Factors of Immobility: Why the Unemployment Rate is Slow to Adjust

During the recent recession and the continuing recovery, the national unemployment rate has maintained a level that has only been observed one other time since the Great Depression. While the initial causes of the increased unemployment rate are documented, the adjustment process and reduction of unemployment rates back toward some natural rate has not been addressed empirically. In this paper, the authors analyze labor supply side factors that may cause unemployment rates to remain high for a longer period than the typical recession. The authors focus on the impact of unemployment insurance extensions, housing market contractions and the general breadth of the economic downturn as factors that slow the labor supply adjustment process and lead to prolonged high rates of unemployment.