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Industrial Characteristics and Employment of Older Manufacturing Workers in the Early-Twentieth-Century United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2015

Chulhee Lee
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Abstract

This study explores how industry-specific technological, organizational, and managerial features affected the employment of old male manufacturing workers in the early-twentieth-century United States. Industrial characteristics favorably related to the employment of old industrial workers include high labor productivity, less capital- and material-intensive production, short workdays, low intensity of work, high job flexibility, and formalized employment relationships. Results show that aged industrial workers were heavily concentrated in “unfavorable” industries, suggesting that the contemporary argument of “industrial scrap heap” was applicable for most of the manufacturing workers in the early-twentieth-century United States.

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Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , Winter 2015 , pp. 551 - 579
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association, 2015 

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