Tracking Re-Employment Patterns of Unemployed Workers During the Recovery

Webinar overview
Using administrative earnings and claims data, the California Policy Lab (CPL) has analyzed the outcomes of unemployment insurance claimants through the pandemic in a series of reports. This presentation summarizes highlights from these reports, with particular focus on reemployment patterns during the economic recovery. Among others, this includes how many workers found jobs, how many returned to their previous employers, and how many switched industries, as well as which groups of workers and which geographies most benefited from the recovery.

Till von Wachter is Professor of Economics at the University of California Los Angeles, Faculty Director of the California Policy Lab, Director of the Federal Statistical Research Data Center, and Associate Dean for Research for the Social Science Division. Prof. von Wachter’s research examines how labor market conditions and institutions affect the well-being of workers and their families. This includes the analysis of unemployment and job loss on workers’ long-term earnings and health outcomes, as well as the role of unemployment insurance and disability insurance in buffering such shocks. Current research projects focus on the role of the Unemployment Insurance program before and during the Pandemic, the effects of minimum wages, as well as several projects on homelessness using administrative data from Los Angeles.

Sponsored By:
The California Labor Lab is a collaboration among investigators at UCSF, UC Berkeley, and the California Department of Public Health. The Lab is housed at the Philip R Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at UCSF. Our mission is to extend the pursuit of health and safety for workers in traditional employment to those in a wide range of alternative arrangements in partnership with affected communities.