The Lost Generation? Labor Market Outcomes for Post-Great Recession Entrants

Jesse Rothstein

Journal of Human Resources, 2023, vol. 58, issue 5, 1452-1479

Abstract: I study cohort patterns in the labor market outcomes of recent college graduates, examining changes surrounding the Great Recession. Recession entrants have lower wages and employment than those of earlier cohorts; more recent cohorts’ employment is even lower, but the newest entrants’ wages have risen. I relate these changes to “scarring” effects of initial conditions. I demonstrate that adverse early conditions permanently reduce new entrants’ employment probabilities. I also replicate earlier results of medium-term scarring effects on wages that fade out by the early 30s. But scarring cannot account for the employment collapse for recent cohorts. There was a dramatic negative structural break in college graduates’ employment rates, beginning around the 2005 entry cohort, that shows no sign of abating.

JEL-codes: E24 J2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
Note: DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.58.5.0920-11206R1
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://jhr.uwpress.org/cgi/reprint/58/5/1452
A subscription is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.

Related works:
Working Paper: The Lost Generation? Labor Market Outcomes for Post Great Recession Entrants (2020)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:58:y:2023:i:5:p:1452-1479

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Human Resources from University of Wisconsin Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().