From 2013-15, 3.2 million workers were displaced from jobs held for at least 3 years

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Economic News Release USDL-16-1731

Displaced Workers Summary

For release 10:00 a.m. (EDT) Thursday, August 25, 2016

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WORKER DISPLACEMENT: 2013-15


From January 2013 through December 2015, there were 3.2 million workers displaced from jobs they had held for at least 3 years, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This was down from 4.3 million workers for the prior survey period covering January 2011 to December 2013. In January 2016, 66 percent of workers displaced from 2013 to 2015 were reemployed, up from 61 percent for the prior survey in January 2014.

Since 1984, the U.S. Department of Labor has sponsored surveys that collect information on workers who were displaced from their jobs. These surveys have been conducted every other January as supplements to the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly survey of households that is the primary source of information on the nation's labor force.

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 period covered in this study was 2013-15, the 3 calendar years prior to the January 2016 survey date. This period was characterized by employment growth and declining unemployment. The following analysis focuses primarily on the 3.2 million persons who had worked for their employer for 3 or more years at the time of displacement (referred to as long-tenured workers). An additional 4.2 million persons were displaced from jobs they had held for less than 3 years (referred to as short-tenured workers). Combining the short- and long-tenured groups, the number of displaced workers totaled 7.4 million from 2013 to 2015. In the 2011-13 survey period, this group numbered 9.5 million.

Highlights from the January 2016 survey include:

--In January 2016, 66 percent of the 3.2 million long-tenured displaced workers
were reemployed, up from 61 percent in January 2014 and 56 percent in January
2012. (See table 1.)

--Thirty-seven percent of long-tenured displaced workers from the 2013-15 period
cited that they lost their job because their plant or company closed down or
moved; an additional 37 percent said that their position or shift was abolished
and 26 percent cited insufficient work. (See table 2.)

--Seventeen percent of long-tenured displaced workers lost a job in manufacturing.
(See table 4.)

--Among long-tenured workers who were displaced from full-time wage and salary
jobs and were reemployed in such jobs in January 2016, 53 percent had earnings
that were as much or greater than those of their lost job, similar to the prior
survey. (See table 7.)

Read more: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/disp.nr0.htm

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