Trends in job instability and wages for young adult men

Data and measurement problems have complicated the debate over trends in jo b instability in the United States. We compare two cohorts of young white m en from the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS), construct a rigorous measu re of job change, and confirm earlier findings of a significant increase in job instability. We then benchmark the NLS against other main data sets in the field and conduct a thorough attrition analysis. Extending the analysi s to wages, we find that the wage returns to job changing have both decline d and become more unequal for young adults, mirroring trends in their long- term wage growth.