Permanently Displaced? Increasingly Disconnected? Labor Force Participation in U.S. States and Metropolitan Areas

May 21, 2018

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Format: Chicago

Benjamin Hilgenstock, and Zsoka Koczan. Permanently Displaced? Increasingly Disconnected? Labor Force Participation in U.S. States and Metropolitan Areas, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2018) accessed November 21, 2024

Disclaimer: IMF Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to encourage debate. The views expressed in IMF Working Papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management.

Summary

The United States stands out among advanced economies with marked declines in labor force participation. National averages furthermore conceal considerable within-country heterogeneity. This paper explores regional differences to shed light on drivers of participation rates at the state and metropolitan area levels. It documents a broad-based decline, especially pronounced outside metropolitan areas. Using novel measures of local vulnerability to trade and technology it finds that metropolitan areas with higher exposures to routinization and offshoring experienced larger drops in participation in 2000-2016. Thus, areas with different occupational mixes can experience divergent labor market trajectories as a result of trade and technology.

Subject: Aging, Employment, Labor, Labor force participation, Labor markets, Population and demographics, Technology

Keywords: Aging, Automation, Cohort effect, Cyclical condition, Dependency ratio, Employment, Employment share, Exposure to offshoring, Exposure to routinization, Global, Labor force participation, Labor market, Labor market indicator, Labor markets, Population aging, Technology, US US Bureau of Economic Analysis, WP

Publication Details

Pages:

26
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2018/118
Stock No:

WPIEA2018118
ISBN:

9781484354858
ISSN:

1018-5941

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