Mark Yunger

Mark Yunger’s position as Associate Director of Information Technology at Millenium Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge does not require a Ph.D. But Mark has had a curiosity about employment since earning his master’s degree in industrial organizational psychology that led him to LPS. His master’s thesis examined employee attachment, specifically, what characteristics were related to individuals staying with a company, but he became increasingly interested in the opposite question—what happens to people when they become unemployed and what policy is needed in response. He chose LPS because it was interdisciplinary and would allow him to design a curriculum around his specific policy interests.

Watching many highly educated colleagues in the Cambridge high-tech sector lose their jobs during the dot.com bust, he wondered whether more educated workers were losing their jobs in more recent times. This question ultimately led to his dissertation, The Democratization of Unemployment. Using Current Population Survey data, Mark examined unemployment among people with different levels of education during the last three labor-market recessions. He found no significant difference in percentage point change in unemployment rates among different education groupings. He speculated that a number of factors helped to explain the “democratization of unemployment,” including a change in the business climate, heightened foreign competition, and technology advances.

Mark is planning on submitting his findings to Monthly Labor Review and then working on a more policy-related article to another journal. Right now he is happy in his job, but likes knowing that he has opened up new options with his Ph.D.