On the other hand, earlier studies of displacement indicated that 45 to 54-year-old men's job tenure fell 31 percent, from 15.3 to 10.5 years between January 1983 and February 1996. (See http://stats.bls.gov/news.release.tenure.t01.html.) The fact that I'm in this demographic category is of course relevant. But it indicates that a group of workers who used to be characterized by "primary labor market" conditions are losing it.
In addition, comparing two recessions, a study by the Council of Economic Advisors aimed pretty explicitly at debunking the phenomenon of "downsizing" concluded in 1996 that "Displacement rates for older and more educated workers, who had largely been unaccustomed to facing such risk, rose between 1981-2 and 1991-2" despite the relative mildness of the latter recession compared to the former. See http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/EOP/CEA/html/labor.html.
Jim Devine jdevine at popmail.lmu.edu & http://clawww.lmu.edu/Departments/ECON/jdevine.html