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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.

Commentary

The Historic Economic Effects of COVID-19

May 7, 2020

The extent of COVID-19's effect on the labor market will be catastrophic for many workers and businesses. Matching the unemployment rate peak set by the Great Depression is not even necessary to establish the historic nature of the downturn that we're living through.
Report

Women in Egypt Face Barriers to Employment

Apr 21, 2020

Large gains in educational attainment among women in Egypt have not been matched with gains in the workplace. Obstacles preventing them from securing employment include tensions between work and family responsibilities, lack of mobility, wage gaps, and fear of sexual harassment.

Explore Employment and Unemployment

Report

How Small Businesses Are Surviving the COVID-19 Pandemic

Small-business owners are facing many challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. What kinds of policies might help them? What will they need to thrive once the immediate public health crisis has passed?

May 22, 2020
Commentary

Relaxing COVID-19 Restrictions Presents Stark Health and Economic Choices

RAND's new publicly available COVID-19 interventions impact tool uses epidemiological and economic models and continually refreshed data to estimate what could happen as restrictions are eased. Our tool cannot make the choices confronting state leaders less painful, but it can provide clear, evidence-based estimates of the health and economic trade-offs.

May 18, 2020
Blog

Preparing for a Post-Vaccine World, Domestic Abuse, the Future of War: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on why we need a blueprint for a post-vaccine world, helping domestic abuse victims during COVID-19, the pandemic's historic economic effects, and more.

May 15, 2020
Commentary

Economic Recovery in Egypt Should Include Women

Despite tremendous strides in educational attainment, women's engagement in the labor force in Egypt remains limited. Will Egypt's post-pandemic recovery further exacerbate structural barriers and inequities? Or could the current economic crisis be an opportunity to develop new opportunities to employ women and foster conditions for a more inclusive and diversified labor force?

May 11, 2020
Blog

Reopening America, China's 'Mask Diplomacy,' State Police Powers: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on a RAND tool that estimates the public health and economic effects of reopening America, China's “mask diplomacy,” using police powers for pandemic response, and more.

May 8, 2020
Report

Report

The Appalachia Partnership Initiative's Investments in Education, Workforce Development, and Catalyzing the Community: Reflections from 2014 Through 2019

RAND researchers trace the impact of the Appalachia Partnership Initiative investments on science, technology, engineering, and math education for grades K-12 and energy and advanced manufacturing workforce development from 2014 through 2019.

May 6, 2020
News Release

News Release

RAND Creates Online Tool to Help State and Local Policymakers Manage Responses to COVID-19 Pandemic

A new tool designed to help state and local officials estimate the effects of social distancing and other public health interventions used to combat the COVID-19 pandemic has been released by the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation.

May 4, 2020
Q&A

Reopening America—The Health and Economic Tradeoffs: Q&A with RAND Experts

Local and state officials are thinking through whether, when, and how to lift social-distancing restrictions. We asked three RAND researchers about the complex problem of reopening.

May 4, 2020
Tool

New Tool Can Assess the Effects of COVID-19 Interventions

State and local leaders have taken unprecedented measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 and prevent health care systems from being overwhelmed. As states plan the way to recovery, a new tool can help them estimate both the public health and economic consequences of imposing or lifting restrictions.

May 4, 2020
Report

Estimating the Economic Costs of Social-Distancing Policies

To support state and local officials making policy decisions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, RAND researchers developed a series of economic models aimed at estimating the economic consequences associated with a small set of social-distancing policies.

May 4, 2020
Multimedia

The Health and Economic Tradeoffs of Reopening America

In this Call with the Experts podcast, RAND researchers consider the health and economic effects of relaxing social distancing restrictions.

May 1, 2020
Blog

A Proposed COVID-19 Cure, Economic Decline, North Korea: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the unintended consequences of a proposed COVID-19 treatment, another wave of economic destruction, North Korea after Kim Jong Un, and more.

May 1, 2020
Commentary

Protecting Household Employers and Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

As the federal government extends aid to people put out of work by the COVID-19 pandemic, it could do more to help one group of employers and the vital American workers they employ: hundreds of thousands of nannies, housekeepers, and others employed in private homes.

Apr 23, 2020
Multimedia

Will the Coronavirus Pandemic Cause a Recession?

Kathryn Edwards, associate economist with the RAND Corporation, addresses the concern that the social and health actions being taken to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic may cause a recession.

Apr 22, 2020
Commentary

Can We Emerge from COVID-19 with a Healthier Work Culture?

American families want greater choices in determining how their work and their families fit together. Post-pandemic, can we create a system that fits workers? If so, we have the opportunity to emerge from this crisis with both healthier employees and better performing organizations.

Apr 16, 2020
Blog

Hospitals' Critical Care Capacity, Unemployment Insurance, Farmworkers: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on how hospitals can increase critical care capacity, reforming the U.S. unemployment system, supporting farmworkers, and more.

Apr 10, 2020
Report

Report

Education, Employment, and Wages in the Appalachia Region: Final Report (2020)

The authors of this report examine indicators of the health of education and labor markets in the Appalachia Partnership Initiative region, with a focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and on the extraction industry.

Apr 9, 2020
Commentary

Parenting Through the Pandemic: Who's Working, Who's Caring for the Kids, and What Policies Might Help

To help inform policy decisions that could help working parents affected by COVID-19, we examined the U.S. Department of Labor's Current Population Survey and recent coronavirus relief acts. Our review shows us what aid working parents might expect and what kinds of aid policymakers might consider going forward.

Apr 8, 2020

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