Vacancies,Unemployment,and Black and White Wage Earnings: 1956–1983

Abstract

Utilizing recent developments in the literature on vacancies and unemployment, the effects of changes in the vacancy to unemployment ratio on black and white wage earnings are examined. The primary result argues that black women's wage earnings are less sensitive to changes in the national vacancy to unemployment ratios than white earnings. Another way of interpreting this result is that black women are not experiencing wage gains when new jobs are created. This finding suggests that black women may not experience increases in earnings if the vacancy to unemployment ratio increases in the future.