It's the time of year when companies around the nation ask employees and employers to have what's usually an awkward conversation: the 'performance review.' We'll be hearing from a management professor who thinks we should simply do away with them entirely. Do you have to do one? Do you have to conduct one?  Are they helpful, or is there a better way to get the information across?

The American workforce is still surprisingly segregated by gender, and this separation does not seem to benefit women. Two-thirds of working women are concentrated in only five percent of occupational categories. And in the few fields where more than 90 percent of workers are women – like childcare and food preparation – the pay tends to be low. Compare this low pay to male-dominated industries (there are a lot of them). Almost one in four job categories, such as construction work and trucking consist of workforces that are almost exclusively male. And those same jobs pay up to 30 percent more than traditionally female jobs like secretarial work.

For this week’s work segment, we look at a coming-of-age ritual that teenagers have engaged in for decades, but might be missing out on this year due to the bad economy: the summer job. A new study indicates that the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds has doubled in the past three years, from 10 percent to 20 percent, making the search for the summer job harder than ever.

But it’s not entirely hopeless.

The recent accidents in a West Virginia mine and a Gulf of Mexico oil rig have a lot of us focusing on dangerous jobs, and asking: what makes some careers so dangerous? And what drives some workers to risk their lives for their work?

As the recession rages on, many experienced workers who’ve lost their jobs are looking at job listings and wondering: Am I overqualified for this? And if I apply anyway, how can I convince myself (or someone else) that I'm right for the job?

First, the warm up: A light jog amid office cubicles to the elevator bank. Filled with liquid gold – the day’s breast milk receipts – my six-pound Pump & Go vigilantly straddles my shoulder as I make my way, gingerly dodging the judgmental eyes and last-minute questions from colleagues. I pound the call button once, then twice more for good measure, then rifle through my purse, desperately groping for the commuter ticket that will take me home to the achingly sweet babies I left at home 10 hours earlier.

During the holidays it’s not unusual for people to take on a holiday job, at a retailer or a mail-order company, to make ends meet and to help put Christmas gifts under the tree. But in this competitive job market, you might want to also consider that short term job a way to get your foot in the door for the long term. Beth Kobliner, author of "Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance In Your Twenties and Thirties," discusses this with Kurt Kuehn, Chief Financial Officer at UPS. Kuehn started with UPS as a seasonal driver's assistant 32 years ago.

Temporary and contract workers may be the first to start feeling some relief as the recession ebbs. Temporary staffing companies found jobs for more than 52,000 workers in November, the most since 2004, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this week. For a deeper look at the freelance market, we speak with Sara Horowitz, founder and executive director of Freelancers Union. We also speak with University of Chicago Professor Susan Lambert.

Some 5.6 million American manufacturing jobs have been lost since 1999, and many of those jobs don't appear to be coming back anytime soon. At least some of the people who worked in manufacturing are trying to learn new job skills: We look at the successes and failures of retraining programs with Takeaway contributor Beth Kobliner. We're also joined by Hal Higdon, president of Ozarks Technical Community College in Springfield, Mo., who says community colleges are too overburdened to be effective; and Robin Ambrosy, laid off in January of 2006 from her job with Sony and now retraining to become an occupational therapist.

Almost 6 million people are currently unemployed in the United States. Trying to get a job in a volatile job market is proving so difficult that some job searchers are turning to professional help. The Takeaway's Femi Oke joined a networking club to meet job hunters who’ve decided they need to spend some money to land their next job.

This morning we're discussing technology companies who have made diversity a priority. When Larry Page and Sergey Brin set up Google, they made diverse hiring a goal. It wasn’t for the sake of being politically correct — they thought it would be good for business. We speak to Marissa Mayer, vice president of search product and user experience at Google (and one of Google’s first employees); along with Xerox’s chief diversity and employee advocacy officer, Philip Harlow. We also look at how minorities lag behind at research universities with Donna Nelson, a chemistry professor at the University of Oklahoma, who authored a report: "A National Analysis in Science and Engineering Faculties at Research Universities (opens a PDF)."

A Los Angeles–based clothing company is laying off 1,800 immigrant employees in the coming weeks at the behest of the Obama administration. And it's not just any company — it's American Apparel, a business that has made a name for itself for paying its workers a better-than-fair wage and offering in-factory massages. (And, yes, they have also made a name for themselves with their over-the-top "sex sells" advertising.) Are the layoffs at American Apparel the start of a larger storm to come, in which more companies will be asked to let immigrants go? New York Times immigration reporter Julia Preston gives us the details.

For more, read Julia Preston's article, Immigration Crackdown With Firings, Not Raids, in today's New York Times.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, we're soon likely to see a major shift in the gender balance of the working world. As early as this November, it's projected that for the first time in U.S. history, more women will be working than men. Add to this fact that 78 percent of the people laid off in the recent recession were men, and one sees a whole new picture of America's workforce.

We speak with Beth Kobliner, author of "Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties." She says the forces changing the demographics of the working world influence both men and women. Also, Sharon Meers, a former Goldman Sachs executive and co-author of "Getting to 50/50: How Working Couples Can Have It All by Sharing It All," explains what the shifts might mean for the managers and workers of small and large companies across the country.

As the unemployment rate climbs, more people are having to relocate in order to find work. Almost 20% of Americans who took new jobs in July moved in order to get them. The Takeaway's finance contributor Beth Kobliner talks about the challenges — and opportunities — of a national job search. We also hear from Jeff Gilbert, who moved last year from outside Detroit to Wyoming, Ohio to take a job as general manager of a commercial manufacturing company.

The U.S. Labor Department just released productivity numbers for the spring quarter and they are on the rise—productivity is the highest in six years. We talk to Kelly Evans, economics reporter for the Wall Street Journal.

14.5 million Americans are out of work due to the worst recession since the Great Depression. All age groups are feeling the pain of the recession, but for 44-55 year olds, it's even harder. Beth Kobliner, Takeaway work-life Contributor and author of the bestseller, "Get a Financial Life" talks to us, along with Susan Price, who is 49, unemployed and looking for work.

This morning the unemployment numbers come out and there is a strong chance that they could reach the double digits. The economy is hitting men particularly hard. From the corporate suites to the construction sites, since November, more than 80 percent of job losses in the U.S. have fallen on men. For a look at what this means for both men and women in the workforce, we are joined by Kelly Evans, she is the economics reporter for the Wall Street Journal. We are also joined by Riehan Salam, a fellow at The New America Foundation; he’s written a new piece on this for Foreign Policy magazine titled The Death of Macho. And for an up close look on how the recession is affecting men we turn to Michael Doyle. Doyle is the Vice President and General Manager of the Southeast Division of Manpower, which is an employment service provider.

With millions of jobs lost in this economy, people are reflecting on how important their jobs are -- and not just for the obvious financial reasons. Philosopher Alain de Botton has been thinking about what constitues a meaningful life. For his latest book, "The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work," he followed working people around the world, going behind the scenes with fishermen, career counselors, and cookie manufacturers, to offer perspective on the working person's life.

The economic downturn is making life harder than usual for teenagers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the unemployment rate among teens is 21.7 percent — the highest rate in nearly 20 years. And these aren’t just kids looking for iPod money. There are young people across the socioeconomic spectrum who are hoping to put themselves through school, or to pitch in at home. Joining us to explain what it means to have so many jobless teens is Beth Kobliner. She is a personal finance expert and author of The New York Times best-seller Get a Financial Life.

Princeton University Professor Uwe Reinhardt is an expert on health care policy and an adviser to President Obama. In today’s Economix blog in the New York Times, he makes the case for why employment-based health insurance is a deeply flawed system. He joins The Takeaway to spell out his argument.

For more, read Uwe Reinhardt's blog post, Is Employer-Based Health Insurance Worth Saving?, in the Economix blog on nytimes.com.