@article {351986,
	title = {Downskilling: Changes in Employer Skill Requirements Over the Business Cycle},
	journal = {Labour Economics},
	volume = {41},
	year = {2016},
	abstract = {
	Using a novel database of 66.8 million online job postings, we show that employer skill requirements\&nbsp;fell as the labor market improved from 2010-2014. We find that a 1 percentage point reduction in the\&nbsp;local unemployment rate is associated with 0.20 percentage point reduction in the fraction of jobsrequiring at least a bachelor{\textquoteright}s degree and a 0.22 percentage point reduction in the fraction requiring 5\&nbsp;or more years of experience. This pattern is established using multiple measures of labor availability,\&nbsp;is bolstered by similar trends along heretofore unmeasured dimensions of skill, and even occurs\&nbsp;within firm-job title pairs. We further confirm the causal effect of labor market tightening on skill\&nbsp;requirements using a natural experiment based on the fracking boom in the U.S. as an exogenous\&nbsp;shock to local labor supply in tradable, non-fracking industries. These industries are not plausibly\&nbsp;affected by local demand shocks or natural gas extraction technology, but still show fewer skill\&nbsp;requirements in response to tighter labor markets. Our results imply this labor-market induced\&nbsp;downskilling reversed much of the cyclical increase in education and experience requirements that\&nbsp;occurred during the Great Recession.

},
	author = {Alicia Sasser Modestino and Daniel Shoag and Joshua Ballance}
}
