Displacement rates and occupations

July 14, 2004

Blue collar workers continued to experience a higher displacement rate than other occupational groups in 1999-2000.

[Chart data—TXT]

In the early 1980s, displacement among blue-collar workers was significantly higher than among their white-collar counterparts. Over the past two decades, however, the difference in displacement rates for these two groups has narrowed.

In 1999-2000, the rate of job loss of blue-collar workers was 3.3 percent, compared with 2.4 percent for white-collar workers. For service occupations the rate was 1.4 percent.

These data are a product of the Current Population Survey. Displaced workers are defined as persons 20 years of age and older who lost or left jobs because their plant or company closed or moved, there was insufficient work for them to do, or their position or shift was abolished. Read more about displaced workers in "Worker Displacement, 1999-2000," by Ryan Helwig, in the June 2004 Monthly Labor Review.