The Labor Force Attachment of Discouraged Workers

Abstract

Since the 1960s policymakers have been concerned with the question of whether the discouraged worker should be considered unemployed. Previous researchers have argued that only those groups of the discouraged who exhibit a “distinctive attachment” to the labor force should be counted among the unemployed. This study differs by defining “distinctive attachment” as a long-run, not merely short-run, sensitivity to economic fluctuations. Using this criteria, it is determined that only those discouraged due to their inability to find work exhibited an attachment significant enough to warrant their inclusion in the category of the unemployed. Also of interest is a finding suggesting that minority females are increasingly playing the same economic role as nonminority males. Each of these groups exhibits a long-run attachment to the labor force, whereas the attachment of minority males and nonminority females tends to be relatively more transitory.