July 31, 2001 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Displacement rate still highest in West

Workers in all four broad geographic regions of the United States were less likely to have been displaced in 1997-98 than had been the case two years earlier. As had also been the case in the previous survey, the West region had the highest displacement rate, followed by the Northeast.

[Chart data—TXT]

Following displacement in 1997-98, workers in the four regions had similar success in finding a new job. Reeemployment rates in the Midwest, West, and Northeast centered on 80 percent, while nearly 73 percent of workers in the South found work following displacement.

These data are from a supplement to the Current Population Survey. Displaced workers are those with 3 or more years of tenure in a job lost due to plant closings, the abolition of positions or shifts, or insufficient work available at the employer’s business. Find out more information on displacement in "Worker displacement in a strong labor market" by Ryan T. Helwig, Monthly Labor Review, June 2001.