Job Displacement

The past decade and a half has seen tremendous research growth in the area of job displacement. This paper discusses the state of knowledge on the issues and questions of job loss. The 1984-96 Displaced Worker Surveys are used to describe how the characteristics of displacement are changing to include more college educated, white collar, and nonmanufacturing workers. For many workers, the long-term earnings losses following displacement are large due to the loss of firm-specific human capital. More research is needed on the questions of the causes of job displacement and on the efficacy of employment and training programs.