“I Don't Feel Right Sized; I Feel Out-of-Work Sized”

Abstract

This article attempts to disentangle the effects of race and gender by examining what happens to Black, White, and Hispanic men and women as they reenter the job market after displacement from their previous jobs. The authors use data from the 1996 Displaced Worker Survey (a supplement to the February 1996 Current Population Survey) and focus on postdisplacement employment and earnings as the main dependent variables. Queuing theory is used to help understand the powerful ranking and sorting processes in a race- and gender-conscious job market. The authors find the distribution of displacement costs unequal. White men appear to head the post-displacement queue. White women experience a gender disadvantage. Black men lose as a result of their race and do not benefit from gender in most cases. Black women generally experience the double burden of race and gender. Hispanic men do appear to generally benefit from gender, but Hispanic women lose.