A Cold Stop: Temperature, Unemployment and Joblessness Dynamics

Joshua Graff Zivin, Anthony Lepinteur, Matthew Neidell () and Adrian Nieto Castro
Additional contact information
Matthew Neidell: Columbia University

No 18260, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We provide new evidence that short-run temperature shocks affect unemployment dynamics. Linking daily weather data with three decades of Current Population Survey microdata, we show that cold, but not hot, temperatures significantly increase unemployment risk. This effect is concentrated in climate-exposed industries and driven by both increased job separations and longer unemployment durations. Separations appear to be driven by a rise in layoffs rather than quits, while the increase in unemployment duration is largely explained by a decline in employer vacancy postings. Taken together, temperature-induced joblessness dynamics are primarily demand-driven, rather than a result of changes in worker behavior.

Keywords: job absences; quits; layoffs; joblessness dynamics; unemployment; temperature; job search; vacancies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I1 J2 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-11
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp18260.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: A Cold Stop: Temperature, Unemployment and Joblessness Dynamics (2025)
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:iza:izadps:dp18260

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().