A number of RSF grantees and authors recently appeared in the news to discuss ongoing shifts in the U.S. labor market. Following the release of the February jobs report, Harry Holzer, co-author of the 2011 RSF book, Where Are All the Good Jobs Going?, spoke to several outlets about the addition of 242,000 new jobs to the economy. “I view this mostly as a good report. The job creation number was very good,” he told NBC News. In an interview with the Washington Post, he added that middle-aged workers who had dropped out of the workforce during the recession were starting to re-enter in significant numbers. Their re-entry, he said, has been “going on consistently since October. So it doesn’t look like a blip anymore. That seems important to me.”

Yet, longer-term changes to the labor market have presented cause for concern. The New York Times highlighted research by RSF trustee Lawrence Katz and former trustee Alan Kreuger that shows that the percentage of workers in “alternative work arrangements”—or contract and temporary workers—has increased by over 5 percent in the last decade. Katz told the Times that in addition to high unemployment rates during the recession, new technology has likely played a role in accelerating the rise of temporary, “flexible” work arrangements. “Call center workers can be at home. Independent truck drivers can be monitored for the efficiency of their routes. Monitoring makes contracting more feasible,” he said.

RSF Visiting Researcher Steven Greenhouse recently appeared on the Leonard Lopate Show to discuss the expansion of this growing precarious workforce and the ways in which federal and state governments have attempted to address it. “Governor Cuomo has led the way in pushing for a $15 minimum wage across the state,” he said. “Many people say that’s in important protection.” Still, he added, more could be done across the nation to help contingent workers—who are not recognized as employees in certain states—with issues such as wage theft.

Research by other RSF grantees on the gender wage gap was cited in a New York Times article, including a study co-authored by grantee Paula England which found that male-dominated professions begin paying less once women enter them in large numbers, “even after controlling for education, work experience, skills, race and geography.” Grantees Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn further noted that the pay gap is widest in white-collar professions, where women have moved into historically male jobs at a higher rate than in blue-collar fields. The Times also cited grantee Claudia Goldin, whose research has found persistent pay gaps within specific occupations, including doctors and lawyers.

Click here to see the full list of RSF authors, grantees, and scholars in the news.