TY  - JOUR
AU  - Abraham,Katharine G.
AU  - Shimer,Robert
TI  - Changes in Unemployment Duration and Labor Force Attachment
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8513
PY  - 2001
Y2  - October 2001
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8513
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8513.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Katharine G. Abraham
Joint Program in Survey Methodology
1218 LeFrak Hall
University of Maryland
College Park, MD  20742
Tel: 301/405-1004
Fax: 301/314-7912
E-Mail: kabraham@survey.umd.edu

Robert Shimer
Department of Economics
University of Chicago
1126 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
Tel: 773/702-9015
E-Mail: shimer@uchicago.edu
AB  - This paper accounts for the observed increase in unemployment duration relative to the unemployment rate in the U.S. over the past thirty years, typified by the record low level of short-term unemployment. We show that part of the increase is due to changes in how duration is measured, a consequence of the 1994 Current Population Survey redesign. Another part is due to the passage of the baby boomers into their prime working years. After accounting for these shifts, most of the remaining increase in unemployment duration relative to the unemployment rate is concentrated among women, whose unemployment rate has fallen sharply in the last two decades while their unemployment duration has increased. Using labor market transition data, we show that this is a consequence of the increase in women's labor force attachment.
ER  -