Business Volatility, Job Destruction, and Unemployment

51 Pages Posted: 8 Sep 2008 Last revised: 30 Jul 2022

See all articles by Steven J. Davis

Steven J. Davis

University of Chicago; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Hoover Institution

Jason Faberman

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; Bureau of Labor Statistics - Office of Employment and Unemployment Statistics

John Haltiwanger

University of Maryland - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Ron S. Jarmin

U.S. Census Bureau

Javier Miranda

US Census Bureau — Economy-Wide Statistics Division

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: September 2008

Abstract

Unemployment inflows fell from 4 percent of employment per month in the early 1980s to 2 percent or less by the mid 1990s and thereafter. U.S. data also show a secular decline in the job destruction rate and the volatility of firm-level employment growth rates. We interpret this decline as a decrease in the intensity of idiosyncratic labor demand shocks, a key parameter in search and matching models of unemployment. According to these models, a lower intensity of idiosyncratic shocks produces less job destruction, fewer workers flowing through the unemployment pool and less frictional unemployment. To evaluate the importance of this theoretical mechanism, we relate industry-level unemployment flows from 1977 to 2005 to industry-level indicators for the intensity of idiosyncratic shocks. Unlike previous research, we focus on the lower frequency relationship of job destruction and business volatility to unemployment flows. We find strong evidence that declines in the intensity of idiosyncratic labor demand shocks drove big declines in the incidence and rate of unemployment. This evidence implies that the unemployment rate has become much less sensitive to cyclical movements in the job-finding rate.

Suggested Citation

Davis, Steven J. and Faberman, Jason and Haltiwanger, John C. and Jarmin, Ron S. and Miranda, Javier, Business Volatility, Job Destruction, and Unemployment (September 2008). NBER Working Paper No. w14300, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1264563

Steven J. Davis (Contact Author)

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Jason Faberman

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John C. Haltiwanger

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Ron S. Jarmin

U.S. Census Bureau ( email )

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Javier Miranda

US Census Bureau — Economy-Wide Statistics Division ( email )

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