Unionization and Employment Insecurity in the Great Recession

• In Event: 411 - Section on Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 13. Economic Inequality and Survival

Abstract

Unemployment reached a decades-long peak in 2009, shortly after the official end of the Great Recession. Meanwhile, additional forms of employment insecurity like involuntary part-time work experienced unprecedented increases. Though labor unions traditionally protected workers from such employment volatility, their sustained decline since the 1970s, among other reasons, casts doubt on their potential effectiveness during the Great Recession. Using detailed longitudinal data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation between 2008 and 2013, we examine the relationship between union membership and weekly employment status and hours worked. Our analysis also tests for differential relationships by race/ethnicity and sex. Overall, we find union members experienced little or no advantage in employment security during the Great Recession, with significant disadvantages for some outcomes for Latino and Asian workers. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for existing research and long-term trends in precarious work, as well as the next steps in our empirical analysis.

Authors

• Ryan Finnigan, University of California, Davis

• Jo Mhairi Hale, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research