Search Results
A Guide to State-Level Estimates of Labor Force Participation Rates
Changes in the US labor force participation rates (LFPRs) have brought attention to state-level estimates. This brief discusses state-level estimates of the LFPR and what they can—and cannot—tell us about recent LFPR trends in our region.
Journal Article
Organizing in decline: Tracing the (diminishing) role of unions in today's labor market
Related links: https://www.richmondfed.org/-/media/richmondfedorg/publications/research/econ_focus/2011/q2/feature4_weblinks.cfm
Discussion Paper
Searching for Higher Wages
Since the peak of the recession, the unemployment rate has fallen by almost 5 percentage points, and observers continue to focus on whether and when this decline will lead to robust wage growth. Typically, in the wake of such a decline, real wages grow since there is more competition for workers among potential employers. While this relationship has historically been quite informative, real wage growth more recently has not been commensurate with observed declines in the unemployment rate.
Journal Article
Wage Growth, Labor Market Tightness, and Inflation: A Service Sector Analysis
This Economic Commentary explores the connections among labor market tightness, wage inflation, and price inflation at the service sector level. Across most service sectors, sector-specific labor market tightness and nominal wage growth have been above prepandemic averages since 2022. The data suggest that a stronger positive relationship between labor market tightness and wage growth has emerged in the aftermath of the pandemic. The relationship between sector-specific wage growth and inflation is more varied. In the education and health services sector, higher wage growth is associated with ...
Newsletter
Is there a skills mismatch in the labor market?
This article reviews the concept of skills mismatch in the labor market and examines its role in explaining ongoing low levels of hiring and high levels of unemployment during the current economic recovery.
Journal Article
Compression in the Wage Distribution During the Post-Covid-19 Labor Market
The COVID-19 pandemic caused changes for business across all industries, though the effects were unequal. As lockdown restrictions aimed at mitigating the spread of COVID-19 were relaxed, nominal wage growth rose sharply in leisure and hospitality and in trade and transportation, the two industries with the highest concentration of low-wage workers. In fact, wage growth was most pronounced for workers in the bottom 50 percent of the wage distribution who changed jobs into one of these industries.
Working Paper
The relocation decisions of working couples
Most prime-age married couples in the U.S. today have two labor force participants. Migration decisions are more complicated for two-earner couples than for one-earner couples because any gain from moving that accrues to one spouse must be great enough to offset any loss to the other spouse. This paper estimates the extent to which internal migration is depressed by rising earnings equality among spouses. The results indicate that couples' migration propensities are substantially lower the more equal spouses' labor incomes.
Report
The Affordable Care Act and the labor market: a first look
I consider changes in labor markets across U.S. states and counties around the enactment of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 and its implementation in 2014. I find that counties with large fractions of uninsured (and therefore a large exposure to the ACA) before the enactment or the implementation of the ACA experienced more rapid employment and salary growth than did counties with smaller fractions of people uninsured, both after the implementation of the ACA and after its enactment. I also find that the growth of the fraction of employees in states with larger uninsurance rates was not ...
The Quality of Jobs Created Since the Start of the COVID-19-Related Recession
Although the employment recovery in the current business cycle has been robust, there remains a question about the quality of the jobs being created. This District Data Brief suggests that, both nationally and across Fourth District states, job growth has generally been tilted toward high-pay industries since the COVID-19-related recession began in February 2020.
The Influence of Population Characteristics on the Labor Force Participation Rates of Fourth District States
The labor force participation rates of the Fourth District are lower than the nation’s. Fourth District states’ older populations and higher disability rates are key reasons for lower participation rates relative to the nation.