Using data from the 1987 Urban Family Life Survey, this paper examines the work
histories of non-Hispanic white, Mexican and Puerto Rican origin men in the inner-city of
Chicago using the multinominal logistic regression models of job entrance and exit.
Among these men, getting a job has relatively little to do with race or ethnicity, birth
cohort, education, prison records or even marriage. Getting a job is much more
influenced by immigrant status, prior work experience and demand-side conditions.
Moreover, the main influences on the likelihood of leaving a job are not characteristics of
the individuals, but characteristics of the job and fluctuations in the business cycle.
These results show the importance of early and cumulative experience in the
primary segment of the labor market for sustaining employment. They also show that
secondary manufacturing functions not only as port of entry for immigrants, but also as a
“fall-back” position for men who were forced out of jobs in the primary segment, and as a
“step-up” from jobs in secondary services.
Surprisingly, obtaining a job with the help of friends or relatives is not as
beneficial as much of the literature suggests. Men who get a job with such assistance are
much more likely than others to leave it, especially for reasons of job dissatisfaction.
Finally, these results show that Hispanic men respond to increases in the
unemployment rate by being less likely to quit their jobs. They also adapt to structural
changes in the economy by moving into jobs in the growing segments of the labor market,
although they are more likely to end up in jobs at the low end, rather than the high end of
the labor market.
Convention