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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

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

May 10, 2021

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?
Commentary

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

May 14, 2021

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.

Explore Employment and Unemployment

Multimedia

The Benefits of Job Sharing

RAND associate economist Jason Ward explains how job sharing may help to reduce the economic shock of COVID-19 and prevent layoffs.

Aug 3, 2020
Multimedia

From the Community Corrections Lens

In this Events @ RAND podcast based on the Career Prospects for People with Criminal Records Symposium held at RAND in 2019, Veronica Cunningham and Nicole Jarrett offer their perspectives on the next steps that policymakers, practitioners, and employers can take to equalize employment opportunities for individuals with criminal records. RAND's Dionne Barnes-Proby hosts.

Jul 29, 2020
Blog

Reopenining Schools, Affordable Housing, Unemployment: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the debate about reopening schools, how a decline in commercial real estate demand could help address the housing crisis, challenges facing the U.S. unemployment system, and more.

Jul 24, 2020
Commentary

Arts and Cultural Workers Are Especially Vulnerable to the Pandemic

Workers in the arts and cultural industries could be especially vulnerable to the economic shocks of COVID-19. As the United States reopens and decides its future, it should recognize these vulnerabilities, as well as the benefits that the arts and cultural industries offer.

Jul 23, 2020
Commentary

Is the U.S. Stuck with a Fixed Add-On for Unemployment?

When COVID-19 led to millions of Americans losing their jobs, Congress moved to increase unemployment benefits by $600 a week. What should happen when those extra benefits expire?

Jul 23, 2020
Multimedia

Practitioners’ Views on Barriers and Opportunities

In this Events @ RAND podcast based on the Career Prospects for People with Criminal Records Symposium held at RAND in 2019, Joshua Miller, Toney L. Earl Jr., Tony Lewis Jr., and Andrew Morton discuss strategies for overcoming barriers and improving employment outcomes through reentry, community supervision, and employer-driven programs.

Jul 22, 2020
Commentary

National Security and Workplace Flexibility Aren't Incompatible After All

For years, the U.S. Defense Department dismissed workplace flexibility as being incompatible with national security. But during the pandemic, flexibility became a matter of survival for all employers, including Defense. The question now is whether it will keep recent adaptations or go back to its rigid ways.

Jul 17, 2020
Blog

COVID Learning Loss, Russian Trolls, Artificial Intelligence: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on helping students recover learning losses, fighting Russian trolls, racial disparity in unemployment benefits, the race for AI leadership, and more.

Jul 17, 2020
Commentary

The Racial Disparity in Unemployment Benefits

Economic racial inequality in America cannot be solved through unemployment insurance, but it certainly shouldn't be exacerbated by it. And yet, Black workers are less financially supported during unemployment, simply by virtue of where they live.

Jul 15, 2020
Multimedia

Certification, Background Checks, and Stigma

In this Events @ RAND podcast based on the Career Prospects for People with Criminal Records Symposium held at RAND in 2019, Peter Leasure, Michael Vuolo, and Naomi F. Sugie present evidence from employer and job-seeker studies on Ban-the-Box, Certificates of Relief, and background checks.

Jul 15, 2020
Multimedia

How Do People Stop Committing Crimes?

In this Events @ RAND podcast based on the Career Prospects for People with Criminal Records Symposium held at RAND in 2019, senior policy researcher Shawn D. Bushway explains the concept of desistance, or how and when people with criminal records stop offending.

Jul 8, 2020
Multimedia

The Unequal Nature of the Damage from COVID-19

Shanthi Nataraj, senior economist with the RAND Corporation, explains which communities and businesses have been hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jul 7, 2020
Commentary

COVID-19's Depletion of Entry-Level Summer Jobs Can Have Long-Lasting Effects

Summer is typically when employment for young workers is at its highest. One of the many costs of the pandemic is lower employment rates. For young workers, it's not just an issue of lost wages; there is also an effect on their personal job history.

Jul 6, 2020
Report

How small businesses are coping with the impact of COVID-19: Results from a survey in Turkey and the Middle East

SPARK, an NGO supporting young people's access to education and employment, commissioned RAND Europe to conduct a survey to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Middle East and Turkey.

Jul 6, 2020
Journal Article

Addressing Employment Obstacles for Young Syrian Refugee Women

This Note builds on research covering the three countries with the highest concentration of Syrian refugees displaced since 2011: Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon.

Jun 30, 2020
Commentary

A Path to Recovery from COVID-19 for Small Businesses

The COVID-19 pandemic has hammered small businesses around the United States. We spoke with 21 small business owners to learn more about the challenges they are facing and how they might best be helped.

Jun 25, 2020
Blog

Protests and Police Reform, Facial Recognition, Gun Policies: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on protests and police reform after the killing of George Floyd, facial recognition bans, gun policies that likely reduce deaths, and more.

Jun 19, 2020
Multimedia

COVID-19 Briefing Series: Examining the Post-COVID-19 Workforce

In this briefing, RAND's Christian van Stolk discusses how policymakers and employers can rethink and retool the workplace to support employee health and well-being and maintain productivity during the pandemic.

Jun 19, 2020
Report

COVID-19 and the Changing Nature of Work

Between February and May, one in six U.S. workers lost their jobs. Most were either laid off or unable to work because of coronavirus restrictions. The ability to telecommute protected against job loss. But of course not all jobs are conducive to telecommuting.

Jun 18, 2020
Commentary

Long-Term Furloughs During COVID-19 Hold Risks for Employee Health and Well-Being

Governments around the world have offered furlough schemes to try to delay employers from making any restructuring decisions during the pandemic. The aims of such programs are laudable. But they may come with unintended consequences.

Jun 15, 2020

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