July 12, 2004 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Displacement rates and demographics, 1999-2000

The overall displacement rate for persons aged 20 and older was 2.5 percent in 1999-2000, the same as in 1997-98.

[Chart data—TXT]

Displacement rates for men (2.4 percent), women (2.6 percent), and whites (2.5 percent) were essentially unchanged from the 1997-98 period. The rate for blacks edged up to 3.0 percent in 1999-2000. 

The displacement rate for Hispanics dropped slightly to 2.0 percent, the lowest rate recorded for Hispanics in the two decades for which data are available. This low incidence of displacement for Hispanics coincided with the lowest 2-year average unemployment rate (6.1 percent) the group has experienced.

The displacement rates cited here are for "long-tenured workers"—those who were in their jobs for 3 years or longer. Displaced workers lose their jobs because their plants or companies close down or move, their positions or shifts are abolished, or their employers do not have enough work for them to do.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. Read more about displaced workers in "Worker Displacement in 1999-2000" by Ryan Helwig, in the June 2004 Monthly Labor Review.