U.S. labor market in 2008: Economy in recession

Monthly Labor Review

Volumn 132, Issue 3, 2009, Pages 3-19

  Borbely, James Marschall ^a  

^a BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 69949174790     PISSN: 00981818     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (11)

1. NBER is generally recognized as the official arbiter of recessions in the United States. The organization determined that the recession prior to the current one lasted from March 2001 to November 2001. The NBER has not yet determined an end point for the recession that began in December 2007.
2. The data in this article are based on information collected in the CPS, also called the household survey, a sample survey of about 60,000 households nation-wide sponsored jointly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau. (For more information about the household survey, see the box on page 5.) Although the CPS is a monthly survey, the data analyzed throughout this article are seasonally adjusted quarterly averages, unless otherwise noted. All over-the-year changes are comparisons of fourth-quarter data from 2007 to 2008.
3. For further information on teen school enrollment and employment, see Teresa L. Morisi, "Youth enrollment and employment during the school year," Monthly Labor Review, February 2008, pp. 51-63; on the Internet at www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2008/02/art3full.pdf (visited Mar. 9, 2009).
4. For additional information on trends in labor force participation, see Abraham Mosisa and Steven Hipple, "Trends in labor force participation in the United States," Monthly Labor Review, October 2006, pp. 35-57; on the Internet at www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2006/10/art3full.pdf (visited Mar. 9, 2009).
5. For additional information on persons working part time for economic reasons, see Emy Sok, "Involuntary part-time work on the rise," Issues in Labor Statistics, December 2008; on the Internet at www.bls.gov/opub/ils/pdf/opbils71.pdf (visited Mar. 9, 2009).
6. For further information about the alternative measures of unemployment, see John E. Bregger and Steven E. Haugen, "BLS introduces new range of alternative unemployment measures," Monthly Labor Review, October 1995, pp. 19-26; on the Internet at (visited Mar. 9, 2009).
7. For an additional analysis of labor force underutilization, see Sharon Cohany, "The Unemployment Rate and Beyond: Alternative Measures of Labor Underutilization," Issues in Labor Statistics, June 2008; on the Internet at www.bls.gov/opub/ils/pdf/opbils67.pdf (visited Mar. 9, 2009).
8. The CPS first began collecting weekly earnings data each month in 1979.
9. For further background information about labor force status flows, see Randy Ilg, "Analyzing CPS data using gross flows," Monthly Labor Review, September 2005, pp. 10-18; on the Internet at www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2005/09/art2full.pdf (visited Mar. 9, 2009).
10. For an additional analysis of labor force status flows, see Randy Ilg, "Why Has Unemployment Risen? Insights From Labor Force Flows," Issues in Labor Statistics, June 2008; on the Internet at www.bls.gov/opub/ils/pdf/opbils66.pdf (visited Mar. 9, 2009).
11. For additional information on monthly disability data, see "New monthly data series on the employment status of people with a disability," Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Feb. 6, 2009), on the Internet at www.bls.gov/cps/cpsdisability.htm (visited Mar. 9, 2009).