Young Workers Left Behind: Hiring and the Great Recession

During the Great Recession, hiring fell dramatically in the United States, dropping from over 5 million hires per month to below 4 million between late 2007 and 2009. Total hiring has still not fully recovered—it remains below prerecession levels, with a 2014 monthly average of 4.6 million hires. If hiring had stayed on track from 2006, about 65 million additional hires would have been made in the 2007–2013 period. Who are these 65 million missing hires? By understanding the composition of this group of workers, we can better understand the distributional impact of the Great Recession.