Hiring, Churn and the Business Cycle

Edward Lazear and James Spletzer

No 17910, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Churn, defined as replacing departing workers with new ones as workers move to more productive uses, is an important feature of labor dynamics. The majority of hiring and separation reflects churn rather than hiring for expansion or separation for contraction. Using the JOLTS data, we show that churn decreased significantly during the most recent recession with almost four-fifths of the decline in hiring reflecting decreases in churn. Reductions in churn have costs because they reflect a reduction in labor movement to higher valued uses. We estimate the cost of reduced churn to be $208 billion. On an annual basis, this amounts to about .4% of GDP for a period of 3 1/2 years.

JEL-codes: J21 J63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ltv
Note: LS
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Published as “Hiring, Churn, and the Business Cycle” (with Edward P. Lazear). American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, Vol. 102, No 3, May 2012, pp. 575-579.

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