DOCSLIB.ORG

Essays on Jobless Recovery

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Essays on Jobless Recovery Essays on Jobless Recovery A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Drexel University by James Patrick DeNicco in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2013 ii c Copyright 2013 James P. DeNicco. All Rights Reserved. iii Acknowledgments I would like to give a special thanks to my committee members, Dr. Christopher Laincz, Dr. Maria Olivero, Dr. Mark Stehr, Dr. Bang Jeon and Dr. Scott Dressler. I would also like to extend a thank you to the rest of the Drexel University Economics Department. All of you have been instrumental in this process from giving me ad- vice and guidance to being willing to sit through so many of my presentations with thoughtful attentiveness. Throughout my time here, I never felt like I was without help. I would be remiss if I did not single out the efforts of my advisor, Dr. Christopher Laincz. He was always willing to sit and talk with me about my work, as well as read and re-read my papers countless times with red pen at the ready. He made me and my work so much better than it would have otherwise been. I really do appreciate all you have done for me. It was a pleasure and honor going through this process with all of the before mentioned people. Drexel University's Economics Department is second to none in my opinion. It is the people that make it so. I would also like to thank my family, especially my wife Mary, for the patience I was shown throughout this process. They were supportive from start to finish. With- out that support this would never have been possible. I thank you all! iv Table of Contents List of Tables ................................... vi List of Figures .................................. vii Abstract ...................................... viii 1 Jobless Recovery in the United States . 10 1.1 Introduction . 10 1.2 US Data: Preliminary Analysis . 14 1.3 Analysis . 16 1.4 Robustness . 23 1.5 Forecasting . 25 1.6 Inflows to Unemployment . 27 1.7 Discussion . 28 1.8 Conclusions . 36 2 The Cost of Firing and the Speed of Hiring . 38 2.1 Introduction . 38 2.2 Background . 40 2.3 Literature Review . 43 2.4 The Model . 47 2.4.1 Households . 47 2.4.2 Representative Family Problem . 50 2.4.3 Firms . 51 2.5 STEADY STATE . 55 2.5.1 Parameters . 55 2.5.2 Equilibrium . 56 2.6 Impulse Response Functions . 58 2.7 Conclusions . 61 3 Employment-At-Will Exceptions and Jobless Recovery . 62 3.1 Introduction . 62 3.2 Literature Review . 65 3.3 Employment-at-Will Background . 68 3.4 Data . 70 3.5 Results and Analysis . 71 3.5.1 Single Variable Autocorrelation Regressions . 72 3.5.2 Panel VARs in Split Samples . 80 3.6 Robustness Tests . 83 3.7 Conclusions . 85 v List of References ................................ 88 Appendix A Chapter Two Steady State . 92 Appendix B Chapter Three Case Law ................... 94 Appendix C Tables ............................... 97 Appendix D Figures .............................. 114 vi List of Tables 1 Historical Summary of U.S. Recoveries from Recessionary Periods . 97 2 Unit Root Tests: Null Hypothesis for a Unit Root . 98 3 OLS VARs for Outflows Subsample. 99 4 OLS VARs for Expansion Subsample. 100 5 Robustness Test 1: OLS VARs for Outflows Subsample. 101 6 Robustness Test 2: OLS VARs for Outflows Subsample. 102 7 Forecast Model (Outflows: UR as Dependent Variable) . 102 8 Percent Industry Composition: Bureau of Labor and Statistics . 103 9 Average Index Scores and Unemployment Rates from 1990 to 2010 . 104 10 Average Changes in Unemployment Rates and State-Weighted GDP Growth, Conditional on the Presence of EWEs: Outflows and Expan- sion Periods. 105 11 Average Changes in Unemployment Rates and State-Weighted GDP Growth, Conditional on the Presence of EWEs: Inflows and Contrac- tion Periods. 105 12 Panel unit root tests: Summary For Differences in Unemployment Rates and State Personal Income-Weighted GDP, includes individual effects and a linear trend. 106 13 Single Variables Analysis with Interaction Terms. 107 14 Single Variable Analysis with Outflows and Expansion Subsamples. 108 15 Single Variable Analysis with Inflows and Contraction Subsamples. 109 16 OLS Panel VAR with Fixed State and Time Effects for Outflows and Expansion Subsamples. 110 17 OLS Panel VAR with Fixed State and Time Effects for Inflows and Contraction Subsamples. 111 18 OLS Panel VAR with Fixed State and Time Effects for Outflows and Expansion Subsamples with Union Density. 112 19 Outflows: OLS Panel VAR with Fixed State and Time Effects and a Lagged Implementation Effect . 113 vii List of Figures 1 US Unemployment (1948-2012)- BLS . 114 2 Out of Sample Forecast Results for Recovery from the 2001 Recession 115 3 Forecast Results from 2012 . 116 4 Forecast Results from 2012 . 117 5 JOLTS: Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (2001-2012) - BLS 118 6 Montly Participation Rate from (1948-2012) - BLS . 119 7 Median Usual Weekly Earnings of Full-Time Wage and Salary workers -BLS ................................... 120 8 Industry Unemployment Rates: BLS . 121 9 Impulse Response Functions for Effort and Wages . 122 10 Impulse Response Functions for Consumption Types . 123 11 Impulse Response Functions for Labor and Capital . 124 12 Recovery of Unemployment Rate Following a Negative Productivity Shock ................................... 125 13 Percent Deviations From Steady State . 126 viii Abstract Essays on Jobless Recovery James P. DeNicco In this dissertation I focus on the topic of jobless recovery, which ex- plores the speed of recovery in unemployment rates post-recession, con- trolling for GDP growth. Chapter one furthers the empirical studies on the time series properties of the United States unemployment rate. Using vector auto regression models and controlling for changes in GDP, the un- employment rate and changes in the unemployment rate, I find structural breaks in 1959 and 1984 indicating that following a recession, the rate of decrease in the unemployment rate significantly slowed over time. Chapter one substantiates the phenomenon of jobless recovery in the United States and uses the timing of the structural breaks to review the possible causes and related theory, including industry composition, participation rates, entitlements and labor laws. Chapter two uses a representative, forward looking firm in capital and labor decisions to introduce separation costs into a discrete, dynamic, efficiency wage model in order to determine the effect of separation costs on both steady state unemployment rates and the hiring process following a negative productivity shock. I find higher separation costs cause higher steady states rates of unemployment and sclerosis of labor dynamics both in separations and hires following a re- cession. These findings provide a better understanding of the dynamics of post recession unemployment rates and show how firing costs may con- tribute to jobless recovery. In Chapter three, I study the effects on jobless recovery of diminishing the power of an employer to fire an employee through Employment-At-Will Exceptions (EWEs). I do so by using a dynamic panel with quarterly data ranging from 1976 to 2010 for the 50 ix states in the United States. I test both changes in state unemployment rates and state-weighted GDP growth in single variable regressions and VAR regressions. My contribution to the literature is threefold. First, I show two of the three EWEs contribute significantly to jobless recovery in the U.S. Second, I lend support to the predictions of theory that increased firing costs decrease the rate of hiring during recoveries. Third, I resolve differences in the various sources documenting the three types of EWEs in different states. 10 Chapter 1: Jobless Recovery in the United States This chapter furthers the empirical studies on the time series properties of the United States unemployment rate. Using vector auto regression models and controlling for log differences in GDP, the unemployment rate and changes in the unemployment rate, we show that following a recession, the rate of decrease in the unemployment rate sig- nificantly slowed over time. We split our data sample to isolate the recovery portion of the unemployment cycle and find two structural breaks. Specifically the coefficients on the two structural breaks are positive and successively larger, which means controlling for GDP growth rates we are seeing weaker recovery in the unemployment rate , i.e. recoveries that are increasingly \jobless." The first break is in 1959, and the second is in 1984 coinciding with the usual timing of the \Great Moderation." Using the 7.85 percent unemployment rate at the end of 2012, recovery back to historical long run averages of 5.5 percent unemployment rates after the first structural break will take at least four additional quarters of 2.0 percent GDP growth. After the second structural break it will take at least another four additional quarters of the same growth to get back to the same unemployment rate. This chapter substantiates the phenomenon of jobless recovery in the United States and uses the timing of the structural breaks to review the possible causes and related theory, including industry composition, partic- ipation rates, entitlements and labor laws. 1.1 Introduction The phrase \jobless recovery" became popular in the United States back in the 2000 recession, when it took seven straight quarters of GDP growth to result in decreases of the unemployment rate. With the 2008 recession, the phrase found new life in the beginning stages of recovery. The term is actually first found in print in The New York Times during the depression era of the 1930's when the United States was experiencing its worst labor environment in history.1 The unemployment rate peaked just below twenty-five percent and took a decade to return to pre-depression levels.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The U.S. Net Social Wage in the 21St Century
    DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS Working Paper Neoliberal Redistributive Policy: The U.S. Net Social Wage in the 21st Century by Katherine A. Moos Working Paper 2017-18 UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Neoliberal Redistributive Policy: The U.S. Net Social Wage in the 21st Century Katherine A. Moos1 Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst September 18, 2017 Abstract In this paper, I examine the trends of fiscal transfers between the state and workers during 1959 - 2012 to understand the net impact of redistributive policy in the United States. This paper presents original net social wage data from and analysis based on the replication and extension of Shaikh and Tonak (2002). The paper investigates the appearance of a post-2001 variation in the net social wage data. The positive net social wage in the 21st century is the result of a combination of factors including the growth of income support, healthcare inflation, neoliberal tax reforms, and macroeconomic instability. Growing economic inequality does not appear to alter the results of the net social wage methodology. JEL classification codes— H5 National Government Expenditures and Related Poli- cies, E62 Fiscal Policy, E64 Incomes Policy, B5 Current Heterodox Approaches Keywords— fiscal policy, net social wage, neoliberalism, social spending, taxation 1The author would like to thank Duncan Foley, Mark Setterfield, Anwar Shaikh, Jamee Moudud, Sanjay Ruparelia, and Noé M. Wiener for helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this paper. Any errors or omissions are my own. 1 1 Introduction The United States is not known for an unwavering commitment to redistributive social spending. Considered the prototypical liberal market welfare state, the United States is marked by its stingy contributory and means-tested social programs (Esping-Andersen 1990, 48).
    [Show full text]
  • Modern Employment Practices
    Business English News 33 – Modern Employment Practices Discussion Questions 1. What is the current job situation in your country? Are there many job opportunities? 2. What advice would you give to a new graduate looking for work? 3. What solutions would you suggest for your job market to help improve it in the near future? Transcript The world quietly passed a significant milestone recently – the global jobless total surpassed 200 million people, according to a study by the UN. To put that into perspective, that’s 30 million more without work than at the height of the recession in 2008. As CBC News reports, these figures could have grave implications for the future: This is a shocker on its own, but even more ominous is the growing precariousness of the job situation for those that have them. According to the study, the overwhelming majority of people on the planet struggle with temporary work, informal or illegal jobs, long spells of unemployment and unpaid family work. In other words, most are caught in a disadvantageous spiral where exploitation is a real risk. In the UK, employers are using controversial zero-hour contracts which stipulate that workers must be available for work but have no guaranteed paid hours each week. As one union leader puts it, economic recovery is at risk if the current trends continue: We cannot build a secure recovery off the back of zero-hour contracts and weaker employment rights. If we don’t create more decent jobs, inequality will continue to soar and the economy risks running out of steam.
    [Show full text]
  • Examining the Diverging Fortunes of Workers in the Recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic Using Business and Household Survey Microdata
    BLS WORKING PAPERS U.S. Department of Labor U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Office of Employment and Unemployment Statistics The K-Shaped Recovery: Examining the Diverging Fortunes of Workers in the Recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic using Business and Household Survey Microdata Michael Dalton Jeffrey A. Groen Mark A. Loewenstein David S. Piccone Jr. Anne E. Polivka U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Working Paper 536 July 2021 The K-Shaped Recovery: Examining the Diverging Fortunes of Workers in the Recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic using Business and Household Survey Microdata* Michael Dalton, Research Economist, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics† Jeffrey A. Groen, Research Economist, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Mark A. Loewenstein, Senior Research Economist, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics David S. Piccone Jr., Statistician, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Anne E. Polivka, Supervisory Research Economist, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics July 2021 Abstract: This paper examines employment patterns by wage group over the course of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States using microdata from two well-known data sources from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: the Current Employment Statistics and the Current Population Survey. We find establishments paying the lowest average wages and the lowest wage workers had the steepest decline in employment and experienced the most persistent losses. We disentangle the extent to which the effect observed for low wage workers is due to these workers being concentrated within a few low wage sectors of the economy versus the pandemic affecting low wage workers in a number of sectors across the economy.
    [Show full text]
  • The Great Recession, Jobless Recoveries and Black Workers
    unemployment rate remains elevated at 9.5 for at least six months. The latter is a more The Great Recession, percent and many economists worry that the expansive measure that includes officially country is, at best, in a jobless recovery similar unemployed workers, discouraged workers Jobless Recoveries to what occurred after the 1990 and 2001 who have stopped looking for work and those recessions. At worst, we may be heading working part-time who are unable to find and Black Workers into a dreaded double-dip. For the black full-time employment. community, the Great Recession has been Sylvia Allegretto, Ph.D. and Steven Pitts, Ph.D. catastrophic, and the prospect of a jobless Using these three measures, a portrait of the recovery or further recession will extend the current state of black workers can be drawn. widespread economic and social woes in In July 2010, the official unemployment rate The economic downturn, which began in which much of the community is now mired. for black workers was 15.6 percent. When December 2007, aptly has been called the disaggregated by gender, one finds that 17.8 Great Recession. The trough of job losses The State of Black Workers percent of black men were unemployed occurred in December 2009, by which time since the Beginning of the Great and 13.7 percent of black women were 8.4 million or 6.1 percent of all non-farm Recession unemployed. For black youth (ages 16- jobs were lost. This represented the largest 19), unemployment stood at 40.6 percent. decline of jobs (in either absolute numbers or The most oft-cited measure of labor market (Comparable figures for whites were 8.6 percentage terms) since the Great Depression distress is the official unemployment rate.
    [Show full text]
  • WORKSHOP REPORT ODI-EC Social Protection and Labour Market Transformation in the 21St Century
    WORKSHOP REPORT ODI-EC Social Protection and Labour Market Transformation in the 21st Century This report documents the main issues discussed at the workshop on Social Protection and Labour Market Transformation in the 21st Century, held at the ODI in London on 3 April 2014. The workshop was organized by ODI in collaboration with the European Commission Directorate General for Development and Cooperation – EuropeAid (EC), with the aim of enabling those working in the social protection sector to learn from recent thinking and analysis of the nature of increasingly globalised and interdependent labour markets in low and middle income countries, offering a platform to those working on these issues to share their insights with the social protection community, and stimulating discussion of the implications of a changing economy for the provision of social protection in low income countries in Africa and Asia in the medium term. Introduction Recent analysis by the EC of the social protection policy environment identified concerns among those working in the field of social protection within the international development community regarding the implications of economic transformation – including demographic change, labour market regulation, changing education and human capital accumulation patterns, migration and globalization of labour and capital - for labour markets in low income countries, and the consequences for social protection provision. These changes challenge assumptions at the heart of social protection provision as currently conceptualized, in terms of the dominance of formal sector employment, the assumption that full employment is the norm from which economies temporarily depart, and that employment provides adequate income to ensure adequate welfare.
    [Show full text]
  • Identifying Gaps and Setting Priorities for Employment and Training Research
    Identifying Gaps and Setting Priorities for Employment and Training Research by Carl E. Van Horn Christopher T. King Tara Smith Prepared for The U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration July 2011 John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy Identifying Gaps and Setting Priorities for Employment and Training Research Table of Contents Executive Summary .................................................................................................................1 Purposes and Scope..............................................................................................................1 Consultation Process for Developing Recommendations.................................................1 The Context: Labor Market Upheaval and Constraints on Research Budgets................2 Improving the USDOL/ETA Research Process.................................................................2 Recently Completed Research, 2005 to present .................................................................3 Current and Ongoing Research...........................................................................................3 Criteria for Research and Dissemination Strategies..........................................................4 Conclusions and Recommended Research Priorities........................................................5 Chapter 1. Introduction ...........................................................................................................9
    [Show full text]
  • Globalization and the Health of Canadians
    Labonté et al. Globalization and Health (2015) 11:19 DOI 10.1186/s12992-015-0104-1 RESEARCH Open Access Globalization and the health of Canadians: ‘Having a job is the most important thing’ Ronald Labonté1*, Elizabeth Cobbett2, Michael Orsini3, Denise Spitzer4, Ted Schrecker5 and Arne Ruckert6 Abstract Background: Globalization describes processes of greater integration of the world economy through increased flows of goods, services, capital and people. Globalization has undergone significant transformation since the 1970s, entrenching neoliberal economics as the dominant model of global market integration. Although this transformation has generated some health gains, since the 1990s it has also increased health disparities. Methods: As part of a larger project examining how contemporary globalization was affecting the health of Canadians, we undertook semi-structured interviews with 147 families living in low-income neighbourhoods in Canada’sthree largest cities (Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver). Many of the families were recent immigrants, which was another focus of the study. Drawing on research syntheses undertaken by the Globalization Knowledge Network of the World Health Organization’s Commission on Social Determinants of Health, we examined respondents’ experiences of three globalization-related pathways known to influence health: labour markets (and the rise of precarious employment), housing markets (speculative investments and affordability) and social protection measures (changes in scope and redistributive aspects of social
    [Show full text]
  • What Happened to the Jobs.Qxp
    NC Justice Center Opportunity and Prosperity for All BTC ReportsVol 14 No 7 z December 2008 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE N C BU D G E T & TA X CE N T E R WHAT HAPPENED TO THE JOBS? North Carolina Budget & Tax A Tale of Two Economic Cycles Center BY JOHN QUINTERNO, RESEARCH ASSOCIATE P.O. Box 28068 Raleigh, NC Executive Summary 27611-8068 Since 2000, North Carolina has not created enough jobs to keep pace with EDITOR: Elaine Mejia the growth of the workforce. As a result, proportionally fewer prime-age 919/856-2176 adults (ages 20-64) are employed now than in 1990. [email protected] www.ncjustice.org This pattern is the opposite of the one that prevailed during the 1990s, when job growth consistently outpaced workforce growth. If the 1990s trend had continued, holding all else equal, there currently would be up to 487,000 more positions on North Carolina payrolls. Sluggish job growth has contributed to the economic hardships facing the state’s households. The failure to create adequate numbers of jobs has resulted in relatively high levels of unemployment and underemployment, which have held down wages and incomes. The result: stagnant or declining living standards for working households. The 2008 recession has exacerbated these difficulties. Between January and September, job creation in North Carolina essentially ground to a halt, and unemployment climbed to a level reached on only one other occasion since 1990. Even if the recession proves brief, North Carolina’s labor market likely will limp through 2012 and perhaps even longer if the rebound is a “jobless” recovery marked by relatively high unemployment and stagnant wages.
    [Show full text]
  • Temporary Staffing in the Recession and the Jobless Recovery
    Temporary downturn? Temporary staffing in the recession and the jobless recovery Jamie Peck and Nik Theodore The spectacular growth of temporary employment in the Jamie Peck is Professor of Geography and Sociology at United States—from less than a quarter million in the the University of Wisconsin–Madison and an IRP affili- early 1970s to a daily workforce of nearly 2.7 million in ate. Nik Theodore is Assistant Professor in the Urban 2000—has been greeted with periodic forecasts that the 2 Planning and Policy Program and Director of the Center “death of the job” is imminent. In fact, fewer than three for Urban Economic Development, University of Illinois jobs in every hundred in the United States are filled by at Chicago. temporary staff on a typical working day. But visualizing the temporary workforce as if it were in a zero-sum rela- tionship with the permanent workforce misses the true significance of these employment practices. The temporary staffing industry (TSI), once a relatively marginal player in the U.S. economy, has recently as- Staffing agencies have assumed important new roles in sumed a significant role as a large-scale labor market screening, recruitment, placement, and reassignment; in “mediator.” The TSI and its temporary workforce now job design; in supervision and labor control; and in the account for a disproportionate share of the burden of structuring of remuneration and incentive systems. These labor market adjustment. Focusing on the recession of diverse functions of the TSI, which over the past three 2001 and the wider employment slowdown of 2000– decades have become interwoven with mainstream em- 2004, this article examines the distinctive role of the ployment practices across the economy, illustrate the industry in the American labor market.
    [Show full text]
  • Not out of the Woods*
    Not Out of the Woods * A Report on the Jobless Recovery Underway In recent weeks, new signs of an economic recovery have emerged in the form of stock market rallies, surprisingly high bank profits, and better-than-feared official unemployment and economic growth reports. 1 But accompanying these so-called green shoots is worrying evidence of a recovery that could be compromised if not cut short altogether by high levels of unemployment and by a long period of unusually weak and uneven job creation. Not only is actual unemployment more severe than is reflected in official measures, it is also concentrated in those industries and sectors that must grow in order to replace debt-financed consumption as the United States’ primary economic engine. Indeed, what is emerging is what economists call a “jobless recovery,” but one in this case that could perpetuate the crises in the housing and banking sectors and prevent a sustainable and healthy economic recovery. The two most recent recessions of 1990-91 and 2001 were each followed by jobless recoveries: the labor market remained weak and relatively high unemployment persisted, well after the 18 months that it usually takes such indicators to rebalance themselves after downturns.2 Each of the last two jobless recoveries had progressively slower job growth than the one preceding it, 3 and recuperation from this current deep recession looks to have the slowest job growth yet. Projections suggest that employment levels will remain lower than they were during the previous business cycle for a long time; in fact, the Federal Reserve recently predicted that unemployment is unlikely to settle at the desired * Prepared by Niko Karvounis, Policy Analyst, Economic Growth Program, New America Foundation 1 See “Are We in an Economic Recovery Yet?: Analyzing the ‘Green Shoots’ Debate.” BNET, May 14, 2009.
    [Show full text]
  • The Making of a Great Contraction with a Liquidity Trap and a Jobless Recovery∗
    The Making Of A Great Contraction With A Liquidity Trap and A Jobless Recovery∗ Stephanie Schmitt-Groh´e† Mart´ın Uribe‡ First draft: October 2012 This draft: August 6, 2013 Abstract The great contraction of 2008 pushed the U.S. economy into a protracted liquidity trap (i.e., a long period with zero nominal interest rates and inflationary expectations below target). In addition, the recovery was jobless (i.e., output growth recovered but unemployment lingered). This paper presents a model that captures these three facts. The key elements of the model are downward nominal wage rigidity, a Taylor- type interest-rate feedback rule, the zero bound on nominal rates, and a confidence shock. Lack-of-confidence shocks play a central role in generating jobless recoveries, for fundamental shocks, such as disturbances to the natural rate, are shown to generate recessions featuring recoveries with job growth. The paper considers a monetary policy that can lift the economy out of the slump. Specifically, it shows that raising the nominal interest rate to its intended target for an extended period of time, rather than exacerbating the recession as conventional wisdom would have it, can boost inflationary expectations and thereby foster employment. Keywords: Downward Nominal Wage Rigidity, Liquidity Trap, Taylor Rule, Jobless Recovery ∗We thank for comments Evi Pappa, workshop participants at Columbia University, the 2013 CEPR European Summer Symposium in International Macroeconomics (ESSIM) held in Izmir Turkey, and the 2012 Columbia-Tsinghua Conference on International Economics, held in October 2012 in Beijing, China. We would also like to thank Wataru Miyamoto and Pablo Ottonello for research assistance.
    [Show full text]
  • Workplace Reform in a Jobless Recovery Marcia L
    Saint Louis University School of Law Scholarship Commons All Faculty Scholarship 2012 Workplace Reform in a Jobless Recovery Marcia L. McCormick Saint Louis University School of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/faculty Part of the Labor and Employment Law Commons Recommended Citation McCormick, Marcia L., "Workplace Reform in a Jobless Recovery" (2012). All Faculty Scholarship. 35. https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/faculty/35 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Scholarship Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. WORKPLACE REFORM IN A JOBLESS RECOVERY Marcia L. McCormick" I. INTRODUCTION The United States entered a recession in December of2007, which ended in June of 2009. 1 Approximately 8.8 million jobs were lost in that eighteen­ month period.2 According to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the three years since then, we have recovered only about 4.S million of those jobs.3 And the jobs regained have been disproportionately at the lower end of the wage scale.'4 The story is not better at the global level.5 There is no other strong economy whose demand will help bring those jobs back. This is the backdrop that faced last year's elections in the United States, and it frames the issues that have to be addressed in the next four years. The loss of so many jobs and the resulting economic disruption for most people in this country challenge us to craft policies to limit or cushion against the harm caused to people by fluctuations in the larger economy.
    [Show full text]