The Labor Market Consequences of Student Loan Forbearance

We examine the effects of student loan forbearance on job search outcomes. Our experimental setting is the 2020 federal student loan moratorium that provided some borrowers with forbearance by pausing the payments on their student loans. We use data on unemployment insurance claims, payroll records, and credit histories to compare unemployed borrowers who received forbearance to unemployed borrowers who had to continue making payments. We find that the payment pause did not have any economically or statistically significant effects on job search durations or subsequent incomes. Further, we find no heterogeneity in these effects across borrowers’ financial, demographic, or labor market characteristics. This paper was accepted by Camelia Kuhnen, finance. Supplemental Material: The internet appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.04047 .