Harry J. Holzer

Demand Shifts, Population Adjustments, and Labor Market Outcomes During the 1980s

In this article we explore the effects of labor demand shifts and population adjustments across metropolitan areas on the employment and earnings of various demographic groups during the 1980s. We find that population shifts across areas at least partially offset the effects of these demand shifts, but less‐educated workers showed substantially lower population adjustments in response to these demand shifts. These limited supply responses apparently contributed importantly to relatively greater deterioration of employment and earnings of these groups in declining areas during the 1980s.

PERCEIVED CRIMINALITY, CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECKS, AND THE RACIAL HIRING PRACTICES OF EMPLOYERS*

In this paper, we analyze the effect of employer‐initiated criminal background checks on the likelihood that employers hire African Americans. We find that employers who check criminal backgrounds are more likely to hire African American workers, especially men. This effect is stronger among those employers who report an aversion to hiring those with criminal records than among those who do not. We also find similar effects of employer aversion to ex‐offenders and their tendency to check backgrounds on their willingness to hire other stigmatized workers, such as those with gaps in their employment history. These results suggest that, in the absence of criminal background checks, some employers discriminate statistically against black men and/or those with weak employment records. Such discrimination appears to contribute substantially to observed employment and earnings gaps between white and black young men.

Are training subsidies for firms effective? The Michigan experience

This paper explores the effects of a state-financed training grant program for manufacturing firms in Michigan. Using a three-year panel of data from a unique survey of firms that applied for these grants, the authors estimate the effects of receipt of a grant on total hours of training in the firm and the product scrap rate. They find that receipt of these grants is associated with a large and significant, though one-time, increase in training hours, and with a more lasting reduction in scrap rates.

Customer Discrimination and Employment Outcomes for Minority Workers

This paper investigates the effects of customer discrimination on the employment and earnings of minorities, particularly blacks. Data are used from a new survey of employers in four large metropolitan areas in the United States. Our results show that the racial composition of an establishments customers has sizable effects on the race of who gets hired, particularly in jobs that involve direct contact with customers and in sales or service occupations. Race of customers also affects wages, with employees in establishments that have mostly black customers earning less than those in establishments with mostly white customers.

Industrial Shifts, Skills Levels, and the Labor Market for White and Black Males

In this paper we estimate the effects of industrial shifts in the 1970s and 1980s on the wages and employment of black and white males. We use micro Census data for 52 MSAs, and estimate effects separately by age and education group. The results show that industrial shifts did reduce demand for blacks and 1essskilled males in 1970s and 1980s. Demand shifts away from manufacturing, in particular, reduced employment and wages for black and white males. While the magnitudes of these effects are fairly small for many groups, they can account for one-third to one-half of the employment decline for less-educated young blacks in the 1970s. These results imply fairly large effects on the earnings of less-skilled males in the 1980s as well.

Job Queues and Wages

This paper uses job applications data to investigate the relationship between job queues and wage differentials. The main finding is that openings for jobs that pay the minimum wage attract more job applicants than jobs that pay either slightly more or slightly less than the minimum wage. This spike in the job application rate distribution suggests that ex ante rents generated for employees by an above market-level minimum wage are not completely dissipated by reductions in nonwage benefits. In addition, we find that highly unionized firms, large firms, and firms in high-wage industries tend to receive relatively many job applicants for openings.

JOB SEARCH BY EMPLOYED AND UNEMPLOYED YOUTH

Analysis of data from the New Youth Cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey yields evidence that young unemployed job seekers chose higher levels of search effort (as measured by number of methods used and time spent per method) and lower reservation wages (relative to offered wages) than did comparable employed job seekers in 1981. These differences in search choices at least partly explain differences in search outcomes between the two groups: unemployed searchers apparently were more likely than employed searchers to gain new employment, and the wages they obtained were slightly lower. The author argues that the greater search effort by unemployed job seekers is due to the higher costs of search they bear because of foregone earnings.

Within cities and suburbs: Racial residential concentration and the spatial distribution of employment opportunities across sub-metropolitan areas

This article examines and compares the spatial distributions of new jobs and people across sub-metropolitan areas for Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, and Los Angeles. The jobs data come from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality and the data on people come from the U.S. Bureau of the Census. The results indicate that less-educated people, public assistance recipients, and especially poor females with children mostly reside in areas heavily populated by minorities where the availability of less-skilled jobs is quite low, while the availability of these jobs relative to less-educated people in suburban areas heavily populated by whites is high. Large fractions of the less-skilled jobs in these metropolitan areas are not accessible by public transit. Furthermore, there is significant variation within both central cities and suburbs in the ethnic composition of residents and in less-skilled job availability. The ability of various minority groups to gain employment in each area depends heavily on the ethnic composition of the particular area.

Black Job Applicants and the Hiring Officer's Race:

Recent studies have consistently found that in the United States, black job applicants are hired at a greater rate by establishments with black hiring agents than by those with white hiring agents. The results of this examination of data from the 1992–94 Multi-City Employer Survey suggest two proximate reasons for this pattern: black hiring agents receive applications from blacks at greater rates than do white hiring agents, and they hire a greater proportion of blacks who apply. The authors suggest that moving more blacks into positions with hiring authority within firms might help to alleviate the persistent unemployment difficulties of African Americans.

Job Performance and Retention among Welfare Recipients.

Using data from a recent survey of employers, this article analyzes job performance and retention rates of recently hired welfare recipients. The findings suggest that most recipients perform as well as or better than employees in comparable jobs and that their turnover rates appear fairly low. Still, employers frequently note absenteeism and poor attitudes toward work, problems that are strongly linked to turnover and weak job performance. Various characteristics of the workers, employers, and jobs are associated with performance and retention difficulties among working welfare recipients.