This brief, part of the Urban Institute's "Recession and Recover" series, assesses how unemployment and household income changes as the economy moves through a recession and into recovery.

This brief, part of the Urban Institute's "Recession and Recover" series, examines how the TANF program (formerly AFDC) responds during a recession and how that response may differ in the current recession from its response in the past.

This brief, part of the Urban Institute's "Recession and Recover" series, examines how the SNAP program (formerly food stamps) responds during a recession and how that response may differ in the current recession from its response in the past.

This brief, part of the Urban Institute's "Recession and Recover" series, assesses the extent to which the Earned Income Tax Credit can help families hit by job losses and falling incomes during a recession.

With nearly 300,000 Americans age 65 and older out of work, the recession is hitting older workers hard. Old-age unemployment rates are increasing more rapidly than in most previous downturns. This fact sheet provides the latest numbers on the employment situation for older Americans.

Americans save for retirement by building wealth in personal accounts, home equity, pension plans, retirement accounts and Social Security. We use data from the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) and methods to estimate the wealth values of Social Security and pension plans to show how wealth builds over the life cycle. We find that the typical household accrues wealth throughout the life cycle. Households in the bottom income quintile, those that did not complete high school and minorities accumulate much less wealth than their counterparts, and Social Security accounts for a large share of their preretirement wealth.

For older workers, this recession is unprecedented. Retirement expert Richard Johnson explains why and what should be done to cushion its impact on seniors who want to work.

The stock market lost 47 percent of its value between September 30, 2007 and December 2, 2008, a roughly $11 trillion drop. The loss has reduced the retirement savings of many Americans, particularly older adults. This fact sheet examines the impact of the ongoing economic turmoil on older households and presents estimates of the retirement account losses to date.

This brief uses data from the 2007 Survey of Employers in the Low-Skill Labor Market to explore differences between noncollege jobs that have few if any requirements and those for which either a high school degree, prior experience, or previous skills training is extremely important.

This brief uses data from the 2007 Survey of Employers in the Low-Skill Labor Market to examine the scheduling demands employers place on workers recently hired to fill noncollege jobs and to assess the availability of paid time off, sick leave and other benefits that help workers balance their work and family lives.