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Title: Wage Inequality and Labor Market Segmentation: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Study Cohorts
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Morris, Martina Bernhardt, Annette Handcock, Mark S. Scott, Marc A. |
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Wage Inequality and Labor Market Segmentation: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Study Cohorts Working Paper 98-07, Population Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, April 1998. Also: ftp://ftp.pop.psu.edu/papers/psu-pri/wp9807.pdf Cohort(s): NLSY79, Young Men Publisher: Population Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University Keyword(s): Education; Job Training; Job Turnover; Labor Market Segmentation; Marriage; Unions; Wage Growth Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. In this paper, we take up the question of whether there has been a secular rise in job instability among young workers over the past three decades. We compare two NLS cohorts of young white men - the first cohort entering the labor market in the late 60s and throughout the 70s, and the second during the 80s and early 90s. Using longitudinal data on work history and schooling, we find a significant increase in the rate of job changing across the two cohorts. Some of the increase is explained by the trend toward lower marriage rates and longer transitions into the labor market. The economy's shift toward the service sector has also played an important role, although declines in stability have occurred in traditionally unionized industries as well. Together, these factors explain about one-half of the cohort difference. The overall rise in instability has resulted in shorter median tenures. While greater job instability and shorter tenures are not necessarily a bad thing - job changing can be beneficial to wage growth early in the career - we find that young workers in recent years have failed to capture the all-important wage gains that were associated with job changing in the past. This deterioration in wage gains has been felt largely by less educated workers, but inequality in these gains has also increased, for all education groups. In combination, our findings suggest declines in the long-term economic welfare of recent entrants into the labor market. |
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Bibliography Citation
Morris, Martina, Annette Bernhardt, Mark S. Handcock and Marc A. Scott. "Wage Inequality and Labor Market Segmentation: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Study Cohorts." Working Paper 98-07, Population Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, April 1998. |