Income in the Off-Season: Household Adaptation to Yearly Work Interruptions

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) John Coglianese, Federal Reserve Board; Brendan M. Price

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
  replication 10/03/2025 06:45:PM

Project Citation: 

Coglianese, John, and Price, Brendan M. Income in the Off-Season: Household Adaptation to Yearly Work Interruptions. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-10-06. https://doi.org/10.3886/E238636V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary Joblessness is highly seasonal. To analyze how households adapt to seasonal joblessness, we introduce a measure of seasonal work interruptions premised on the idea that a seasonal worker will tend to exit employment around the same time each year. We show that an excess share of prime-age US workers experience recurrent separations spaced exactly 12 months apart. Examining workers most prone to seasonal work interruptions, we find that they incur large earnings losses during the off-season that are little offset by other sources of income. On net, household income falls by about $0.80 for each $1.00 lost in own earnings.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms seasonality; seasonal employment; job loss; household income; household labor dynamics; unemployment; unemployment insurance
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage United States
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 1984 – 2013
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) observational data; survey data


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V1 [2025-10-06]

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