Unemployment

Extended job loss dealt a serious financial blow to many workers during the Great Recession and recovery. Despite the protection provided by unemployment insurance benefits, family incomes fell 40 percent or more for half of workers unemployed for at least six consecutive months between August 2008 and December 2011. About a quarter began experiencing economic hardship, including more than a third of African Americans, Hispanics, and unmarried adults. Social Security shielded most workers ages 62 and older from the worst outcomes, although early retirees receive lower monthly retirement checks for the rest of their lives, possibly causing financial hardship later.

This issue brief examines unemployment from a child's perspective, reporting that 6.2 million children lived in families with unemployed parents in 2012. Many of these children live with parents who have been out of work six month or longer. Unemployment insurance covers only 36 percent of children with unemployed parents; unemployed parents are more likely to receive SNAP benefits than UI benefits. The brief provides estimates of children affected by unemployment by state and metropolitan area, considers the effects of parental job loss on child development, and reviews policies affecting the safety net for children of the unemployed.

Gene Steuerle testifies before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on labor force participation, taxes, and the social welfare system. Although there is some disagreement over the extent to which the nation’s social welfare systems affect work efforts, there is almost no disagreement that they are designed in piecemeal fashion, leading to a variety of unfair, inefficient, and somewhat strange effects. Our modern economy requires modern approaches to social welfare and taxation. At a minimum, we need to begin approaching our wide assortment of programs, phase-outs of benefits, and tax rates in a more integrated fashion.

Although all American workers have experienced hardship as a result of the recession, labor market performance and program participation vary significantly across race, ethnic, and age groups. This brief assesses the labor market performance of young black men (ages 18 to 24) relative to men in other racial/ethnic groups during the Great Recession. Young black men had far higher unemployment rates and lower incomes than young white men. In addition, among the jobless, young black men were less likely to receive unemployment insurance and more likely to rely on means-tested public assistance than young white men.

This report investigates potential sources of sources of multi-state quarterly wage data that have been or might potentially be used for research purposes, focusing on the National Directory of New Hires, the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics program, the Wage Record Interchange System, and the Administrative Data Research and Evaluation project. For each source, the report provides a summary of the project's purpose and design, discusses the rules surrounding accessing information from the source, and gives an overview of research using the source, where available. The report concludes with a brief discussion of the benefits, barriers, and policy implications associated with using these sources for research.