A New Claims-Based Unemployment Dataset: Application to Postwar Recoveries Across U.S. States
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Summary:
Using newly digitized unemployment insurance claims data we construct a historical monthly unemployment series for U.S. states going back to January 1947. The constructed series are highly correlated with the Bureau of Labor Statics' state-level unemployment data, which are only available from January 1976 onwards, and capture consistent patterns in the business cycle. We use our claims-based unemployment series to examine the evolving pace of post-war unemployment recoveries at the state level. We find that faster recoveries are associated with greater heterogeneity in the recovery rate of unemployment and slower recoveries tend to be more uniformly paced across states. In addition, we find that the pace of unemployment recoveries is strongly correlated with a states' manufacturing share of output.
Series:
Working Paper No. 2022/117
Subject:
Business cycles Economic growth Economic recession Labor Labor markets Unemployment Unemployment rate
Frequency:
regular
English
Publication Date:
June 10, 2022
ISBN/ISSN:
9798400212604/1018-5941
Stock No:
WPIEA2022117
Pages:
56
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