Deconstructing Structural Unemployment

John Schmitt and Kris Warner

CEPR Reports and Issue Briefs from Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR)

Abstract: Some economic observers argue “structural unemployment” has increased in the wake of the Great Recession, but in this paper we find little support for either of two arguments that suggest that structural unemployment has been on the rise. The first argument focuses on the large increase in unemployment among construction workers. The second argument is that falling house prices have reduced the mobility of unemployed workers — creating a “housing lock” in which unemployed workers, who would otherwise relocate to regions with jobs, are stuck in high unemployment areas.

Keywords: unemployment; structural unemployment; stimulus; Great Recession (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E E12 E2 E24 E3 E32 E5 E52 E6 E62 J J2 J6 J61 J63 J64 J65 J68 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 15 pages
Date: 2011-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-mac
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:epo:papers:2011-06

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