DO EMPLOYERS REALLY NEED MORE EDUCATED YOUTH

In this article, the authors use qualitative data from interviews with 51 diverse employers to examine what actions, if any, employers take in pursuit of their stated need for young workers with skills. Contrar y to Berg's model, employers often describe a clear need for specific academic skills, specific conditions that require such skills, cmd cos tly actions they take to obtain these skills. However, contrary to the economic model, in attempting to achieve productivity goals, employer s respond to shortcomings in skills by taking previously unnoted actio ns that increase labor market stratification. They increase supervisor s' responsibility for explaining tasks at considerable cost to themsel ves, adjust jobs to match workers' skills, offer special accommodation s to retain workers with valued skills, and use ''on-the-job screening '' and recruiting linkages to select workers. These findings explain s ome puzzles in segmented labor market theory and extend sociological n etwork models.