More Jewish, less Jewish: Implications for education and labor force characteristics

Using the new data available from the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey, six factors of Jewishness are distinguished. These aspects of Jewishness are related to education and labor force participation. Jews who are more involved in the Jewish tradition are generally found to be more highly educated and,in some ways more active in the labor force. Involvement In the social aspects of Jewishness is positively related to male labor force participation, although in general Jewishness has a lower effect on male labor force participation than it does on their education. On the other hand, it is involvement in the more personal aspects of Jewishness which is related to women's labor force participation, and this relationship is a negative one. Family roles mediate the effect of Jewishness on female labor force participation. Three of the positive relationships between Jewishness and education are stronger in the younger cohorts than in the older cohorts, which supports our contention that the effect of Jewishness on secular achievement is not dying out in the younger generations.