The Demographics of Covid-19 Job Losses

Younger adults are being hit especially hard by Covid-19 shutdowns, reports Pew Research Center. Workers under age 45 account for 56 percent of the nation's total employed, but they are a larger 64 percent of workers at higher risk of job loss due to the coronavirus.

Younger adults are at higher risk because they account for a disproportionate share of workers in occupations such as retail sales and food service—the types of businesses that are either shut down entirely or sharply curtailed to stop the spread of coronavirus. Workers under age 45 account for 62 percent of retail clerks, 76 percent of cashiers, 78 percent of bartenders, and 83 percent of waiters and waitresses, according to a Demo Memo analysis of the age distribution of workers by occupation.

One-third of Americans say someone in their household lost a job or took a pay cut because of Covid-19, Pew reports. Among adults aged 18 to 29, nearly half report taking a financial hit...

Someone in household laid off, lost job, or had to take a pay cut because of Covid-19
Aged 18 to 29: 46%
Aged 30 to 49: 36%
Aged 50 to 64: 32%
Aged 65-plus: 19%

Source: Pew Research Center, Worries about Coronavirus Surge, as Most Americans Expect a Recession—or Worse

What Would You Do To Stay Employed?

Among the nation's employed adults, here are the percentages who would be willing to do the following to avoid being unemployed...

87% would be willing to learn new skills
74% would accept temporary employment
60% would accept a longer commute
56% would accept lower pay
40% would be willing to move within the United States
17% would be willing to move to another country

Source: Demo Memo analysis of the 2016 General Social Survey

26% of Low-Income Full-time Workers Are Uninsured

Many low-income workers with full-time jobs are uninsured, according to a study by Jessica A Carson of the University of New Hampshire's Carsey School of Public Policy. The study defines low-income workers as those with household incomes below 200 percent of the poverty level—or an income below about $25,000 for a single person and below about $49,000 for a family with two adults and two children.

Among low-income full-time year-round workers aged 25 to 64, a substantial 26 percent were not covered by health insurance at any time in 2016 versus only 8 percent of their counterparts with higher incomes. Just 33 percent of the low-income workers were covered by their employer's health insurance plan versus the 57 percent majority of those with higher incomes.

When low-income workers were asked why they did not have health insurance through their employer, the largest share—40 percent—said their employer does not offer health insurance. Among higher-income workers, only 18 percent work for an employer who does not offer insurance. Other reasons given by low-income workers for not signing for employer-provided health insurance were cost and ineligibility—they worked too few hours, they were a temporary or contract employee, or they hadn't been on the job long enough.

"As changes to health insurance policy continue to evolve," the report concludes, "it is critical to keep in mind that full-time employment isn't necessarily a ticket to health insurance, and that access to employer-based health insurance is stratified by income and industry."

Source: University of New Hampshire Carsey School of Public Policy, Full-Time Employment Not Always a Ticket to Health Insurance

How Workers Manage Increases in Health Care Costs

Among American workers aged 21 to 64, health care is the most critical issue in the United States, according to the 2017 EBRI/Greenwald and Associates Health and Workplace Benefits Survey. Thirty-one percent of workers say health care is the number-one issue, well above second-place terrorism, cited by 21 percent.

Most workers consider health insurance extremely important when considering whether to stay with an employer or take a new job. Fully 60 percent say health insurance benefits are extremely important versus a smaller 42 percent who feel that way about retirement benefits.

Nearly half of workers say their health care costs increased in the past year. Among those who reported an increase, here's how they managed the higher cost...

43% decreased their contributions to savings
36% had difficulty paying other bills
34% increased their credit card debt
30% used up most or all of their savings
28% had difficulty paying for basic necessities
27% delayed retirement
26% decreased their contributions to retirement plans
22% borrowed money

Source: Employee Retirement Research Institute and Greenwald and Associates, Workers Rank Health Care as the Most Critical Issue in the United States

Will Move for Job

Forty percent of American workers agree that they would be willing to move within the United States to avoid unemployment, according to results of the 2016 General Social Survey. But only 17 percent would be willing to move to another country. Here are the results by generation...

Workers willing to move in U.S. to avoid unemployment
iGeneration (18 to 21): 45%
Millennials (22 to 39): 47%
Gen Xers (40 to 51): 47%
Boomers (52 to 70): 26%

Workers willing to move to another country to avoid unemployment
iGeneration (18 to 21): 19%
Millennials (22 to 39): 19%
Gen Xers (40 to 51): 22%
Boomers (52 to 70): 10%

Source: Demo Memo analysis of the 2016 General Social Survey

What Do Women Want?

Among women with children under age 18, the majority would prefer to stay at home and take care of house and family instead of having a job outside the home...

Women with children under age 18
Prefer to work outside home: 39%
Prefer homemaker role: 56%

Among women without children under age 18 at home, however, preferences are reversed...

Women without children under age 18
Prefer to work outside home: 58%
Prefer homemaker role: 39%

Source: Gallup, Children a Key Factor in Women's Desire to Work Outside the Home

What's Holding Down Wages? Maybe The Lower Rate of Job-to-Job Transitions

Although the unemployment rate has fallen by nearly 5 percentage points since the Great Recession, wages have not grown much. One reason for sluggish wage growth, according to an analysis appearing in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Liberty Street Economics blog, is the low rate of job-to-job transitions—workers who leave one job and immediately take another without experiencing a spell of nonemployment. Job-to-job transition workers typically are moving up the job ladder, finding new jobs with higher pay. Unfortunately, the job-to-job transition rate has yet to recover from the Great Recession.

Using data from the Survey of Consumer Expectations, economists from the New York Fed analyzed changes in the wages of job-to-job transition workers and workers who experienced a period of nonemployment before their current job...

Job-to-job transition workers
Current wage: $27.28
Starting wage at current job: $20.09
Ending wage at previous job: $18.79

Period of nonemployment workers
Current wage: $18.31
Starting wage at current job: $14.61
Ending wage at previous job: $17.92

Although both types of workers had similar wages at the end of their previous job, the job-to-job transition workers had a higher starting wage at their current job and a much higher current wage. Because of the lower rate of job-to-job transitions, conclude the researchers, fewer workers are moving up the job ladder. That may be suppressing wage growth.

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Liberty Street Economics, Searching for Higher Wages

Who's Looking for a New Job?

Only 39 percent of American workers say it is somewhat or very likely they will try to find a new job with another employer within the next year, according to the General Social Survey. Half of Millennial workers are job hunting...

Likely to look for a new job in the next year
Millennials: 50%
Gen Xers: 40%
Boomers: 27%
Older Americans: 7%

Note: Millennials are 20-37; Gen Xers are 38-49; Boomers are 50-68.
Source: Demo Memo analysis of the 2014 General Social Survey

Average Number of Jobs

The average middle-aged American has held 11.7 different jobs by age 48, according to the latest data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979.

The NLSY79 has been interviewing a nationally representative panel of respondents every few years for decades, since they were aged 14 to 22 (born between 1957 and 1964). The survey collects data on the panel's labor market experiences. In the latest iteration, respondents were aged 47 to 56, and they had held this many jobs between the ages of...

Number of jobs held
Ages 18 to 24: 5.5
Ages 25 to 29: 3.0
Ages 35 to 39: 2.1
Ages 40 to 48: 2.4

Bureau of Labor Statistics, Number of Jobs Held, Labor Market Activity, and Earnings Growth among the Youngest Baby Boomers: Results from a Longitudinal Survey Summary

The Demographics of Long-Haul Truckers

Among the 2.6 million Americans employed as truck drivers, many are long-haul truckers—meaning they drive heavy or tractor-trailer trucks on interstate routes. The CDC surveyed the health of long-haul truck drivers in 2010, with the following results...

• Long-haul truckers are aged 48, on average, and have been on the job 16 years.
• Most are men (93.5%) and White (73.5%). 
• Long-haul truck drivers worked an average of 60.4 hours in the past week, with 46.2 hours behind the wheel and the remainder spent loading and unloading, completing paperwork, and performing truck maintenance.
• In the past year, they drove an average of 107,700 miles.
• In the past month, the 63% majority spent six or fewer nights at home.

Source: CDC, Vital Signs: Seat Belt Use among Long-Haul Truck Drivers—United States, 2010

Workers Feel More Insecure

Workers today feel more insecure about their jobs than their counterparts a generation ago, according to an analysis of data in the Monthly Labor Review by business school professor Charles N. Weaver. A comparison of worker attitudes in the 1970s (1977 and 1978) with attitudes in the 2010s (2010 and 2012) reveals a growing fear...

• In the 1970s, only 7.7 percent of workers were afraid they would lose their job. In the 2010s, the figure had climbed to 11.2 percent. 
• In the 1970s, the 59 percent majority of workers were confident in their ability to find a comparable job. In the 2010s, only 48 percent of workers had confidence.

The loss of confidence has been greater for some workers than others. Confidence has plunged the most for workers aged 30 to 49 (a 12.6 percentage point decline), men, (-12.8), high school graduates (-15.5), workers with some college but no degree (-23.1), and clerical workers (-23.9).

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Monthly Labor Review, Worker's Expectations about Losing and Replacing their Jobs: 35 Years of Change

Explaining Nonmetro Population Decline

Between 2012 and 2013, the number of adults in nonmetropolitan areas declined, perhaps for the first time ever, according to the USDA's Economic Research Service.

Average annual percent change in nonmetro population aged 16+
2012-13: -0.07
2011-12:  0.07
2010-11:  0.19
2009-10:  0.37
2008-09:  0.36
2007-08:  0.49

This loss is the result of two trends: a decline in the rate of natural population increase in nonmetro areas (births minus deaths) and a decline in net migration (people moving in minus people moving out), which has been negative since 2010. Why are people moving out of nonmetro areas? Probably to find a job. According to the researchers, "nonmetro employment growth slowed in 2011 and fell to zero or slightly below thereafter."

Source: USDA, Economic Research Service, Rural Employment Trends in Recession and Recovery

Fewer Middle-Aged Men Have Long-Term Jobs

Men's incomes are declining in part because fewer hold long-term jobs. This is especially true for men aged 45 to 54, typically the nation's peak earners. A generation ago, the average employed man in this age group had worked for his current employer for at least 10 years. Not so today. The 2014 numbers show a steep decline in long-term jobs among middle-aged men.

• Only 42.8 percent of men aged 45 to 49 had worked for their current employer for at least 10 years, down from 57.8 percent a generation ago in 1983—a 15 percentage point decline.
• Only 49.9 percent of men aged 50 to 54 had worked for their current employer for at least 10 years, down from 62.3 percent in 1983—a 12 percentage point decline.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employee Tenure

Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers, 2013

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. Nationally, 3.3 million workers are paid minimum wage or less. Here are some of their characteristics...

Percent who work full-time: 35.5%
Percent with college experience: 42.2%
Percent who live in the South: 46.4%
Percent food prep workers: 46.7%
Percent aged 25 or older: 49.6%

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers, 2013 (pdf)

Time Spent Looking for Work

Looking for work became a bigger job after the Great Recession, according to an analysis of American Time Use Survey data by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

On an average day in 2003-07 (before the Great Recession), 20 percent of the unemployed searched for a job. On an average day in 2008-12 (during and after the Great Recession), a larger 24 percent of the unemployed spent time looking for work.

The intensity of the job search varies by educational attainment. On an average day in 2008-12, only 17 percent of unemployed high school dropouts spent time looking for work versus 23 percent of those with a high school diploma or associate's degree and fully 35 percent of those with a bachelor's degree. Among those who looked for work on an average day, the time devoted to job search ranged from a low of 28 minutes among unemployed high school dropouts to 67 minutes for unemployed college graduates.

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Job Search Before and After the Great Recession

Need a Raise?

If you want a raise or are negotiating a salary, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has something for you: occupational employment statistics data. Each year the BLS produces hourly and annual mean wage estimates for more than 800 occupations. The numbers are available for the nation as a whole and for states, metros, and industries. Click here to find out how much you should be getting paid.

Underemployment among Recent College Graduates

For recent college graduates, underemployment is a bigger problem than unemployment, according to a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Underemployment is defined as working at a job that does not require a college degree. A recent Fed study measured the underemployment rate of all college graduates and recent college graduates.

Among all college graduates, the underemployment rate (calculated by dividing the number of college graduates who are underemployed by the total employed) has remained steady at about 33 percent over the past two decades. Among recent college graduates (those aged 22 to 27), a larger 44 percent were underemployed in 2012.

Although today's high rate of underemployment among recent college graduates is not unprecedented (the rate was 46 percent in 1990-91), there are some troubling differences between then and now. First, the share of recent college graduates who are underemployed in "good jobs" (with an average wage of about $45,000 per year) has declined from about half to about one-third. Second, the share of recent college graduates who work part-time has climbed from 14 to 23 percent.

"Taken as a whole, these trends provide evidence that the job prospects for recent college graduates have indeed worsened," conclude the researchers.

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Are Recent College Graduates Finding Good Jobs?

Who Is A Boss?

Percentage of workers who say they are the boss or manager where they work…

Men: 16%
Women: 10%

Non-Hispanic whites: 16%
Non-Hispanic blacks: 6%
Hispanics: 4%

Baby boomers: 17%
Gen Xers: 16%
Millennials: 4%

Source: Pew Research Center, Why It's Great to be the Boss

Boomer Retirements Are Boosting Job Openings

Myth: Boomers are delaying retirement and preventing young adults from finding jobs.
Reality: Job openings created by boomer retirees are greater than in the past.

Although boomers are delaying retirement, the large size of the generation means those who do retire are creating more job openings than the previous generation of retirees, according to a study by Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Between 1994 and 2003, retirements created 8 million job openings—or 18 job openings per 100 young adults (aged 18 to 29). During the 2012 to 2021 decade, boomer retirements will create a larger 14 million job openings—or 28 job openings per 100 young adults.

"By the end of the baby boom retirement phase over the next 15 years, the problem won't be lack of job openings, but not enough workers with the necessary skills to fill those openings," concludes the study.

Source: Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, Failure to Launch: Structural Shift and the New Lost Generation

Fewer Women in Computer Occupations

Women's share of the 3.6 million people employed in computer jobs is declining rather than rising, reports the Census Bureau. Computer jobs (such as software developer, web developer, and network administrator) account for half of all science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) occupations. In 2011, women were just 27 percent of those employed in computer jobs, down from more than 30 percent in 1990.

Source: Census Bureau, Disparities in STEM Employment by Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin