During the period from 1949 to 1977, research coalesced around how information asymmetries and macroeconomic volatility shape hiring, wage setting, and employment outcomes. The dominant themes center on the role of credentials and education as signals for unobserved ability, the emergence of statistical discrimination under imperfect information, and persistent wage gaps across gender and occupations, all within evolving institutional settings. Methodologically, scholars pursued theoretical models of signaling and screening, coupled with empirical examinations of wage structures and unemployment dynamics, while interrogating how changes in work organization and market power influence labor-market outcomes under uncertainty.