The Role of Industry and Occupation in U.S. Unemployment Differentials by Gender, Race and Ethnicity: Recent Trends

Peter Mueser and Marios Michaelides (mariosm@ucy.ac.cy)

No 1010, Working Papers from Department of Economics, University of Missouri

Abstract: We examine how gender, racial, and ethnic variation in unemployment and Unemployment Insurance (UI) receipt changed over time in the U.S. economy and how these changes are influenced by shifts in the occupational and industrial composition of employment. Using Current Population Survey (CPS) data, we confirm that, in the past 50 years, the unemployment rates for women, nonwhites, and Hispanics have been converging to those of the rest of the population. By 1992, women had the same unemployment rates as men; whereas nonwhite and Hispanic rates remained above those for the full population. Yet, once we adjust for industry and occupation differences in employment, women have higher unemployment rates than men, while Hispanics have similar unemployment rates to non-Hispanics. Nonwhites still have appreciably higher unemployment rates than whites. For women, the patterns of UI receipt correspond with unemployment differentials. Nonwhites and Hispanics are less likely to receive UI benefits than their unemployment experience would imply. The analysis also considers how differences in volatility of unemployment are explained by industrial and occupational distributions.

Keywords: Unemployment; Unemployment Insurance; Gender; Race; Ethnicity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J11 J15 J16 J65 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2010-09-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ias and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published in the Eastern Economic Journal (vol. 39, no. 3, Summer 2013), pp. 358 – 386.

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:umc:wpaper:1010

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