Stephen Rose is a nonresident fellow at the Urban Institute and a nationally recognized labor economist with over 35 years of experience researching the intersections of education, training, career mobility, and income dynamics. He has authored influential works on economic stratification, including Social Stratification in the United States, now in its seventh edition, and Rebound: Why America Will Emerge Stronger from the Financial Crisis, which examines the causes of the financial crisis and the evolution of the U.S. economy. Rose has developed innovative methods for analyzing long-term income and earnings trends using large-scale longitudinal and cross-sectional data. His recent coauthored report, The Economy Goes to College, highlights the critical role of the high-end service sector—encompassing office work, healthcare, and education—as the primary driver of the postindustrial U.S. economy.
Before joining the Urban Institute, Rose held senior positions at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, Educational Testing Service, the U.S. Department of Labor, the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, the National Commission for Employment Policy, and the Washington State Senate. His expert insights have been featured in major media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. Rose earned his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and his MA and PhD in economics from the City University of New York.