Marginal Workers, Marginal Jobs: The Underutilization of American Workers

246 Pages·1978·28.509 MB·English

by  Teresa A. Sullivan

Marginal Workers, Marginal Jobs
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Marginal Workers,
Marginal Jobs
The Underutilization of American Workers
by Teresa A. Sullivan
Foreword by Philip M. Hauser
University of Texas Press Austin
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Sullivan, Teresa Α., 1949-
Marginal workers, marginal jobs.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Underemployment—United States. I. Title.
HD5716.2.U5S94 331.1'1'0973 77-26727
ISBN O-292-75038-2
Copyright © 1978 by the University of Texas Press
All rights reserved
For reasons of economy and speed, the tables and charts in this
volume were printed from camera-ready copy provided by the
author.
For Mary Elizabeth Finnegan Sullivan,
my Mother
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Contents
Foreword xi
Preface xiii
1. Approaching Labor Underutilization and Labor Marginality 3
2. Who Are the Marginal Workers? 13
3. How Do You Measure Underutilization? 25
4. Data, Methods, and Time Effects 45
5. The Idiosyncrasy Hypothesis: Employment of the Disabled 57
6. The Discrimination Hypothesis: Age 73
7. The Discrimination Hypothesis: Race and Sex 91
8. The Discrimination Hypothesis: Interactions 114
9. The Achievement Hypothesis: Effects of Training 135
10. The Structural Hypothesis: Marginal Jobs 147
11. Conclusions and Recommendations 161
APPENDICES
A. Data Adequacy and Methods 175
B. Measuring Involuntary Part-time Employment 181
C. Measuring Underutilization by Level of Income 184
D. Measuring Mismatch 188
Notes 199
Bibliography 215
Index 227
Tables
3. 1. Detailed comparison of target populations (population at
risk) in eight underutiüzation indices 36
4.1. Civilian labor force by type of industry and type of utiliza-
tion, 1960 and 1970 52
4.2. Odds-ratios for year and utilization by sector 55
4.3. Selected economic indicators for 1960 and 1970 55
5.1. Physically disabled persons by race, sex, labor force status,
and degree of disability, 1970 62
5.2. Total and full-time civilian labor force by disability status
and labor utilization, 1970 64
5.3. Civilian and partially disabled labor force in 1970 and dis-
abled labor force in 1961-62, by occupation 67
5.4. Percent distributions of experienced civilian labor force and
disabled labor force by sex and educational attainment,
1970 67
6.1. Civilian labor force by age and type of utilization, 1970 76
6.2. Decomposition of age-specific labor force participation
rates, 1970 78
6.3. Underutilization and unemployment rates, standardized for
labor force participation rates and labor force age structure 84
6.4. Mismatch rates standardized by education distribution,
1970 88
7.1. Labor force participation rates by color, 1940-70, with
decomposition of rates for adequacy of utilization in
1960-70 94
7.2. Civilian nonagricultural labor force by color and type of
utilization, 1960 and 1970 96
7.3. Labor force by color, education level, and education-
specific underutilization of full-time workers, 1970 100
7.4. Occupational distribution by color, with underutilization
rates for full-time labor force, 1960 and 1970 104
7.5. Nonagricultural labor force by sex and utilization, 1960
and 1970 106
7.6. Labor force by sex, education level, and education-specific
underutilization of full-time workers, 1970 108
7.7. Occupational distribution by sex, with underutilization
rates for full-time labor force, 1960 and 1970 112
8. 1. Nonagricultural civilian labor force by color, sex, and type
of utilization, 1960 and 1970 116
8.2. Analysis of variation in odds pertaining to variable U in
four-way contingency table 120
8.3. Odds-ratios for race, sex, and utilization 122
8.4. Civilian labor force by age, race, sex, and utilization, 1970 124
8.5. Analysis of three-factor and four-factor interactions by
backward elimination 131
8.6. Odds-ratios for race, sex, age, and utilization 132
9.1. Completed years of schooling by utilization categories, full-
time civilian labor force, 1960 and 1970 138
9.2. Cumulative percent distribution of completed years of
schooling by color and sex, full-time civilian labor force,
1960 and 1970 142
9.3. Actual and standardized partial full-time utilization rates,
1970 144
10.1. Civilian labor force by sector, sex, and type of utilization,
1970 150
10.2. Analysis of the variations in table 10.1 by backward elimina-
tion 152
10.3. Civilian labor force by utilization type and major occupa-
tional group, 1970 154
10.4. Full-time underutilized workers in major occupational
groups, 1960 and 1970 156
10.5. Underutilization categories by class of worker, 1960 and
1970 158
A. 1. Approximate standard error of percentages based on
estimate of the civilian labor force, by variable, for 1970 data 177
D.1. Occupations in which females are a majority but in which
the female median may lead to an overstatement of male
mismatch (1970) 192