Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/66880 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
QSEP Research Report No. 437
Publisher: 
McMaster University, Research Institute for Quantitative Studies in Economics and Population (QSEP), Hamilton (Ontario)
Abstract: 
We use an unusually rich Canadian survey to examine how post-job-loss behaviour and outcomes vary with age of the job loser. We find that older job losers experience greater post-displacement joblessness, and are less likely to return quickly to satisfactory employment. We show that this apparent age effect is not a job tenure effect or wealth effect. We also find that older job losers, compared to mid-career job losers, are as likely to report searching for work, but that they search less intensely (reporting fewer hours of search, and lower out of pocket expenditures on search). They are also less likely to retrain, less likely to undertake a geographic move, and less likely to switch occupations. Thus, the data suggest older job losers are less likely to make career investments after job loss. This may be a rational response to a shorter time horizon, or to more limited labour market opportunities.
Subjects: 
job loss
job search
older workers
JEL: 
J60
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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