IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eecrev/v133y2021ics0014292121000076.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Job ladders and growth in earnings, hours, and wages

Author

Listed:
  • Hahn, Joyce K.
  • Hyatt, Henry R.
  • Janicki, Hubert P.

Abstract

We use U.S. matched employer-employee data to study the evolution of earnings, hours, and wages. We distinguish “stayers” who remain with the same employer from workers who transition. Hires from nonemployment receive relatively low pay, and therefore lessen average earnings and wages. This negative effect of entrants from nonemployment is offset by growth from stayers, employer-to-employer transitions, and other separations from low-paying jobs. Stayers drive aggregate changes in earnings and wages.

Suggested Citation

  • Hahn, Joyce K. & Hyatt, Henry R. & Janicki, Hubert P., 2021. "Job ladders and growth in earnings, hours, and wages," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:133:y:2021:i:c:s0014292121000076
    DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2021.103654
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014292121000076
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2021.103654?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John C. Haltiwanger & Henry R. Hyatt & Lisa B. Kahn & Erika McEntarfer, 2018. "Cyclical Job Ladders by Firm Size and Firm Wage," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 52-85, April.
    2. Champagne, Julien & Kurmann, André & Stewart, Jay, 2017. "Reconciling the divergence in aggregate U.S. wage series," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 27-41.
    3. Mark Gertler & Christopher Huckfeldt & Antonella Trigari, 2020. "Unemployment Fluctuations, Match Quality, and the Wage Cyclicality of New Hires," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 87(4), pages 1876-1914.
    4. Salop, Steven C, 1979. "A Model of the Natural Rate of Unemployment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(1), pages 117-125, March.
    5. John M. Abowd & Francis Kramarz & David N. Margolis, 1999. "High Wage Workers and High Wage Firms," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 67(2), pages 251-334, March.
    6. Jeremy Lise & Jean-Marc Robin, 2017. "The Macrodynamics of Sorting between Workers and Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(4), pages 1104-1135, April.
    7. Jiangyan Wang & Dongquan He, 2015. "Sustainable urban development in China: challenges and achievements," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 20(5), pages 665-682, June.
    8. Card, David & Cardoso, Ana Rute & Heining, Joerg & Kline, Patrick, 2016. "Firms and Labor Market Inequality: Evidence and Some Theory," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt54h140j3, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    9. Mark Gertler & Antonella Trigari, 2009. "Unemployment Fluctuations with Staggered Nash Wage Bargaining," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 117(1), pages 38-86, February.
    10. Henry Hyatt & Erika McEntarfer & Ken Ueda & Alexandria Zhang, 2016. "Interstate Migration and Employer-to-Employer Transitions in the U.S.: New Evidence from Administrative Records Data," Working Papers 16-44r, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    11. Raven Molloy & Christopher L. Smith & Abigail Wozniak, 2013. "Declining Migration wihin the US: The Role of the Labor Market," Working Papers 13-53, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    12. Haefke, Christian & Sonntag, Marcus & van Rens, Thijs, 2013. "Wage rigidity and job creation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(8), pages 887-899.
    13. Mukoyama, Toshihiko, 2014. "The cyclicality of job-to-job transitions and its implications for aggregate productivity," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-17.
    14. Joseph G. Altonji & Christina H. Paxson, 1985. "Job Characteristics and Hours of Work," Working Papers 578, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    15. Benedetto, Gary & Haltiwanger, John & Lane, Julia & McKinney, Kevin, 2007. "Using Worker Flows to Measure Firm Dynamics," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 25, pages 299-313, July.
    16. Christopher A. Pissarides, 2009. "The Unemployment Volatility Puzzle: Is Wage Stickiness the Answer?," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(5), pages 1339-1369, September.
    17. Henry Hyatt & Erika McEntarfer & Kevin McKinney & Stephen Tibbets & Doug Walton, 2014. "JOB-TO-JOB (J2J) Flows: New Labor Market Statistics From Linked Employer-Employee Data," Working Papers 14-34, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    18. Jovanovic, Boyan, 1979. "Firm-specific Capital and Turnover," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(6), pages 1246-1260, December.
    19. Marcus Hagedorn & Iourii Manovskii, 2013. "Job Selection and Wages over the Business Cycle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(2), pages 771-803, April.
    20. David Card & Ana Rute Cardoso & Joerg Heining & Patrick Kline, 2018. "Firms and Labor Market Inequality: Evidence and Some Theory," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(S1), pages 13-70.
    21. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/2gm7u1h28o97arriihp43sr90l is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Henry R. Hyatt & Tucker S. McElroy, 2019. "Labor Reallocation, Employment, and Earnings: Vector Autoregression Evidence," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 33(4), pages 463-487, December.
    23. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/c8dmi8nm4pdjkuc9g8grh35j2 is not listed on IDEAS
    24. Fabien Postel-Vinay & Jean-Marc Robin, 2002. "Equilibrium Wage Dispersion with Worker and Employer Heterogeneity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(6), pages 2295-2350, November.
    25. Robert Shimer, 2005. "The Cyclical Behavior of Equilibrium Unemployment and Vacancies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(1), pages 25-49, March.
    26. John M. Abowd & Bryce E. Stephens & Lars Vilhuber & Fredrik Andersson & Kevin L. McKinney & Marc Roemer & Simon Woodcock, 2009. "The LEHD Infrastructure Files and the Creation of the Quarterly Workforce Indicators," NBER Chapters, in: Producer Dynamics: New Evidence from Micro Data, pages 149-230, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    27. Giuseppe Moscarini & Fabien Postel-Vinay, 2016. "Did the Job Ladder Fail after the Great Recession?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(S1), pages 55-93.
    28. Gary Solon & Robert Barsky & Jonathan A. Parker, 1994. "Measuring the Cyclicality of Real Wages: How Important is Composition Bias?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(1), pages 1-25.
    29. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/dc0ckec3fcb29ms985085gkbp is not listed on IDEAS
    30. Joyce K. Hahn & Henry R. Hyatt & Hubert P. Janicki & Stephen R. Tibbets, 2017. "Job-to-Job Flows and Earnings Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 358-363, May.
    31. Andreas I. Mueller, 2017. "Separations, Sorting, and Cyclical Unemployment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(7), pages 2081-2107, July.
    32. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/dc0ckec3fcb29ms985085gkbp is not listed on IDEAS
    33. Raven Molloy & Christopher L. Smith & Riccardo Trezzi & Abigail Wozniak, 2016. "Understanding Declining Fluidity in the U.S. Labor Market," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 47(1 (Spring), pages 183-259.
    34. Giuseppe Moscarini & Fabien Postel-Vinay, 2017. "The Relative Power of Employment-to-Employment Reallocation and Unemployment Exits in Predicting Wage Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 364-368, May.
    35. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/c8dmi8nm4pdjkuc9g8grh35j2 is not listed on IDEAS
    36. R. Jason Faberman & Alejandro Justiniano, 2015. "Job Switching and Wage Growth," Chicago Fed Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    37. Kudlyak, Marianna, 2014. "The cyclicality of the user cost of labor," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 53-67.
    38. Bils, Mark J, 1985. "Real Wages over the Business Cycle: Evidence from Panel Data," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(4), pages 666-689, August.
    39. Pedro S. Martins & Gary Solon & Jonathan P. Thomas, 2012. "Measuring What Employers Do about Entry Wages over the Business Cycle: A New Approach," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(4), pages 36-55, October.
    40. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/2gm7u1h28o97arriihp43sr90l is not listed on IDEAS
    41. Raj Chetty & John N. Friedman & Tore Olsen & Luigi Pistaferri, 2011. "Adjustment Costs, Firm Responses, and Micro vs. Macro Labor Supply Elasticities: Evidence from Danish Tax Records," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(2), pages 749-804.
    42. Clémence Berson & Marta de Philippis & Eliana Viviano, 2020. "Job-to-Job Flows and Wage Dynamics in France and Italy," Working papers 756, Banque de France.
    43. Fabien Postel-Vinay & Jean-Marc Robin, 2002. "Equilibrium Wage Dispersion with Worker and Employer Heterogeneity," Post-Print hal-03458567, HAL.
    44. Henry Hyatt & Erika McEntarfer & Ken Ueda & Alexandria Zhang, 2016. "Interstate Migration and Employer-to-Employer Transitions in the U.S.: New Evidence from Administrative Records Data," Working Papers 16-44, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    45. Robert H. Topel & Michael P. Ward, 1992. "Job Mobility and the Careers of Young Men," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(2), pages 439-479.
    46. Katharine G. Abraham & James R. Spletzer & Jay C. Stewart, 1998. "Divergent Trends in Alternative Wage Series," NBER Chapters, in: Labor Statistics Measurement Issues, pages 293-325, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    47. Steven J. Davis & John Haltiwanger, 2014. "Labor Market Fluidity and Economic Performance," NBER Working Papers 20479, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    48. Fatih Karahan & Ryan Michaels & Benjamin Pugsley & Ayşegül Şahin & Rachel Schuh, 2017. "Do Job-to-Job Transitions Drive Wage Fluctuations over the Business Cycle?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 353-357, May.
    49. Mary C. Daly & Bart Hobijn, 2016. "The intensive and extensive margins of real wage adjustment," Working Paper Series 2016-4, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    50. Timothy Dunne & J. Bradford Jensen & Mark J. Roberts, 2009. "Producer Dynamics: New Evidence from Micro Data," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number dunn05-1, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. John Haltiwanger & Henry Hyatt & Erika McEntarfer & Matthew Staiger, 2025. "Cyclical Worker Flows: Cleansing vs. Sullying," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 55, January.
    2. John Haltiwanger & Henry Hyatt & Erika McEntarfer & Matthew Staiger, 2025. "Cyclical Worker Flows: Cleansing vs. Sullying," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 55, January.
    3. Emin Dinlersoz & Henry Hyatt & Hubert Janicki, 2019. "Who Works for Whom? Worker Sorting in a Model of Entrepreneurship with Heterogeneous Labor Markets," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 34, pages 244-266, October.
    4. Colmer, Jonathan & Krause, Eleanor & Lyubich, Eva & Voorheis, John, 2024. "Transitional costs and the decline in coal: worker-level evidence," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 126795, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Kevin L. McKinney & John M. Abowd & Hubert P. Janicki, 2022. "U.S. long‐term earnings outcomes by sex, race, ethnicity, and place of birth," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(4), pages 1879-1945, November.
    6. Lachowska, Marta & Mas, Alexandre & Woodbury, Stephen A., 2022. "How reliable are administrative reports of paid work hours?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    7. Kevin L. McKinney & John M. Abowd, 2024. "Estimating the Potential Impact of Combined Race and Ethnicity Reporting on Long-Term Earnings Statistics," NBER Chapters, in: Race, Ethnicity, and Economic Statistics for the 21st Century, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Felipe Alves, 2022. "Job Ladder and Business Cycles," Staff Working Papers 22-14, Bank of Canada.
    9. Joyce K. Hahn & Henry R. Hyatt & Hubert P. Janicki & Stephen R. Tibbets, 2017. "Job-to-Job Flows and Earnings Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 358-363, May.
    10. Clémence Berson & Marta de Philippis & Eliana Viviano, 2020. "Job-to-Job Flows and Wage Dynamics in France and Italy," Working papers 756, Banque de France.
    11. Crane, Leland D. & Hyatt, Henry R. & Murray, Seth M., 2023. "Cyclical labor market sorting," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 233(2), pages 524-543.
    12. Bassanini, Andrea & Batut, Cyprien & Caroli, Eve, 2021. "Labor Market Concentration and Stayers' Wages: Evidence from France," IZA Discussion Papers 14912, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Bassanini, Andrea & Batut, Cyprien & Caroli, Eve, 2023. "Labor Market Concentration and Wages: Incumbents versus New Hires," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    14. Julien Sauvagnat & Fabiano Schivardi, 2024. "Are Executives in Short Supply? Evidence from Death Events," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 91(1), pages 519-559.
    15. Aitken, Andrew & Singh, Shruti, 2023. "Time to change? Promoting mobility at older ages to support longer working lives," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).
    16. John C. Haltiwanger & Henry R. Hyatt & Lisa B. Kahn & Erika McEntarfer, 2018. "Cyclical Job Ladders by Firm Size and Firm Wage," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 52-85, April.
    17. Choi, Sekyu & Figueroa, Nincen & Villena-Roldán, Benjamin, 2020. "Wage Cyclicality Revisited: The Role of Hiring Standards," MPRA Paper 98240, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Emin Dinlersoz & Henry Hyatt & Hubert Janicki, 2019. "Who Works for Whom? Worker Sorting in a Model of Entrepreneurship with Heterogeneous Labor Markets," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 34, pages 244-266, October.
    19. Sum Lo Simon Ming, 2023. "Desired work-leisure balance in a partial equilibrium job search model with multiple job holding," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 12(1), pages 1-43, December.
    20. Lindberg, Kreg, 2024. "Worker income level, mobility, and income growth: A dynamic structural equation model," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    21. Albagli, Elías & Contreras, Gabriela & Tapia, Matías & Wlasiuk, Juan M., 2022. "Earnings cyclicality of new and continuing jobs: The role of tenure and transition length," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    22. David Wiczer, 2020. "Book Review for Not Working: Where Have All the Good Jobs Gone?," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 55(2), pages 95-97, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bauer, Anja & Lochner, Benjamin, 2020. "History dependence in wages and cyclical selection: Evidence from Germany," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    2. Lydon, Reamonn & Lozej, Matija, 2018. "Flexibility of new hires’ earnings in Ireland," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 112-127.
    3. Crane, Leland D. & Hyatt, Henry R. & Murray, Seth M., 2023. "Cyclical labor market sorting," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 233(2), pages 524-543.
    4. Jonathon Hazell & Bledi Taska, 2020. "Downward Rigidity in the Wage for New Hires," Discussion Papers 2028, Centre for Macroeconomics (CFM).
    5. Matthew Knowles & Mario Lupoli, 2023. "The Nash Wage Elasticity and its Business Cycle Implications," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 240, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    6. Simon Jäger & Benjamin Schoefer & Samuel Young & Josef Zweimüller, 2020. "Wages and the Value of Nonemployment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(4), pages 1905-1963.
    7. Andrew Snell & Heiko Stuber & Jonathan Thomas, 2018. "Downward Real Wage Rigidity and Equal Treatment Wage Contracts: Theory and Evidence," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 30, pages 265-284, October.
    8. Barrela, Rodrigo & Costa, Eduardo & Portugal, Pedro, 2024. "On the Asymmetrical Sensitivity of the Distribution of Real Wages to Business Cycle Fluctuations," IZA Discussion Papers 16911, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Basu, S. & House, C.L., 2016. "Allocative and Remitted Wages," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 297-354, Elsevier.
    10. Snell, Andy & Stüber, Heiko & Thomas, Jonathan P., 2024. "Job security, asymmetric information, and wage rigidity," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    11. John Grigsby & Erik Hurst & Ahu Yildirmaz, 2021. "Aggregate Nominal Wage Adjustments: New Evidence from Administrative Payroll Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(2), pages 428-471, February.
    12. Choi, Sekyu & Figueroa, Nincen & Villena-Roldán, Benjamin, 2020. "Wage Cyclicality Revisited: The Role of Hiring Standards," MPRA Paper 120307, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 21 Apr 2022.
    13. Kudlyak, Marianna, 2014. "The cyclicality of the user cost of labor," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 53-67.
    14. R. Jason Faberman & Andreas I. Mueller & Ayşegül Şahin & Giorgio Topa, 2022. "Job Search Behavior Among the Employed and Non‐Employed," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(4), pages 1743-1779, July.
    15. Adamopoulou, Effrosyni & Villanueva, Ernesto, 2022. "Wage determination and the bite of collective contracts in Italy and Spain," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    16. Merkl, Christian & Stüber, Heiko, 2024. "Wage and employment cyclicalities at the establishment level," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    17. Bjorn Dapi, 2020. "Wage Cyclicality and Composition Bias in the Norwegian Economy," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 122(4), pages 1403-1430, October.
    18. John Haltiwanger & Henry Hyatt & Erika McEntarfer, 2018. "Who Moves Up the Job Ladder?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(S1), pages 301-336.
    19. Hazell, Jonathon & Taska, Bledi, 2023. "Downward Rigidity in the Wage for New Hires," IZA Discussion Papers 16512, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Niklas Engbom & Christian Moser, 2022. "Earnings Inequality and the Minimum Wage: Evidence from Brazil," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(12), pages 3803-3847, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:133:y:2021:i:c:s0014292121000076. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eer .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.