The Urban Institute has tracked job trends for four decades, following unskilled workers during the 1990s boom, welfare leavers taking jobs, and, more recently, older workers during the recession. Our experts study workforce development, disability and employment, and the low-skill labor market. Read more.
The recession has increased joblessness among older Americans. These graphs and tables report unemployment rates and how they have varied by age, sex, race, and education since 2007.
The retirement savings of American households took a big hit when the stock market crashed in 2008. Recently, however, a good portion of these losses has been reversed. This fact sheet follows trends in retirement account balances since the beginning of 2005.
The case for expanding the EITC for workers without qualifying children is compelling, as the current EITC provides little help to this group. We argue that the EITC for these workers should:
- provide these workers with a strong incentive to increase work effort;
- provide a significant subsidy to low-earning workers working near a full-time work level;
- begin phasing out only after an individual is working at a level at least equivalent to full-time minimum wage work;
- apply to both prime-age and younger workers; and
- be effectively coordinated with the Making Work Pay Credit.
Unemployment rates for older workers reached record levels in 2009, partly because fewer workers eligible for early retirement benefits are dropping out of the labor force. Growing concerns about the adequacy of retirement savings and whether retirees will have enough money to live comfortably in later life appear to have discouraged early retirement. Instead, more older workers are now remaining in the labor force and searching for work after they lose their jobs. The need for older adults to keep working raises the imperative for new policies that help address the special challenges that older job seekers face.
The road to the American dream has a four-year pit stop on a college quadrangle. This fall, more than 18 million collegians, including 4 million freshmen, will test that axiom amid an agitated economy and rising concerns about college affordability. Meanwhile, several million new would-be workers - college and high school grads and dropouts - are fighting for good jobs.
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The Urban Institute has tracked job trends for four decades, following unskilled workers during the 1990s boom, welfare leavers taking jobs, and, more recently, older workers during the recession. Our experts study workforce development, disability and employment, and the low-skill labor market. 