Franklin D. Wilson

Ethnic niching and metropolitan labor markets

Abstract This paper reports the findings of a study of labor market niching involving 100 ethnic groups living in 216 metropolitan areas in 1990. Approximately 14% of the labor force of the 216 metropolitan areas studied was employed in ethnic niches, and 20% are employed in niches in employment sectors with 5000 or more workers. The average percentage in niches was approximately 20% for indigenous minority groups (American Indians, African Americans, Hawaiians, and Puerto Ricans), 8% for European groups, and 31% non-European groups, including those from Latin American, the Caribbean, and Asia. In addition it was found that ethnic groups differ considerably with respect to the types of sectors in which they have niches, and the groups are hieratically ordered with respect to employment sector specialization. Niches in service and blue-collar occupations associated with construction, manufacturing, and consumer market industries are primarily occupied by indigenous minority and non-European groups. Niches in professional/managerial and technical occupations are dominated by European, Middle Eastern, and selected Asian groups. Niche employment tends to be concentrated in fewer industry/occupational sectors and metropolitan areas than is the overall labor force of a group. Although niching appears to be pervasive among some ethnic groups, for individual groups there is considerable discontinuity in the sectors in which niching occurs across metropolitan areas; and few groups have multiple occupational niches within a given industry in one or more metropolitan area. Finally, workers employed in workplace jobs in which the workforce is majority co-ethnic are also likely to work in ethnic niches.

Migration and the Earnings of Hispanic Men.

We investigate the relationship between geographic mobility and the earnings of Hispanic men and white men using the 1980 [U.S.] Public Use Sample. Migration status and labor force participation status are treated as joint selection processes and are incorporated into the earnings models. Despite the distinctive social and residential profiles of Mexican Puerto Rican and Cuban men results show that residence in a concentrated ethnic area deters migration for all groups even though they experience modest earnings penalties....Because much research on the Hispanic population has documented differences according to national origin it is noteworthy that our findings shows similar effects of residence in concentrated ethnic areas on migration probabilities and only trivial effects of migration on earnings for all groups. However consistent with prior research on economic inequality the effects of residence in an area of ethnic concentration and area wage rates on earnings differed among Mexicans Puerto Ricans and Cubans. (EXCERPT)

Race and Unemployment: Labor Market Experiences of Black and White Men, 1968-1988

This article addresses two questions: First, why is Black unemployment persistently higher than White unemployment? Second, how can this fact be reconciled with narrowing Black/White differentials in educational attainment, occupational position, and earnings? We show that the persistent racial gap in unemployment is due to differential access to employment opportunities by region, occupational placement, labor market segmentation by race, and labor market discrimination. Our findings showing that the racial gap in unemployment is greatest for college-educated men and are consistent with the view that Blacks still encounter barriers to employment in the labor market.

Migration and Occupational Mobility: A Research Note

This paper investigates whether migration promotes occupational mobility and whether different types of migrants benefit equally from the migration experience. Results from a lagged regression model of 1970 occupational attainment clearly indicate that recent migrants are substantially more likely to be upwardly occupationally mobile than nonmigrants and, among whites, receive greater returns on educational attainment. Previous migration experiences did not uniformly result in greater mobility among whites, but did among blacks. It is suggested that this racial difference is due to blacks experiencing a substantial increase in opportunities for advancement during the 1965–1970 period.

Migration and the Employment and Wages of Native and Immigrant Workers

This article assesses the association between migration (both international and internal) and the employment status and earnings of young non-college-educated native White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, and immigrant white-collar and blue-collar workers in the United States during the decade from 1980 to 1990. The authors present results that only partly support the claim that internal migrants and immigrants are substitutes for native workers. On one hand, the authors found that migration (flow) was not a major factor associated with the increased joblessness and decreased wages experienced by some native groups during the 1980s, particularly among blue-collar workers. On the other hand, the authors did find that changes in the foreign-born composition of an industrial sector (a measure of immigrant stock) were associated with increased joblessness of native workers and decreased joblessness of immigrant workers.

Components of change in migration and destination-propensity rates for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas: 1935–1980

This article focuses on components of change in out-migration and destination-propensity rates of metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. The results indicate that changes in subgroup-specific rates were the driving force behind the changing patterns between and within these two areas. Composition effects played a secondary role, mainly counteracting the negative impact of changing rates. Although the rate of change in out-migration from metropolitan areas has been reduced and out-migration from nonmetropolitan areas declined during the most recent period, the propensity to select metropolitan areas increased over the period studied. Finally, rate-specific changes vary by age and education, indicating a change in migration’s impact on population composition at origin and destination.

Aspects of Migration in an Advanced Industrial Society

This paper tests the hypothesis that 1935-80 U.S. migration patterns both within and between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas and regions and migrant/nonmigrant educational differences reflect regional changes in socioeconomic development and settlement patterns. Gross migration flows support the mobility transition hypothesis and the idea that developmental changes in metropolitanization structure the context of migration. Since the Great Depression, socioeconomic transformations of the periphery have reduced differences in migration patterns between the periphery and core regions. While migrants still have more education than nonmigrants, their differences vary systematically by regional socioeconomic development. Specifically, migrant/nonmigrant educational differences are (1) similar at origin and destination when both are at similar levels of socioeconomic development; (2) lower at the origin if the origin is higher in socioeconomic development; and (3) higher at the origin if the destination is higher in socioeconomic development.

METROPOLITAN AND NONMETROPOLITAN MIGRATION STREAMS: 1935-1980

Results based on an analysis of migration streams involving the metropolitan and nonmetropolitan sectors and covering a longer time interval than previously possible indicate that efforts to describe changes in the volume of movements connecting these sectors could benefit from greater attention to other related streams as well as existing patterns of population concentration. The metropolitanization process continues but is now being affected substantially by regional redistribution trends. Regional differentials in the size of metropolitan and nonmetropolitan migration streams are declining but are still substantial, so an equilibrium balance between the metropolitan and nonmetropolitan sectors will probably not occur in the immediate future.

Cohort size effects and migration

This article explores whether changes in the size of cohorts entering the labor force affect the propensity to migrate and the socioeconomic circumstances of migrants at destination. The flow of young in-migrants to large SMSAs declined during the 1965–76 period, but the relative socioeconomic standing of migrants at destination was unaffected by either cohort size or regional differentials in economic growth. It is suggested that a significant reduction in the volume of migration among members of the baby boom cohort was the primary adjustment mechanism, hence reducing the need for degrading the opportunities available to migrants.

The prediction of fertility among catholics: A longitudinal analysis

A longitudinal analysis of the reproductive behavior of a sample of Catholics who were participants in the 1965 NFS and reinterviewed in 1969 is reported in this paper. Fertility over the period studied varied systematically with the additional number of children intended in 1965. In addition, this study has documented a predictive role for method of contraception and the experience of premarital pregnancy. Women using less effective methods and those premaritally pregnant had higher fertility over the interval net of controls for other variables in the analysis, including life-cycle stage and 1965 intentions. Surprisingly, the planning status of the last pregnancy before 1965 was not found to have any independent association with subsequent fertility.