“You Get the Economy You Choose”

Abstract

This article reviews three new books that analyze trends in jobs, careers, and labor markets. All three highlight ways in which work and employment have become precarious and how different groups of workers have experienced degradation in their labor market positions. They also show how economic and institutional transformations are the products of conscious choices made by political and corporate leaders, and by workers themselves. The article briefly reviews each, shows their overlapping themes, and notes their contradictory lines of thinking about how to best improve the American economy and labor markets. It concludes with a call for sociological research on understanding industrial and labor market transformations that might help us interpret the trends highlighted in these books.