August 03, 2004 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Displaced workers: reason for job loss

During the January 2001 through December 2003 period, 5.3 million workers were displaced from jobs they had held for at least 3 years.

[Chart data—TXT]

Of these long-tenured workers, 43 percent lost or left their jobs due to plant or company closings or moves, 29 percent reported that their position or shift was abolished, and 28 percent cited insufficient work as the reason for being displaced. 

The proportion reporting insufficient work was up slightly from the prior survey, and the share citing plant or company closings or moves was down.

These data come from the Current Population Survey (CPS). You can learn more about displaced workers in "Worker Displacement, 2001-03" (PDF) (TXT), USDL 04-1381. Workers who worked for their employer for 3 or more years at the time of displacement are referred to as long-tenured.  Since 1984, the Employment and Training Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor has sponsored surveys of worker displacement. These surveys have been conducted every two years as supplements to the CPS.

 

Related TED article:  

• Reemployment of displaced workers by age, January 2004