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Employment and Unemployment

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An individual's education, age, and health status may present barriers or opportunities to employability, just as a region's economy, tax base, and number of immigrants and emigrants may affect job availability. RAND research examines the impact of a range of policies and forces—personal, regional, and global—on employment and unemployment.

Report

How Telecommuting Is Changing During the Pandemic

Dec 3, 2020

The ability to telecommute at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic saved many workers' jobs. Some of them are now returning to their workplaces, but most who can telecommute continue to do so. Telecommuting is also spreading to such occupations as health care and sales. Are these changes likely to persist after the pandemic?
Commentary

Will States Take the Wrong Lesson About Unemployment Insurance's Failings?

Mar 18, 2021

By shoring up all state-run Unemployment Insurance programs equally, Congress set a precedent that it will intervene to raise benefits at no cost to state trust funds. From the states' perspective, why hike taxes on businesses to maintain robust unemployment benefits if Congress will step in when the economy goes south?

Explore Employment and Unemployment

Multimedia

RAND Remote: Changing Unemployment and the Post-Pandemic Workforce

In this RAND Remote conversation, Kathryn Edwards will discuss ways the pandemic is changing how we treat unemployment. She'll describe options for workforce recovery, including drawing women workers back into the labor force.

Apr 29, 2021
Blog

Supporting Asian Americans, U.S. Gun Policy, Climate Migrants: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on how to support Asian Americans, the U.S. gun policy debate, the education “arms race,” and more.

Mar 26, 2021
Commentary

Colombia's Trailblazing Model for Refugees

Colombia recently announced it will give temporary protection status to a million undocumented Venezuelan refugees, with permission to live and work in the country for 10 years. In doing so, it created a new model for managing its own refugee situation and perhaps others elsewhere.

Mar 26, 2021
Report

Evaluation of IPS Grow: Final report

IPS supports people with serious mental illness into employment. This evaluation examines the uptake and perceptions of support from IPS Grow by IPS services. We also examine the impact that different support had on different services.

Mar 24, 2021
Commentary

Arts Policy During the Pandemic: What Are We Measuring, and What Can We Know?

Few data sources exist for the labor market for artists. Of the sources that do exist, each measures a different piece of a larger puzzle. Those studying the arts labor market will have to grapple with which data source to use and how “the arts” should be defined before undertaking any analysis.

Mar 8, 2021
Dissertation

Exploring the Influences of External Factors on the Veteran Disability Compensation Program

Explores factors affecting the performance and scope of the veteran disability compensation program.

Feb 23, 2021
Blog

Unemployment Insurance, Domestic Extremists, Housing Insecurity: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on what the pandemic has revealed about America's unemployment system, why stopping domestic extremism will be difficult, how housing insecurity may affect sleep, and more.

Feb 5, 2021
Commentary

The Pandemic Is Completely Changing the Way We Treat Unemployment

Unemployment insurance is the most important fiscal response the United States has during a recession, because it sends timely, targeted, and temporary financial assistance to those directly affected by the downturn. What the CARES Act created—remarkably high benefits for more workers—was a short-term experiment born of necessity, but it could have a lasting influence on public policy.

Feb 1, 2021
Testimony

Reimagining the Workforce Development and Employment System

Rather than staying in one field with one skill set for an entire career, today's workers may need to reskill as labor markets evolve. How could an integrated system better support students, workers, and employers?

Jan 26, 2021
Commentary

Helping Mothers Return to Work Is a Gender Equality Issue

Employers and policymakers play a crucial role in ensuring that women are not unnecessarily disadvantaged when they have children. Policies such as access to family leave, job protection, and childcare options can play a large role.

Jan 21, 2021
Commentary

Supporting Working Parents Could Accelerate Recovery

Since the COVID-19 recession started last February, almost 3 million women have left the labor force. With vaccines rolling out, will they go back to work? There are several policies that could help.

Jan 15, 2021
Blog

A Message from Our President, Medical Mistrust, Insulin Prices: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on Wednesday’s siege on the U.S. Capitol, Americans' psychological distress, medical mistrust and COVID-19 vaccines, and more.

Jan 8, 2021
Commentary

A Bell That Can't Be Unrung: The CARES Act and Unemployment Insurance

The CARES Act broadcasted to everyone that Unemployment Insurance can do better by workers and employers. Congress can debate the hows of permanent reform, but its actions in 2020 proved the need.

Jan 7, 2021
Commentary

Unemployment Insurance and the Failure to Reform

Unemployment Insurance is the primary U.S. policy tool for sustaining workers during periods of high unemployment. But it has a history of being repeatedly neglected. Federal reform has been stalled for nearly 50 years.

Jan 5, 2021
Commentary

Without Unemployment Benefits, How Might Americans Make Ends Meet?

Do unemployment benefits keep people from accepting jobs? What effect do they have on the economy? Researchers and policymakers have been debating these issues since COVID-19 led to widespread job losses last spring.

Dec 30, 2020
Commentary

Teleworking During the COVID-19 Pandemic Highlights Educational Inequity

The ability to telework is associated with both reduced risk of COVID-19 infection and with significantly lower risk of job loss. There are large disparities in who is able to telework by race and ethnicity—but even larger ones by educational attainment.

Dec 23, 2020
Multimedia

Was Unemployment Insurance Designed to Exclude Black Workers?

RAND economist Kathryn Edwards discusses whether the exclusion of Black workers in the design of the unemployment insurance program was incidental or intentional.

Dec 21, 2020
Blog

Americans' Financial Struggles, COVID-19 Vaccinations, Virtual Schools: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on Americans' ongoing financial struggles, how we can learn from the first phase of COVID-19 vaccinations, why virtual schools may be here to stay, and more.

Dec 18, 2020
Blog

RAND Commentary Highlights from 2020

The roughly 400 op-eds and blog posts published by RAND researchers during the year reflected an enormous variety of expertise and perspectives, from remote education to election cybersecurity to the economic harms of racial disparities. Here are 10 highlights that landed in high-profile news outlets.

Dec 18, 2020

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