Labor policy in the United States has not been a central part of the overall economic strategy. Human resource and labor policy has been more a passive social policy rather than an active economic policy designed to facilitate economic change. Recent economic problems such as declining real incomes of workers and increasing inequality have led to proposals for a more coherent labor policy and a shift from the low-wage strategy for global competitiveness to a high-skill, high-wage strategy. Unions support policies to upgrade skills of the workforce and are active in creating new education and training policies as well as new arrangements to enhance worker participation in the workplace.
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