Changes in Hours Fluctuations since the Mid-1980s: What Happened to Middle-Skilled Workers?
31 Pages Posted: 10 Sep 2013 Last revised: 26 Feb 2019
Date Written: January 6, 2015
Abstract
We find that changes in hours volatilities since the mid-1980s are non-monotonic in skill levels: the standard deviation of detrended total hours of “middle-skilled” workers has substantially dropped, while that of “low-skilled” and “high-skilled” workers has slightly changed, which is robust to the different definitions of skill. We then use an analytically tractable dynamic firm model to show that these non-monotonic changes are driven by jobless recoveries that are observed only for middle-skilled workers since the mid-1980s.
Keywords: Non-monotonic changes in hours volatility, Middle-skilled worker, Jobless recovery
JEL Classification: E24, E32
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation