The role of skilled labor in the modern economy and its importance in explaining trends in wage inequality and productivity has been a focus of a broad strand of research in economics. Labor is an input into production that is very different from capital or materials. One key difference is that...

This dissertation consists of two essays. In the first essay I show that there are substantial differences in unemployment durations and reemployment outcomes for workers coming from different occupations. I argue that this variation can be explained by differences in occupational employment...