Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Job displacement and reemployment in North Carolina: The relative experience of the black worker

  • Articles
  • Published:
The Review of Black Political Economy

Abstract

This article examines the unemployment experiences of workers in North Carolina involved in mass layoffs and plant closings, focusing on the differential impacts between black and white workers. The results of this research not only support earlier findings but also suggest that blacks are laid off in numbers disproportionate to their membership in the labor force. Several different explanations for this result are examined and attempts made to control for several of these factors, such as industry and occupational differences. However, even after controlling for such factors, evidence of differential treatment continues to persist.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aho, C. Michael and James A. Orr. 1981. “Trade-Sensitive Employment: Who are the Affected Workers?” Monthly Labor Review (February): 29–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bergman, Barbara R. 1971. “The Effect on White Incomes of Discrimination in Employment.” Journal of Political Economy, 79, (2): 294–313.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blau, Francine D. and John W. Graham. 1990. “Black-White Differences in Wealth and Asset Composition.” Quarterly Journal of Economics (May): 321–339.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bureau of the Census. 1990. United States Department of Commerce, “North Carolina Summary Tape Files-1990.”

  • Bureau of the Census. 1990. United States Department of Commerce. “Public Use Microdata Sample-1990.”

  • Cherry, Robert and Pamela Mobilia. 1993. “Trends in Various Dissimilarity Indexes.” Review of Radical Political Economics, 25 (3): 93–103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Devins, Richard M. Jr., 1986. “Displaced Workers: One Year Later.” Monthly Labor Review (July): 40–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldsmith, Arthur H., Jonathan R. Veum, and William Darity, Jr. 1995. “Are Being Unemployed and Being Out of the Labor Force Distinct States?” Journal of Economic Psychology, 16: 275–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goldsmith, Arthur H. and William Darity, Jr. 1992. “Social Psychology, Unemployment Exposure and Equilibrium Unemployment.” Journal of Economic Psychology, 13: 449–471.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamermesh, Daniel S. 1989. “What Do We Know About Worker Displacement in the U.S.?” Industrial Relations (Winter): 51–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, Mary C. 1995. “Human Capital and Black Women's Occupational Mobility.” Industrial Relations, 34 (2): 282–296.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kletzer, Lori G. 1991. “Job Displacement, 1979–86: How Blacks Fared Relative to Whites.” Monthly Labor Review (July): 17–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malveaux, Julianne. 1984. “Theoretical Explanations of the Persistence of Racial Unemployment Differentials.” In Labor Economics: Modern Views, ed. W.A. Darity, 91–118. Boston: Nijhoff Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neal, Derek A. and William R. Johnson. 1996. “The Role of Premarket Factors in Black-White Wage Differences.” Journal of Political Economy, 104, (5): 869–895.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oliver, Melvin L. and Thomas M. Shapiro. 1989. “Race and Wealth.” Review of Black Political Economy (Spring): 5–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Podgursky, Michael and Paul Swaim. 1987. “Duration of Joblessness Following Displacement.” Industrial Relations (Fall): 213–226.

  • Podgursky, Michael and Paul Swaim. 1987. “Job Displacement and Earnings Loss: Evidence from the Displaced Worker Survey.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review (October): 17–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Project on Unemployment Associated with Plant Mass-Layoffs and Plant Closings. North Carolina State Employment Security Commission, Raleigh, N.C.

  • Ruhm, Christopher J. 1989. “Labor Market Discrimination in the United States.” In Affirmative Action in Perspective, ed. F.A. Blanchard and F.J. Crosby, 149–58. New York: Springer-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, Alan J. 1994. “Local Labor Market Conditions, the Expiration of Unemployment Benefits and the Reemployment of Displaced Workers: The Case of Mass Displacement in North Carolina.” Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Download references

Authors
  1. Alfred J. Field
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. William R. Winfrey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

The authors wish to thank William Darity, Jr., for his helpful comments throughout the project and also to acknowledge the helpful suggestions of several anonymous referees.

About this article

Cite this article

Field, A.J., Winfrey, W.R. Job displacement and reemployment in North Carolina: The relative experience of the black worker. Rev Black Polit Econ 25, 57–75 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12114-997-1003-3

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12114-997-1003-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation