Work

Race, Self-Selection, and the Job Search Process

Year: 2015

Type: article

Abstract: While existing research has documented persistent barriers facing African-American job seekers, far less research has questioned how job seekers respond to this reality. Do minorities self-select into particular segments of the labor market to avoid discrimination? Such questions have remained unanswered due to the lack of data available on the positions to which job seekers apply. Drawing on two original data sets with application-specific information, we find little evidence that blacks target or avoid particular job types. Rather, blacks cast a wider net in their search than similarly situated whites, including a greater range of occupational categories and characteristics in their pool of job applications. Additionally, we show that perceptions of discrimination are associated with increased search breadth, suggesting that broad search among African-Americans represents an adaptation to labor market discrimination. Together these findings provide novel evidence on the role of race and self-selection in the job search process.

Source: American Journal of Sociology

DOI: 10.1086/681072

Authors: Devah Pager, David S. Pedulla

Institutions: Harvard University, The University of Texas at Austin

Language: English

Topic: Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Reduced inequalities, Decent work and economic growth

Open Access status: green

Funder: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development