unemployment – Organizations, Occupations and Work

Protasiuk, Ewa. 2026. “The Foundational Role of Legal Status Categories in Stratifying Job Loss Outcomes.” Social Problems. https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spag014

Abstract: Job loss is a common, stratifying experience in the contemporary labor market, but scholars have undertheorized its relationship to a major axis of inequality: legal status. To bridge this gap, this paper uses qualitative data from interviews and participant observation to compare outcomes after job loss among 76 restaurant workers in three different legal status categories (U.S.-born citizens, immigrants who are legally authorized to work, and immigrants without this authorization). Situated amidst a discussion of unemployment regulations and legal status categories as sites of governance and stratification, my findings point to two mechanisms of legal status-based stratification among unemployed workers. First, legal status directly determines eligibility for unemployment relief. Second, legal status divergently shapes interactions with the unemployment relief system due to differing risks of legal violence associated with distinct statuses. I show that, through these mechanisms, legal status stratifies workers’ agency over the timing and conditions of their return to work after job loss. I also discuss gendered patterns within legal status categories. These findings extend the framework of unemployment as a socially stratifying institution, integrate legal status into theories of gender in unemployment stratification, and contribute to literatures on immigrant job loss as well as immigration and stratification.

Author: Ewa Protasiuk is an incoming Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Ofer Sharone is currently serving on the OOW Section Council. Sharone is an Assistant Professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Before joining the faculty at UMass Amherst, he completed his Ph.D. in sociology at UC Berkeley and taught at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He also holds a JD from Harvard Law School and previously practiced international law in San Francisco and Japan.

Sharone’s research focuses on career transitions, work and unemployment. His studies are primarily cross-national comparisons and utilize in-depth interviews and participant observations. His 2013 book, Flawed System/Flawed Self: Job Searching and Unemployment Experiences, compared the job searching and unemployment experiences of white-collar workers in Israel and the United States. The book won the Zelizer Award in Economic Sociology and the Weber Award in Organizations, Occupations and Work.

Sharone is a co-founder of the Institute for Career Transitions, a non-profit organization whose mission is to “generate effective strategies, offer practical support, and increase public understanding of the challenges facing professionals in career transitions.” His current research with the Institute focuses on strategies for supporting long-term unemployed job seekers. This research has received wide attention from national media and led to an invitation from the White House and the Department of Labor to participate in policy discussions on addressing long-term unemployment.

We are grateful to Dr. Sharone for taking the time to answer our questions below.

Continue reading “Meet Your Council: Ofer Sharone” →