1 WORKERS ’ RECALL EXPECTATIONS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR WORKER PROFILING

Temporary layoffs are an important feature of the U.S. labor market. The importance of recalls highlights the relevance of employer-employee relationships. To avoid breaking valuable job matches, the profiling model for targeting claimants for services in the new Worker Profiling and Re-employment Services (WPRS) systems excludes claimants who have a specific date of recall or are members of unions using hiring halls. However, many laid-off workers who do not have a definite recall date expect to be rehired by their former employers. This paper reviews the empirical facts about laid-off workers. Then, using the Displaced Workers Supplement to the Current Population Survey, it presents new evidence that laid-off workers have longer unemployment spells than observationally similar workers who are less likely to expect to be recalled. The paper then explores the policy implications of this differential search behavior between workers expecting to be recalled and those not expecting to be recalled and concludes by presenting an alternative profiling model