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A Very Uneven Road: U.S. Labor Markets in the Past 30 Years

Harry J. Holzer; Marek Hlavac
U.S. Census 2010; 2012

In the past three decades, the American economy has experienced large swings in performance, over shorter and longer time periods, and has undergone major structural changes. During the 1980s, we first endured a severe recession, engineered by the Federal Reserve Bank to fight high rates of inflation, and then recovered with a lengthy period of expansion and economic growth.

Low-Wage Lessons

John Schmitt
Center for Economic and Policy Research; 2012

Over the last two decades, high – and, in some countries, rising – rates of low-wage work have emerged as a major political concern. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in 2009, about one-fourth of U.S. workers were in low-wage jobs, defined as earning less than two-thirds of the national median hourly wage (see Figure 1). About one-fifth of workers in the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, and Germany were receiving low wages by the same definition.

What's in Your Wallet? New Sources of Heterogeneity in Americans’ Economic Evaluations

Wendy M. Rahn; Philip Chen
Working Paper; 2012

Nearly three years after the official end of the Great Recession, the American economy is starting to show, at long last, some “moderate” improvement as the nation heads into a presidential election campaign in which the economy is likely to be a central issue. Yet some parts of the macroeconomy are more improved than others. Housing prices, for example, after having fallen more than 30% (or more, in certain hard-hit areas) off their 2006 peak, have yet to bottom out and it may be years before any significant price appreciation returns.

Contract Form, Wage Flexibility and Employment

Thomas Lemieux; W. Bentley MacLeod; Daniel Parent
Working Paper; 2012

The current recession has shown, yet again, that theory and evidence are on a collision course. Competitive labor market theory predicts that downturns should have only modest e ffects on unemployment. A decrease in aggregate demand might lower output and the demand for labor, but this does not necessarily imply higher unemployment. Lower demand for labor leads to lower wages, with the consequence that some individuals might leave the labor market. The remaining workers need only lower their wage demands until suitable employment is found.

Home Ownership's Wild Ride, 2001-2011

Emily Rosenbaum
U.S. Census 2010; 2012

Home ownership is a cornerstone of the American Dream for the economic and social benefits it conveys, but the past decade was a nightmare of foreclosures and inaccessibility for some groups. By 2011, the ownership gaps between black and white households, poor and rich households, less-educated and more-educated households widened considerably compared to the situation a decade earlier. In addition, America’s younger generations have had greater nancial obstacles to homeownership than did previous generations at the same stage in life: a fate unlikely to change soon.