Local Labor Market Effects on Immigrant and Black Employment Outcomes

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Dramatic forces of urban change during the last several decades have given rise to new patterns of racial and ethnic inequality. Shifts in the economy such as the expanding service sector and population changes associated with immigration have engendered a polarized labor market sharply ordered by race, place of birth, and gender. However, not all American cities have experienced economic restructuring in the same way, nor have they experienced the same demographic trends. Local labor market institutions differ across cities as well. This research will document and explain patterns of geographic difference in immigrant and native-born Black employment outcomes through an exploration of the effects of economic restructuring (such as a shift from manufacturing to services), demographic change (such as the growing immigrant population), and local labor market institutions (such as policy regulation and unionization). Comparisons will be made across large U.S. cities in order to identify and explain patterns of local difference in racial and ethnic employment outcomes. In addition, this research incorporates information about individual workers and groups in order to adjudicate between the effects of labor market structure and individual and group characteristics in an explanation of differential employment outcomes. Specifically, the research tests the degree to which ethnic resources, such as social capital, provide some workers with advantages in the low-wage labor market and whether the success of these ethnic resources may depend upon local labor market conditions. Methodologically, this research engages a comparative analysis of multiple U.S. metropolitan areas using 1990 and 2000 Census Public-Use Microdata Samples and statistical techniques including hierarchical modeling.Through its examination of local labor market structure on the employment of immigrants and native-born minorities, this project will explain geographic differences in patterns of racial and ethnic inequality and the mechanisms-individual and structural-that generate and sustain this inequality. This project will contribute an explicit geographic perspective to debates regarding the socio-economic impacts of globalization within the U.S. by revealing how processes linked to globalization, such as economic and demographic restructuring, generate change in the low-wage labor market and how these changes differ across U.S. cities for different groups. This project's findings could contribute to policy discussions addressing racial inequality in employment, particularly in the realms of economic and workforce development.