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Accounting for Mismatch Unemployment

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  • Herz, Benedikt

    (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)

  • van Rens, Thijs

    (University of Warwick)

Abstract

We investigate unemployment due to mismatch in the US over the past three decades. We propose an accounting framework that allows us to estimate the overall amount of mismatch unemployment as well as the contribution of the frictions that caused the mismatch. Mismatch is quantitatively important for unemployment and the cyclical behavior of mismatch unemployment is very similar to that of the overall unemployment rate. Geographic mismatch is driven primarily by wage frictions. Mismatch across industries is driven by wage frictions as well as barriers to job mobility. We find virtually no role for worker mobility frictions.

Suggested Citation

  • Herz, Benedikt & van Rens, Thijs, 2015. "Accounting for Mismatch Unemployment," IZA Discussion Papers 8884, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8884
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    4. Ioana Marinescu & Roland Rathelot, 2018. "Mismatch Unemployment and the Geography of Job Search," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 42-70, July.
    5. Angelis, Georgios & Bramoullé, Yann, 2023. "The Matching Function: a Unified Look into the Black Box," CEPR Discussion Papers 18318, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Roland Rathelot & Thijs van Rens & See-Yu Chan, 2023. "Rethinking the skills gap," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 3912-3912, November.
    7. Balleer, Almut, 2023. "Comment on “Sectoral shocks, reallocation, and labor market policies” by Joaquín García-Cabo, Anna Lipińska, and Gastón Navarro," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    8. Violante, Giovanni & Mongey, Simon, 2019. "Macro Recruiting Intensity from Micro Data," CEPR Discussion Papers 14004, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Jung, Philip & Korfmann, Philipp & Preugschat, Edgar, 2023. "Optimal regional labor market policies," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    10. Consolo, Agostino & Petroulakis, Filippos, 2022. "Did COVID-19 induce a reallocation wave?," Working Paper Series 2703, European Central Bank.
    11. Parkhomenko, Andrii, 2016. "Opportunity to Move: Macroeconomic Effects of Relocation Subsidies," MPRA Paper 75256, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Lalé, Etienne, 2017. "Worker reallocation across occupations: Confronting data with theory," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 51-68.
    13. Aristotelis Boukouras, 2016. "Capitalist Spirit and the Markets: Why Income Inequality Matters," Discussion Papers in Economics 16/16, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    14. Altmann, Steffen & Glenny, Anita Marie & Mahlstedt, Robert & Sebald, Alexander, 2022. "The Direct and Indirect Effects of Online Job Search Advice," IZA Discussion Papers 15830, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Wolcott, Erin L., 2021. "Employment inequality: Why do the low-skilled work less now?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 161-177.
    16. Stefano Banfi & Benjamin Villena-Roldan & Sekyu Choi, 2018. "Deconstructing job search behavior," 2018 Meeting Papers 368, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    17. Altmann, Steffen & Mahlstedt, Robert & Rattenborg, Malte Jacob & Sebald, Alexander, 2023. "Which Occupations Do Unemployed Workers Target? Insights from Online Job Search Profiles," IZA Discussion Papers 16696, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Yuelin Liu, 2022. "How structural is unemployment in the United States?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(3), pages 1258-1276, July.
    19. Claudia Macaluso, 2023. "Skill Remoteness and Post-Layoff Labor Market Outcomes," CESifo Working Paper Series 10845, CESifo.
    20. Claudia Macaluso, 2017. "Skill Remoteness and Post-layoff Labor Market Outcomes," 2017 Meeting Papers 569, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    21. Chan, See-Yu, 2024. "What is stopping you? The falling employment-to-employment mobility in the UK," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1496, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
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    23. Kyungho Song & Hyun Kim & Jisoo Cha & Taedong Lee, 2021. "Matching and Mismatching of Green Jobs: A Big Data Analysis of Job Recruiting and Searching," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-15, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    worker mobility; structural unemployment; mismatch; job mobility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

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