Leaving a job during the Great Recession: evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979

This article uses longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample of young baby boomers to examine job leaving during a study period that runs from the early months of the Great Recession through a full year after the recession ended. Of the men and women who had worked at least 30 hours per week during the 6 weeks before the study period, more than 20 percent left a job at some point during this period. Men and women who left a job during the period tended to have lower educational attainment and lower cognitive test scores than those who did not leave a job. Job leavers experienced a large shift out of the labor force in the years after the recession ended, whereas those who did not leave a job experienced a more gradual shift.