Do black and white women hold different jobs in the same occupation? A critical analysis of the clerical and service sectors

Employing 1960 and 1981 census data at the three-digit level, the study finds that black and white women were employed at different jobs in the predominantly female clerical and service occupations in both 1960 and 1981. However, there appears to be a slight reduction in black female job dissimilarity with white females between 1960 and 1981 in both occupations. Moreover, while employment of black women, relative to white women, in 1960 was observed to be generally skewed toward the low-paying, low-status jobs in clerical and service occupations, there was little evidence of this trend by 1981. The present results, then, complement previous findings at the more aggregative two-digit level of black female occupational advancement since the mid-1960s.     

A diagnostic approach to intra-metropolitan spatial targeting: Evidence from Cape Town,South Africa

This article ascribes poor returns from place-based economic policy to prevailing spatial norms and causal assumptions which continue to influence its deployment across South African cities. By elevating the local over the systemic as the cause of and solution to urban problems, spatial targeting in the telescopic mould gives rise to three forms of spatial bias which lock in suboptimal local outcomes and gradually undermine the resilience of the urban system. Place-based policy should instead be guided by a systemic and relational evaluation of local economic potentiality supported by data-driven planning tools. The article introduces one such tool developed by the City of Cape Town, focusing on its theoretical basis, initial findings and implications for intervention. We find that the tool represents a robust platform for policy-makers to make targeting decisions that are more evidence led and hence less arbitrary.     

A disaggregated analysis of employment growth fluctuations in Canada

This paper studies the sources of fluctuations in Canadian employment growth disaggregated by province and, within each province, by one-digit industry. Using an error components decomposition, industry-specific shocks are found to be relatively more important in explaining fluctuations in employment growth. Aggregate and province-specific shocks also play an important role, with the latter contributing about 30 percent of the explained variance in employment growth. Using a set of additional identifying assumptions, the decomposition technique is then extended to construct time series on the underlying shocks and to examine their properties.The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the International Monetary Fund. The authors are grateful to an anonymous referee for helpful comments.     

Non-regular employment over the life-cycle: Worker flow analysis for Japan

Over the past few decades, Japan has seen a steady increase in non-regular employment. We use Japanese Labour Force Survey microdata to construct, for workers disaggregated by age, gender, education, and marital status, flows among different labor market statuses. Our analysis finds that the probability of finding and retaining a regular job varies substantially with education level and especially with marital status. In particular, college graduates, and within each gender, married males and never married females, are most strongly attached to regular employment.     

Rural employment and rural-urban differences in employment in Zaire: A comparative perspective

This article provides evidence on the extent of de-agrarianization, the nature of rural employment, and rural-urban differences in employment in Zaire. The composition of employment by industry is examined using data from Zaire’s 1984 Census. Increased schooling was associated with a greater propensity to be involved in nonagricultural employment. Since 1990, Zaire’s chronic economic crisis has become acute and is intertwined with the political crisis resulting from President Mobutu’s resistance to popular calls for democratization. In these circumstances, de-agrarianization is effectively put on hold. Nonagricultural employment opportunities have diminished considerably, and an increasing proportion of the country’s population is being pushed back to subsistence agriculture. An earlier version of this article was presented at the African Studies Centre-International Labour Organization workshop on “De-agrarianization and Rural Employment,” May 10–12, 1994, Leiden, The Netherlands.     

Cable and local economic development: Local authority roles and responses

There has been much recent comment about the development of the “information superhighway” and the opportunities that this will create for economic development. Yet elements of such a superhighway are already in place through the activities of cable companies in the UK This paper outlines the development of cable to date and examines the response of local authorities to such developments.     

A longitudinal analysis of racial wage differentials for young nonfarm rural workers

A longitudinal data base is used to estimate racial wage differentials for young nonfarm rural workers for 1968, 1973, and 1978. The empirical results indicate the existence of large wage differentials between young white and young black nonfarm rural workers of both sexes. The results also indicate that the wage differential for young men has increased over time while the differential for young women has decreased slightly over time.