Among the study's findings:

The initial pandemic job loss hit older workers harder. The unemployment rate gap emerged at the start of the recession and persisted due to an unequal recovery for older workers.

Between March and April, a higher share of older workers lost their jobs compared to mid-career workers — 10.9 percent of older workers fell into unemployment vs. 8.9 percent of mid-career workers.

Unemployed older works are slower to get rehired. The unemployment gap might have shrunk if, after falling into unemployment at higher rates, unemployed older workers also bounced back at higher rates.

That has not been the case. Between April and September, on average, 28 percent of unemployed older workers found employment each month, compared to 32 percent of mid-career workers. This is consistent with previous research finding that older workers face longer unemployment periods

Older workers continue to lose jobs faster. Older workers continue to lose jobs at a higher rate than their mid-career counterparts. Over the past six months, older employed workers were 17 percent more likely to fall into unemployment than mid-career workers.

Recovery varies by race, sex and education. Since April, older black workers have been 26 percent more likely than white workers to lose their jobs from month to month. However, black workers and white workers faced roughly comparable rates of hiring out of unemployment during the recession.

Older women also faced higher rates of job loss than older men since the beginning of the pandemic, averaging a 38 percent higher likelihood of going from employed to unemployed in any given month.

While unemployed older women returned to work more slowly than older men in the initial months of the recession, since July they have found work again at higher rates.

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