This is a study of the early labor market careers of black, white, and Hispanic women. Although the growing volume of research about the school-to-work transition based on the experiences of young men has generated several new insights and questioned previous conclusions, many of these new insights will have to be qualified to account for the experiences of women. The overarching objective of this project is to identify the factors conducive to achievement of mature work careers of young women during the 1980s and early 1990s. The 1980s are distinctive in U.S. economic history because they represent a period of rising inequality and increased returns to skills. Educational attainments of men and women have converged during the past three decades and are near parity for many demographic groups. For young adults, gender differences in wages also narrowed. However, race and ethnic differences in education and earnings persisted during the 1980s, and for some groups even widened. This research aims to amplify and re-direct an ongoing program of research on employment experiences of minority populations from its current focus on males toward the early work careers of young women. The study will analyze 15 years of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a nationally representative longitudinal survey which includes oversamples of black and Hispanic youth who were aged 14-21 in 1979. Researchers will characterize the early labor force experiences of black, Hispanic and white women during the 1980s and early 1990s by addressing three general objectives: (1) to document the timing, nature and determinants of young women's early labor market activity, and to evaluate the returns to early experience on subsequent employment and wages; (2) to assess the influence of adolescent employment activity on school continuation decisions of young women; and (3) to document the prevalence, nature, and determinants of labor market instability, and to assess its influence in the achie vement of stable labor market careers during young adulthood. In developing the requisite empirical models, the researchers will pursue a fourth objective that is more methodological in character, namely, (4) to assess the direction and magnitude of bias due to selective sorting and unobserved heterogeneity on the estimates of returns to school and work experience. Hypotheses to be tested suggest that there are moderate to strong linkages between early work careers, school continuation decisions, and later adult labor market outcomes. In particular, (1) adolescent work experiences may have lasting effects on young adult outcomes; (2) under some circumstances (i.e., excessive weekly hours during periods of school enrollment), adolescent employment can truncate educational attainment even as youth accumulate work experience; (3) extremely unstable youth employment experiences that involve frequent visits to jobless states (as opposed to merely frequent job changes) slow the rate of entry to stable employment; and (4) the character and consequences of employment instability differ between men and women. Given the current high levels of women's labor force participation, research on the early careers of women will contribute greatly to our understanding of the American labor market. This project is fundamental research in at least three of the social contexts identified by the Human Capital Initiative: education, workplace, and disadvantage. Thus it will provide information that can improve policy decisions aimed at maximizing the value of the nation's human resources.
