*IWS Documented News Service*

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Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach****

School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies****

Cornell University****

16 East 34th Street, 4th floor---------------------- Stuart Basefsky****

New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau* ***

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Urban Institute (UI)****

(Occasional Paper)****

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*A Very Uneven Road: US Labor Markets in the Past 30 Years *[online 30 April 2012]****

by Harry Holzer, Marek Hlavac****

http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=1001606 and http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/1001606-A-Very-Uneven-Road-US-Labor-Markets... ****

[full-text, 44 pages]****

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In this paper we use data from the Current Population Survey to summarize labor market trends in the U.S. over the past 30 years. First we focus on secular trends over the four years (and three cycles) that constitute labor market peaks during this period: 1979, 1989, 2000, and 2007. Then we consider peak-to-trough changes in employment outcomes for each of the four recessions that have occurred in this period, including the Great Recession. Overall we find great unevenness in labor market performance across cycles and across demographic groups. Inequality has widened dramatically and important structural changes have occurred.****