Employer-to-Employer Flows In The United States: Estimates Using Linked Employer-Employee Data

An enormous amount of worker and job reallocation continually takes place in the U.S. economy. For example, Davis, Faberman and Haltiwanger (2006) (hereafter DFH) report that the quarterly job creation and destruction rates each average around 6 to 8 percent of total employment and that accession and separation rates are 2-3 times as large. Job reallocation induces worker reallocation with less profitable firms shedding jobs and thus workers and more productive firms adding them. Much of the observed job reallocation occurs within narrowly defined sectors, so the primary drivers of the continual reallocation of jobs evidently include idiosyncratic shocks to technology, demand and costs.