In the 1990s “new” economy, was downward mobility from high-level white-collar occupations related to race, and if so, what factors explain this relationship? We use Panel Study of Income Dynamics data to explore the effect of race on the incidence and process of downward occupational mobility during the 1990s. Findings indicate that, relative to White workers, African Americans suffered a higher incidence of downward occupational mobility, especially to blue-collar destinations, and the process by which African Americans fell down the occupational queue was less strongly predicted by traditional causal factors such as supply-side characteristics and job/labor market characteristics.
Aronowitz, S., & DiFazio, W. (1994). The jobless future: Sic-tech and the dogma of work. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
2.
Arrow, K. J. (1972). Models of job discrimination. In A. H. Pascal (Ed.), Racial discrimination in economic life (pp. 83-102). Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
3.
Baldi, S., & McBrier, D. B. (1997). Do the determinants of promotion differ for Blacks and Whites? Evidence from the U.S. labor market. Work and Occupations, 24, 478-497.
4.
Balser, D. B. (2002). Agency in organizational inequality: Organizational behavior and individual perceptions of discrimination. Work and Occupations, 29, 137-165.
5.
Baron, J. N., & Bielby, W. T. (1980). Bring the firms back in: Stratification, segmentation, and organization of work. American Sociological Review, 45, 737-765.
6.
Baron, J. N., & Newman, A. (1990). For what it’s worth: Organizations, occupations, and the value of work done by women and non-Whites. American Sociological Review, 55, 155-175.
7.
Becker, G. S. (1957). The economics of discrimination. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
8.
Becker, G. S. (1975). Humancapital: A theoretical and empirical analysis with special reference to education (2nd ed.). New York: Praeger.
9.
Belsey, D. A., Kuh, E., & Welsch, R. E. (1980). Regression diagnostics: Identifying influential data and sources of collinearity. New York: John Wiley.
10.
Blau, P. M., Duncan, O. D. D., & Tyree, A. (1967). The American occupational structure. New York: John Wiley.
11.
Boisjoly, J., Duncan, G. J., & Smeeding, T. (1998). The shifting incidence of involuntary job losses from 1968 to 1992. Industrial Relations, 37(2), 207-231.
12.
Bound, J., & Freeman, R. (1992). What went wrong? The erosion of the relative earnings and employment among young Black men in the 1980s. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 107, 201-232.
13.
Braddock, J. H., & McPartland, J. M. (1987). How minorities continue to be excluded from equal employment opportunities: Research on labor market and institutional barriers. Journal of Social Issues, 43, 5-39.
14.
Brewer, M. B., & Brown, R. J. (1998). Intergroup relations. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (pp. 554-594). New York: McGraw-Hill.
15.
Bridges, W. P., & Villemez, W. J. (1994). The employment relationship: Causes and consequences of modern personnel administration. New York: Plenum.
16.
Brockner, J. (1988). The effects of work layoffs on survivors: Research, theory, and practice. In B. M. Staw & L. L. Cummings (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior (Vol. 10, pp. 213-255). Greenwich, CT: JAI.
17.
Burstein, P. (1985). Discrimination, jobs, and politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
18.
Cappelli, P. (2000). Examining the incidence of downsizing and its effect on establishment performance. In D. Neumark (Ed.), On the job: Is long-term employment a thing of the past? (pp. 463-516). New York: Russell Sage.
19.
Cappelli, P., Bassi, L., Katz, H., Knoke, D., Osterman, P., & Useem, M. (1997). Change at work. New York: Oxford University Press.
20.
Catanzarite, L. (2002). Dynamics of segregation and earnings in brown-collar occupations. Work and Occupations, 29, 300-345.
21.
Cohen, J., & Cohen, P. (1983). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum.
22.
Collins, S. M. (1983). The making of the Black middle class. Social Problems, 30, 369-381.
23.
Collins, S. M. (1989). The marginalization of Black executives. Social Problems, 36, 317-331.
24.
Collins, S. M. (1993). Blacks on the bubble: The vulnerability of Black executives in White corporations. Sociological Quarterly, 34, 429-447.
25.
Collins, S. M. (1997). Black mobility in White corporations: Up the corporate ladder but out on a limb. Social Problems, 44, 55-67.
26.
Davy, J. A., Kinicki, A. J., & Scheck, C. L. (1991). Developing and testing a model of survivor responses to layoffs. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 38, 302-317.
27.
Dwyer, R. E. (2004). Downward earnings mobility after voluntary employer exits. Work and Occupations, 31, 111-139.
28.
Farber, H. S. (1996). The changing face of job loss in the United States, 1981-1993 (Working Paper No. 5596). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.
29.
Farley, R. (1996). The new American reality. New York: Russell Sage.
30.
Farley, R., & Allen, W. R. (1987). The color line and the quality of life in America. New York: Russell Sage.
31.
Feagin, J. R. (1991). The continuing significance of race: Anti-Black discrimination in public places. American Sociological Review, 56, 101-116.
32.
Featherman, D. L., & Hauser, R. M. (1976). Changes in the socioeconomic stratification of the races 1962-1973. American Journal of Sociology, 82, 621-651.
33.
Fernandez, J. (1981). Black managers in White corporations. Lexington, MA: Lexingt on Books.
34.
Fraser, J. A. (2001). White-collar sweatshop: The deterioration of work and its rewards in corporate America. New York: Norton.
35.
Freeman, R., & Holzer, H. (1986). The Black youth unemployment problem. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
36.
Gardner, J. M. (1995). Worker displacement: A decade of change. Monthly Labor Review, 118, 45-57.
37.
Glass Ceiling Commission. (1995). Good for business: Making full use of the nation’s human capital. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
38.
Grunberg, L., Anderson-Connolly, R., & Greenberg, E. S. (2000). Surviving layoffs: The effects of organizational commitment and job performance. Work and Occupations, 27, 7-31.
39.
Hanisch, K. A. (1999). Job loss and unemployment research from 1994 to 1998: A review and recommendations for research and intervention. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 55, 188-220.
40.
Hatch, J., & Clinton, A. (2000). Job growth in the 1990s: A retrospect. Monthly Labor Review, 123(12), 3-18.
41.
Heckscher, C. (1995). White-collar blues: Management loyalties in an age of corporate restructuring. New York: Basic Books.
42.
Hill, M. (1992). The Panel Study of Income Dynamics: A user’s guide. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
43.
Hipple, S. (1999). Worker displacement in the mid-1990s. Monthly Labor Review, 22(7),15-32.
44.
Hirsch, P. M. (1993). Undoing the managerial revolution? Needed research on the decline of middle management and internal labor markets. In R. Swedberg (Ed.), Explorations in economic sociology (pp. 145-157). New York: Russell Sage.
45.
Horton, H. D. (1995). Population change and the employment status of college educated Blacks. Research in Race and Ethnic Relations, 8, 99-114.
46.
Hout, M. (1988). More universalism, less structural mobility: The American occupational structure in the 1980s. American Journal of Sociology, 93, 1358-1400.
47.
Huff-Stevens, A. (1997). Persistent effects of job displacement: The importance of multiple job losses. Journal of Labor Economics, 15, 165-188.
48.
Jaynes, G. D., & Williams, R. M. (1989). A common destiny: Blacks and American society. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
49.
Kanter, R. M. (1977). Men and women of the corporation. New York: Basic Books.
50.
Kaufman, R. L. (1986). The impact of industrial and occupational structure on Black-White employment allocation. American Sociological Review, 51, 310-323.
51.
King, M. C. (1998). Are African Americans losing their footholds in better jobs?Journal of Economic Issues, 32, 641-668.
52.
Kluegel, J. (1978). The causes and cost of racial exclusion from job authority. American Sociological Review, 43, 285-301.
53.
Landry, B. (1987). The new Black middle class. Berkeley: University of California Press.
54.
Lieberson, S. (1980). A piece of the pie. Berkeley: University of California Press.
55.
Long, J. S. (1997). Regression models for categorical and limited dependent variables. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
56.
Mar, D., & Ong, P. M. (1994). Race and rehiring in the high-tech industry. Review of the Black Political Economy, 21(Winter), 43-53.
57.
Massey, D., & Denton, N. (1987). Residential segregation among Whites, Hispanics, African Americans and Asians: Trends by socioeconomic status. Social Science Quarterly, 24, 797-808.
58.
Maume, D. J. (1999). Glass ceilings and glass escalators. Work and Occupations, 26, 483-509.
59.
McGuire, G. M. (2000). Gender, race, ethnicity, and networks: The factors affecting the status of employees’ network members. Work and Occupations, 27, 501-523.
60.
Miech, R. A., Eaton, W., & Liang, K.-Y. (2003). Occupational status over the life course: A comparison of occupational trajectories across race and gender during the 1980s and 1990s. Work and Occupations, 30, 440-473.
61.
Mishel, L., Bernstein, J., & Schmitt, J. (1999). The state of working America, 1998-1999. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
62.
Moore, T. S. (1992). Racial differences in postdisplacement joblessness. Social Science Quarterly, 73, 674-689.
63.
Mueller, C., Parcel, T., & Tanaka, K. (1989). Particularism in authority outcomes: The case of supervisors. Social Science Research, 32, 1-20.
64.
Mueller, C., Wallace, J., & Price, J. (1992). Employee commitment: Resolving some issues. Work and Occupations, 19, 211-236.
65.
Murphey, D. D. (1998). An economic paradox? Displacement and polarization in a booming economy. Journal of Social, Political, and Economic Studies, 24(3), 349-371.
66.
Neumark, D., Polsky, D., & Hansen, D. (2000). Has job stability declined yet? New evidence for the 1990s. In D. Neumark (Ed.), On the job: Is long-term employment a thing of the past? (pp. 70-110). New York: Russell Sage.
67.
Newman, K. (1988). Falling from grace: The experience of downward mobility in the American middle class. New York: Vintage Books.
68.
O’Connor, A. (2001). Understanding inequality in the late twentieth century metropolis: New perspectives on the enduring racial divide. In A. O’Connor, L. Bobo, & C. Tilly (Eds.), Urban inequality (pp. 1-34). New York: Russell Sage.
69.
Parcel, T., & Mueller, C. (1983). Ascription and labor markets. New York: Academic Press.
70.
Pettigrew, T. F., & Martin, J. (1987). Shaping the organizational context for Black American inclusion. Journal of Social Issues, 43, 41-78.
71.
Portes, A., & Bach, R. (1985). Latin journey. Berkeley: University of California Press.
72.
Portes, A., & Manning, R. (1986). The immigrant enclave: Theory and empirical examples. In S. Olzak & J. Nagel (Eds.), Competitive ethnic relations (pp. 47-66). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
73.
Reskin, B. F. (2000). The proximate causes of discrimination. Contemporary Sociology, 29, 319-328.
74.
Reskin, B. F. (2003). Including mechanisms in our models of ascriptive inequality. American Sociological Review, 68, 1-21.
75.
Reskin, B. F., & McBrier, D. B. (2000). Why not ascription? Organizations’ employment of male and female managers. American Sociological Review, 65, 210-233.
76.
Reskin, B. F., & Roos, P. F. (1990). Job queues, gender queues. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
77.
Rose, S. J. (1993). Declining family incomes in the 1980s: New evidence from longitudinal data. Challenge, 36, 29-36.
78.
Rose, S. J. (1996). The truth about social mobility. Challenge, 39, 4-8.
79.
Smith, B. T., & Rubin, B. A. (1997). From displacement to reemployment: Job acquisition in the flexible economy. Social Science Research, 26, 282-308.
80.
Smith, P. (1994). Downward mobility: Is it a growing problem?American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 53, 57-72.
81.
Smith, R. A. (2001). Particularism in control over monetary resources at work. Work and Occupations, 28, 447-468.
82.
Smith, V. (1997). New forms of work organization. Annual Review of Sociology, 23, 315-339.
83.
Smith, V. (2001). Crossing the great divide: Worker risk and opportunity in the new economy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
84.
Spalter-Roth, R., & Deitch, C. (1999). I don’t feel right sized: I feel out sized: Gender, race, ethnicity, and the unequal costs of displacement. Work and Occupations, 26, 446-482.
85.
Stevens, D. J. (1991). Managerial versus blue-collar unemployment. International Review of Modern Sociology, 21, 45-62.
86.
Stewart, J. (2000). Did job security decline in the 1990s? In D. Neumark (Ed.), On the job: Is long-term employment a thing of the past? (pp. 257-299). New York: Russell Sage.
87.
Strobel, F. R. (1993). Upward dreams, downward mobility: The economic decline of the American middle class. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
88.
Swim, J. K., & Sanna, L. J. (1996). He’s skilled, she’s lucky: A meta-analysis of observers’ attributions for women’s and men’s successes and failures. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 507-519.
89.
Thomas, M. E. (1995). Race, class, and occupation: An analysis of Black and White earning differences for professional and non-professional males, 1940-1990. Research in Race and Ethnic Relations, 8, 139-156.
90.
Tsui, A. S., & O’Reilly, C. A. (1989). Beyond simple demographic effects: The importance of relational demography in superior-subordinate dyads. Academy of Management Journal, 32, 402-423.
91.
Tsui, A. S., Xin, K. R., & Egan, T. D. (1995). Relational demography: The missing link in vertical dyad linkage. In S. E. Jackson & M. N. Ruderman (Eds.), Diversity in work teams: Research paradigms for a changing workplace (pp. 97-129). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
92.
Valian, V. (1998). Why so slow? The advancement of women. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
93.
Vallas, S. P. (2003). Rediscovering the color line within work organizations: The “knitting of racial groups” revisited. Work and Occupations, 30, 379-400.
94.
Waldinger, R. (1996). Still the promised city: African Americans and immigrants in post-industrial New York. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
95.
Wallace, M., & Rothschild, J. (1988). Plant closing, capital flight, and worker dislocation: The long shadow of deindustrialization. Research in Politics and Society, 3, 1-36.
96.
Williams, C. L. (1992). The glass escalator: Hidden advantages for men in the “female” professions. Social Problems, 39, 253-266.
97.
Wilson, F. H. (1995). Rising tide or ebb tide? Recent changes in the Black middle class in the U.S., 1980-1990. Research in Race and Ethnic Relations, 8, 21-56.
98.
Wilson, G. (1997). Pathways to power: Racial differences in the determinants of job authority. Social Problems, 44, 38-54.
99.
Wilson, G., Sakura-Lemessy, I., & West, J. P. (1999). Reaching the top: Racial differences in mobility path to upper-tier occupations. Work and Occupations, 26, 165-186.
100.
Wilson, W. J. (1978). The declining significance of race. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
101.
Zwerling, C., & Silver, H. (1992). Race and job dismissals in a federal bureaucracy. American Sociological Review, 57, 651-660.
