Figure 1: Changes in overall job quality by year
Note: This figure presents the shares of overall SHED respondents,
ages 25–54, who reported the specified changes in their job quality
between their job last year to their job this year. Respondents are
placed in four categories: no main job change or changed main job and
new job was worse, the same, or better. Results are unweighted.
The figure plots the share of SHED respondents who reported a job change over the past year broken down into three different groups over time. The three groups are whether there was an increase in job quality, a decrease in job quality, or no change. At all time periods, most people reported an increase in job quality, followed by “no change”, and a small number of people reported a decline in job quality. The total number of job changers peaked in 2022, and has declined linearly since to the same level as 2021.
Figure 2: Share with better job characteristics by year
Note: This figure presents the shares of overall SHED respondents,
ages 25–54, who changed jobs and reported improvements in the specified
characteristic of their job this year relative to their previous job.
Results are unweighted.
The figure plots the share of SHED respondents who reported a job change over the past year broken down into six different groups over time. The six groups are whether there was an increase in overall job quality, pay and benefits, interest in the work, opportunities for advancement, work-life balance, and physical demands. At all time periods, the rank-ordering of these groups from top to bottom was in the order they are listed in the prior sentence. The lines all peaked in 2022, and declined linearly since.
Figure 3: Kernel densities of openings per thousand
(a) Overall sample
(b) By year
Note: This figure presents kernel densities of JOLTS job openings per
thousand residents at the state-year level experienced by the baseline
sample of SHED respondents. The openings are computed using JOLTS
monthly counts from November of the previous year to October of the
survey year, and the population is the count from the Census Bureau in
the survey. Panel (a) presents results averaged across 2021–2024, while
Panel (b) presents results separately by year. Results are unweighted.
We use an Epanechnikov kernel with a bandwidth of \(2\).
This figure presents two kernel densities of JOLTS job openings per thousand residents, both overall and broken down by year to illustrate the variance across states/years. In the figure which breaks down the variation by year, all distributions are roughly bell-shaped, with the 2024 distribution being the furthest to the left, the 2022 distribution the furthest to the right, and 2021/2023 both in the middle.
Figure 4: Kernel densities of postings per thousand
(a) Overall sample
(b) By year
Note: This figure presents kernel densities of Lightcast job postings
per thousand residents, at the state-year level, experienced by the
baseline sample of SHED respondents. The postings are computed using
Lightcast monthly counts from November of the previous year to October
of the survey year and the population is the count from the Census
Bureau in the survey year. Panel (a) presents results averaged across
2021–2024, while Panel (b) presents results separately by year. Results
are unweighted. We use an Epanechnikov kernel with a bandwidth of \(1\).
This figure presents two kernel densities of Lightcast job openings per thousand residents, both overall and broken down by year to illustrate the variance across states/years. In the figure which breaks down the variation by year, all distributions are roughly right-skewed normal distributions, with the 2024 distribution being the furthest to the left, the 2022 distribution the furthest to the right, and 2021/2023 both in the middle.