Day 5:

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Day 5

• Labor Markets

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Part I Household Survey

• What are the contours of labor market inequality
  by race/ethnicity and gender?
• What is novel about the labor market section
  (Section F)?
• What specific topics are covered in the labor
  markets section? (Section F)

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Part I Household Survey (cont.)

• ILLUSTRATION Questions on job search
• SUMMARY Labor market section in household survey

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Part II Employer Survey

• What are the goals of the employer survey?
• What are key issues and solutions in employer
  survey design?
• What data from the employer survey are currently
  available?

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Part II Employer Survey (cont.)

• What topics are covered in the employer survey?
• What shape are the data in?
• SUMMARY The telephone employer survey

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I. What are the contours of labor market
inequality by race/ethnicity and gender?
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Part I

• Household Survey

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II. What is novel about the labor market section
(Section F)?

• Possible link to other dimensions of inequality
• Link to employer survey

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• Questions on
• job search
• race/ethnic composition of supervisor and
  co-workers
• discrimination
• childcare
• social networks (Section H)

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III. What topics are covered in Section F?

• Rs employment background and status
• Job search
• Job characteristics requirements
• Discrimination
• Locus of control
• Job authority
• Co-worker race/ethnicity and gender

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IV. Illustration Questions on Job Search

• Theoretical context Granovetter
• Skip patterns
• Searched for work in past 30 days or
• Searched for work in past 5 years

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F58. When did you last look for work? F58
FLSTSRCH 0 Logical Skip---5 in F6 1 in F9
(Atlanta only) 1 in F57 1 Less than 1 year
ago 2 1-5 years ago Go to F64A 3 6-10
years ago Go to F79 4 11 or more years
ago Go to F83A 5 Never looked for work
Go to F83A 7 Refused 8 Don't
Know 9 Missing
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F64. Please look at this page. Now I would like
to ask you a few questions about how you (last
looked/are looking) for a job. Which of the
following methods (did you use/ are you using) in
your job search? (In your search, (have you/did
you) READ EACH) F64A FSCHFNDS Talk to friends
(and relatives--Detroit) 0 Logical Skip---5 in
F6 1 in F9 (Atlanta only) 3-5 in
F58 1 Yes 5 No 7 Refused 8 Don't
Know 9 Missing
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Labor Market Search Areas (F81)
Detroit Atlanta Boston 1 Downtown Downtown Im
mediate Boston 2 Troy Decatur North Shore 3
Southfield Tri-cities Merrimack Valley 4
Warren Midtown Route 128 5 Downriver
Subs. Marrietta/Smyrna Metro West 6
----- Roswell/Alpharetta South Shore 7
----- Norcross -----
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Labor Market Search Areas, cont.
(F81) L.A. 1 West San Fernando
Valley 2 Westside 3 Downtown Los Angeles 4 South
Bay 5 Harbor/Long Beach 6 Burbank/Glendale 7 Covin
a/Industry
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F81. Here is another map showing THIS
METROPOLITAN AREA. I want to know whether you
have ever looked for work in each of the areas
shown. As I point to each area, please tell me
if you have ever searched for work in that
area. Note For THIS METROPOLITAN AREA
substitute Detroit--"Detroit and some of the
suburbs around Detroit" Atlanta--"Greater
Atlanta Area" Los Angeles--"the LOS ANGELES
AREA" Boston--"the Greater Boston Area." Each
city has a different list of areas, corresponding
to the numbers in the variable. For instance, 1
in Detroit is contained in DESARE1.
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F81A FSCHARE1 AREA (1)?
Det Atl LA Bos Total 0 Logical Skip---5 in
F6 1 in F9 (Atlanta only) 4,5 in F58 3 in
F58 (Altanta, LA, and Boston) 1 in F10A/B
(Atlanta, LA, and Boston) 687 854 2242 810
4593 1 Yes 489 412 409 654 1964 5 No 359 22
1 1368 338 2286 7 Refused 1 0 3 0 4 8 Don't
Know 0 0 2 0 2 9 Missing 7 41 1 18 67 154
3 1528 4025 1820 8916
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V. SUMMARY Labor Market Section in HH Survey

• Skip patterns
• Different subpopulations in different cities
• Missing values
• Over 1/3 of employed respondents did not answer
  question on wages
• Question wording
• Slight differences across cities

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Part II

• Employer Survey

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Total Cases in Employer Survey, By City
LA 1010 Boston 889 Detroit 804
Atlanta 807 Total 3510
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I. What are the goals of the employer survey?

• Test demand-based theories on status of low-wage
  workers
• Skills mismatch
• Spatial mismatch
• Publish major findings
• Provide a matched sample of firms/employers and
  paid workers

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Issues and Solutions in the Employer Survey
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Issue

• Timetable for household survey longer than
  timetable for employer survey
• Sample sample many respondents would not give
  the names of their employers

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Solution

• Supplement household-generated sample with a
  larger random sample of employers
• SSI sample (Holzer)

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Issue

• Holzers employer survey did not use all of the
  employers whose names were generated by the
  household survey
• L.A. and Boston

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Solution

• Go back into the field
• Kirschenman, Moss, Tilly interviewed remaining
  employers derived from household survey

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4. SURVEY The original employer telephone survey
was designed by Harry Holzer. The survey was
later extended using a slightly modified survey
instrument by Kirschenman, Moss, and Tilly (KMT).
This variable differentiates between the two
instruments it was previously called
SURVEY1. LA Bos Det Atl Total 1 KMT
207 90 0 0 297 2 Holzer
803 799 804 807 3213
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6. LINKED This variable describes the method by
which the firm was selected for inclusion in the
survey. The three methods were firms selected
from the SSI directory firms that employed a
respondent to the Detroit Young Adult Survey
(YAS) and firms that employed a respondent to
the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequalitys
household survey (MCSUI). Cases in this latter
category may be linked to the corresponding
observation in the MCSUI household data set,
which is available through ICPSR. Firms in the
first two categories are not linked to MCSUI
households. LA Bos Det Atl Total 1 Not
linked (SSI sample) 678 637 379
512 2206 2 Firm employs YAS respondent 0
0 105 0 105 3 Firm linked to MCSUI
respondent 332 252 320 295 1199
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7. CASEID Identifies the employee in the MCSUI
household file to which an employer is linked.
Valid values (n1179) range from 2 to 8903.
Twenty records were sampled as part of the linked
analysis, but later could not be linked with
their source households (missing links,
below). LA Bos Det Atl Total Valid
MCSUI case IDs 330 243 318 288 1179 0 Not
linked to MCSUI 678 637 484 512 2311 9999
Link missing 2 9 2 7 20
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Employer Survey Table of Contents I. An
introduction to the Multi-City Telephone Employer
Survey II. Codes and Frequencies Notes on
documentation and coding conventions Case, city
sample IDs, weights, interviewer
details Questionnaire Section A
Characteristics of the firm Section B
Vacancies Section C Last person hired
Section D Composition of Current
Workforce III. Appendices A. Derivation of
Sample Weights B. Variables in Numerical Order
C. Variables in Alphabetical Order
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Section C Last person hired

• skill required
• characteristics of new hire
• employer search strategies
• benefits and wages
• typical reasons for dismissal

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IV. What data are available?

• SPSS system file
• STATA system file

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135. C8A KMT Holzer Next, I am going to read
you a list of tasks. For each of them, please
tell me how often the task is performed in this
position. Would you say it is performed daily,
weekly, monthly, or almost never? Talk
face-to-face with customers or clients? LA
Bos Det Atl Total 1 Daily 574 529 512
485 2100 2 Weekly 82 57 64 58
261 3 Monthly 35 19 20 17 91 4
Almost never 314 281 201 245 1041 8 Don't
know / no opinion 4 2 3 2
11 9 Refused / missing 1 1 4
0 6