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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
Green Jobs and Skills Development for Disadvantaged Groups
Many countries have plans to increase green job opportunities. To make sure that everyone can benefit from this promised green transition, it is important to understand how people with low qualifications, and other marginalised groups, might be able to access green jobs.
Nov 8, 2022
Commentary
Got a Labor Shortage? Make It Easier to Work
If the United States wants to avoid a long-term worker shortage, it should look to what policy can—but has failed to—fully address. We have a long history using carrots and sticks, but this is a problem we may not be able to cajole or punish our way out of. Finding workers can be as simple as giving more people a chance to work.
Aug 2, 2022

Explore Employment and Unemployment

Commentary
Will States Take the Wrong Lesson About Unemployment Insurance's Failings?
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?
Mar 18, 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 of 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
Commentary
COVID-19 Gave Managers a Look at Our Home Lives. Will They Now Penalize Women?
The pandemic gave managers a window into the struggles of working women. What will they do with this information? Will they accommodate women by making exceptions to their established norms? Or will they do the harder work of remaking their culture so women are no longer the exception?
Dec 14, 2020
Report
Estimating the incidence of a housing affordability gap across the Cambridge travel-to-work area
The aim of this study is to estimate the number of households living in the Cambridge travel-to-work area that fall into a housing affordability gap, i.e. earn below £45,000. Almost half (48.4%) of these households fall in the gap, varying locally.
Dec 9, 2020
Blog
Supporting Working Women, the Intelligence Community, Refugees: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on supporting America's working women, challenges facing the next Director of National Intelligence, how Syria's forever war is creating forever refugees, and more.
Dec 4, 2020
Report
How Telecommuting Is Changing During the Pandemic
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?
Dec 3, 2020

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