Youth Employment and Training Programs The YEDPA Years (1985) / Chapter Skim
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Hispanic Youth in the Labor Market: An analysis of High School and Beyond
Hispanic Youth in the Labor Market: An analysis of High School and Beyond
Pages 410-461
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From page 410... ...
However, differences in population-age profiles cannot explain why Hispanic youths are less successful than white majority youths in the labor market. For example, among those aged 16-19 in 1981, Hispanics had an unemployment rate of 24.1 percent and a civilian labor force participation rate of 46.3 percent compared with 17.3 and 59.0 percent, respectively, for whites and 41.5 and 37.4 percent, respectively, for blacks (National Commission for Employment Policy, 1982:Table l)
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From page 411... ...
Although past research has found that Hispanic youths fare less well than non-Hispanic white youths on many indicators of labor market success (e.g., wages, family income; see Mayers, 1980) , I will focus on two important measures, i.e., labor force participation and unemployment rates.
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From page 412... ...
recommendations for policies to improve the status of Hispanic youths in the labor market. LABOR MARKET STATUS OF HISPANIC YOUTHS As the Hispanic share of the population has increased, the socioeconomic achievement of Hispanics has increasingly become the object of policy discussion (see e.g., National Center for Education Statistics, 1980; National Commission for Employment Policy, 1982~.
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From page 413... ...
Other factors that influence Hispanics' educational attainments may also influence their labor market achievements directly, or indirectly through educational attainment. The most important of these factors is family socioeconomic background (Blau and Duncan, 1967; O
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From page 414... ...
Although there has been very little empirical research on the topic, family background factors have also been cited as important determinants of Hispanic youths' labor market difficulties (National Commission for Employment Policy, 19821. The most important of these background factors is thought to be family income (see, e.g., Aspira, 1976; Briggs et al., 1977~.
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From page 415... ...
Therefore, bilingualism may serve to stimulate intellectual development for abstract reasoning tasks, which should be expressed in higher scholastic achievement. Regarding the labor market, some studies have suggested that bilingualism is a form of human capital that may yield returns in the labor market (Carliner, 1976; Tienda, 1982~.
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From page 416... ...
Although measuring the effects of racial or cultural discrimination in school or in the workplace is extremely difficult, discrimination is often cited as a major reason for Hispanic youths' school and labor market difficulties (see Carter and Segura, 1979; National Commission for Employment Policy, 1982~. In the case of labor market discrimination, inferences have been made on the basis of the different earnings returns to education for whites and Hispanics (National Commission for Employment Policy, 1982~.
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From page 417... ...
Second, because Hispanics were oversampled, the study contains sufficient numbers of Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and Mexican-Americans for separate analyses. This is important because past research has shown that Hispanic subgroups differ in their school and labor market achievement profiles (Newman, 1978; Jaffe et al., 1980; National Center for Education Statistics, 1980; National Commission for Employment Policy, 1982; Nielsen and Fernandez, 1982~.
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From page 418... ...
Independent Variables Corresponding to the discussion in the literature review section, the independent variables are divided into two groups: general and specific. Among the general predictors of labor force and school enrollment status are family socioeconomic background, scholastic performance, demographic variables, and a measure of past labor force involvement.
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From page 419... ...
As measures of scholastic achievement, grades and test scores differ in that grades do not vary across schools, while test scores vary both within and between schools. Three demographic variables are also included as general predictors sex, age, and marital status.
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From page 420... ...
In addition, my experience in past research (Nielsen and Fernandez, 1982; Fernandez and Nielsen, 1984) and in the preliminary stages of these analyses has shown that the pattern of results is the same if one uses the vocabulary test as a measure of English proficiency and the mathematics test as a measure of scholastic achievement, or the vocabulary test with the composite test (i.e., reading, vocabulary, and mathematics)
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From page 421... ...
The pattern for the remaining Hispanic subgroups is the same as that for males: the rate for Puerto Ricans is highest (21.5 percent) , followed by Mexican-Americans (20.8 percent)
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From page 422... ...
However, unlike past research on the adult population that has shown that the labor force participation rate of Puerto Rican females is especially low (Ryscavage and Mellor, 1973; Newman, 1978) and declining (Santana-Cooney, 1979; Santana-Cooney and Warren, 1979; National Commission for Employment Policy, 1982)
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From page 423... ...
. For female students, the variation in labor force participation rates across ethnic subgroups is considerably more than for males (67.3 to 77.7 percent)
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From page 424... ...
424 sit o o Q U)
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From page 426... ...
Since many females dropped out because they were pregnant or getting married (see Borus, 1983) , it is reasonable to expect that many of them chose the rode of homemaker; therefore, they are not counted in traditional definitions of labor force participation.
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From page 428... ...
Table 4 shows seniors' labor force status by postsecondary school attendance, sex, and population subgroup. Here, too, the small sample sizes make inferences concerning the Hispanic subgroups difficult, and caution should be exercised in interpreting differences among the Hispanic subgroups.
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From page 429... ...
Puerto Rican females, who showed the highest labor force participation rate among out-of-school sophomores, had a relatively low rate of participation, i.e., 79.7 percent when followed up two years later. Turning to the unemployment rates for out-of-school males, Hispanics overall have an unemployment rate that is slightly higher than that of whites (18 compared with 14.8 percent)
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From page 432... ...
and are high school graduates rather than high school dropouts. But if we consider youths who are in school from both cohorts, the pattern for labor force participation reverses.
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From page 433... ...
My strategy is to first specify separate models of labor force participations for white and Hispanic sophomores and seniors. Because of the small numbers of Cubans and Puerto Ricans in the sample, the various Hispanic subgroups have been aggregated and dummy variables have been included to distinguish subgroup membership.
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From page 434... ...
Because employment is defined only for those who participate in the labor force, the estimates derived from the logistic regressions for employment are conditional on participation in the labor force. Results Tables 5 and 6 show the number of cases used in the analysis and the means and standard deviations of the independent variables for labor force participation and employment models for white and Hispanic sophomores and seniors.
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From page 435... ...
.47.50.48.50.46.50.44.50 Age15.47.5915.62.7417.43.5717.57.69 Mexican American -- .53.50 Cuban-~.10.30-_.12.33 Puerto Rican -- .10.30 -- .08.27 Other Latin Amer lean-_.27.44__.23.42 Bilingual (1 =yes) .04.20.51.50__.63.48 Proficiency in non-Engli sh Language.06.351.041.12.07.361.341.15 Voca bu lary Test Score50.629.3645.529.1555.189.4749.239.76 Composi be Test Score53.
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From page 436... ...
The independent effects of marital status on labor force participation and school enrollment are similar for whites and Hispanics, even for this very young group. For both whites and Hispanics, having been married decreases the chances of being in the labor force and in school and increases the odds of being in the labor force and out of school as opposed to being in either of the out-of-the-labor-force categories (i.e., the base category and LFP3~.
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From page 438... ...
The last of the general variables, i.e., previous work experience, has similar effects on labor force participation and school enrollment for Hispanics and whites. Those respondents who worked at the time of the base-year survey are less likely to be exclusively in school (see the equations for LFP2)
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From page 439... ...
is often cited as a major reason for Cubans' greater success in school and the labor market (see Nielsen and Fernandez, 1982. 3 However, other variables also explain the dependent variables, and consequently, differences among Hispanic subgroups in labor force participation and school enrollment are the same ones that are important for whites, i.e., scholastic achievement, previous work experience, and marital status.
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From page 440... ...
is likely to make employers' hiring decisions less dependent on productivity-related criteria, employers are probably more likely to pay attention to the effects of past work experience and the characteristics measured by the second set of general predictors, i.e., scholastic achievement. Similar to the pattern of results for labor force participation, past work experience increases the chances of being in the two employed categories (i.e., EMP1 and EMP2)
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From page 441... ...
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From page 442... ...
Labor Force Participation of Seniors Table 9 shows the results of the logistic regressions predicting labor force participation for members of the senior cohort. As mentioned above, the main differences between the senior and sophomore cohorts are that the seniors are, on average, two years older than the
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From page 443... ...
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From page 444... ...
Considering the effects of the other demographic variables, marital status is a strong predictor of labor force participation and postsecondary school enrollment for both whites and Hispanics. Whites who are married are (in order)
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From page 445... ...
On the other hand, proficiency in a non-English language shows some effects for whites, but not for Hispanics. Among whites, better nonEnglish language proficiency increases the chances of combining postsecondary education and labor force participation (LFP1)
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From page 447... ...
Turning to the effects of family socioeconomic background, the effects are similar to those found for labor force participation. Among whites, respondents from more affluent family backgrounds are more likely to be in the two in-school categories of the dependent variable (EMP1 and EMP3)
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From page 448... ...
With a few exceptions, the specific factors of language and familyimmigration history are not consistently related to school and labor market achievements for either Hispanics or whites. The two most important determinants of labor force participation, employment, and school continuation for both white and Hispanic youths are scholastic achievement and previous employment experience.
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From page 449... ...
Many of the respondents answered "Other" to the race question, implying that they view their group as a distinct "race" (Nielsen and Fernandez, 1982:Table 1.3~. Regarding the measurement of the dependent variables (labor force participation, employment, and school enrollment status)
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From page 450... ...
Rather, respondents were asked to provide the names and addresses of the postsecondary schools that they had attended since leaving high school. Those names and addresses were then matched with data on the characteristics of postsecondary educational institutions (the 1982-1983 Institutional Characteristics Survey of HEGIS, Higher Education General Information Survey, collected by the National Center for Education Statistics)
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From page 451... ...
The test composite was then computed by taking the mean of the standardized non-missing reading, vocabulary, and mathematics test scores. Regarding the demographic variables (i.e., age, sex, and marital status)
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From page 452... ...
English proficiency is measured by the student's performance on the base-year standardized vocabulary test. To simplify across-cohort comparisons, the scores used are based on the subset of test items that were identical in the sophomore and senior test batteries.
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From page 453... ...
Aspira 1976 Social Factors in Educational Attainment among Puerto Ricans in U.S. Metropolitan Areas, 1970.
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From page 454... ...
1980b Immigrants' earnings patterns by sex, race, and ethnic groupings. Monthly Labor Review 103~0ctober)
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From page 455... ...
Freeman, Richard, and David Wise, eds. 1982 The Youth Labor Market.
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From page 456... ...
Diaz 1982 Differential Educational Attainment among "At-Risk" Youth: A Case Study of Language Minority Youth of Mexican Descent and Low Socioeconomic Status. Los Alamitos, Calif.: National Center for Bilingual Research.
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From page 457... ...
National Commission for Employment Policy. National Commission for Manpower Policy, ed.
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From page 458... ...
New York: Academic Press. Osterman, Paul 1980 Getting Started: The Youth Labor Market.
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From page 459... ...
Warren 1979 Declining female participation among Puerto Rican New Yorkers: a comparison with native white nonSpanish New Yorkers. Ethnicity 6:281-297.
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From page 460... ...
Labor Market: Comparative , Analyses of Employment and Earnings. Washington, D.C.: U.S.
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From page 461... ...
Wilson, Kenneth L., and Alejandro Portes 1980 Immigrant enclaves: an analysis of the labor market experiences of Cubans in Miami. American Journal of Sociology 86:295-319.
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