Working Paper
The causes and consequences of economic restructuring: evidence from the early 21st century
Wascher, William L.; Figura, Andrew (2008)
A number of industries underwent large and permanent reductions in employment growth at the beginning of this decade, a process we label as restructuring. We describe how restructuring occurred and what its consequences were for the economy. In particular, we find that restructuring stemmed largely from relative demand shocks (though technology shocks were important in some industries) and that elevated levels of permanent job destruction and permanent layoffs were distinguishing features of industries subject to restructuring. In addition, most workers displaced in restructuring industries ...
Finance and Economics Discussion Series , Paper 2008-41

Working Paper
Reconciling Unemployment Claims with Job Losses in the First Months of the COVID-19 Crisis
Price, Brendan M.; Ratner, David; Weingarden, Alison E.; Figura, Andrew; Cajner, Tomaz (2020-07-17)
In the spring of 2020, many observers relied heavily on weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits (UI) to estimate contemporaneous reductions in US employment induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. Though UI claims provided a timely, high-frequency window into mounting layoffs, the cumulative volume of initial claims filed through the May reference week substantially exceeded realized reductions in payroll employment and likely contributed to the historically large discrepancy between consensus expectations of further April-to-May job losses and the strong job gains reflected in ...
Finance and Economics Discussion Series , Paper 2020-055

Working Paper
What drives movements in the unemployment rate? a decomposition of the Beveridge curve
Figura, Andrew; Barnichon, Regis (2010)
This paper presents a framework to interpret movements in the Beveridge curve and analyze unemployment fluctuations. We decompose the unemployment rate into three main components: (1) a component driven by changes in labor demand--movements along the Beveridge curve and shifts in the Beveridge curve due to layoffs--(2) a component driven by changes in labor supply--shifts in the Beveridge curve due to quits, movements in-and-out of the labor force and demographics--and (3) a component driven by changes in the efficiency of matching unemployed workers to jobs. We find that cyclical movements ...
Finance and Economics Discussion Series , Paper 2010-48

Discussion Paper
What does the Beveridge curve tell us about the likelihood of a soft landing?
Figura, Andrew; Waller, Christopher J. (2022-07-29)
Any assessment of the likelihood and characteristics of a soft landing should take into account the situation in the labor market currently and the likely dynamics in the labor market going forward. Modern labor market models centered around the Beveridge curve are a useful tool in this assessment.
FEDS Notes , Paper 2022-07-29

Working Paper
The effect of restructuring on unemployment
Figura, Andrew (2003)
This paper finds that the permanent job losses associated with industrial restructuring have significantly boosted the variance of unemployment, causing it to rise much higher in recessions than it would have without cyclically correlated restructuring. Moreover, the influence of restructuring has increased noticeably in the 1980s and 1990s, acting to increase economic instability at a time when other factors were operating to reduce it.
Finance and Economics Discussion Series , Paper 2003-56

Working Paper
Workweek flexibility and hours variation
Figura, Andrew (2004)
I use the term workweek flexibility to describe the ease of changing output by altering the number of hours per worker. Despite the fact that workweek flexibility is potentially important for understanding the cyclical behavior of marginal cost and prices, as well as cyclical movements in hours and output, it has received little attention. Using insights from a simple model of employment and the workweek, I use mean workweek levels to identify the effect of workweek flexibility and then show that it is an important determinant of firms' marginal cost schedules and the variance of industry ...
Finance and Economics Discussion Series , Paper 2004-59

Working Paper
Why are plant deaths countercyclical: reallocation timing or fragility?
Figura, Andrew (2006)
Because plant deaths destroy specific capital with large local economic impacts and potentially important macroeconomic effects, understanding the causes of deaths and, in particular, why they are concentrated in cyclical downturns, is important. The reallocation-timing hypothesis posits that plants suffering adverse permanent demand/productivity shocks delay shutdowns until cyclical downturns when plant capacity is less valuable, while the fragility hypothesis posits that shutdowns occur in downturns because the option value of maintaining the plant through weak demand periods is too low. I ...
Finance and Economics Discussion Series , Paper 2006-31

Working Paper
Declining Labor Force Attachment and Downward Trends in Unemployment and Participation
Figura, Andrew; Barnichon, Regis (2013-10-01)
The U.S. labor market witnessed two apparently unrelated secular movements in the last 30 years: a decline in unemployment between the early 1980s and the early 2000s, and a decline in participation since the early 2000s. Using CPS micro data and a stock-flow accounting framework, we show that a substantial, and hitherto unnoticed, factor behind both trends is a decline in the share of nonparticipants who are at the margin of participation. A lower share of marginal nonparticipants implies a lower unemployment rate, because marginal nonparticipants enter the labor force mostly through ...
Finance and Economics Discussion Series , Paper 2013-88

Working Paper
The cyclical behavior of short-term and long-term job flows
Figura, Andrew (2002)
Using a band pass filter, this paper estimates plant-level job flows at different frequencies and examines the characteristics of the high frequency (transitory) and low frequency (permanent) component flows. Because high frequency employment movements, which likely result in changes in the utilization of plant assets, and low frequency movements, which likely coincide with the restructuring of plant assets, result in different costs to the economy, understanding their separate behavior is important. High frequency plant-level employment fluctuations account for the majority of cyclical ...
Finance and Economics Discussion Series , Paper 2002-12

Working Paper
Is reallocation related to the cycle? A look at permanent and temporary job flows
Figura, Andrew (2002)
How much of aggregate employment fluctuations is due to plants destroying and then recreating the same jobs over the cycle and how much is due to some plants permanently destroying jobs in a recession and other plants permanently creating jobs in an expansion? This paper decomposes plant level job flows into permanent and temporary components to answer this question, and finds that the permanent reallocation of jobs across plants accounts for approximately 30 percent of the cyclical fluctuations in aggregate employment.
Finance and Economics Discussion Series , Paper 2002-16