Job Polarization and Jobless Recoveries
Job polarization refers to the shrinking share of employment in middle-skill, routine occupations experienced recently, over the last 35 years. Jobless recoveries refers to the slow rebound in aggregate employment following recent recessions, despite recoveries in aggregate output. We show how these two phenomena are related. First, essentially all employment loss in routine occupations occurs in economic downturns. Second, jobless recoveries in the aggregate can be accounted for by jobless recoveries in the routine occupations that are disappearing.
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Copy CitationNir Jaimovich and Henry E. Siu, "Job Polarization and Jobless Recoveries," NBER Working Paper 18334 (2012), https://doi.org/10.3386/w18334.Download Citation
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Non-Technical Summaries
- While the hollowing out of middle-skill positions has been ongoing for 30 years, it happens almost uniquely in recessions. Two...
Published Versions
Nir Jaimovich & Henry E. Siu, 2020. "Job Polarization and Jobless Recoveries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, vol 102(1), pages 129-147. citation courtesy of 
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