Of the 18,962 individuals who lost jobs in 1996 and applied for UI, about two-thirds (12,735) were one-time UI claimants and one-third (6,227) were frequent UI claimants. In Part One, we discussed the one-time UI claimants’ re-employment outcomes. In Part Two, we will only focus on frequent UI claimants.

Frequent UI Claimants

As was mentioned, frequent UI claimants filed initial UI claims in at least two years of the three-year time period (1996-1998). Most may be seasonal or short-term workers. Which industries do they come from? Do they follow a seasonal pattern in applying for UI? How were they doing on their re-employment issues and how did their re-employment wages compare to their previous wages? These questions are answered in this article.

Among 6,227 frequent UI claimants in 1996, more than half (3,542 or 56.9%) were seasonal claimants, and the other 43.1 percent (2,685) were non-seasonal claimants. In the analysis that follows, we will examine each segment of frequent claimants separately.

The Figure and Table 1 show the seasonal layoff and UI claims pattern by major industry for the seasonal claimants. The Construction industry dominates seasonal layoffs and contributes more than 40.0 percent to the total of UI seasonal claimants. The second largest contributor was the Services industry with 17.0 percent of seasonal claimants. Manufacturing and Retail Trade followed with 8.6 and 8.0 percent, respectively. The Construction and Services industries, which account for less than one-third of UI covered employment,⁴ generate over half of the UI seasonal claimants.

The first and fourth quarters are the peak time of the seasonal layoff. Over 80.0 percent of seasonal claimants applied for UI during these two quarters. However, the seasonality of claimants varies among industries. The Manufacturing, Mining and Construction industries had the most seasonal layoffs and UI applications in the first quarter (63.6%, 59.3% and 52.3%, respectively). Finance, Insurance, & Real Estate (FIRE) had the most (45.5%) seasonal layoffs in the fourth quarter, but Public Administration peaked in the second and fourth quarters (34.7% and 31.7%, respectively). Previous research found that the majority (58.0%) of Wyoming workers were employed in temporary, seasonal or short-term work.⁵ Our findings provide some information on how the seasonal pattern of claims activity occurs in different industries and at different times of the year. The findings show another, or reciprocal part of the picture of the state labor market. It also can be helpful for UI claims takers in the Department of Employment to understand more about and anticipate the needs of their clients.

Most seasonal claimants (72.3%) were re-employed in the same industry. A little more than half (51.4%) actually returned to the same employer (see Table 2). Some may have a job attachment agreement with their employers at the time of separation.

On the other hand, only 61.0 percent of non-seasonal claimants were re-employed in the same industry and only 34.0 percent returned to the same employer. However, frequent UI claimants who were re-employed in different industries or by different employers consistently had a greater likelihood of receiving lower wages than those who returned to the same industry or to the same employer. This difference was more significant for the seasonal claimants; 43.0 percent of claimants who were re-employed by different employers experienced a pay decrease of more than 10.0 percent. Only 22.3 percent who returned to the same employer experienced this kind of large decrease in earnings. This result suggests that claimants’ working skills and experiences are valued more by the same employer or industry than by a different employer or industry.

The claimants’ ages and the pre-job loss wage levels appeared to be strongly related to their re-employment wage level. This is consistent with the finding in Part One for the one-time UI claimants. Younger people had a greater chance of obtaining a better paying job than older people (see Table 3). Nearly 60.0 percent of claimants who were less than 25 years old were re-employed at a higher wage job (more than 10.0% greater than before), and only a little more than 40.0 percent of claimants who were 45 years of age or older obtained the same wage increase. It is also true, for both seasonal and non-seasonal claimants, that individuals with lower pre-job loss wages had a greater probability of obtaining better paying jobs than those who had a higher previous wage (see Table 4). Almost 65.0 percent of seasonal and non-seasonal claimants in the lowest wage rank (less than $3,000 quarterly) were re-employed at a wage increase of more than 10.0 percent. Less than 20.0 percent of those who earned $9,000 or more quarterly received the same increase in wages. In fact, about 60.0 percent of higher wage level claimants were re-employed with a wage decrease of more than 10.0 percent.

As we reported in Part One, there was a greater percentage of younger UI claimants in the lower wage rank before job losses than older claimants (see Table 5). For example, more than 60.0 percent of those who were 25 years old or younger earned less than $3,000 per quarter, and only about one-third of the claimants in the age groups 35 and older were in the same low wage rank. Younger workers tend to earn lower wages. This may be why they have a greater probability of re-employment at higher wage levels (compared with their previous low pay) than older claimants. It also may indicate that younger claimants and lower wage earners used the UI system to successfully search for jobs.

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, in expectation of its two objectives: partial wage replacement and economic stabilization, Wyoming’s UI system not only provided the temporary partial wage replacements to a total of 6,227 individuals who were classified as frequent UI claimants in 1996, but also contributed in keeping these seasonal, temporary, or short-term workers in the state and stabilizing the labor supply. Nearly 60.0 percent of these 6,227 individuals found higher wage re-employment. The other 40.0 percent were re-employed at a lower wage compared with previous job earnings.

Conclusion

Of the 6,227 frequent UI claimants in 1996, 56.9 percent were seasonal claimants and 43.1 percent were non-seasonal claimants. The first and fourth quarters were the peak time of seasonal layoffs and UI initial claims for most of the industries (47.5% and 31.6% of the total, respectively). A large proportion (71.3%) of seasonal claimants returned to the same industry and over half (51.4%) were rehired by the same employers. Claimants who were re-employed in the same industries or by the same employers had a greater probability of receiving large gains in their wages than those who were hired in different industries or by different employers. Once again, the claimants who were younger or had lower pre-job loss wages had a higher probability of finding better paying jobs than older claimants or those who had higher wages previously.

1 Defining Federal and State Roles in Unemployment Insurance, Advisory Council on Unemployment Compensation, January 1996, pp. 7 and 27.

2 Initial claim: the first application that a newly unemployed worker has to file in order to receive Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits (refer to: “The Uses of Unemployment Insurance Claims Information” in the February 1996 issue of Wyoming Labor Force Trends). Following an initial claim, the Department of Employment determines whether or not an individual is eligible for UI benefits.

3 Wayne M. Gosar, “Wyoming Unemployment Insurance Wage Record Summary Statistics: A New Way to Look at Wyoming,” Wyoming Labor Force Trends, May 1995.

4 Wyoming 1997 Annual Covered Employment and Wages, Research & Planning, Wyoming Department of Employment.

5 Xiaohong (Sherry) Yu, “An Analysis of Wyoming’s Employment Structure and Wage Component - A Survey of Conditions,” Wyoming Labor Force Trends, September 1998.

6 The Nonclassified industry in this research includes most of the reimbursable employers, such as out-of-state employers and Federal agencies. Reimbursable employers do not pay Unemployment Insurance (UI) tax and report the related employment and wage information to the Employment Resources Division. They reimburse the exact amount of UI benefits paid to their unemployed workers by the Department of Employment. As a result, the Employment Resources division does not keep these reimbursable employers’ information (industry classification, county, etc.).

7 Wage change: comparison of the average quarterly wage between the claimants’ re-employment and pre-job loss employment. The 1997 average quarterly wage is defined as re-employment wage and the 1995 average quarterly wage is defined as pre-job loss wage. A claimant’s average quarterly wage in this research is the annual total wage divided by the total number of quarters worked.