The UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment supports faculty and graduate student research on employment and labor topics in a variety of academic disciplines. The Institute also sponsors colloquia, conferences and other public programming, is home to the undergraduate minor in Labor and Workplace Studies at UCLA, and carries out educational outreach on workplace issues to constituencies outside the university. The Institute, in addition to the Academic Unit, includes three affiliate organizations: the UCLA Labor Center, the Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program, and the Human Resources Round Table.

News & Announcements

 

Applications open: Small grants for UCLA faculty and for grad students from UCLA and other Southern California UC campuses

IRLE is pleased to announce two sets of mini-grants: one for UCLA faculty, one for graduate students at UCLA plus other Southern California UC campuses. Grants for faculty range up to $10,000; those for students are for any amount but are typically funded at around $3,000. Applications are due April 9.

 

Call for papers: Graduate Student Conference

IRLE and the UCLA Sociology Department's Work, Labor, and Social Movements Working Group are organizing an interdsciplinary graduate student conference on "Strategic Decision-Making in Labor and Social Movement Organization." Deadline for submissions is March 29. The conference will be held May 28, 2010.

 

IRLE Prizes for Best Papers by UCLA Undergraduate and Graduate Students

Graduate and undergraduate students at UCLA can now win a $500 award for a publishable research report, thesis, dissertation or a published article written while a UCLA student. Click on the above title for details.

 

Videos of UCLA IRLE colloquia now available online

The IRLE is very pleased to announce that we are now making video of many of our Colloquia available via a YouTube channel. You can find the link to video, plus some sound files and PowerPoint presentations here.

 

2010 Community Scholars Program Begins

The Community Scholars Program is a joint initiative of UCLA's Department of Urban Planning and the Center for Labor Research and Education that offers opportunity for community and labor leaders, regardless of their educational background, to participate in a special applied research project seminar along with graduate students for two academic quarters. The 2010 program entitled, Popular Education 2.0: Explaining Green Jobs to The People, involves the participa-tion of graduate students from urban planning, Latin American studies, and law; artists and cultural workers from the community; and staff of the UCLA Downtown Labor Center and the Labor Occupational Safety and Health.

 

IRLE Publishes its Fourth Research & Policy Brief – California Crisis: A Portrait of Unemployed Workers

With nearly 8 million jobs lost since December 2007 and a national unemployment rate of 10%, the Great Recession is worse than any other economic downturn since the Great Depression. At 12.3%, California’s unemployment rate is among the worst in the nation. Equally troubling is that unemployment affects some groups disproportionately. IRLE’s latest Research and Policy Brief looks at the situation in California as compared to the nation as a whole and examines the differential impact of the recession on various groups of workers. The importance of more stimulus and job creation for strong, sustainable growth is discussed.