Jobs Aren't Enough : Toward a New Economic Mobility for Low-Income Families

This unflinching examination of the obstacles to economic mobility for low-income families exposes the ugly reality that lies beneath the shining surface of the American Dream. The fact is that nearly 25% of employed adults have difficulty supporting their families today. In eye-opening interviews, twenty-five workers and nearly a thousand people who are linked to them-children, teachers, job trainers, and employers-tell wrenching stories about trying to get ahead. Spanning five cities over five years, this study convincingly demonstrates that prevailing ideas about opportunity, merit, and bootstraps are outdated. As the authors show, some workers who believe the myths end up destroying their health and families in the process of trying to move up. Jobs Aren't Enough demonstrates that the social institutions of family, education, labor market, and policy all intersect to influence-and inhibit-employment mobility. It proposes a new mobility paradigm grounded in cooperation and collaboration across social institutions, along with revitalization of the public will. Annotation This unflinching examination of the obstacles to economic mobility for low-income families exposes the ugly reality that lies beneath the shining surface of the American Dream. The fact is that nearly 25% of employed adults have difficulty supporting their families today. In eye-opening interviews, twenty-five workers and nearly a thousand people who are linked to them?children, teachers, job trainers, and employers?tell wrenching stories about "trying to get ahead." Spanning five cities over five years, this study convincingly demonstrates that prevailing ideas about opportunity, merit, and "bootstraps" are outdated. As the authors show, some workers who believe the myths end up destroying their health and families in the process of trying to "move up."Jobs Aren't Enough demonstrates that the social institutions of family, education, labor market, and policy all intersect to influence?and inhibit?employment mobility. It proposes a new mobility paradigm grounded in cooperation and collaboration across social institutions, along with revitalization of the "public will." Examines the obstacles to economic mobility for low-income families and exposes the ugly reality that lies beneath the shining surface of the American Dream. The fact is that nearly 25% of employed adults have difficulty supporting their families today. Twenty-five workers and nearly a thousand people who are linked to them--children, teachers, job trainers, and employers--tell wrenching stories about "trying to get ahead." Spanning five cities over five years, this study convincingly demonstrates that prevailing ideas about opportunity, merit, and "bootstraps" are outdated. Iversen and Armstrong demonstrate that the social institutions of family, education, labor market, and policy all intersect to influence--and inhibit--employment mobility and propose a new mobility paradigm grounded in cooperation and collaboration across social institutions. - from publisher information Annotation In this gripping ethnographic account, Roberta Iversen and Annie Laurie Armstrong examine the obstacles to economic mobility for low- and increasingly middle-income families in 21st century America. The 'voices' of twenty-five families in Milwaukee, New Orleans, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Seattle and of hundreds of people who are linked to the families' lives, show that the historic myths about opportunity, merit, and 'bootstraps' are outdated and, in some cases, downright dangerous for many urban workers and their families. Iversen and Armstrong show that the social institutions of family, education, labour market and policy all intersect to influence mobility. Jobs Aren't Enoughproposes a new mobility paradigm grounded in cooperation, collaboration, mutuality and revitalization of the 'public will' to maximize both "household and profit." Job opportunity is a myth for 25% of U.S. wage earners