The Impact of Recession on the Distribution of Annual Unemployment in Canada: A Lorenz Curve Study of AWPS Data

We use micro data from the Canadian Annual Work Patterns Survey for 1978, 1980 and 1982 to compare the distributions of the annual unemployment experiences of persons. Whether one groups the unemployed by age and sex or by major region, a smaller fraction of total weeks of unemployed is found in both the upper and lower tails of the distribution when unemployment is higher. We conjecture that in a recession those normally unemployed during a year are unemployed longer but that additional persons become unemployed for periods that are short or moderate length.