Topic 24: Plant Closings and Retraining

Some Motivating Questions:

1.  Why do employers expand and contract?  What do we call the unemployment that results from this?  To whose benefit is it that displaced workers get retrained?

2.  Is a plant closing a labor demand decision or a labor supply decision?  In light of your answer to this question, what exactly happens when a plant closes?

3.  What have labor economists recently found in research on plant closings?