The Multidimensional Analysis of Segregation in the Labor Force

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to show that several of the segregation indices presented in previous chapters, especially in Chapter 4, may be extended to the case where one does not have a binary classification (e.g., men versus women for the gender) but where there are three or more categories (e.g., men, married women, non-married women). This generalization will also be relevant to situations where workers are characterized by more than two criteria (e.g., gender, occupation and field of study). We will then prove that even in the multidimensional case it is possible to analyze changes over time in the level of segregation and to determine the impact of changes in the various characteristics of the labor force on the overall level of segregation. The chapter ends by presenting several illustrations based on recent Swiss census data.