Industrial and Occupational Employment Changes During the Great Recession

12 Pages Posted: 12 Oct 2017 Last revised: 15 Oct 2019

See all articles by Sangmin Aum

Sangmin Aum

Washington University in St. Louis

Sang Yoon Lee

University of Toulouse 1 - Toulouse School of Economics (TSE)

Yongseok Shin

Washington University in St. Louis; Federal Reserve Banks - Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Date Written: 2017

Abstract

The U.S. labor market contracted sharply during the Great Recession. The ensuing recovery has been sluggish and by some measures still incomplete. In this paper, we break down aggregate employment during the Recession and the recovery into changes across industries and occupations. There is a clear asymmetric pattern: The contraction is driven by sectors and the recovery by occupations. In particular, the contraction between 2008 and 2010 primarily reflects a steep decline in construction employment, partially mitigated by expansions in the food services, education, and health industries. The recovery first came from a gradual increase in low-skill occupation employment across all sectors but after 2012 from a pronounced increase in high-skill occupation employment across all sectors. This pattern of recovery is a continuation of the underlying trend of polarization across occupations, which commenced in the 1980s.

Suggested Citation

Aum, Sangmin and Lee, Sang Yoon and Shin, Yongseok, Industrial and Occupational Employment Changes During the Great Recession (2017). Review, Vol. 99, Issue 4, pp. 307-317, 2017, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3051066 or http://dx.doi.org/10.20955/r.2017.307-317

Sangmin Aum (Contact Author)

Washington University in St. Louis ( email )

One Brookings Drive
Campus Box 1208
Saint Louis, MO MO 63130-4899
United States

Sang Yoon Lee

University of Toulouse 1 - Toulouse School of Economics (TSE) ( email )

Place Anatole-France
Toulouse Cedex, F-31042
France

Yongseok Shin

Washington University in St. Louis ( email )

One Brookings Drive
Campus Box 1208
Saint Louis, MO 63130-4899
United States

Federal Reserve Banks - Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

411 Locust St
Saint Louis, MO 63011
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

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