Targeting occupations for displaced workers: A test in Wisconsin regions

The regional portfolio variance technique and the National Industry-Occupation Employment Matrix are used to identify re-employment options for workers displaced during recession. The technique developed identifies sectors that create jobs during recession in occupations that displaced workers can fill quickly without substantial retraining or migration from the region. The compatibility between the occupations of displaced workers and the jobs created in growing sectors is based on the occupation-changing behavior observed in the Current Population Survey, January 1990, Special Survey of Displaced Workers. The sectors which created the most jobs compatible with the skills of a selected group of displaced workers tended to be in the workers' former major industry group, although sectors with compatible occupations were found in a wide variety of industries.