The Mobility of Professional Workers and Fair Hiring

Sheldon E. Haber

ILR Review, 1981, vol. 34, issue 2, 257-264

Abstract: In Title VII cases involving hiring discrimination, local area data are generally used to determine the composition of the labor pool available to a firm, but national data are employed for professional workers because their labor market is assumed to be nationwide. This study analyzes data from the 1970 Census Public Use Sample to determine spatial mobility by occupation. A model is formulated which takes spatial mobility into account in estimating the proportion that blacks were expected to comprise of the labor pool available to employers in New York City and Philadelphia. When the model's estimates are compared with the data on the actual patterns of employment and mobility, the results show that not only are local area data less appropriate for professionals than for blue-collar workers but national data can also be misleading when applied to professionals. The author concludes that the proportion of blacks among professionals available to a firm often lies somewhere between the estimates derived from local and national data.

Date: 1981
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:34:y:1981:i:2:p:257-264

DOI: 10.1177/001979398103400207

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