Race,ageism and the slide from privileged occupations

The sociological literature on workplace inequality has been relatively clear regarding racial disparities and ongoing vulnerabilities to contemporary structural and employer biases. We still know little, however, about the consequences of age and ageism for minority workers and susceptibilities to downward mobility. Coupling insights regarding race with recent work on employment-based age discrimination, we interrogate in this article African Americans and Whites, aged 55 and older, and the extent to which they experience job loss across time. Our analyses, beyond controlling for key background attributes, distinguish and disaggregate patterns for higher and lower level status managers and professionals and for men and women. Results, derived from data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, reveal unique and significant inequalities. Relative to their White and gender specific counterparts, older African American men and women experience notably higher rates of downward mobility—downward mobility that is not explained by conventional explanations (i.e., human capital credentials, job/labor market characteristics, etc.). Such inequalities are especially pronounced among men and for those initially occupying higher status white-collar managerial and professional jobs compared to technical/skilled professional and blue-collar “first line” supervisors. We tie our results to contemporary concerns regarding ageism in the workplace as well as minority vulnerability. We also suggest an ageism-centered corrective to existing race and labor market scholarship.     

Measuring short-term labor force mobility with the Labor Utilization Framework

Continuing employment growth and declining unemployment rates in the U.S. labor force since 1982 have raised new questions about employment quality and shifts between adequate and marginal employment. In this paper, we use an individual-matched file from the 1986 and 1987 March annual demographic supplements of the Current Population Survey to examine 1-year transitions between labor force states measured with the Labor Utilization Framework (LUF). Short-term shifts between nonparticipation, unemployment, underemployment, and adequate employment—as conceived in the LUF—are characterized here for the first time. Our results suggest that the majority of recent job takers found adequate employment, but that new labor force entrants and the previously unemployed nevertheless experienced rates of involuntary part-time and low-wage employment exceeding rates for the labor force as a whole. Association models reveal wideranging differences in patterns of mobility and immobility across labor force positions. We find that upward transitions are largely counterbalanced by downward transitions, essentially yielding a one-to-one exchange of workers between specific pairs of labor force states. The analysis also indicates similarity across sex and race groups in patterns of mobility and only small differences in immobility. Mobility and immobility largely serve to reproduce from year-to-year existing sex and race inequalities in the labor force.     

The skill-divide in job quality: A cross-national analysis of 28 countries

This study focuses on the skill divide in job quality and the role of social institutions in structuring the relation of workers’ qualifications to the attributes of their jobs. Four measures of job quality are examined: job security, job achievement, job content and work schedule flexibility. The study is based on the 2005 ISSP module on work orientations and encompasses 28 countries. Obtained through multilevel modeling, the findings show that low-skilled workers are disadvantaged in all aspects of job quality. However, skill inequality in the quality of employment depends on countries’ characteristics, with declining inequality in countries at higher levels of technological development and to some extent also in times of technological growth. At times of high unemployment, skill disparities in job security widen while on other measures of job quality they decline. Under high market regulation, the low skilled enjoy better job security but on other measures, skill inequalities increase.     

Enduring an Economic Crisis: The Effect of Macroeconomic Shocks on Intragenerational Mobility in Japan

After the burst of its "bubble" economy in 1989, Japan experienced an astonishingly long economic recession whose gravity surpassed any seen in the industrialized world since the 1930s. While this recession is likely to have important consequences on the well-known workplace arrangements and career mobility patterns in that country, systematic analyses of such consequences are nearly absent. This study examines changes in the rates and directions of job mobility in Japan using work history data collected in 2005 from a nationally representative sample of men and women. I find evidence that Japanese firms have largely retained the core elements of the permanent employment system. The norm that stresses men's loyalty to their employers, however, appears to have weakened, resulting in higher voluntary job turnover among male workers. In addition, the gender gap in lifetime mobility processes has narrowed, but not because Japanese women have gained opportunities in the workplace. Rather, economic stagnation has led to greater fluctuations in employment and wages over men's life course, thereby closing the gender gap. Beyond illustrating the changing stratification process in Japan, the findings have general implications for understanding how economic crises impact employment relations, institutional transformations, and social change in advanced industrialized countries.     

影响外来务工人员就业偏好选择的作用机理

在中国城镇化进程加快和经济转型的背景下,外来务工人员这个特殊群体的就业偏好已经成为重要的社会经济现象。本文通过分析外来务工人员就业偏好的演变过程及其影响因素,探索影响外来务工人员就业偏好的作用机理。重点研究外来务工人员就业偏好演变中的制度影响因素、企业影响因素、个人影响因素。研究发现:在宏观制度层面,户籍制度、就业与分配制度、社会保障制度、住房教育制度等对于就业的偏好具有负面的影响;在企业层面,企业需求、劳动强度、用工制度、薪酬分配等左右着外来务工人员的就业选择;在个人层面,年龄、外出就业年限、人力资本水平等因素主导着外来务工人员的就业偏好。应该针对这些影响因素,采取相应措施,促进外来务工人员提高就业质量和就业稳定性。     

Competing for jobs: Labor queues and gender sorting in the hiring process

While much research has documented the pattern and extent of sex segregation of workers once they are employed, few studies have addressed the pre-hire mechanisms that are posited to produce sex segregation in employment. While the notion of a labor queue—the rank order of the set of people that employers choose among—plays a prominent role in pre-hire accounts of job sex sorting mechanisms, few studies have examined the ways in which job candidates are sorted into labor queues. In this paper, we explore the mechanisms by which labor queues contribute to the gendering of jobs by studying the hiring process for all jobs at a call center. Being placed in a queue has a clear gendering effect on the hiring process: the sex distribution of applicants who are matched to queues and those who are rejected at this phase diverge, and among those assigned to queues, women are prevalent in queues for low pay, low status jobs. The screening process also contributes to the gendering of the population of hires at this firm. Females are more prevalent among hires than they are among candidates at initial queue assignment. Among high status jobs, however, males are more prevalent than females. Moreover, there are important wage implications associated with matching to queues. While there are large between-queue sex differences in the paid wages associated with allocation to queues, once allocated to queues the wage differences between male and female candidates are nil. Consequently, the roots of gender wage inequality in this setting lie in the initial sorting of candidates to labor queues.     

Gender Inequality and Economic Growth in Rural China

This article joins the debate over the effect of market-driven economic development on women's work opportunities and household gender inequalities. It assesses women's opportunities for off-farm employment, the relative contributions of female off-farm workers to household income, and the distribution of power in families whose male members have left for off-farm jobs, leaving women behind in agricultural work. We find that women are not uniformly excluded from opportunities for off-farm employment and that economic development does not uniformly increase gender inequalities within Chinese households. Although men are more likely than women to obtain off-farm employment in China, women's opportunities for off-farm work improve significantly when the coexistence of local and regional marketization creates a shortage of male workers and compels employers to hire women. The relative size of contributions to household income for male and female nonfarm workers also narrows incrementally with increased marketization. In addition, women who are left in agricultural work are more likely to become heads of household, a position which brings greater household decision-making power to female family members.     

社区矫正对象的社会关系支持网络分析——以上海市某三个街道为例

以上海市某三个街道的实地调研资料为基础,对社区矫正对象的社会关系支持网络的特征与类型进行分析,可以发现社工是矫正对象社会关系支持的首要来源,特别在矫正对象的求职过程中,社工起到了非常重要的作用。     

高校大学生就业困难原因分析与对策研究

随着就业压力增大,就业竞争越来越激烈,就业问题越来越受到人们的关注和重视。了解就业思想,把握就业方向,掌握就业动态,改善就业条件,缓解就业压力,解决就业难题,分析就业困难的原因,查找就业矛盾的重心,提高就业质量,是高校工作的重中之重,也是国家经济建设的重要任务之一。     

当代中国转型社会新生代农民工的基本问题

从改革开放至今,随着农村劳动力开始大规模地向城市转移,农民工内部也出现了代际变化,新生代农民工逐渐成为农民工的主体,并在我国社会主义转型过程中发挥着重要的作用。与父辈们不同,他们希望能更好地融人城市,享受与城市居民一样的就业、保险、医疗、教育等方面的平等待遇。因此,本文从新生代农民工的特点出发,寻找出其利益诉求的新变化及困境,从而探索由国家、政府、企业、个人、社会团体所共同组建的多方权益保障机制,切实维护新生代农民工的合法权益。     

Training in two-tier labor markets: The role of job match quality

This study examines training investments in two-tier labor markets, focusing on the role of job match quality. Temporary workers are in general more likely than permanent workers to leave their employer and therefore are less likely to receive employer-funded training. However, as firms prefer to continue productive job matches, we hypothesize that the negative effect of holding a temporary contract on the probability to be trained diminishes with the quality of the job match. Using a recent longitudinal survey from the Netherlands, we find that temporary workers indeed participate less frequently in firm-sponsored training. However, this effect is fully driven by mismatches: holding a temporary contract does not significantly decrease the probability to receive training for workers in good job matches. Depending on match quality, a temporary job can either be a stepping stone or a dead-end.     

Mothers' work patterns and Children's cognitive achievement: Evidence from the India Human Development survey

As female labor force participation increases globally, the relationship between maternal employment and children's development remains unclear. Using data from the India Human Development Survey (2005), we investigate the link between maternal employment and children's arithmetic and reading achievement. We develop a work pattern typology that goes beyond standard measures of employment and captures work intensity and its compatibility with child-rearing in a transitional economy. We find that the relationship between maternal employment and children's outcomes is not unidimensional. For example, children of self-employed mothers are not disadvantaged compared to those with stay-at-home mothers, but maternal employment in salaried jobs or wage work outside the home is negatively associated with cognitive skills in children. However, this negative association is reversed at higher levels of maternal education, suggesting greater access to resources and flexibility associated with better jobs mitigate the negative aspects of maternal employment posed by time constraints. Additionally, maternal employment is associated with maternal involvement in schoolwork and financial investment in academic activities, providing evidence that both time and resources devoted to children's education are significant.     

《大学生就业指导》课程的建设研究

自1999年高校扩招以来,全国大学毕业生数量在逐年递增,就业形势严峻,就业压力较大,如何解决因毕业生数量增加而带来的就业问题,笔者试图从为大学生开展就业指导课程入手,提高大学生的就业能力,帮助大学生形成良好的择业观念,面对学生对就业指导日益增长的迫切需求,加强《大学生就业指导》课程的建设研究,尽快实现该课程的科学性、有效性和规范性。     

金融危机背景下大龄返乡农民工养老保障模式与政策支撑

金融危机对我国中小型企业产生了巨大影响,企业的经营困难造成了一大批失业返乡的农民工,而其中的大龄农民工面临着更为严峻的困境。如何解决他们养老保障问题成为当今社会关注的热点。对现实生活中大龄返乡农民工养老面临的四大困境分析表明,从国家养老保障政策的支持、社会养老关系网络的构建、充分发挥受保主体的自保能力三个层面来构建金融危机后大龄返乡农民工养老保障的模式．具有一定的现实意义和价值。     

The missing women in STEM? Assessing gender differentials in the factors associated with transition to first jobs

Women remain underrepresented in the STEM workforce. We assess explanations for women's underrepresentation in STEM jobs, focusing on a cohort that came of age in the 1980s and 1990s, when women dramatically increased their representation in the scientific labor force. Data are from the NLSY79, and our analysis focuses on members of this cohort who received a college degree, with an emphasis on those who completed a degree in a STEM field. Our analyses test the extent to which college major, expectations to work in STEM, and family expectations shaped transitions into STEM occupations within two years of degree completion. Among those majoring in STEM fields there were no gender differences in transitioning into STEM jobs, though there were sizable differences in transitions to STEM employment by field of study. Of note are gender differences in associations between family expectations and transitions into STEM employment. The most career oriented women, who expected to marry late and limit fertility, were no more likely to enter STEM jobs than were women who anticipated marrying young and having two or more children. The men most likely to enter STEM occupations, in contrast, adhered to significantly more conventional gender ideologies than their female counterparts, expecting to marry at younger ages but also to remain childless. Results of our regression decomposition indicated that marriage and family expectations and gender ideology worked in opposite directions for men and women. Nonetheless, the majority of the gender disparity in transitions into STEM jobs was related to women's underrepresentation in engineering and computer science fields of study.     

The ‘developmental gradient’ revisited: Australian children's time with adult caregivers from infancy to middle childhood

Children's time use patterns represent a potentially important mechanism for the transmission of disadvantage across generations. Recent international research indicates that more educated mothers tailor the content of time with children to favour activities that are particularly important at different developmental stages – a finding that has been termed the ‘developmental gradient’. Using time diary data for a sample of Australian children, this paper seeks to extend previous work in several ways. We first establish whether a ‘developmental gradient’ exists in Australian children's time with mothers, comparable to the results from international studies. We go further, however, by extending the analysis to consider time investments provided by fathers and other adult caregivers, and examining the importance of resources for explaining the patterns of time use. Consistent with theory, our results indicate that educational gaps in time spent ‘teaching’ are largest in the 4–5 age group, gaps in ‘play’ time with fathers are largest for toddlers (2–3), and gaps in ‘enrichment’ are largest for 6–7 and 8–9. Time with parents appears to be the primary driver of observed patterns of time spent ‘teaching’ and ‘playing’, while for ‘enrichment,’ differences are distributed across caregivers, but largest for non-parent caregivers. These results are not driven by differential access to resources. Our results suggest that the developmental gradient represents a plausible mechanism for the transmission of intergenerational disadvantage in Australia, and that policy responses focussed on better educating parents to understand the developmental needs of their children are likely to be an effective response.     

Sex stratification in the workplace: Male-female differences in economic returns to occupation

Employing data from the 1974–1977 NORC General Social Surveys, I investigate differences in the earnings attainment of currently employed white men and women age 25 to 64. I focus special attention on the explanatory effects of job characteristics other than those traditionally employed in prestige and status-defined earnings models. The results, based on a multivariate regression analysis and a regression standardization procedure, suggest that a nontrivial portion of the earnings gap between men and women is due to women's concentration in jobs which are low-paying and heavily female and because women are less likely than men to exercise authority in their jobs or to control the means of production. Including these factors in an earnings model statistically increases women's earnings as a percentage of men's by over 7%, accounting for approximately 13% of the earnings gap. Net of these job characteristics, gender differences in industry distribution are not substantively important in explaining why women earn less than men, accounting for only 0.4% of the earnings gap. When single women's earnings are adjusted to take account of their occupational concentration, 10% of the male-single female earnings gap is explained, providing preliminary evidence that the job characteristics I specify are not mere proxies for work experience. Including job characteristics as measures of the context of employment thus usefully extends the human capital and prestige or statusdefined models traditionally employed in explanations of the male-female earnings differential.     

转变就业观念 面向基层就业

自1999年高校扩招以来,大学生就业问题日益严峻,面对拥挤的就业市场,大学毕业生应该转变就业观念。进一步树立“到农村去,到基层去,到人民最需要的地方去”的就业意识。这也将为高校毕业生提供很好的就业机会。     

护理专业大学生就业的现实困境及其对策探讨

当前大学生就业竞争日益激烈,就业难问题凸显;医学专业学生特别是护理专业学生源于其专业特征、性别、就业能力及自身就业观等原因,就业形势也日益严峻。笔者结合自身从事护理专业辅导员的工作经历,分析了护理专业学生就业的现状、困境,并从社会、学校、学生自身及辅导员工作方面提出了提升护理学生就业的具体对策。