Brookings: Work in the 21st Century

To most people, work is the mainstay of livelihood, social integration, and identity. But the twentieth-century meaning of "work" can no longer be taken for granted. As patterns of work continue to shift in response to the demands of production and trade in the global economy, major challenges have arisen—not only in the lives of individual workers, but also for employers exposed to global competition and for the makers of national and international policy and law. At the heart of the debate lies the challenge of reframing the concepts and rules whereby people’s socioeconomic security and the human dimensions of work can be reconciled with the global market’s growing need for competitive labor flexibility.

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