The Labour Market Dynamics of Households. Eyes Down for a Full House.

Author: Jonathan Wadsworth (Royal Holloway University of London) • Paul Gregg (Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics)
Posted: 14 October 2026

Abstract

Little is known about the dynamic factors that shape movements in household labour market stocks. Expanding on the literature used to analyse individual labour market flows, we apply and extend dynamic techniques to the study of changes in household labour market states. The methodology allows us to assess the contribution of different household sub-groups to household dynamics and facilitates an assessment of the role of changing household populations and the roles of sorting and dependence. We apply this framework to compare individual and household labour market transition flows in the UK. The relative contributions of these inflows and outflows in explaining changes in labour market stocks differs across cycles, across household types and across individual and household levels of aggregation.
JEL codes: J2, J6
Keywords: Employment, Households, Labour Market Dynamics