Rising Black Unemployment: Changes in Job Stability or in Employability?

1994 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 55-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. V. Lee Badgett
Keyword(s):  
Population Survey ◽  
Equal Employment Opportunity ◽  
Black Workers ◽  
Job Stability ◽  
Current Population Survey Data ◽  
Unemployment Rates ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Employment Probabilities ◽  
Job Instability ◽  
Black Unemployment

This article analyzes the effects of changes in flows into and out of unemployment on the growing gap between black and white unemployment rates in the 1970s and 1980s. Current Population Survey data show that black workers’ unemployment inflows increased, suggesting that job instability increased. Declining employment opportunities were also implicated, as black workers left unemployment for a job less often in 1987 than in 1971. White women's situation improved considerably, with lower inflows and higher employment probabilities. Although the effects of declining federal equal employment opportunity (EEO) pressure cannot be detected, these findings are consistent with increasing racial discrimination.

Racial Differences in Men's Unemployment

ILR Review ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 451-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie S. Stratton
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Racial Differences ◽  
Labor Force Participation ◽  
Educational Level ◽  
Population Survey ◽  
Probability Function ◽  
White Men ◽  
Current Population Survey Data ◽  
Labor Market Conditions ◽  
Black And White

The author uses March 1990 Current Population Survey data to investigate the reasons for the long-standing gap between the unemployment levels of black and white men (which were about 11.8% and 4.8%, respectively, in 1990). An employment probability function that controls for labor force participation is estimated separately by race. The results indicate that only 20–40% of the differential can be explained by variables other than race that are typically associated with unemployment, such as educational level and local labor market conditions. The predicted differential appears to be greatest among younger, less-skilled men.

scholarly journals Is Job Stability Declining in the U.S. Economy?

ILR Review ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth A. Swinnerton ◽  
Howard Wial
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Current Population Survey ◽  
Population Survey ◽  
Retention Rates ◽  
Job Stability ◽  
Current Population Survey Data ◽  
Current Population ◽  
Secular Decline ◽  
The U.S

Using Current Population Survey data, the authors examine changes in job stability during the 1980s. For consecutive four-year periods during 1979–91, they present estimates of four-year retention rates for workers with varying levels of employer-specific seniority. Retention rates of low-seniority workers rose between 1979–83 and 1983–87 but fell between 1983–87 and 1987–91. Retention rates for 1987–91 were typically lower than those for 1979–83, suggesting a secular decline in job stability during the 1980s.

Comparable Worth: Limited Coverage and the Exacerbation of Inequality

ILR Review ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert S. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Current Population Survey ◽  
Population Survey ◽  
Comparable Worth ◽  
Current Population Survey Data ◽  
Judicial Decisions ◽  
Current Population ◽  
Limited Coverage

Citing relevant judicial decisions, the author argues that any application of the comparable worth remedy for gender discrimination is likely to cover only certain groups of workers. Most likely to be covered are women who work for governmental or large private employers in female-dominated jobs, and least likely to be covered are women who work for small private employers. The implementation of comparable worth would cause the wages of noncovered workers to fall relative to those of covered workers, and they might even fall absolutely. An analysis of 1979 Current Population Survey data suggests that the women most likely to gain from comparable worth are fewer in number, better paid, and subjected to no greater discrimination than the women most likely to lose.

scholarly journals The Earnings Gap between Black and White Workers in Canada: Evidence from the 2006 Census

2011 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 324-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gervan Fearon ◽  
Steven Wald
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Occupational Segregation ◽  
Wage Discrimination ◽  
Occupational Attainment ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Black Workers ◽  
Decomposition Approach ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Earnings Gap ◽  
White Workers

This paper investigates the earnings gap between Black and White workers in the Canadian economy using 2006 Canadian Census data. Several studies have examined visible minority earnings in Canada (e.g., Hou and Coulombe, 2010; Pendakur and Pendakur, 2011; Yap and Konrad, 2009). Recent research consistently finds that Black workers face one of the largest earnings gaps amongst ethnic groups in Canada (Pendakur and Pendakur, 2002, 2007; Hou and Coulombe, 2010). Nonetheless, the literature lacks an investigation of the combined impact of wage discrimination and occupational segregation on the earnings gap faced by Black workers in the Canadian labour market. Howland and Sakellariou (1993) as well as Hou and Coulombe (2010) highlighted the importance of occupational attainment differences in labour market outcomes. Consequently, this research suggests the need for occupational attainment to be incorporated into models investigating earnings gaps. We address the gap in the literature by utilizing the decomposition method developed by Brown, Moon and Zoloth (1980). This BMZ method extends the traditional earnings decomposition methods advanced by Blinder (1973) and Oaxaca (1973) by also identifying the role played by occupational differences. Specifically, the BMZ method estimates the portion of the earnings gap attributable to differences in productive endowments and to unexplained factors (i.e., the traditional decomposition approach) as well as extending the traditional approach by providing a calculation of the portion of the earnings gap explained by occupational attainment differences. The study finds that approximately one-fifth of the Black-White earnings gap (equaling $2,600) can be attributed to productivity-related endowment differences. Furthermore, the remaining four-fifths of the earnings gap (equaling $9,800) is attributable at the upper-bound level to occupational segregation and wage discrimination. In aggregate, the estimates of occupational segregation and wage discrimination translate into annual earnings losses of approximately $1.5 billion for full-time full-year Black workers in the Canadian workforce.

scholarly journals The Racial Wealth Gap and Access to Opportunity Neighborhoods

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Dionissi Aliprantis ◽  
Daniel R. Carroll ◽  
Eric R. Young
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Housing Market ◽  
Unemployment Rates ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Racial Wealth Gap ◽  
Financial Factors ◽  
Lower Socioeconomic ◽  
Housing Costs ◽  
Lower Educational Attainment ◽  
Black Households

Some Black households live in neighborhoods with lower incomes, as well as higher unemployment rates and lower educational attainment, than their own incomes might suggest, and this may impede their economic mobility. We investigate reasons for the neighborhood sorting patterns we observe and find that differences in financial factors such as income, wealth, or housing costs between Black and white households do not explain racial distributions across neighborhoods. Our findings suggest other factors are at work, including discrimination in the housing market, ongoing racial hostility, or preferences by Black households for the strength of social networks or other neighborhood amenities that some lower-socioeconomic locations provide.

The Relative Earnings of Vietnam and Korean-Era Veterans

ILR Review ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 564-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saul Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Marital Status ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Current Population Survey ◽  
Vietnam Veterans ◽  
Population Survey ◽  
Rate Of Return ◽  
Current Population Survey Data ◽  
Work Lives ◽  
Current Population ◽  
Annual Earnings

Using Current Population Survey data for 1967 and 1979, this paper compares the earnings of Vietnam veterans to those of Korean veterans (in both cases, relative to nonveterans) at similar points in their work lives—twelve to sixteen years after their discharge. In both 1967 and 1979, the unadjusted average annual earnings of veterans and nonveterans were similar. But an analysis that controls for such factors as education, age, race, and marital status shows that Vietnam veterans were worse off than their nonveteran contemporaries in that their rate of return per year of education was much lower. By contrast, Korean veterans were economically indistinguishable from nonveterans.

scholarly journals Religious Workers' Density and the Racial Earnings Gap

2016 ◽  
Vol 106 (5) ◽  
pp. 355-359
Author(s):  
Fernando Lozano ◽  
Jessica Shiwen Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Black Workers ◽  
Market Outcomes ◽  
Childhood Exposure ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Earnings Gap ◽  
Percent Increase ◽  
Hispanic Workers ◽  
Sources Of Variation ◽  
White Workers ◽  
The Relationship

We explore differences between Black and White Non-Hispanic workers in the relationship between childhood exposure to religious workers and a worker's labor market outcomes thirty years later. We identify this relationship by exploiting two sources of variation: we use changes in the number of religious workers within states, and we use states' differences by following workers who moved to a different state. Our results suggest that a one percent increase in the number of clergy increases the earnings of Black workers by a range from 0.027 to 0.082 percent relative to the increase in the earnings of White workers.

Black Migration, Northern Cities, and Labor Markets after 1970

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Platt Boustan
Keyword(s):  
Market Competition ◽  
Black Workers ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
The South ◽  
Central Cities ◽  
Black Migration ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Northern Cities ◽  
Blacks And Whites ◽  
American Cities

This concluding chapter examines how the three trends at the heart of this book's story—black migration from the South, the earnings convergence between blacks and whites, and white departures from central cities—have evolved in recent decades. By 1970, black migration from the South slowed, though black and white earnings have not converged further in northern cities. Just as black migration to northern cities tapered off, a new migration of low-skilled workers from Latin America was getting underway. This new migration wave coincided with decreased demand for manufacturing workers in American cities as a result of technological change and globalization. Thus, in recent years, black workers in northern cities have faced new sources of labor market competition, compounded by falling demand for some low-skilled operative and clerical positions, leading wages to stagnate further.

Family Poverty, Unemployment Rates, and AFDC Payments: Trends among Blacks and Whites

1993 ◽  
Vol 74 (9) ◽  
pp. 515-526 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard K. Caputo
Keyword(s):  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Industrial Policy ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Unemployment Rates ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Poor Families ◽  
Blacks And Whites ◽  
American Families

The author examines the relationships among the value of AFDC payments, unemployment rates, and family relationships in black and white poor families between 1973 and 1988. The study found that more American families became poor while AFDC payments were reduced in value, suggesting that reducing AFDC had little effect as a prod to remove American families from poverty. The study also showed that declines in poverty accompanied decreasing unemployment rates throughout the 1980s. The author argues that a more productive approach to addressing poverty revolves less around manipulating AFDC incentives as a means of welfare reform and more around reaffirming government's role in the economy. Industrial policy and welfare reform are discussed.

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