St. Louis Fed, Report: Labor Force Exiters around Recessions: Who Are They? 

“In this article, I investigate the patterns in labor force transitions of workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic recession and in the Great Recession. I use the panel dimension of the CPS to group workers by their labor force status after four months and follow up on them one year later to see how this status further evolved. I find that in both recessions, workers who left the labor force shortly after their job loss (exiters) tended to be more female, less educated, and older. The age distribution was especially skewed older during the pandemic recession. Another key difference between the two recessions was the persistence of labor force statuses: In the aftermath of the pandemic, people who left the labor force were more likely to come back than in the Great Recession and vice versa. The subsequent employment recoveries depend on the composition of individuals who are out of work as well as their behavior: Measuring and combining these two objects can provide up-to-date indications of where the labor market may go in the short term.”