by Calculated Risk on 8/24/2012 10:13:00 AM

This is an interesting biennial survey that tracks people who lost jobs that they had held for 3+ years ...

From the BLS: Displaced Workers Summary

From January 2009 through December 2011, 6.1 million workers were displaced from jobs they had held for at least 3 years, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This was down from 6.9 million for the survey period covering January 2007 to December 2009. In January 2012, 56 percent of workers displaced from 2009-11 were reemployed, up by 7 percentage points from the prior survey in January 2010.

Some improvement for the previous survey (that included 2008). But, as of January 2012, only 56 percent of these workers had found new employment. And about 1/3 of those who were reemployed, took 20%+ pay cuts. From the survey:

Of the 3.0 million displaced workers who lost full-time wage and salary jobs during the 2009-11 period and were reemployed, 2.4 million had full-time wage and salary jobs in January 2012. Of these reemployed full-time workers who reported earnings on their lost job, 46 percent were earning as much or more in January 2012 as they did at their lost job. About one-third reported earnings losses of 20 percent or more.