Title

Job Loss in the Great Recession: Historial Perspective from the Displaced Workers Survey, 1984-2010

Author(s)

Henry S. Farber Henry Farber (Princeton University, NBER, IZA)

Abstract

The Great Recession from December 2007 to June 2009 is associated with a dramatic weakening of the labor market from which the labor market is now only slowly recovering. The unemployment rate remains stubbornly high and durations of unemployment are unprecedentedly long. I use data from the Displaced Workers Survey (DWS) from 1984-2010 to investigate the incidence and consequences of job loss from 1981-2009. In particular, the January 2010 DWS, which captures job loss during the 2007-2009 period, provides a window through which to examine the experience of job losers in the Great Recession and to compare their experience to that of earlier job losers. These data show a record high rate of job loss, with almost one in six workers reporting having lost a job in the 2007-2009 period. The consequences of job loss are also very serious dur- ing this period with very low rates of reemployment, difficulty finding full-time employment, and substantial earnings losses.

Creation Date

2011-05

Section URL ID

IRS

Paper Number

564

URL

https://dataspace.princeton.edu/bitstream/88435/dsp01kw52j8087/1/564.pdf

File Function

Jel

E240, J000, J200, J210

Keyword(s)

Labor market, unemployment rate, Displaced Workers Survey, reemployment, employment, substantial earnings losses

Suppress

false

Series

1