Details

<p>Intermediaries 5</p> <p>Careers 7</p> <p>Research Data 9</p> <p><b>PART I FLEXIBILITY AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF WORK AND EMPLOYMENT 11</b></p> <p><b>1 Understanding Flexibility 13</b></p> <p>Labor Markets in the Information Economy 15</p> <p>Flexible Work and Flexible Employment 21</p> <p><b>2 Silicon Valley: Changing Industry Structure and Employment Practices 37</b></p> <p>Flexible Work and Employment Practices 39</p> <p>Economic Change and Flexibility 49</p> <p>Conclusion: Flexibility and Volatility 76</p> <p>Appendix 2.1: Industry Cluster Analysis 77</p> <p><b>PART II FLEXIBILITY AND INTERMEDIARIES 81</b></p> <p><b>3 Flexibility and Intermediation 83</b></p> <p>Labor Market Intermediaries 86</p> <p>Intermediation and Markets 89</p> <p>Intermediation and Flexible Labor Markets 92</p> <p>Conclusion: Increasing Intermediation 97</p> <p><b>4 Labor Market Intermediaries – Private Sector 99</b></p> <p>Temporary Help Agencies 102</p> <p>Consultant Brokerage Firms 110</p> <p>Web-based Intermediaries 117</p> <p>Employer of Record 123</p> <p>Professional Employer Organizations 125</p> <p>Conclusion: The Labor Market as Business Opportunity 128</p> <p><b>5 Labor Market Intermediaries – Membership based 130</b></p> <p>Blurring Boundaries 132</p> <p>Silicon Valley Membership-based Intermediaries 138</p> <p>Conclusion: Building Community-based Careers 175</p> <p><b>6 Labor Market Intermediaries – Public Sector 177</b></p> <p>Workforce Development System 179</p> <p>Education-based Intermediaries 187</p> <p>Non profit/Community-based Initiatives 197</p> <p>Conclusion: Workforce Development Challenges 198</p> <p><b>PART III FLEXIBILITY AND CAREERS 201</b></p> <p><b>7 Careers in Silicon Valley 203</b></p> <p>Growing Inequality 206</p> <p>Factors Contributing to Inequality 216</p> <p>Flexibility and Labor Market Outcomes 220</p> <p>Intermediaries and Labor Market Outcomes 226</p> <p>Conclusion: Significant Problems Exist 231</p> <p>Appendix 7.1: Silicon Valley Wage Data 232</p> <p><b>8 Flexibility and Security 234</b></p> <p>New Concepts for Labor Markets in the Information Economy 238</p> <p>Intermediaries and Labor Market Policy 247</p> <p>Labor Flexibility and a New Employment Contract 250</p> <p>A Final Word 261</p> <p>References 262</p> <p>Index 281</p>

“The labor market in Silicon Valley is the likely harbinger of things to come in the rest of the American economy. Chris Benner’s analysis of this market’s structure should be taken very seriously. He has brought us a vast amount of information that will help policy makers plan for the future.” <i>Professor Martin Carnoy, Stanford University</i> <br /> <p>“Benner’s work on the Silicon Valley’s labor markets provides valuable insights for policymakers and activists as well as scholars who care about the future of work and workers in the new economy.” <i>ProfessorAnnaLee Saxenian, UC Berkeley</i><br /> </p> <p>"Chris Benner, in his ground-breaking study of <i>Work in the New Economy</i> has done us an immense favour by offering an alternative way to conceptualize labour markets, a way which not only allows us to capture the dynamics within them, but also helps us move dialectically between structuralist approaches and those rooted in notions of individual agency." <i>International Review of Social History</i></p>

<b>Chris Benner</b> is an Assistant Professor of Geography at the Pennsylvania State University and a Research Associate at both the Sociology of Work Program at the University of Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa) and the Center for Justice, Tolerance and Community at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has written extensively on workforce development and training systems, labor flexibility, non-standard employment, employment insecurity, regional development policy, dynamics of occupational learning networks, and new forms of labor organizing. His publications have appeared in a range of both academic journals and more popular outlets. He received his doctorate in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley.

The rise of the information economy is dramatically transforming work and employment conditions around the globe. Who does the work, how it is done, and the results it produces for individuals and their families, for organizations and for society, is undergoing fundamental change.<br /> <p>This book contributes to our understanding of the transformation of work in the information economy, through a detailed examination of labor markets in Silicon Valley. It provides an original and insightful analysis of flexible labor including growing volatility in work demands and increasingly tenuous employment relations. In shaping this context of rapid change, it examines the increasingly important role of labor market intermediaries. These new labor dynamics, shaped by flexibility and intermediation, create difficult and contradictory conditions for workers. Some workers clearly thrive in this vibrant context, but many face high levels of insecurity amidst growing inequality.</p>

“The labor market in Silicon Valley is the likely harbinger of things to come in the rest of the American economy. Chris Benner’s analysis of this market’s structure should be taken very seriously. He has brought us a vast amount of information that will help policy makers plan for the future.” <i>Professor Martin Carnoy, Stanford University</i> <br /> <p>“Benner’s work on the Silicon Valley’s labor markets provides valuable insights for policymakers and activists as well as scholars who care about the future of work and workers in the new economy.” <i>ProfessorAnnaLee Saxenian, UC Berkeley</i><br /> </p> <p>"Chris Benner, in his ground-breaking study of <i>Work in the New Economy</i> has done us an immense favour by offering an alternative way to conceptualize labour markets, a way which not only allows us to capture the dynamics within them, but also helps us move dialectically between structuralist approaches and those rooted in notions of individual agency." <i>International Review of Social History</i></p>

GB