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ERIC Number: ED477484
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2000-Feb
Pages: 24
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Social, Spatial, and Skill Mismatch among Immigrants and Native-Born Workers in Los Angeles. Working Paper.
Pastor, Manuel, Jr.; Marcelli, Enrico A.
Racially different economic outcomes stem from multiple causes, including various "mismatches" between minority employees and available jobs. A skill mismatch occurs when individuals' education and job skills do not qualify them for existing jobs. A spatial mismatch means that people live far from the work for which they qualify. A social mismatch refers to the practice of finding jobs through social networks; when friends and family are not well-connected to good jobs, one's chances of finding a good job decrease. This paper explores how these mismatches determine labor market outcomes, particularly wage impacts, in Los Angeles County for different racial groups and for immigrant versus native-born workers. Data on male workers were drawn from the Los Angeles Survey of Urban Inequality, census responses for Public Use Microdata Areas (PUMAs), and a unique dataset on job location and composition in southern California. The results indicate that all three types of mismatch matter, but they affect various groups differently. Social network quality mattered most for Anglos. For African Americans, the skill gap was more important than social networks or job growth in the local neighborhood. For recent Latino immigrants, individual characteristics mattered more than spatial or skill mismatches. Individual variables (including English fluency) also played a large role for longer-term immigrant and U.S.-born Latinos, but the skill gap also mattered. Asian Americans were affected by spatial and skill mismatches. (Contains 35 references) (SV)
For full text: http://www.ccis-ucsd.org/PUBLICATIONS/wrkg1.PDF.
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A