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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

Job Openings Are at a Record High. Why Aren't People Going Back to Work?

Aug 25, 2021

The U.S. labor market had 10.1 million job openings at the end of June, but 8.7 million workers were still unemployed in July. If there are so many more openings than job seekers, why are there unemployed workers left?
Research Brief

Helping Los Angelenos Involved in the Criminal Justice System Get and Keep Jobs

Aug 16, 2021

Project imPACT is a City of Los Angeles program that helps individuals find employment after they are released from prison. Participants may also receive behavioral health and legal services. An evaluation of the program offers important lessons about its successes and challenges.

Explore Employment and Unemployment

Commentary

Is the Fight for $15 Going to Cost Low-Wage Workers Their Health Insurance?

Minimum wage increases can lead to reductions in employer-sponsored health insurance for some workers and their dependents. If policymakers want to raise the minimum wage, they should look beyond standard labor market outcomes and take into account other potential effects.

Oct 11, 2021
Project

A 21st-Century Workforce Development System

Design studio Morcos Key created an animated illustration that envisions how America's workforce development system could be transformed to better support 21st-century workers, employers, and educators.

Sep 22, 2021
Blog

Prescription Drug Prices, Unemployment Insurance, Anti-Asian Racism: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on lowering prescription drug prices, reforming unemployment insurance, addressing anti-Asian racism, and more.

Sep 17, 2021
Commentary

Will Unemployment Insurance Be Reformed? Ask Businesses, Not Workers

The expiration of pandemic benefits points to the flaw at the heart of unemployment insurance: The constituency that pays for benefits isn't the constituency who receives them. Lasting reform to the unemployment insurance system will mean finding a way to benefit employers directly.

Sep 15, 2021
Blog

Just How Many Lives the Vaccines Have Saved, Afghanistan, Unemployment: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the number of lives saved during the early U.S. vaccination effort, what leaving Afghanistan says about other U.S. commitments, global competition for virtual-reality dominance, and more.

Aug 27, 2021
Report

Project imPACT Cohort 1 Final Local Evaluation Report

The authors summarize findings from a process and outcome evaluation of Cohort 1 of Project imPACT, an employment program for individuals who have been involved in the criminal justice system, which provided services from July 2018 to December 2020.

Aug 16, 2021
Commentary

Reframing Retirement

Retirement is a fluid concept. Many retirees would consider returning to the workforce if conditions were right and they could set their own pace. A reframing of the aging and retirement process would allow us to see the issue in a new way.

Aug 9, 2021
Journal Article

The Effect of the Minimum Wage on Employer-Sponsored Insurance for Low-Income Workers and Dependents

Minimum wage increases lead to reductions in employer-sponsored insurance coverage in families with incomes below 300% of the federal poverty level.

Jul 28, 2021
Commentary

How the Coronavirus Changed the Childcare Debate

Policymakers have long had evidence that childcare enables mothers to work. What the COVID-19 pandemic taught everyone is how the lack of childcare can be a disastrous constraint.

Jul 26, 2021
Report

Evaluation of the Military Spouse Employment Partnership Program: Report on the Second Stage of Analysis

In this second-phase study on the Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP) program, the authors analyzed jobs on the MSEP Career Portal in 2016, interviewed participating employers in 2016, and then surveyed and interviewed spouses in 2019.

Jul 21, 2021
Commentary

Charting a Path Forward for College Athletes to Receive Pay

The NCAA has long restricted what student athletes could receive in education-related benefits. But a recent Supreme Court ruling may be a step toward allowing athletes to access the income that their labor produces.

Jul 9, 2021
Journal Article

Improving Working Conditions Using Artificial Intelligence

This analysis discusses evidence on the expected impact of AI on jobs, the potential for AI to create decent jobs, and the extent to which AI offers opportunities and poses risks to working conditions.

Jun 8, 2021
Commentary

Inequality in Opportunity to Work from Home an Underlying Condition Likely Aggravated by the Pandemic

Building a safe, healthy workforce where success, productivity, and financial security are available to all segments of American society could provide resilience against inevitable future shockwaves. Since working from home is a key part of such resilience, policymakers could focus on supporting the advantages, remediating the downsides, and expanding access to this form of work.

May 14, 2021
Commentary

Should Mothers Work? We've Been Asking the Wrong Question

As schools and day cares closed due to the pandemic, millions of women were driven from the labor market. What is it worth to the United States to have mothers in the workforce?

May 10, 2021
Multimedia

RAND Remote: Changing Unemployment and the Post-Pandemic Workforce

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

Apr 29, 2021
Report

Barriers to Entering the U.S. Middle Class

Achieving and keeping middle-class status has become more difficult. Jobs with good pay for those without a college degree are getting exported or eliminated. Earning educational credentials is costly. Existing jobs are increasing education requirements, providing fewer benefits, and may not lead to longer-term careers.

Apr 22, 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
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

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