Tracing Behavioral Changes among Discouraged Workers: What Happens to the Work Ethic?

Abstract

Material from an ethnographic case study of 102 randomly selected blue-collar workers who experienced job loss in the 1980s was examined, with a focus on a subgroup of 11 who became “discouraged” and withdrew from the labor force. Changes in the job-search behavior and attitudes of the discouraged workers are traced, and theoretical explanations for their resignation and withdrawal are explored.

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