A self-help book to help the unemployed and their families cope more effectively during a time when they feel helpless.

Bookwise is a carefully graded reading scheme organized into five cross-curricular strands, encouraging links to other subjects. Comprising 16 fiction and ten non-fiction titles, the 25 books at each level span a two-year reading age and the three-tier levelling system within each level facilitates an accurate match of reading ability and text. The full-colour readers are accompanied by teacher's guides and resource sheets to help teachers get the most out of their guided reading and writing sessions.

This volume tells the story of what the 1988 closing of the Chrysler assembly plant in Kenosha, Wisconsin, meant to the people who lived in that town. Through interviews with displaced autoworkers and other members of the community it dramatizes the lessons Kenoshans drew from the plant shutdown. This volume tells the story of what the 1988 closing of the Chrysler assembly plant in Kenosha, Wisconsin, meant to the people who lived in that company town. Since the early days of the 20th century, Kenosha had forged its identity and politics around the interests of the auto industry. When nearly 6000 workers lost their jobs in the shutdown, the community faced not only a serious economic crisis but also a profound moral one. In this study, Dudley describes the painful, often confusing process of change that residents of Kenosha, like the increasing number of Americans who are caught in the crossfire of de-industrialization, were forced to undergo. Through interviews with displaced autoworkers and Kenosha's community leaders, high-school counsellors and a rising class of upwardly mobile professionals, Dudley dramatizes the lessons Kenoshans drew from the plant shutdown.

Companionship and strategies for job seekers Millions of people become unemployed every year, yet when job loss happens to us, we typically feel completely alone and often lost, ashamed, and afraid. No one knows how to comfort us when we lose our job. Unlike other griefs--when someone can say, "I'm sorry for your loss"--joblessness leaves family, friends, and acquaintances awkwardly searching for words. Jobs Lost, Faith Found is for those who feel alone due to job loss. It is also for those who offer respect, companionship, guidance, and resources to the unemployed. Mary C. Lindberg, pastor, chaplain, and spiritual director, draws on her family's experience of unemployment and the wisdom of many others, including sages from Scripture and the Christian tradition, to help readers discover a sense of worth and purpose on their way to a new job. She offers prayers, insights, Bible stories, and reflections to light the way during this time of uncertainty and wandering. The path toward hope will be your own, but the ideas, reflections, and strategies in this book will get you started on your journey.

COVID-19 has exacerbated concerns about the rise of the robots and other automation technologies. This paper analyzes empirically the impact of past major pandemics on robot adoption and inequality. First, we find that pandemic events accelerate robot adoption, especially when the health impact is severe and is associated with a significant economic downturn. Second, while robots may raise productivity, they could also increase inequality by displacing low-skilled workers. We find that following a pandemic, the increase in inequality over the medium term is larger for economies with higher robot density and where new robot adoption has increased more. Our results suggest that the concerns about the rise of the robots amid the COVID-19 pandemic seem justified.

From David Graeber, the bestselling author of The Dawn of Everything and Debt—“a master of opening up thought and stimulating debate” (Slate)—a powerful argument against the rise of meaningless, unfulfilling jobs…and their consequences. Does your job make a meaningful contribution to the world? In the spring of 2013, David Graeber asked this question in a playful, provocative essay titled “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs.” It went viral. After one million online views in seventeen different languages, people all over the world are still debating the answer. There are hordes of people—HR consultants, communication coordinators, telemarketing researchers, corporate lawyers—whose jobs are useless, and, tragically, they know it. These people are caught in bullshit jobs. Graeber explores one of society’s most vexing and deeply felt concerns, indicting among other villains a particular strain of finance capitalism that betrays ideals shared by thinkers ranging from Keynes to Lincoln. “Clever and charismatic” (The New Yorker), Bullshit Jobs gives individuals, corporations, and societies permission to undergo a shift in values, placing creative and caring work at the center of our culture. This book is for everyone who wants to turn their vocation back into an avocation and “a thought-provoking examination of our working lives” (Financial Times).

What happens when Americans lose their jobs? In American Made, an illuminating story of ruin and reinvention, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Farah Stockman gives an up-close look at the profound role work plays in our sense of identity and belonging, as she follows three workers whose lives unravel when the factory they have dedicated so much to closes down. “With humor, breathtaking honesty, and a historian’s satellite view, American Made illuminates the fault lines ripping America apart.”—Beth Macy, author of Factory Man and Dopesick Shannon, Wally, and John built their lives around their place of work. Shannon, a white single mother, became the first woman to run the dangerous furnaces at the Rexnord manufacturing plant in Indianapolis, Indiana, and was proud of producing one of the world’s top brands of steel bearings. Wally, a black man known for his initiative and kindness, was promoted to chairman of efficiency, one of the most coveted posts on the factory floor, and dreamed of starting his own barbecue business one day. John, a white machine operator, came from a multigenerational union family and clashed with a work environment that was increasingly hostile to organized labor. The Rexnord factory had served as one of the economic engines for the surrounding community. When it closed, hundreds of people lost their jobs. What had life been like for Shannon, Wally, and John, before the plant shut down? And what became of them after the jobs moved to Mexico and Texas? American Made is the story of a community struggling to reinvent itself. It is also a story about race, class, and American values, and how jobs serve as a bedrock of people’s lives and drive powerful social justice movements. This revealing book shines a light on a crucial political moment, when joblessness and anxiety about the future of work have made themselves heard at a national level. Most of all, American Made is a story about people: who we consider to be one of us and how the dignity of work lies at the heart of who we are.