Experiences of white-collar job loss and job-searching in the United States
Corresponding Author
Aliya Hamid Rao
Department of Methodology, London School of Economics, London, UK
Correspondence
Aliya Hamid Rao, Department of Methodology, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Aliya Hamid Rao
Department of Methodology, London School of Economics, London, UK
Correspondence
Aliya Hamid Rao, Department of Methodology, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
Unemployment is a pervasive and stubborn feature of contemporary social and economic life. This review article focuses on the meaning and experience of contemporary white-collar unemployment in the United States. After explaining the empirical and theoretical rationales for the focus on white-collar workers, this review delves into three aspects of white-collar unemployment: who loses jobs; what unemployment means for one's sense of self, marital relationships, parent-child relationships; and how the process of job-searching and re-employment unfold for unemployed white-collar workers in the US. Throughout, I take an intersectional approach, identifying how sensitivity to structural location in the labor market and the family can augment our sociological understandings of these important issues. I close by suggesting directions for future research.
REFERENCES
- Autor, D., Dorn, D., & Hanson, G. (2019). When work disappears: Manufacturing decline and the falling marriage market value of young men. The American Economic Review: Insights, 1(2), 161–178.
10.1257/aeri.20180010 Google Scholar
- Brand, J. E. (2015). The far-reaching impact of job loss and unemployment. Annual Review of Sociology, 41, 359–375. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-071913-043237
- Buffel, V., Missinne, S., & Bracke, P. (2017). The social norm of unemployment in relation to mental health and medical care use: The role of regional unemployment levels and of displaced workers. Work, Employment & Society, 31(3), 501–521. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017016631442
- Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2014). https://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm
- Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2016a). Number of unemployment spells experienced by individuals from age 18 to age 46 in 1978-2010 by educational attainment, sex, race, and hispanic or latino ethnicity. Table. http://www.bls.gov/nls/nlsy79r24unempbyedu.pdf
- Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2016b). Unemployment rate and employment-population ratio vary by race and ethnicity. https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2017/unemployment-rate-and-employment-population-ratio-vary-by-race-and-ethnicity.htm
- Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2018). Labor force characteristics by race and ethnicity. https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/race-and-ethnicity/2018/home.htm
- Cherlin, A. J. (2014). Labor's love lost: The rise and fall of the working-class family in America. Russell Sage Foundation.
- Cherlin, A. J., Ribar, D. C., & Yasutake, S. (2016). Nonmarital first births, marriage, and income inequality. American Sociological Review, 81(4), 749–770. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122416653112
- Chesley, N. (2011). Stay-at-home fathers and breadwinning mothers: Gender, couple dynamics, and social change. Gender & Society, 25(5), 642–664. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243211417433
- Collins, C. (2020). Who to blame and how to solve it: Mothers’ perceptions of work–family conflict across western policy regimes. Journal of Marriage and Family, 82(3), 849–874. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12643
- Collins, P. H. (1990). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Routledge.
- Conger, R. D., Elder, G. H., Lorenz, F. O., Conger, K. J., Simons, R. L., Whitbeck, L. B., Huck, S., & Melby, J. N. (1990). Linking economic hardship to marital quality and instability. Journal of Marriage and Family, 52(3), 643–656. https://doi.org/10.2307/352931
- Connell, R. (2005). Masculinities ( 2nd ed.). University of California Press.
- Cooper, M. (2000). Being the ‘go-to guy’: Fatherhood, masculinity and the organization of work in silicon valley. Qualitative Sociology, 23(4), 379–405.
- Cooper, M. (2014). Cut adrift: Families in insecure times. University of California Press.
10.1525/9780520958456 Google Scholar
- Correll, S. J., Stephen, B., & In, P. (2007). Getting a job: Is there a motherhood penalty? American Journal of Sociology, 112(5), 1297–1339. https://doi.org/10.1086/511799
- Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, Feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1, 31.
- Damaske, S. (2020). Job loss and attempts to return to work: Complicating inequalities across gender and class. Gender & Society, 34(1), 7–30. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243219869381
- Daminger, A. (2019). The cognitive dimension of household labor. American Sociological Review, 84(4), 609–633.
- Daniels, A. K. (1987). Invisible work. Social Problems, 34(5), 403–415. https://doi.org/10.2307/800538
- Davis, G. F., & Kim, S. (2015). Financialization of the economy. Annual Review of Sociology, 41(1), 203–221. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-073014-112402
- Dean, P., Marsh, K., & Landry, B. (2013). Cultural contradiction or integration? Work–family schemas of Black middle class mothers. In M. H. Kohlman, D. B. Krieg, & B. J. Dickerson (Eds.), Advances in gender research (pp. 137–158, Vol. 17). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
- Demantas, I., & Myers, K. (2015). Step up and Be a man in a different manner: Unemployed men reframing masculinity. The Sociological Quarterly, 56(4), 640–664.
- Dow, D. M. (2015). Negotiating "the welfare queen" and "the strong Black woman": African American middle-class mothers' work and family perspectives. Sociological Perspectives, 58(1), 36–55.
- Dow, D. M. (2016). Integrated motherhood: Beyond traditional ideologies of motherhood. Journal of Marriage and Family, 78(1), 180–196.
- Dow, D. M. (2019). Mothering while Black: Boundaries and burdens of middle-class parenthood. University of California Press.
10.2307/j.ctvcwnz9n Google Scholar
- Ehrenreich, B. (2005). Bait and switch: The (futile) pursuit of the American dream ( 1st ed.). Metropolitan Books.
- England, P. (2010). The gender revolution: Uneven and stalled. Gender & Society, 24(2), 149–166.
- Gershon, I. (2017). Down and out in the new economy: How people find (or don’t find) work today. University of Chicago Press.
10.7208/chicago/9780226452289.001.0001 Google Scholar
- Glenn, E. N. (2002). Unequal freedom: How race and gender shaped American citizenship and labor. Harvard University Press.
- Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. Simon and Schuster.
- Granovetter, M. S. (1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78(6), 1360–1380.
- Greenhouse, S. (2009). The big squeeze: Tough times for the American worker. Anchor Books.
- Hatton, E. (2011). The temp economy: From kelly girls to permatemps in postwar America. Temple University Press.
- Hays, S. (1996). The cultural contradictions of motherhood. Yale University Press.
- Hochschild, A. R. (2003). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling ( Updated ed.). University of California Press.
10.1525/9780520930414 Google Scholar
- Inanc, H. (2018). Unemployment, temporary work, and subjective well-being: The gendered effect of spousal labor market insecurity. American Sociological Review, 83, 536–566. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122418772061
- Jahoda, M. (1982). Employment and unemployment: A social-psychological analysis. Cambridge University Press.
- Kalev, A. (2014). How you downsize is who you downsize: Biased formalization, accountability, and managerial diversity. American Sociological Review, 79(1), 109–135. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122413518553
- Kalleberg, A. (2011). Good jobs, bad jobs: The rise of polarized and precarious employment systems in the United States, 1970s-2000s. Russell Sage Foundation.
- Kalleberg, A. (2018). Precarious lives: Job insecurity and well-being in rich democracies. Polity.
- Kalleberg, A. L. (2009). Precarious work, insecure workers: Employment relations in transition. American Sociological Review, 74(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240907400101
- Kearney, M. S., & Wilson, R. (2018). Male earnings, marriageable men, and nonmarital fertility: Evidence from the fracking boom. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 100(4), 678–690. https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_00739
- Killewald, A. (2016). Money, work, and marital stability: Assessing change in the gendered determinants of divorce. American Sociological Review, 81(4), 696–719. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122416655340
- Krippner, G. R. (2005). The financialization of the American economy. Socio-Economic Review, 3(2), 173–208. https://doi.org/10.1093/SER/mwi008
10.1093/SER/mwi008 Google Scholar
- Krueger, A. B. (2017). Where have all the workers gone?: An inquiry into the decline of the U.S. Labor force participation rate. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 2017(2), 1–87. https://doi.org/10.1353/eca.2017.0012
- Landivar, L. C. (2017). Mothers at work: Who opts out?: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
10.1515/9781626376472 Google Scholar
- Lane, C. M. (2011). A company of one: Insecurity, independence, and the new world of white-collar unemployment. ILR Press.
10.7591/cornell/9780801449642.001.0001 Google Scholar
- A. Lareau, & D. Conley (Eds.). (2008). Social class: How does it work? The Russell Sage Foundation.
- Lopez, S. H., & Phillips, L. A. (2019). Unemployed: White-Collar job searching after the great recession. Work and Occupations, 46(4), 470–510. https://doi.org/10.1177/0730888419852379
- Madgavkar, A., White, O., Krishnan, M., Mahajan, D., & Azcue, X. (2020). COVID-19 and gender equality: Countering the regressive effects. McKinsey & Company.
- McArthur, D., & Reeves, A. (2019). The rhetoric of recessions: How British newspapers talk about the poor when unemployment rises, 1896–2000. Sociology, 53(6), 1005–1025.
10.1177/0038038519838752 Google Scholar
- Mendenhall, R., Ariel Kalil, A., Spindel, L. J., & Hart, C. M. D. (2008). Job loss at mid-life: Managers and executives face the new risk economy. Social Forces, 87(1), 185–209.
- Mischel, E. (2016). Discrimination against queer women in the U.S. Workforce: A résumé audit study. Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, 2, 1–13.
- Misra, J. (2021). The intersectionality of precarity. Contemporary Sociology, 50(2), 104–108. https://doi.org/10.1177/0094306121991073a
- Mize, T. (2016). Sexual orientation in the labor market. American Sociological Review, 81(6), 1132–1160.
- Nelson, M. K. (2010). Parenting out of control: Anxious parents in uncertain times. New York University Press.
- Newman, K. S. (1999). Falling from grace: Downward mobility in the age of affluence. University of California Press.
- Norris, D. R. (2016). Job loss, identity, and mental health. Rutgers University Press.
10.36019/9780813573823 Google Scholar
- Osnowitz, D. (2010). Freelancing expertise: Contract professionals in the new economy. Cornell University Press.
10.7591/9780801460388 Google Scholar
- Pager, D. (2003). The mark of a criminal record. American Journal of Sociology, 108(5), 937–975.
- Pedulla, D. (2018). How race and unemployment shape labor market opportunities: Additive, amplified, or muted effects? Social Forces, 96(4), 1477–1506.
- Pfeffer, C. A. (2016). Queering families: The postmodern partnership of cisgender women and transgender men. Oxford University Press.
- Pugh, A. (2015). The tumbleweed society: Working and caring in an age of insecurity. Oxford University Press.
- Pugh, A. J. (2018). Parenting in an insecure age: Class, gender and the flexible child. Sociologica: Italian Journal of Sociology, 12(3), 11–24.
- Quadlin, N. (2018). The mark of a woman's record: Gender and academic performance in hiring. American Sociological Review, 83(2), 331–360.
- Rao, A. H. (2017). Stand by your man: Wives’ emotion work during men's unemployment. Journal of Marriage and Family, 79(3), 636–656.
- Rao, A. H. (2020a). Crunch time: How married couples Confront unemployment. University of California Press.
- Rao, A. H. (2020b). From professionals to professional mothers: How college-educated married mothers experience unemployment in the US. Work, Employment & Society, 34(2), 299–316. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017019887334
- Rao, A. H. (2021). The ideal job-seeker norm: Unemployment and marital privileges in the professional middle-class. Journal of Marriage and Family, 83(4), 1038–1057. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12748
- Rao, A. H. (Forthcoming). Gendered interpretations of job loss and subsequent professional pathways. Gender & Society.
- Rao, A. H., & Neely, M. T. (2019). What's love got to do with it? Passion and inequality in white-collar work. Sociology Compass, 13(12), e12744. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12744
- Ravenelle, A. J. (2019). Hustle and gig: Struggling and surviving in the sharing economy. University of California Press.
10.2307/j.ctvcwp0kc Google Scholar
- Rivera, L. A., & Tilcsik, A. (2016). Class Advantage, commitment penalty: The gendered effect of social class signals in an elite labor market. American Sociological Review, 81(6), 1097–1131.
- Robinson, B. A. (2020). Coming out to the streets. University of California Press.
10.2307/j.ctv182js8v Google Scholar
- Rosenblatt, A. (2019). Uberland: How algorithms are rewriting the rules of work. University of California Press.
10.1525/9780520970632 Google Scholar
- Schor, J. (2020). After the gig: How the sharing economy got hijacked and how to win it back. University of California Press.
- Sharone, O. (2013). Flawed system/flawed self: Job searching and unemployment experiences. University of Chicago Press.
10.7208/chicago/9780226073675.001.0001 Google Scholar
- Sheehan, P. (2019). The unemployment rate is not a fact. public seminar. https://publicseminar.org/essays/the-unemployment-rate-is-not-a-fact/
- Sheehan, P. (2021). Unemployment experts: Governing the job search in the new economy. Work and Occupations, 07308884211003652. https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884211003652
- Smith, S. S. (2005). ‘Don’t put my name on it’: Social capital activation and job-finding assistance among the Black urban poor. American Journal of Sociology, 111(1), 1–57. https://doi.org/10.1086/428814
- Smith, S. S. (2010). A test of sincerity: How Black and latino service workers make decisions about making referrals. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 629(1), 30–52. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716210366532
- Smith, V. (2001). Crossing the great divide: Worker risk and opportunity in the new economy. ILR Press.
- Stone, P. (2007). Opting out?: Why women really quit careers and head home. University of California Press.
10.1525/9780520941793 Google Scholar
- Stone, P., & Lovejoy, M. (2019). Opting back in: What really happens when mothers go back to work. University of California Press.
- Streib, J. (2020). How the privileged fall. Contexts, 19(2), 28–33. https://doi.org/10.1177/1536504220920191
10.1177/1536504220920191 Google Scholar
- Thompson, D. (2009). It's not just a recession It's a mancession! The Atlantic. July 9.
- Townsend, N. W. (2002). The package deal: Marriage, work, and fatherhood in men's lives. Temple University Press.
- Villalobos, A. (2014). Motherload: Making it all better in insecure times. University of California Press.
10.1525/9780520959729 Google Scholar
- Wiertz, D., & Lim, C. (2019). The civic footprints of labor market participation: Longitudinal evidence from the United States, 2002–2015. Social Forces, 97(4), 1757–1784. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soy108
- Williams, C. L. (2019). The deserving professional: Job insecurity and gender inequality in the oil and gas industry. Labour & Industry: A Journal of the Social and Economic Relations of Work, 29(2), 199–212. https://doi.org/10.1080/10301763.2019.1600856
- Wingfield, A. H. (2009). Racializing the glass escalator: Reconsidering men's experiences with women's work. Gender & Society, 23(1), 5–26.
- Wingfield, A. H. (2010). Are some emotions marked ‘whites only’? Racialized feeling rules in professional workplaces. Social Problems, 57(2), 251–268. https://doi.org/10.1525/sp.2010.57.2.251
- Young, C. (2012). Losing a job: The nonpecuniary cost of unemployment in the United States. Social Forces, 91, 609–634. https://doi.org/10.2307/23361103