The economy needs jobs, jobs, jobs and more jobs—this is not news to the 25 million unemployed and underemployed workers who continue to bear the hardships of the Great Recession. Workers have grown weary and families once bending are now breaking under the strain. The severe crisis of jobs in the United States and, particularly, in California seems to be lost as austerity dominates the policy dialogue in Washington, DC. In California, another round of cuts and anti-stimulus measures are underway and they will move the state further away from recovery. The downturn has hit the state especially hard and given its size and importance in the U.S. economy it is hard to imagine a robust recovery without the Golden State.

The onset of what was to become the Great Recession started in December 2007. Job losses were at first mild but then fell off a cliff the latter half of 2008 coinciding with the bursting of the housing bubble and the resultant implosion of many financial institutions. Situating this labor market in a historical context provides important insights and perspective into the current situation and what we may expect. This paper documents the fallout from the Great Recession by detailing key labor market statistics—the realities are harsh and should give pause to those advocating for economic austerity. A massive jobs bill and aid to struggling states should be top priority.

It has been well over a decade since the economy tumbled into what is now dubbed the Great Recession—reflecting the historical severity and swiftness of the downturn. The recession officially lasted from December 2007 through June 2009. However, the economy underperformed for nearly a decade as the output gap—GDP coming in under potential—did not close until the end of 2017. After being in the grips of the worst recession since the Great Depression the economy is currently in a lengthy expansion with record job growth, stock market performance, and unemployment rates. But, troubling challenges remain such as weak wage growth, depressed employment rates, high rates of poverty, and increased inequality.

There has been a lot of media attention around advances in automation and how robots are leading to widespread joblessness as the demand for workers shrinks. We find that both of these claims are dubious, at least on a large scale. As this brief will show, job growth is in an unprecedented stretch of monthly gains, unemployment is low and falling, and productivity growth has been on the wane—not much support for the hypothesis of automation causing mass worker displacement. The “gig” economy continues to get significant media attention, but it remains a small fraction of all jobs—estimated to be 0.5 to 1.0 percent of the workforce. The Labor Department recently released the Contingent Worker Survey after a hiatus since 2005. The share of workers that engage in alternative work, including independent contractors and temp workers, did not change—estimated at 10.1% in 2017 compared to 10.7% in 2005. The vast majority of the workforce continue to work in traditional employment situations.

This paper documents and examines the demographic characteristics of the workforce in the context of unemployment and long-term unemployment with an emphasis on recessions. We first look at the historical tracking of unemployment and long-term unemployment. Long-termers, those out of work for at least six months, have become a relatively larger share of the unemployed in good times and bad. Secondly, annual data from 2009 is presented. We give extensive demographic breakdowns to examine differential rates of unemployment and long-term unemployment across and within groups. Those disproportionally affected by the on going recession that began in December 2007were those who were the least educated; males; Blacks and Hispanics; teenagers; and young workers. Workers in the construction and production occupations were hit hard as were those in the construction and manufacturing industries. The latter part of this paper compares and contrasts labor market outcomes demographically across the last four recessionary periods. In general, less educated, young and non-whites continue to disproportionally bear the brunt of economic downturns but less so than in the past.