Labor Markets
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Michael Hout -
Gregory Acs -
David Card -
Jesse Rothstein
Leaders: Gregory Acs, David Card, Michael Hout, Jesse Rothstein
The labor market was of course hit very heavily by the Great Recession, as evidenced by (a) the slow recovery of the unemployment rate, (b) and the even slower recovery of the long-term unemployment rate and the prime-age employment ratio (defined as the ratio of employed 25-54 year-olds to the population of that same age). This “jobs problem,” which is especially prominent among low-skill workers, has led to a sharp rise in the number of poor households without any working adults. It also underlies, in part, the sharp increase in the number of disability insurance claims and awards, which in turn has further reduced the supply of labor among low-skilled individuals.
If the first type of “jobs problem” is that there still are not enough of them, the second is that the jobs that are available do not always provide the requisite hours, wages, or security that are needed for a sure pathway out of poverty. As a result, low-skill individuals are not just working less but, even when they are working, there is no guarantee that their jobs will lift them and their families out of poverty. The Labor Markets RG is tasked with conducting research on these and related problems and exploiting administrative and other data to assess possible policy responses to them. We list below a few examples of the work being carried out in this group.
Long-run effects of work incentives: As nonworking poverty increases, the U.S. might well want to turn to new types of work incentive programs. Have these programs worked elsewhere?
Minimum wages and poverty: Throughout the west coast, there are a host of minimum wage “experiments” underway, experiments that have the potential to reset the low-wage labor market in quite fundamental ways. How are these experiments playing out?
Featured Examples
Labor Markets - CPI Research
| Title | Author | Media | |
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| Housing and the Great Recession | Ingrid Gould Ellen, Samuel Dastrup |
Housing and the Great RecessionAuthor: Ingrid Gould Ellen, Samuel DastrupPublisher: Date: 10/2012 The story of the Great Recession cannot be told without addressing housing and, in particular, the dramatic decline in housing prices that began in late 2006. A distinctive feature of the Great Recession is its intimate connection to the housing sector; indeed many would argue that the Great Recession was triggered by the widespread failure of risky mortgage products. Whatever the sources of the Great Recession may have been, the housing sector is still deeply troubled and is a key contributor to our ongoing economic duress. This recession brief lays out the main features of the downturn in the housing sector. |
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| Immigration and the Great Recession | Douglas S. Massey |
Immigration and the Great RecessionAuthor: Douglas S. MasseyPublisher: Date: 10/2012 Immigration has been a major component of demographic change in the United States over the past several decades, constituting at least a third of U.S. population growth and up to a half of labor force growth in any given year. By any standard, it is a central feature of the nation’s political economy and thus especially important to monitor as the Great Recession plays out. This brief reviews levels and patterns of immigration to the United States over the past three decades, with a particular focus on their implications for the nation as it recovers from the worst economic downturn since the 1930s. |
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| Income, Wealth and Debt and the Great Recession | Timothy Smeeding |
Income, Wealth and Debt and the Great RecessionAuthor: Timothy SmeedingPublisher: Date: 10/2012 The Great Depression is often cast as the beginning of the end for the late Gilded Age. Because it brought on the institutional reforms of the New Deal, it led to dramatic reductions in income inequality and set the stage for a long period of comparatively low inequality. The purpose of this recession brief is to ask whether the Great Recession, like the Great Depression, is likewise shaping up as a compressive event that will reverse some of the run-up in inequality of the so-called New Gilded Age. This question can be taken on by examining recent and long-term trends in wealth inequality, income inequality, median incomes, and debt. |
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| The Labor Force and the Great Recession | Michael Hout, Erin Cumberworth |
The Labor Force and the Great RecessionAuthor: Michael Hout, Erin CumberworthPublisher: Date: 10/2012 The Great Recession and the slow recovery since have been the longest economic slump in seventy years. It affected vulnerable populations more than others. In this brief, our aim is to put this disaster into historical context, looking first at the overall state of the labor market and then at how the economic harm has been distributed across the population by gender, level of education, and race and ethnicity. |
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| Political Attitudes, Public Opinion, and the Great Recession | Lane Kenworthy, Lindsay A. Owens |
Political Attitudes, Public Opinion, and the Great RecessionAuthor: Lane Kenworthy, Lindsay A. OwensPublisher: Date: 10/2012 Has the Great Recession altered American views about business, finance, government, opportunity, inequality, and fairness? Has it changed the public's preferences regarding the appropriate role of government in regulating the economy and helping the less fortunate? Has it shifted political orientations or party allegiances? The purpose of this recession brief is to examine whether such opinions have changed during the Great Recession and prior recessions as much as it's often assumed. |
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labor markets - CPI Affiliates
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Toby L. Parcel |
Professor of Sociology |
North Carolina State University |
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Vered Kraus |
Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology |
University of Haifa |
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Adina Sterling |
Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior |
Stanford University |
Pages
Labor Markets - Other Research
| Title | Author | Media | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Great Recession and State Criminal Justice Policy: Do Economic Hard Times Matter? | Peter K. Enns, Delphia Shanks-Booth |
The Great Recession and State Criminal Justice Policy: Do Economic Hard Times Matter?Author: Peter K. Enns, Delphia Shanks-BoothPublisher: Russell Sage Foundation Date: 12/2015 It costs a lot to maintain the world's highest incarceration rate. Did the largest economic shock since the Great Depression influence criminal justice policy and resulting incarcerations? |
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| The Great Recession and Mothers' Health | Christopher Wimer |
The Great Recession and Mothers' HealthAuthor: Christopher WimerPublisher: Russell Sage Foundation Date: 10/2015 Given the now well known effects of the Great Recession on economic outcomes of individuals and families, researchers have turned to the question of how this major economic downturn affected domains of family life. In a recent paper, Janet Currie of Princeton University and Valentina Duque and Irwin Garfinkel of Columbia University study the health of young mothers in the context of the Great Recession. Two key findings emerged. First, increased unemployment was associated with worsened self-reported health status and increased smoking and drug use. Second, more disadvantaged mothers suffered the greatest effects for self-reported health, while more advantaged mothers sometimes showed improvements in their health and health behaviors in response to the recession. |
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| The Great Recession and Fathers' Health | Allison Corr |
The Great Recession and Fathers' HealthAuthor: Allison CorrPublisher: Russell Sage Foundation Date: 10/2015 Economic recessions can have detrimental impacts on individual and family wellbeing. New research by Janet Currie of Princeton University and Valentina Duque of Columbia University assesses how the Great Recession affected the health of fathers with young children. The analysis yields two main findings. First, high unemployment was associated with declines in physical health but little change in health-compromising behaviors. Second, changes in physical health were concentrated among fathers in the lower end and middle of the education distribution. |
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| The Great Recession and Parents' Relationships | Christopher Wimer |
The Great Recession and Parents' RelationshipsAuthor: Christopher WimerPublisher: Russell Sage Foundation Date: 06/2015 Economic downturns are stressful experiences for those affected by them, as well as those connected to affected family members and loved ones. Did the recent Great Recession lead to significant changes in the relationships between parents of young children? |
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| The Great Recession and the Private Safety Net | Christopher Wimer |
The Great Recession and the Private Safety NetAuthor: Christopher WimerPublisher: Russell Sage Foundation Date: 02/2015 In a recent paper, Princeton University’s Aaron Gottlieb and Columbia University’s Natasha Pilkauskas and Irwin Garfinkel provide some of the first insights into how families’ private safety nets responded to the Great Recession. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), the authors investigate whether the Great Recession was associated with increased transfers to parents of young children by anyone other than the child’s father. |
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Labor Markets - Multimedia
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