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This paper presents an analysis of changes in occupational status and hourly earnings after workers experience a spell of nonemployment, during a period of stable but slow economic growth and a recessionary period. In addition, an effort is made to identify factors associated with changes in occupational status and hourly earnings, including a possible link between changes in these outcome measures. The results indicate only small net differences between the occupational status and hourly earnings of workers observed before and after a period of nonemployment once the characteristics of workers are controlled. Overall, the greatest differences in outcome measures were observed between the 2004 through 2007 and the 2008 through 2011 periods. Workers during the latter period experienced substantial declines in occupational status and hourly earnings, most likely a consequence of the economic upheaval associated with the Great Recession.

This paper analyzes age and cohort changes in the occupational attainment of Blacks and Whites born in successive decades from 1910 to 1979. Occupational attainment is operationalized as "occupational returns to education" and "earnings returns to occupation." The primary objective is to determine whether the relative occupational attainment of Blacks of the baby-boom generation and Generation X improved over that of their great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents. The results indicate that Blacks and Whites, and men and women improved their occupational attainment levels over those of previous birth cohorts. However, neither Black men of the baby-boom generation nor those of Generation X improved their occupational attainment relative to White men of the same age and born in the same decade. Moreover, on a per capita basis, Black men's occupational status declined for the most recent birth cohorts. On the other hand, Black women seem to have improved their occupational status relative to White women, but the improvements fluctuated over the decades. These findings are discussed in relation to possible causes and limitations of this analysis.

This paper reviews and develops summary measures of associations between multiple sets of variables through the application of canonical correlation analysis. These measures are subsequently applied to a specific research problem: a study of the determinants of housing status. Some of the data analysis situations for which canonical correlation is appropriate are also discussed. (Author/DEP)

The determinants of several measures of journey to work for residents of metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas are analyzed and compared based on findings from a national study. Some of the more important issues raised by other researchers are also explored in this paper. The basic concern of this report is whether the journey to work patterns of residents of nonmetropolitan areas are responsive to the same kinds of forces as those that influence the journey to work patterns of residents of metropolitan areas. An argument is developed that shows that journey to work patterns are influenced heavily by the spatial structure of housing markets in relation to the spatial distribution of activities in urban areas, and that differences in the journey to work patterns of nonmetropolitan and metropolitan residents are largely a function of differences in the scale of the respective urban spatial systems. Essential to the discussion is the assertion that as urban spatial systems increase in scale, their morphological structure undergoes successive transformations that result in a redistribution of land activities (including residential activities). The same factors that significantly affect the journey to work pattern of metropolitan residents also affect those of nonmetropolitan residents, although effects vary with respect to size and direction. (Author/AM)

This document reports the findings of a national study of black-white differentials in housing consumption. The main issue is said to be whether blacks pay higher prices and/or consume different residential packages than whites as a result of racial discrimination and segregation. Results indicate that blacks purchase different residential packages and pay different prices for the attributes contained in their respective packages. These differences are considered to result from whites' higher income levels, different housing preferences, and willingness to pay a premium for housing in white neighborhoods. Results of comparisons of blacks living in all black neighborhoods with blacks living in mixed neighborhood indicate that the former purchase smaller quantitities of residential services, but pay higher prices. These differences are seen to result from variations in the elasticity of the supply of housing for black occupancy and from variations in the residential packages consumed. Since this analysis focuses on the outcome of the residential market transaction process, how the results obtained can be translated into policy programs is said to be unclear. (Author/AM)

The widely held proposition that the racial composition of schools is a reflection of the racial composition of residential neighborhoods has been taken for granted. This paper tests the link made between these two by using a data set for selected school districts in California that links pupil enrollment data for public elementary schools to 1970 census data for the population resident in school attendance zones. The first analysis demonstrates a strong but imperfect association between residential segregation and school segregation among school districts that have not implemented extensive desegregation programs. The second analysis explores the complex question of the degree to which the level of ethnic residential segregation among school attendance zones reflects differentials in socioeconomic measures. The third analysis identifies a pattern of Anglo avoidance of minority school children through both outmigration and use of private schooling. The results call for a broader conceptual and empirical analysis of urban demographic change and its relation to schooling. (Author/AM)

Research among black and white males aged 18 to 54 investigated correlations between migration patterns and occupational attainment and earnings. Results indicated that: (1) the propensity to migrate is related to entrance into, exit from, and laterations in occupational careers; (2) there is a positive association between migration and occupational status, but most of this association can be accounted for by the favorable socioeconomic background of migrants; (3) in general, migration is associated with higher occupational attainment, greater returns to education, and an increased earning capacity, but the pattern of the association varies between black and white migrants, and between new and repeat or return migrants; (4) the South has benefited from the population exchange between the South and other areas of the country; and (5) migrants who left the South between 1965 and 1970 had substantially higher earnings than those who remained in the South. (Author/MJL)

The inconsistency in research investigations of the process of white flight is especially evident when social scientists become actors in the legal drama surrounding the desegregation of public schools. Social science "experts" for the contending litigants often present contradictory evidence. The resultant ambiguity allows judges and administrators to dismiss the utility of social science and rely on their own intuition of the social process. It is suggested that many of the empirical ambiguities concerning the causes and magnitude of white flight stem from the narrow policy focus of most recent research. By failing to place the process of white flight in a general theory of urban demographic change, researchers become susceptible to conclusions that encourage a simplistic misidentification of a complex set of behaviors. Extensive reliance on aggregate measures of net change has increased the likelihood of misidentification. The advantages and shortcomings of several methods that permit a richer analysis of trends and determinants of deviations from trends are illustrated by utilizing longitudinal and cross sectional data from American cities. A policy research agenda is suggested, in the hope that a broader perspective will be adopted in future studies of the redistribution of metropolitan population, especially with regard to the role played by desegregation actions. (Author/GC)

Trends in black and white migration differentials (by race, age, education, and region) between 1965 and 1976 are analyzed in this paper. Findings provide further documentation of the increased net flow of populations from the North and East to the South and West regions of the United States. Migration differentials with respect to age increased among blacks and decreased among whites, while migration differentials by educational attainment increased among both racial groups. For the 1965-70 period, the propensity to migrate is associated with employment status. For example, persons who were not in the labor force in 1965 were substantially more likely to migrate. This finding supports the conclusion that migration is associated with entrance into and exit from the labor force. (Author/WAM)

This paper explores the following questions: Does the demand/supply allocation process affect the return migrants receive for their human capital attributes? Specifically, do returns to migration vary across places of destination, and does this variation reflect labor supply and demand differentials and/or other characteristics of places of destination? Analysis of the impact of selected characteristics of destinations on the socioeconomic attainment of migrants, using data for 1970 and changes between 1970 and 1976, reveals that substantial variation exists between Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSA) with respect to annual earnings returns to occupational and educational attainment, and occupational attainment returns to educational attainment. The level of these returns not only declined across the board between 1970 and 1976, but between-SMSA variations increased as well. Analysis also indicates that SMSA differences in socioeconomic returns to migrants, particularly among the college educated, were more responsive to factors reflecting changing economic conditions than to those of nonmigrants in 1970, but changes in socioeconomic returns occurring during the 1970-76 period were not related to these factors for a smaller number of SMSA's. Tables illustrate the findings statistically. (Author/PS)

Estimation of multinomial logistic regression models on a sample of unemployed workers suggested that persistently higher black unemployment is due to differential access to employment opportunities by region, occupational placement, labor market segmentation, and discrimination. The racial gap in unemployment is greatest for college-educated males. (SK)

A case history on the ecology of a black business district (B.B.D.) is presented, with respect to its location, development, persistence, and decline. Some of the major points emphasized in various sections are: (1) the ecological development of the B.B.D. in Birmingham is somewhat similar to the pattern identified for B.B.Ds in other southern cities; (2) the location of black businesses moves from a pattern of dispersion to contiguous concentration in the B.B.D. (3) the B.B.D. traditionally functions as a cultural and social center for blacks, and attached to it are certain establishments and a population that embraces a deviant or underworld culture; (4) the B.B.D. is experiencing land use changes, as indicated by the substantial decline in the number of businesses located within its boundaries during the past decade; and, (5) high business failures and the relocation of other businesses are the primary indicators of the declining functions of the B.B.D. with respect to the black population of Birmingham. While the fate of B.B.Ds located in other large cities throughout the nation cannot be generalized about, a few observations on the possible implications that the data presented on the B.B.D. in Birmingham might represent are made. It is possible that other B.B.Ds might experience similar declines in the economic as well as sociocultural functions they are performing for blacks given similar conditions of development, increasing decentralization of the black population, and increasing changes in the structure of black-white relations. (Author/AM)

Using data from 63 public school districts serving central cities, this paper addresses the issue of whether whites' utilization of alternate forms of schooling is racially motivated. An effort is made to determine whether residence in census tract units of varying racial composition influences white out-migration and white utilization of nonpublic schools. Results show that residential populations living within individual school districts differ with respect to the extent of racial selection in residential relocation and nonpublic school utilization, according to region, percentage of black public school pupils, type of district, and implementation of school desegregation programs. (Author/KR)

This paper reports the findings of a national study of the impact of school desegregation programs on white public school enrollment from 1968 to 1976. School districts studied were grouped according to region, metropolitan status, and source of pressure to desegregate. It was found that only central city districts that had been subjected to court pressure to desegregate experienced substantial declines in white enrollment. These declines reflect long-term trends, and appear to be associated more with the implementation of a desegregation program than with the actual change in racial isolation (the proportion of black pupils in the school of the average white child) brought about by such desegregation programs. (Author/WAM)

This paper evaluates the hypothesis that patterns of migration within and between the metropolitan and nonmetropolitan sectors and between regions, and migrant/nonmigrant differentials in education attainment during the 1935-1980 period of United States history reflect historical differences in socioeconomic development and settlement patterns. The study focuses on changes that have occurred in metropolitanization and their significance for emerging patterns of population distribution and redistribution. Using data from the Public Use Microdata files from the 1940 and 1980 decennial census and from selected Bureau of the Census publications, it was found that: (1) migration patterns in peripheral areas and core areas have become more similar in the years since the Great Depression due to socioeconomic changes that have eroded the hegemony of the traditional manufacturing belt, affecting migration patterns; and (2) while migrants have higher education attainment than nonmigrants, differences vary systematically with area differences in socioeconomic development. In addition to an explanation and discussions of method and results, the study includes statistical data and a five-page list of references. (PS)