Job Displacement and Earnings Loss: Evidence from the Displaced Worker Survey

Using data from the Displaced Worker Survey, a special supplement to the January 1984 Current Population Survey, the authors estimate a model of reemployment earnings for workers displaced from full-time nonagricultural jobs between January 1979 and January 1984. Median losses for workers reemployed full-time were not large, but a sizable minority of that group—mostly workers with substantial specific human capital investments—experienced large and enduring earnings losses.