Access to and adequacy of income support for displaced workers in the United States

This chapter examines the sources and adequacy of income support available for displaced workers in the United States, with focus on the post-2008 recession period. Initially, unemployment insurance plays a critical role for displaced workers to cushion income losses insofar, the immediate and repeated extension of the relatively short duration of unemployment insurance payments was critical. However, not everyone claims such benefit and of those who do, many exhaust their entitlement. Many of those workers depend on means tested income support which is rather minimal in the United States by international standards. As a consequence, a large share of displaced workers touches poverty at some point at least during a short period.