Will Western Labor Markets Ever Recover from the Great Recession?

• Activity Number: 378
• Type: Roundtables
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 6, 2013 : 12:30 PM to 1:50 PM
• Sponsor: Business and Economic Statistics Section
• Author(s): Thomas Lemieux*+
• Companies: University of British Columbia
• Keywords: unemployment ; recession ; labor

Abstract

This talk will look at the surprisingly different labor market performance of the United States, Canada, and Germany in the wake of the great recession of 2008--2009. Unlike real GDP, which dropped and recovered in a similar fashion in all three countries, the unemployment rate followed a very different path. It barely increased and quickly dropped in Germany, increased and remained at stubbornly high levels in the United States, and moderately increased in Canada. The talk will explore a variety of possible explanations for this puzzle.