The Future of Work: Conceptual Considerations and a New Analytical Approach for the Political Economy

This paper investigates the changing nature of quality employment in the United States, considering the social and economic consequences of neoliberal policies on the quality and availability of good jobs. Neoliberalism and its policies have profoundly influenced the American economy and impaired the socioeconomic landscape. Access to quality employment is a critical component of the future of work, as it shapes worker identities and empowers them to meet household needs. Quality employment can curb rising inequality, reduce job polarization, close urban-rural divides, and halt the corrosion of trust in American social democracy. This paper proposes a new conceptual and analytical approach to evaluating trends and structural changes in quality employment across American industries. The analytical framework involves a composite indicator — the Quality Employment Index (QEI) — that measures industries’ capacity to offer quality employment relative to one another. We use the QEI to rank fifteen American manufacturing industries from 2001 to 2018, and evaluate them in the context of the U.S. political economy.