HR: Is the persistence of a lousy job market the result of a structural change? This author says "no."

The Labor Market Four Years Into the Crisis: Assessing Structural Explanations

Posted By: Jesse Rothstein - University of California, Berkeley

Posted June 5, 2012

Unemployment - Jobs Deficit/Growth

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Full paper

Four years after the beginning of the Great Recession, the labor market remains historically weak. Many observers have concluded that "structural" impediments to recovery bear some of the blame. This paper reviews such structural explanations. I find that there is little evidence supporting these hypotheses, and that the bulk of the evidence is more consistent with the hypothesis that continued poor performance is primarily attributable to shortfalls in the aggregate demand for labor.