Search Results
Report
The Long-Term Rise and Geographic Concentration of Labor Market Detachment
This paper analyzes the long-term rise of labor market detachment within the United States. We construct a measure of the detachment rate that identifies prime-age men and women who have been out of the labor force for more than a year. Detachment has risen for men in most local labor markets since 1980, and for women since around 2000, with more than a third of the prime-age population detached in some parts of the country. We show there has been a widening in the spatial distribution of detachment and a corresponding increase in its geographic concentration. Empirical results indicate that ...
Discussion Paper
Job Polarization in the United States: A Widening Gap and Shrinking Middle
Over recent decades, the U.S. workforce has undergone a dramatic restructuring in response to changes in technology, trade, and consumption patterns. Some sectors, such as health care, have expanded, while others, such as manufacturing, have contracted. These changes have altered the composition of the workforce, leading to a phenomenon often referred to as “job polarization,” an important factor contributing to economic inequality in the nation. In this post, we show that the wage gap between high- and low-paid occupations has widened over the past three decades. Further, we show that ...