IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedbcr/99455.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Why New England’s Labor Force Participation Has Been Recovering So Slowly since the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Mary A. Burke
  • Nathaniel R. Nelson

Abstract

This report investigates a variety of factors that may explain why New England experienced a participation recovery gap from 2019 through 2023 and discusses the resulting policy implications.

Suggested Citation

  • Mary A. Burke & Nathaniel R. Nelson, 2025. "Why New England’s Labor Force Participation Has Been Recovering So Slowly since the COVID-19 Pandemic," New England Public Policy Center Research Report 25-1, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedbcr:99455
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bostonfed.org/publications/new-england-public-policy-center-research-report/2025/why-new-englands-labor-force-participation-has-been-recovering-so-slowly-since-the-covid-19-pandemic.aspx
    File Function: Summary
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.bostonfed.org/-/media/Documents/Workingpapers/PDF/2025/neppcrr2501.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ariel J. Binder & John Bound, 2019. "The Declining Labor Market Prospects of Less-Educated Men," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 33(2), pages 163-190, Spring.
    2. Courtney Coile, 2018. "Working Longer in the U.S.: Trends and Explanations," NBER Working Papers 24576, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Mary A. Burke & Katherine Grace Carman & Riley Sullivan & Hefei Wen & James Frank Wharam & Hao Yu, 2021. "Who Gets Medication-assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder, and Does It Reduce Overdose Risk? Evidence from the Rhode Island All-payer Claims Database," Working Papers 21-3, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    4. Congressional Budget Office, 2024. "Effects of the Immigration Surge on the Federal Budget and the Economy," Reports 60165, Congressional Budget Office.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. John Carter Braxton & Kyle F. Herkenhoff & Jonathan Rothbaum & Lawrence Schmidt, 2021. "Changing Income Risk across the US Skill Distribution: Evidence from a Generalized Kalman Filter," Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute Working Papers 55, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    2. Akerlof, Robert & Rayo, Luis, 2020. "Narratives and the Economics of the Family," CEPR Discussion Papers 15152, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Timothy A. Waidmann & HwaJung Choi & Robert F. Schoeni & John Bound, 2019. "Recent Trends in Disability and the Implications for Use of Disability Insurance," Working Papers wp406, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    4. Holzer, Harry J., 2023. "Can Workforce Development Help Us Reach Full Employment?," IZA Discussion Papers 16624, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Karen A. Kopecky & Jeremy Greenwood & Nezih Guner, 2022. "Substance Abuse during the Pandemic: Implications for Labor-Force Participation," Working Papers 1335, Barcelona School of Economics.
    6. Pinghui Wu, 2022. "Wage Inequality and the Rise in Labor Force Exit: The Case of US Prime-Age Men," Working Papers 22-16, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    7. Krasnopjorovs Olegs, 2020. "Have the Baltic Countries Run Out of Labour Reserves?," Baltic Journal of European Studies, Sciendo, vol. 10(3), pages 45-66, December.
    8. Rocha de Jesus Fernandes, Anderson & Lanza Queiroz, Bernardo, 2024. "Aging, education and some other implications for the silver dividend in developing countries: Evidence from Brazil," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 27(C).
    9. Abu Bakkar Siddique, 2023. "Job market polarization and American poverty," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 57(1), pages 1-24, December.
    10. Pilar García-Gómez & Sílvia Garcia-Mandicó & Sergi Jiménez-Martín & Judit Vall-Castelló, 2018. "Trends in Employment and Social Security Incentives in the Spanish Pension System, 1980–2016," NBER Chapters, in: Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World: Reforms and Retirement Incentives, pages 317-371, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Bratsberg, Bernt & Kotsadam, Andreas & Walther, Selma, 2021. "Male Fertility: Facts, Distribution and Drivers of Inequality," IZA Discussion Papers 14506, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Raj Chetty & Will S. Dobbie & Benjamin Goldman & Sonya Porter & Crystal Yang, 2024. "Changing Opportunity: Sociological Mechanisms Underlying Growing Class Gaps and Shrinking Race Gaps in Economic Mobility," NBER Working Papers 32697, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Alexander Cappelen & Ranveig Falch & Bertil Tungodden, 2019. "The Boy Crisis: Experimental Evidence on the Acceptance of Males Falling Behind," Working Papers 2019-014, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    14. Leila Bengali & Mary C. Daly & Evgeniya A. Duzhak & Cindy Zhao, 2025. "Pulled Out or Pushed Out? Declining Male Labor Force Participation," Working Paper Series 2025-07, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    15. Jeremy Greenwood & Nezih Guner & Karen A. Kopecky, 2022. "Did Substance Abuse during the Pandemic Reduce Labor Force Participation?," Policy Hub, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, vol. 2022(5), May.
    16. Courtney C. Coile, 2018. "The Evolution of Retirement Incentives in the US," NBER Chapters, in: Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World: Reforms and Retirement Incentives, pages 435-459, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Ariel J. Binder & Caroline Walker & Jonathan Eggleston & Marta Murray-Close, 2022. "Race and Mobility in U.S. Marriage Markets: Quantifying the Role of Segregation," Working Papers 22-59, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    18. Park, R. Jisung & Pankratz, Nora & Behrer, A. Patrick, 2021. "Temperature, Workplace Safety, and Labor Market Inequality," IZA Discussion Papers 14560, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Lin, Boqiang & Xu, Chongchong, 2024. "Enhancing energy-environmental performance through industrial intelligence: Insights from Chinese prefectural-level cities," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 365(C).
    20. Jonathan Heathcote & Fabrizio Perri & Gianluca Violante, 2020. "The Rise of US Earnings Inequality: Does the Cycle Drive the Trend?," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 37, pages 181-204, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:fip:fedbcr:99455. 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 Spozio (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbbous.html .

    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.