Unemployment and Subsequent Wages: Does Gender Matter?

Are there any differences in how men and women fare from unemployment in terms of the wages they receive on a new job? This paper addresses that question using the 1991 wave of the Level of Living Survey. The results suggest that men who experience unemployment will suffer a reduction of subsequent wages while no such effect could be found for women. These findings support the interpretation that women invest more in general rather than specific human capital which make them less exposed to career interruptions, at least those of a short duration. Due to the favourable labour market at the time, average unemployment duration was rather short, which may have prevented general capital from depreciating. However, the presence of large negative occurrence effects for men suggests that unemployment, even of a short duration, is associated with considerable loss of human capital.