Job Creation & Destruction (Paper)

The authors describe in detail those characteristics that destroy andcreate jobs over time (including industry of origin, wage payments,international trade exposure, factor intensity, size, age, andproductivity performance), while also providing a broader measure ofthe process that will be directly relevant to macroeconomists andpolicymakers.

Job Creation and Destruction is the culmination of a long, ongoing research program at the Center for Economic Studies. Using the most complete plant- level data source currently available—the Longitudinal Research Data constructed by the Census Bureau—it focuses on the U.S. manufacturing sector from 1972 to 1988 and develops a statistical portrait of the microeconomic adjustments to the many economic events that affect businesses and workers. The picture that emerges is one of large, persistent, and highly concentrated gross job flows, with job destruction dominating the cyclical feaures of net job flows. The authors describe in detail those characteristics that destroy and create jobs over time (including industry of origin, wage payments, international trade exposure, factor intensity, size, age, and productivity performance), while also providing a broader measure of the process that will be directly relevant to macroeconomists and policymakers.

Steven J. Davis is Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, John C. Haltiwanger is Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland, and Scott Schuh is an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.