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Title: First Job: Its Determinants and Impact on Early Career
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Candido, Alberto Da Costa
First Job: Its Determinants and Impact on Early Career
Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California - Los Angeles, 1983. DAI-A 45/01, p. 145, Jul y1984
Cohort(s): Young Men, Young Women
Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning
Keyword(s): Labor Force Participation; Occupational Status; Socioeconomic Status (SES); Transition, School to Work

This work focused on the experience of young men and young women as they enter into the labor force. As the entry process is a crucial element within the overall process of social stratification, it was examined in the context of stratification research. Such research has drawn upon three theoretical perspectives to guide data collection and analysis. These are functionalism, neo-Weberian conflict perspective, and neo-Marxism. Each perspective leads to distinctive hypotheses regarding the stratification process, and therefore suggests equally distinctive hypotheses regarding entry into the labor force. These hypotheses were tested with sub-samples from the National Longitudinal Studies (NLS) of Labor Market Experience, conducted by the Center for Human Resource Research of the Ohio State University and the U.S. Department of Labor. These sub-samples were composed of young men and women who reported the occupation of their first job defined as that on which they worked at least a month after having left school full-time. The sub-samples were drawn from two samples representative of the national civilian non-institutionalized population aged 14 through 24. The results showed that the assumptions embodied in the functionalist model of determinants of occupational status and earnings are closer to the facts than the assumptions based upon correspondence theory, a neo-Marxist perspective. The basic Blau-Duncan model was successfully replicated. In comparison with the other perspectives, the assumption that the neo-Weberian model would more adequately account for variation in occupational and earnings attainment of respondents was demonstrated. This model further indicated the relevance of factors such as sex, race, and industrial sector in predicting occupational status and earnings. Results suggested that rather than pursuing analysis of status attainment from diverse theoretical perspectives, the appropriate approach is eclectic. Each perspective identified relevant predictors, and these could readily be combined in an eclectic model. However, even such an eclectic model would not be likely to explain more than one half of the variance in occupational status and earnings. There is need for further research directed at both identifying additional predictors and developing more adequate measures of the predictors now in use.
Bibliography Citation
Candido, Alberto Da Costa. First Job: Its Determinants and Impact on Early Career. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California - Los Angeles, 1983. DAI-A 45/01, p. 145, Jul y1984.