ABSTRACT

This chapter presents the local labor market conditions that are hypothesized to influence the relative occupational distribution of women and blacks. It employs the index of dissimilarity from to assess the possible relationship between changes in local conditions and changes in the relative job distribution of women and blacks. The signs on the ordinary least squares estimates will provide an indication of the direction of the association between the percentage change in the local labor market variable and the percentage change in the index of dissimilarity. The coefficients on the percentage change in the white male unemployment rate has the hypothesized sign, as do the coefficients on the percentage change in population and manufacturing employment. It appears that as the white male unemployment rate rises, the occupational attainment of women becomes more dissimilar to that of men.