Cover IMF Working Papers
A New Claims-Based Unemployment Dataset: Application to Postwar Recoveries Across U.S. States
Author:
Andrew Fieldhouse
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Sean Howard
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Mr. Christoffer Koch 0000000404811396 https://isni.org/isni/0000000404811396 International Monetary Fund

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David Munro
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Series:
IMF Working Papers
Volume/Issue:
Volume 2022: Issue 117
Language:
English
Publication Date:
10 Jun 2022
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5089/9798400212604.001
ISBN:
9798400212604
ISSN:
1018-5941
Pages:
56
Keywords:
State-Level Unemployment Rates; Unemployment Insurance; Economic Recoveries; Regional Business Cycles; unemployment recovery; unemployment series; unemployment dataset; recession date; unemployment rate series; Unemployment rate; Economic recession; Unemployment; Business cycles; Labor markets
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Using newly digitized unemployment insurance claims data we construct a historical monthly unemployment series for U.S. states going back to January 1947. The constructed series are highly correlated with the Bureau of Labor Statics' state-level unemployment data, which are only available from January 1976 onwards, and capture consistent patterns in the business cycle. We use our claims-based unemployment series to examine the evolving pace of post-war unemployment recoveries at the state level. We find that faster recoveries are associated with greater heterogeneity in the recovery rate of unemployment and slower recoveries tend to be more uniformly paced across states. In addition, we find that the pace of unemployment recoveries is strongly correlated with a states' manufacturing share of output.
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Cover IMF Working Papers
IMF Working Papers
ISSN:
1018-5941
Publisher:
International Monetary Fund
Volume 2022: Issue 117