The Locus of Racial Disadvantage in the Labor Market

Using a pooled sample constructed from recent installments of the Displaced Workers Survey, this study examines the racial disparities in postdisplacement outcomes while controlling for the predisplacement experience and earnings of individual workers. It finds no racial difference in the reemployment wage, but there is a large racial disparity in the chances of reemployment among workers with equivalent characteristics and experience. This lower reemployment rate of displaced black workers may be due to individual differences in search behavior, but it is also consistent with contemporary accounts of hiring discrimination.