Late–1990s Worker Displacement — 2000-08-09

From January 1997 through December 1999, 3.3 million workers were displaced from jobs 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 about the same as the level of 3.6 million recorded 2 years earlier in a survey that measured job losses that occurred from January 1995 through December 1997. Both surveys covered 3-year periods of strong employment growth 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. These surveys have been conducted biennially as supplements to the Current Population Survey, a monthly survey of households that is the primary source of information on the nation's labor force.