Race, Ethnicity and Employment, 1970-1985

Published government statistics and social science research have documented employment trends for the 1960-1980 period. During the 1960s, the percentage of Black, White, and other men who worked full-year (48 or more weeks per year) increased, and the gap between Blacks and Whites, and Whites and others narrowed (Smith and Welch 1986; Sandefur and Pahari 1987). This improvement did not continue in the 1970s, however, and the percentage of Black, White and other men who worked full-year declined while the percentage who worked none at all increased. Further, the gap in the employment of Whites and Blacks increased.Most observers attribute the gains of the 1960s to economic growth and to improvements in the average level of education of minority group members (Smith and Welch 1986). The 1970s, on the other hand, was a period of inflation, recessions, and little growth in jobs. In addition, the ranks of those seeking employment increased with the coming of age of the baby boom generation and the increase in job-seeking among women. This made finding employment much more difficult than it had been during the 1960s. The evidence also suggests that Blacks, because of their over-representation in marginal jobs, were hurt more by the problems of the 1970s than were Whites (Wilson 1987).Most of the research on these trends in employment has concentrated on Blacks and Whites, because these are the two largest racial groups in American society and because data on these groups is more readily available. The limited amount of research on other groups such as Asians, Hispanics, and Native Americans indicates that their experiences diverge from those of both Blacks and Whites (see, for example, Hirschman 1988; Sandefur and Pahari 1987). The purpose of this paper is to examine racial differences in trends in employment more carefully. We address two major questions: (1) Have the racial/ethnic differences in employment increased or declined since 1970? and, (2) Have differences in employment across educational groups increased or declined since 1970

Small Gains for Rural Indians Who Move to Cities

Most American Indians living in urban areas earn more than Indians living in rural areas. But the urban advantage is less than many policymakers and researchers believe, and short-term benefits of moving from a rural to an urban area are insignificant. The higher earnings of urban Indians come more from generally higher wage rates than from enhanced job opportunitie

Friends, Neighbors, and Coworkers at Midlife

with Friends, Neighbors, and Coworkers at Midlife People have always relied on their friends, neighbors, and coworkers as well as family members for social support, but support from outside the family may be increasingly important as high divorce rates persist and high levels of residential mobility continue to take people away from their relatives. Past research suggests that women give and receive more emotional support than do men, but little research has explored gender differences in overall patterns of exchanging social support. We use latent class analysis of data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study to show that there are four major patterns of social support exchange for both men and women at midlife. Three of these patterns—high exchange, emotional support exchange, and low exchange—are very similar for men and women. However, almost half of men can be characterized as low exchangers while almost half of women can be characterized as emotional support exchangers. Around 10 percent of both men and women are high exchangers. Multivariate analyses show that among both men and women, the unmarried are the most likely to be high exchangers after controlling for other factors that might possibly be related to th

Structural Clarity of Interdisciplinary Teams: A Research Note

Previous studies of scientists in formal organizations have stressed the conflict between the scientist's professional needfor autonomy and the organization's needfor an efficient-often bureaucratic-formal structure. In this paper the importance of a clearly articulated formal structure (that need not be bureaucratic) in interdisciplinary research teams is discussed as a necessary condition for the development of adequate communication among team members. The authors argue that without a basic formal structure that is clear to all members, effective interaction and communication will not take place. Findings from a study of one interdisciplinary team are presented as illustrative of the ideas linking clarity offormal team structure, status problems, and interaction and communication within the team.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Changing Numbers, Changing Needs: American Indian Demography and Public Health

The reported population of American Indians and Alaska Natives has grown rapidly over the past 20 years. These changes raise questions for the Indian Health Service and other agencies responsible for serving the American Indian population. How big is the population? What are its health care and insurance needs? This volume presents an up-to-date summary of what is known about the demography of American Indian and Alaska Native population--their age and geographic distributions, household structure, employment, and disability and disease patterns. This information is critical for health care planners who must determine the eligible population for Indian health services and the costs of providing them. The volume will also be of interest to researchers and policymakers concerned about the future characteristics and needs of the American Indian population