Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (BPEA) provides academic and business economists, government officials, and members of the financial and business communities with timely research on current economic issues.

Ongoing coverage for an ongoing crisis, 'The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Financial Crisis' is being written this very moment as the crisis continues to unfold. Part Two in this ongoing series, 'Job Loss& Global Impact' is available to you now exclusively in electronic format. Part Two begins with a chapter titled 'What the Crisis Means for You Right Now' that offers practical ideas, strategies and advice that you can use to prepare for and respond to the changing economic environment. Part Two also features chapters that explore the unemployment outlook, comparisons between the current recession and previous ones, and the ripple effect that the recession is having on economies around the world. The author of 'The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Financial Crisis' will continue to cover America's evolving finaancial and economic turmoil in the coming months, so stay tuned for future installments to the series.

In this repport the Director-General's discusses his main concerns about the current global crisis and what should be done about it. Millions of men & women have lost their jobs; business bankruptcies continue to grow exponentially; unemployment is expected to continue to rise probably until 2011; meanwhile 45 million people will enter the labour market in 2009 and following years looking for their first job. The IMF forecasts some recovery in global growth but this is conditional on the success of stimulus packages. Evidence of past crises indicates that, even after economic growth returns, employment only recovers to pre-crisis level with a lag of four to five years. And there was already a significant work deficit before the crisis. Knock on effects such as the increase in demand for social protection when jobs are not available can also be seen. Ultimately, on a broader level, prolonged crises carry major risks for social and political stability

News stories on the impact of job loss appear daily in the media. Less reported is that working conditions in many countries around the world have deteriorated as rapidly as jobs have been lost—and this affects ten times as many people. Working conditions significantly impact our health, the amount of time we can spend with family, our options during momentous life events (such as the birth of a child or the death of a parent), and whether we keep or lose a job when the unexpected occurs. Inexplicably, the global community has nearly universally accepted the argument that any country that guarantees a floor of decent working conditions will suffer higher unemployment and will be less competitive. Raising the Global Floor shatters this widely held view by presenting the first ever, global analysis of the relationship between labor conditions, national competitiveness, and unemployment rates in 190 countries. The authors' findings are dramatic. They show that there is no relationship between unemployment rates and providing basic protections in a series of critical areas. Strikingly, data also indicate that good working conditions can make countries more competitive. There are no long-term economic gains to be had if workers are denied paid sick leave, paid annual leave, paid parental leave, the right to a day of rest, and many other basic protections that would improve the quality of their lives.

Displaced workers experience reduced earnings for many years. While this empirical phenomenon is well established, the theory of displacement-induced earnings loss is scattered. Policy discussion often interprets displacement-induced losses through the lens of specific human capital theory but there are other credible theories with different causal mechanisms and different interpretations. This paper reviews theories of costly job displacement and discusses their consistency with the available empirical evidence for the United States. We find that specific human capital theory and matching theory have considerable but far from conclusive empirical support. We suggest avenues for better discriminating among theories.

Working through the Crisis documents how the Great Recession affected employment outcomes in developing countries and how those countries' governments responded. The chapters comprise a unique compilation of data and analysis from different sources, including an inventory of policies implemented during the crisis, among countries in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa. The effects of the crisis depended on the size of the shock, the channels through which it was manifested, the structure of institutions in the country--especially labor institutions--and the specific policy responses undertaken. Although these factors resulted in differing outcomes among the countries studied, common patterns emerge. In terms of impacts, overall adjustments involved reductions in earnings growth rather than in employment growth, although the quality of employment was also affected. Youth were doubly affected, being more likely to experience unemployment and reduced wages. Men seemed to have been more severely affected than women. In most countries where data are available, there were no major differences between skilled and unskilled workers or between those living in urban and rural areas. In terms of policy responses, this crisis was characterized by a high prevalence of active interventions in the labor market and the expansion of income protection systems, as well as countercyclical stimulus measures. When timed well and sufficiently large, these stimulus measures were effective in reducing adverse employment effects. Specific sectoral stimulus policies also had beneficial effects when they were well targeted. However, social protection and labor market policy responses were often ad hoc, and not in line with the types of adjustments workers experienced. As a result, these policies and programs were typically biased toward formal sector workers and did not necessarily reach those who needed them the most. In retrospect, there is a sense that developing countries were not well prepared to deal with the effects of the Great Recession, and that the further development of social protection systems is crucial to better protect workers and their families from the next crisis.

Journalists and Job Loss explores the profound disruption of journalism work in the 21st century’s networked digital media environment. The chapters analyse how journalists have experienced and navigated job loss, re-employment, career change and career re-invention as traditional patterns of newsroom employment give way to occupational change, income insecurity and precarious work in journalism globally. The authors showcase the design, methodology and results of the New Beats project, a ground-breaking longitudinal study of change in the work of Australian journalists, as well as related case studies of job loss and career change in journalism based on research in different national settings across the global North and global South. The book also considers the wider implications of changes in journalism work for media sustainability, gender equity, and journalism work futures. The book provides a theoretically informed and empirically grounded analysis of job loss and the new contours of journalistic work in a critical political, cultural, economic, and social industry. It will be an important resource for researchers and students in disciplines including journalism, media and communication studies, business, and the social sciences in general.