July 17, 2001 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Displacement rate declined in late 1990s

In 1997-98, the displacement rate was 2.5 percent, down from 2.9 percent in 1995-96 and the lowest in nearly a decade.

[Chart data—TXT]

Of long-tenured workers—those who had been in their jobs 3 years or longer—displaced in 1997-98, more than three-fourths were reemployed when surveyed in February 2000. While this percentage remained relatively high, it was down slightly from the 1995-96 period. Workers displaced during 1997-98 found new jobs more quickly than did those in the early and mid-1990s.

These data are from supplements to the Current Population Survey. 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. Worker displacement rates represent the likelihood of being displaced from a job. Find more information on displaced workers in "Worker displacement in a strong labor market," by Ryan T. Helwig, Monthly Labor Review, June 2001.