Insecurity complex: myths of job volatility.

• Author: Howley, Kerry
• Position: Citings - Brief article

AT A JOINT Economic Committee hearing in February, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) claimed that American incomes had become unacceptably volatile, victim to "tectonic shifts" caused by technology and international competition. Schumer asked the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to release hard numbers on individual income inequality.

The requested statistics, released in April, paint a different picture. Using data from the Social Security Administration's Continuous Work History Sample from 1980 to 2003, researchers conducted an analysis of lifetime earning patterns. They find that "since 1980, the trend in year-to-year earnings variability has been roughly flat." The amount of variability in the average individual's income hasn't budged since the 1990s, or even the 1980S.

The lack of a noticeable rupture in the economy does not mean that all workers experience the same amount of instability. Younger workers are more susceptible to swings in income than older ones, and women...