Labor Market Recovery After the Recession of 2007-2009

The deep recession that began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, has had a lasting effect on the labor market. More than four and a half years after the end of the recession, employment has risen sluggishly--much more slowly than it grew, on average, during the four previous recoveries that lasted more than one year. At the same time, the unemployment rate has fallen only partway back to its prerecession level, and a significant part of that improvement is attributable to a decline in labor force participation that has occurred as an unusually large number of people have stopped looking for work. This book discusses this slow recovery of the labor market, as well as assesses the relative magnitudes of cyclical and structural unemployment as they respond to different policy measures.