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An essay is presented on the subject of cigarette smoking among U.S. laborers in factories, corporate spying on workers, and the social culture of shopfloors in the U.S. during the 20th century. It examines the records of Erie, Pennsylvania, paper manufacturer Hammermill Paper Company concerning employee cigarette consumption, how employees attempted to evade corporate surveillance of their smoking, and labor relations in the U.S.

Most skills acquired through on-the-job training may be specific to an occupation and therefore transferable to some but not all firms. This paper explores the relationship between the size of the local market for an occupation-specific skill and job-training outcomes. The Stevens (1994) model of training predicts that as market size increases, job turnover increases and training becomes more general. I test these predictions using data on blue-collar workers and variation in market size across US metropolitan areas. The empirical results support the theoretical predictions and the impacts are most relevant at low levels of market size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on the study of the hostility of male co-workers towards women working in non-traditional blue collar jobs. This paper compares full-time women workers in traditionally male blue-collar jobs to those in predominantly female, lower white-collar positions within a single, large company, using five dimensions of job satisfaction pay, work content, promotion opportunity, co-workers and supervisors. Authors Brigid O'Farrell and Sharon L. Harlan compares the blue and white-collar women's degree of satisfaction with coworkers and other job aspects and then the relative importance they attribute to these job aspects. They measure the blue-collar women's perception of male co-worker hostility Third, controlling for demographic characteristics and job type, we measure the effect of perceived co-workers' attitudes on the five dimensions of women's job satisfaction The analysis supports the feminist critique of traditional explanations for women's work motivations Our conclusions demonstrate the implications of this research for theories of job segregation and for equal employment policy.

Little is known about factors associated with smoking among the unemployed. This study estimated the prevalence of smoking and examined sociodemographic factors associated with current, former, and successful quitting among unemployed adults aged 18–64. Cross-sectional data on 13,480 participants in the 1998–1999 and 2001–2002 Tobacco Use Supplements to the Current Population Surveys were analyzed. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to examine factors associated with study outcomes (current vs. never, former vs. current, successful quitter vs. other former smoker). Among the unemployed, 35% were current smokers and 13% were former smokers. Of the former smokers, 81% quit successfully for at least 12 months. Participants with family incomes of less than US$25,000 were more likely than those with incomes of $50,000 or more to currently smoke (OR = 2.13, 95% CI = 1.85–2.46). Service workers and blue-collar workers were less likely than white-collar workers to report former smoking. Participants unemployed for 6 months or more were twice as likely as those unemployed for less than 6 months to quit successfully (OR = 2.05, 95% CI = 1.07–3.95). Unemployed blue-collar workers had a greater odds ratio of successfully quitting than white-collar workers (OR = 1.83, 95% CI = 1.17–2.87). Smoking rates were high among the unemployed, and quitting behaviors varied by sociodemographic factors and length of unemployment. Studies are needed to examine the feasibility of cessation interventions for the unemployed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two questions concerning enjoyment of work asked on a 1955 American Gallup Poll were asked on a 1980 United States national survey to gauge the net change during a quarter of a century. Only the responses of persons employed full-time were used for this study. Indicated enjoyment of work was substantially lower in 1980 than in 1955. The difference was especially great for manual workers, Protestants, and older persons. A tentative conclusion drawn from examining trend data for one birth cohort is that the change resulted from cohort succession and from orientations and attitudes members of younger cohorts brought to their work rather than from changes in work conditions which affected workers of all ages and in all birth cohorts. Some implications of the findings are disscussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]