ABSTRACT

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) began the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS) in the mid-1960s to fill a gap in the nation's collection of labor market information. Labor experts recognized that, while the Current Population Survey was very valuable, it only provided a snapshot of the labor market, while the most pressing issues in labor markets centered on long-run actions in the workforce. The NLS project started with four original cohorts in the late 1960s, followed by a cohort of young people in 1979 and another in 1997. It is now 22 years since the latest NLS Youth Cohort was first fielded. Recently the need for a new cohort has found resonance, and the project detects the possibility that, if the social science community pulls together, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) may be able to start a new cohort that would be studied longitudinally. To be held in Washington, DC, this workshop would bring together academics from many disciplines, leaders from Federal agencies that have historically been very active in shaping the content and use of the NLS, and independent researchers working on the nation's pressing policy questions. Findings from the conference would be used to design a new survey effort with a new cohort of young people born after 2000, so as to track the experiences of this key generation regarding schooling, work, family formation and their interrelationships as they transition into early and middle adulthood. This data collection effort will support policy formulation in support of United States human capital over the next 30 years, maximizing this key resource for America's global competitiveness through the middle of the 21st century.

More than two decades after the start of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), the United States again faces the lack of a youth cohort to study the new landscape for today's young people. This Workshop would: 1) inform the social science community about the mission and myriad achievements of the NLS to date; 2) describe the deterioration in the nation's ability to track the school-to-work transitions of upcoming workforce generations; 3) explain how a new cohort will help the nation frame programs that meet important societal needs and help achieve societally relevant outcomes; 4) identify commonalities of interest among Federal, state and local agencies to create a knowledge base that can guide these agencies in making policies and pursuing initiatives to shape education and social engagement in both market and non-market activities; 5) encourage an effort that tracks the process by which adolescents move into science, technology, engineering and mathematical fields and how those modalities differ for women, the disabled and minorities; 6) promote a program that tracks the careers of STEM trainees, thereby providing a more detailed trajectory than the current SESTAT program is able to achieve; 7) identify the importance of the arts in education for later life happiness and success; and 8) promote the measurement of cognitive and non-cognitive skills and the investigation of their impact on successful life trajectories. Findings from the conference will help frame a new data collection effort, which will ultimately contribute to scholarly literatures in fields including economics, sociology, psychology, education, business, demography, health, geography, criminology, survey methodology and public policy.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

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