Semi-Daily Journal Archive

The Blogspot archive of the weblog of J. Bradford DeLong, Professor of Economics and Chair of the PEIS major at U.C. Berkeley, a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Job Security and Insecurity

Daniel Gross writes:

Behind That Sense of Job Insecurity - New York Times: DANIEL GROSS: [T]he United States economy -- a giant job-churning machine -- each quarter destroys nearly 7 percent of existing jobs and creates a roughly equivalent percentage. Even for those at the top rungs of the labor ladder, job stability isn%'t what it used to be....

Steven J. Davis.... As they have become more entrenched in the work force, women have seen their average job tenure rise, to 3.8 years in 2004 from 3.1 years in 1983. In the same period, the figure declined for men -- particularly for those ages 45 to 54, whose average tenure in 2004 was 9.67 years, down from 12.8 years in 1983. Job tenure has declined "among both blue-collar and white-collar male workers.... White-collar jobs, which were historically dominated by college-educated men, are no longer quite as secure as they were a generation ago."

So what accounts for the public concern over job instability? Professor Davis notes that job stability at publicly held companies -- large, brand-name businesses like Intel that make news when they restructure -- has decreased markedly. "But such companies only account for about one-third of all business employment," he said....

"It was and still is the case that roughly a quarter of jobs end within a year," said Professor Neumark.... "But that doesn't mean you won't eventually find an employer with whom you'll have a long-term attachment," said Professor Stevens, who has been at U.C. Davis for three years, her third job since receiving her Ph.D. in 1995.

In my view, it looks like the difference is that you could find a long-tenure private-sector job a generation ago if you wanted one. Now it is much harder to find one.

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