Permanently displaced workers now total nearly 4 million and rising, with the heaviest concentration among fairly low-wage workers. Their skill sets and work experience will not immediately lead them to new jobs, and they face the prospect of long periods without work or lower wages than before, even if the overall labor market tightens. For … Continue reading
In the final months of 2020, as the pandemic surged again and businesses were forced to scale back or close, the initial labor market recovery stagnated. For older workers, however, the recovery didn’t just pause—it took several steps back. Older workers (ages 55 and older) gained an insignificant number of jobs between August 2020 and … Continue reading
The Work After Lockdown project explores how crisis-driven working from home activates wider change in how people want to work and how organisations respond. Working from home under lockdown has disrupted norms and thinking around the need for office presence. People have adapted quickly and worked well from home. Productivity is good. At the same … Continue reading
Any further debt-financed stimulus should be temporary, essential, and targeted to improving the economy’s productive capacity, says a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. At their most recent meeting, the Fiscal and Tax Working Group discussed what form new fiscal stimulus should take, but remained unconvinced that a large stimulus package is appropriate at … Continue reading
In this analysis, we examine the impacts of the pandemic recession across different dimensions, including employment, labor force participation, and the need to switch industries. This analysis provides texture and evidence to the emerging understanding that women and people of color, working in the service industry, have been the most negatively affected. The challenge of … Continue reading
The COVID-19 pandemic derailed global growth and EMs suffered an unprecedented activity collapse. Recovery from the crisis continues to be bumpy, but we think that the focus will soon shift back to the medium-term growth outlook in EM. Several pre-COVID-19 research notes documented a secular decline in EM growth, which can complicate job creation, possibly … Continue reading
The pandemic could give rise to a new era of human development. Otherwise, economic and social development may falter for decades. Exhibit 1 shows how different levels of physical isolation affect economic conditions. A recession could occur if faltering demand, restricted supply, and lost income reach critical levels. The differences between scenarios could be tenfold: … Continue reading
America’s racial wealth gap increased dramatically following the recent housing market collapse, placing black homeowners at severe economic disadvantage, perhaps for generations to come. A study conducted for the ACLU by the Social Science Research Council, examined data from the longitudinal Panel Study on Income Dynamics concerning black and white households that owned a home … Continue reading
The public makes sharp distinctions about which groups have benefited – and which have not – from the economic policies the government has put in place since the start of the recession. Majorities say that large banks, large corporations and the wealthy have been helped a great deal or a fair amount by government policies. … Continue reading
The economic collapse in the wake of the global financial crises (GFC) and the weaker-than-expected recovery in many countries have led to questions about the impact of severe downturns on economic potential. Indeed, for several major economies, the level of output is nowhere near returning to pre-crisis trend (figure 1). Such developments have resulted in … Continue reading
The private sector has now added 10.3 million jobs for 55 straight months, the longest streak on record. Today’s report is all but certain to show tens of thousands more jobs added in October, pushing the streak still further. But wages over that period have barely outpaced the rate of inflation, making this the second … Continue reading
The most recent employment downturn was historic in many ways, but most notably, in the substantial number of jobs lost. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey show that total nonfarm employment fell by 8.7 million jobs between the employment peak in January 2008 and the employment trough in February … Continue reading
Key points (ONS) Change in gross domestic product (GDP) is the main indicator of economic growth. GDP increased by 0.8% in Q2 2014, the second consecutive quarter on quarter increase of 0.8%. Output increased in two of the four main industrial groupings within the economy in Q2 2014 compared with Q1 2014. In order of … Continue reading
The economy reached another milestone last month: All 8.7 million jobs lost in 2008 and 2009 have now been regained. But while the nations payrolls are back to their previous high, they havent kept pace with growth in the working-age population over the last few years. Moreover, many of the jobs lost have been replaced … Continue reading
The three charts show hours worked for the largest sectors in the economy, grouped by performance relative to pre-Great Recession levels. These data provide insight into current sources of slack in the labor market. The Great Recession took a severe toll on total hours worked across all of these sectors. Excluding the education and health services … Continue reading