Mid-1990s Worker Displacement — 1996-08-22

A total of 4.2 million workers were displaced between January 1993 and December 1995 from jobs that they had held for at least 3 years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The number of displaced workers was slightly below the level recorded 2 years earlier in a survey that covered the period from January 1991 to December 1993. The earlier period included the 1990-91 recession and the slow labor market recovery that followed. In contrast, the February 1996 survey covered a period of employment expansion and declining unemployment. Since 1984, the Employment and Training Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor has sponsored surveys that collect information on workers who were displaced from their jobs. The surveys have been conducted biennially as supplements to the Current Population Survey, a monthly survey of households that provides comprehensive data on the nation's labor force.