Working Paper

Job Displacement and Sectoral Mobility

Abstract: This paper combines two components of the US Current Population Survey to characterize the relationship between job displacement and sectoral mobility for long-tenured workers over the 1996–2019 period: (1) the cross-sectional Displaced Worker Survey and (2) the 16-month longitudinal design of the Basic Monthly Survey. While displacement negatively correlates with mobility over time, such job loss has a positive causal impact on mobility for displaced workers compared with similar non-displaced workers. Education and industry structure facilitate post-displacement industry switching, and several factors, including business cycles, affect whether the alternative to sectoral mobility is likely to be same-industry employment or nonemployment.

Keywords: Displaced Worker Survey; job displacement; sectoral mobility; Current Population Survey;

JEL Classification: J24; J63;

https://doi.org/10.29412/res.wp.2021.19

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

Part of Series: Working Papers

Publication Date: 2021-10-01

Number: 21-19