Beveridge Curve Shifts Across Countries Since the Great Recession

The paper documents the shift in the Beveridge curve in the United States since the Great Recession. It argues that a decline in quits, the relatively poor performance of the construction sector, and the extension of unemployment insurance benefits have largely driven this shift. The paper then introduces a method to estimate fitted Beveridge curves for other OECD countries for which data on vacancies and employment by job tenure are available. It shows that Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom also experienced rightward shifts in their Beveridge curves. Besides the United States, these are among the countries with the highest house price and construction employment declines in the sample. © 2013 International Monetary Fund.