From Library Journal
Readers may be relieved to know that this engaging volume isn't a catalog of "best" jobs for the new millennium and/or Information Age. Somewhat reminiscent of Studs Terkel's Working, it focuses on the everyday lives of people in a wide array of jobs. Divided into 12 chapters (e.g., "the self-employed," "the civil servants"), each profile includes some basic facts (the bartender earns $45,032 a year, including tips and works 40 hours a week) as well as some nice personal accounts (the baker boasts that her cookie dough has three kinds of chocolate). The subtitle is somewhat misleading, as everyone included works in New York--not exactly your average American city. Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Muhammad's images enhance the brief blurbs about each worker. One would also have liked some introductory comments from journalist Howell to understand how and why he chose his subjects. Still, this will be an entertaining addition to public library collections.-Ellen Gilbert, Rutgers Univ. Lib., New Brunswick, NJ Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
At first glance, Howell's guide seems like another version of the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Outlook Handbook, but many of the livelihoods Howell includes will not readily be found in the government's job classifications. There is a tattoo artist, ice-cream vendor, undercover narcotics cop, oyster shucker, and unlicensed passenger-van driver. Howell, a veteran journalist who lives and teaches in Brooklyn, does list basic job traits, such as salary, hours, benefits, and training requirements. He also reports whether the job is unionized, where it is usually performed, and whether computer skills are necessary. His profiles, though, are highly personalized and brief but fascinating interviews that reveal how Howell's subjects feel about their work. A head chef warns of the hazards of frying tofu. A librarian is frustrated by the demands of an array of equipment she must face. A former electronics marketing vice president explains how he became a magician. Each sketch is accompanied by a penetrating photograph taken by Pulitzer Prize winner Ozier Muhammad. David Rouse


Des Moines Register, 28 February 2000
An original and revealing portrait of the workplace... the profiles demonstrate the remarkable diversity of American workers today.


Book Description
A revealing, illustrated portrait of work in contemporary America. Using New York City as a microcosm of the American economy, One Hundred Jobs paints an original and revealing portrait of the American economy and work in America in all its differences and extremes. Veteran journalist Ron Howell has interviewed one hundred workers in New York City to find out what they do all day, how they do it, how they are compensated, and how they view their working lives. The portraits are accompanied by statistics, including salary, health-care benefits, average hours of work per week, and educational background, along with Pulitzer Prize-winner Ozier Muhammad's photographs of each employee's job site. From traffic "spotter" to lawyer to school teacher, from drug dealer to cardiologist to executive assistant, the profiles in One Hundred Jobs demonstrate the remarkable diversity of American cities today, highlighting differences in expectation and experience across the employment spectrum. Accessible and original, One Hundred Jobs is a powerful composite of work in America.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Using New York City as a microcosm of the American economy, One Hundred Jobs paints an original and revealing portrait of work in all its differences and extremes. Veteran journalist Ron Howell has interviewed one hundred workers to find out what they do all day, how they do it, how they are compensated, and how they view their working lives. These portraits are accompanied by statistics such as salary, health-care benefits, average hours of work per week, and educational background, along with Pulitzer Prize-winner Ozier Muhammad's photographs of each employee at his or her job site.

From locksmith to landlord, dermatologist to magician, hair braider to World Wide Web coordinator, the profiles in One Hundred Jobs demonstrate the remarkable diversity of American workers today, highlighting the differences in expectation and experience across the employment spectrum.

FROM THE CRITICS

KLIATT

Howell, a reporter for Newsday, interviewed 100 workers in New York City to create a composite look at work in America today. From magician to undercover narcotics cop, World Wide Web coordinator to bike messenger, HIV clinic director to squeegee man, Howell captures the essence of people's work lives in brief, 500-word essays—what they do on the job and how they feel about it, quoting the workers on their satisfactions, their schedules, their discontents. The workers are grouped into sections by trade, such as "The Civil Servants," "The Food Handlers," The Artists," and "The Caregivers," and each essay is prefaced by the job title and listings of salary, hours, benefits, unions, experience or requirements, use of computers, workplace, and risks. New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Muhammad's b/w photo of the person at work accompanies each two-page description. The diversity here is fascinating, and includes a former prostitute and a former drug dealer as well as a judge and a rabbi. In his introduction, Howell points out the "racial clustering at the ends of the income spectrum"; the "Fringe-Dwellers" are all people of color, while the highest-paid jobs belong to whites. Like Studs Terkel's book Working, this supplies an inside look at what some people do all day and what they think about it, a perspective that may benefit YAs as they start to think about what careers they may want to follow or study the sociology of American work today. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2000, Norton/The New Press, 224p, illus, 21cm, 99-23756, $15.95. Ages 16 to adult. Reviewer: Paula Rohrlick; July 2000 (Vol.34 No. 4)

Library Journal