Institute for Research on Labor and Employment

It has been nearly four years since the United States entered a recovery following the Great Recession of 2007‐2009. While it is true that the national economy has been growing since July 2009, what this growth means for the lives of working people around the country and in California is less clear. Certainly, recent job gains are a positive development, inspiring a greater degree of confidence among a discouraged labor force. But is it enough to offset the impact of a jobs crisis reaching historic proportions? This brief will examine the employment situation in the U.S. and California today and explore how years of slow job growth after years of the worst recession since the great depression is affectng the nation’s labor force.