Sixty-one percent of workers displaced in 2011–2013 were reemployed in January 2014

From January 2011 through December 2013, 4.3 million workers were displaced from jobs they had held for at least 3 years. This was down from the 6.1 million long-tenured workers who were displaced during the prior survey period covering January 2009 to December 2011. In January 2014, 61 percent of workers displaced during the 2011–2013 period were reemployed, up from the 56 percent of workers displaced in 2009–2011 who were reemployed in January 2012 and the 49 percent of workers displaced in 2007–2009 who were reemployed in January 2010.

Twenty-one percent of the workers displaced during the 2011–2013 period were unemployed—that is, without a job but actively seeking work—at the time of the January 2014 survey. That was down from 27 percent in the January 2012 survey and from 36 percent in the January 2010 survey. Eighteen percent of long-tenured displaced workers were not in the labor force in January 2014, about unchanged from the previous survey.

In January 2014, the reemployment rate was 68 percent for workers ages 25 to 54. Reemployment rates were lower for older workers. The rates for displaced workers ages 55 to 64 and those age 65 and older were 53 percent and 23 percent, respectively. Among displaced workers age 65 and older, 64 percent were no longer in the labor force when surveyed, up from 49 percent in the prior survey.

Among long-tenured displaced workers, men had a higher reemployment rate (64 percent) in January 2014 than women (58 percent). Displaced men and women were about equally likely to be unemployed at the time of the January 2014 survey—22 percent and 20 percent, respectively. The share of displaced men who had left the labor force, at 14 percent, was lower than that for women—22 percent.

In January 2014, the reemployment rates for long-tenured displaced Hispanics or Latinos (65 percent), Whites (62 percent), and Blacks (55 percent) were higher than in January 2012. The reemployment rate for Asians, at 59 percent, changed little from the prior survey.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. For more information, see "Worker Displacement: 2011–2013" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL‑14‑1605. Displaced workers are defined as people 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. This analysis focuses on workers who lost or left jobs they had held for 3 or more years, referred to as long-tenured workers. People whose ethnicity is identified as Hispanic or Latino may be of any race.