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Six Years from Its Beginning, the Great Recession's Shadow Looms Over the Labor Market

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Six Years from Its Beginning, the Great Recession's Shadow Looms Over the Labor Market

EPI,

5 min read
5 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

To inject life into a subdued US jobs market, the government must generate demand through public spending and by reinstating unemployment insurance extension benefits.

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Comprehensive
  • Analytical
  • Well Structured

Recommendation

Several years since the Great Recession began, the US jobs market is still lagging. Economist Heidi Shierholz argues that the government must generate demand and that its first step should be to reinstate the unemployment insurance extension benefits it rescinded in December 2013. getAbstract recommends this well-reasoned treatise to economy watchers and to US policy makers, who want for an alternative view on how to create a job-rich recovery.

Summary

Years after the Great Recession began, buoyant stock markets and corporate results signal that a recovery is under way. However, the jobs market tells another tale. Comparing current employment to prerecession levels reveals a “jobs gap” of 7.9 million jobs. Though the unemployment rate has fallen from its peak in February 2010, this is mostly due to workers withdrawing from a labor market with meager prospects. While the official unemployment rate was 7% in November 2013, counting missing workers suggests a 10.3% rate. Some 12.7% of workers were unemployed at some time in 2013, and the long-term unemployment rate is twice as high...

About the Author

Heidi Shierholz is an economist at the Economic Policy Institute.

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