Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/87208 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper No. 11-173/3
Publisher: 
Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam and Rotterdam
Abstract: 
Since the end of the Great Recession in mid-2009, the unemployment rate has recovered slowly, falling by only one percentage point from its peak. We find that the lackluster labor market recovery can be traced in large part to weakness in aggregate demand; only a small part seems attributable to increases in labor market frictions. This continued labor market weakness has led to the highest level of long-term unemployment in the U.S. in the postwar period, and a blurring of the distinction between unemployment and nonparticipation. We show that flows from nonparticipation to unemployment are important for understanding the recent evolution of the duration distribution of unemployment. Simulations that account for these flows suggest that the U.S. labor market is unlikely to be subject to high levels of structural long-term unemployment after aggregate demand recovers.
Subjects: 
Labor market dynamics
long-term unemployment
unemployment duration
JEL: 
E24
J2
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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