"Our estimates suggest that ex-offenders lower overall employment rates as much as 0.8 to 0.9 percentage points; male employment rates, as much as 1.5 to 1.7 percentage points; and those of less-educated men as much as 6.1 to 6.9 percentage points. These employment losses hit ex-offenders hardest, but also impose a substantial cost on the U.S. economy in the form of lost output of goods and services. In GDP terms, we estimate that in 2008 these employment losses cost the country $57 to $65 billion per year."

Source

Schmitt, John; Warner, Kris and Gupta, Sarika, "Ex-offenders and the Labor Market," Center for Economic and Policy Research (Washington, DC: November 2010), p. 14.
http://www.cepr.net/documents…