contingent employment in Silicon Valley. The report also explores a wide range of possible solutions to problems faced by temp workers and contingent employees, including public policy recommendations and suggestions for new forms of worker organizing.
[Link to executive summary]
Link to full report


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