Displaced Workers in the Great Recession and Not-so-Great Recovery: Gender, Race, and Class Inequalities in the U.S. Labor Market

Early in the recession (2008-2009), OECD data showed much greater unemployment among men than women in many industrialized economies, leading to a media narrative of a “mancession” whereby men were depicted as suffering much more than women. Knowledgeable analysts showed the mancession was due to the higher concentration of men in sectors experiencing greatest job loss such as mining, construction and manufacturing. By 2010, reports showed men doing better than women in the recovery. Looking beyond a quarterly or yearly snapshot to the recession-recovery period over time, I examine whether gender inequality in the U.S. labor market increased, decreased, or remained unchanged.

The media narrative of the mancession missed complex and intersecting dynamics of gender with race and class based inequalities.  Men who lost job were disproportionately non-college, blue-collar workers.  As among men, certain groups of women, such as single moms, non-college, and racial-ethnic minorities, were much more likely to experience job loss and less likely to find new jobs than college educated white counterparts.

My research uses data from the 2010 and 2012 Displaced Worker Surveys (DWS). a supplement to the U.S. monthly Current Population Survey in January of even numbered years. In these statistically representative U.S. national sample household surveys, individuals are asked if they lost or left a job in the previous 3 years (covering 2007-2011) due to: a plant or facility closing, a layoff, or the abolition of their position or shift. Data were collected on household and individual demographic and economic characteristics, on wages and other characteristics of the lost job, on re-employment including characteristics of the new job.  I conducted multivariate statistical analyses to examine intersecting race, class, and gender effects on (a) incidence of job loss, (b) patterns of post-displacement employment, and (c) changes over time.