August 27, 2008 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Displaced workers’ earnings at new jobs, January 2008

Of the 2.2 million reemployed displaced workers who lost full-time wage and salary jobs during the 2005-07 period, 1.7 million had found new full-time wage and salary jobs by January 2008. (The remaining reemployed workers had part-time wage and salary jobs or were self-employed or unpaid family workers.)

[Chart data—TXT]

Of these reemployed full-time workers who reported earnings on their lost job, 55 percent were earning as much or more than they did prior to displacement.

Twenty-five percent reported earnings losses of 20 percent or more.

These data come from the Current Population Survey (CPS). To learn more about displaced workers, see "Worker Displacement, 2005-07," (PDF) (HTML) USDL 08-1183. Displaced workers are defined as persons 20 years of age and older who lost or left jobs because their plant or company closed or moved, there was insufficient work for them to do, or their position or shift was abolished. The data cited here are for "long-tenured workers"—those who were in their jobs for 3 years or longer.

Related TED article:

• Reason for job losses among displaced workers