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The jobless recovery after the 1980–1981 British recession

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  • Paker, Meredith M.

Abstract

Extensive research has been conducted on the concept of jobless recoveries and their potential causes, primarily focused on the United States from the 1990s. This paper finds that the prolonged employment downturn following the brief 1980–1981 recession in Britain qualifies as a jobless recovery and then investigates possible contributing factors: labor reallocation across industries, regional employment changes, and job polarization. The United States, which did not have a jobless recovery from the early 1980s recession, is taken as a comparison case. I find that the leading candidate explanation for this jobless recovery is the reallocation of labor across industries. This suggests an important role for structural change in the early 1980s recession and in jobless recoveries more generally.

Suggested Citation

  • Paker, Meredith M., 2023. "The jobless recovery after the 1980–1981 British recession," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:exehis:v:90:y:2023:i:c:s0014498323000396
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eeh.2023.101545
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Jobless recovery; Unemployment; Industrial reallocation; Job polarization; Okun’s law;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N14 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: 1913-
    • N34 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: 1913-
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles

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