Local Labor Market Characteristics and the Occupational Concentration of Different Sociodemographic Groups1

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Abstract
This paper analyzes the extent to which employment opportunities for different sociodemographic groups are concentrated in a limited number of occupations within their local labor market areas. Data from the STF‐4 file of the 1980 Census of Population and Housing are used to measure the occupational concentration of these groups in 318 labor market areas (LMAs) in the United States. Regression analysis demonstrates the significance of local labor market characteristics for the occupational concentration of women and men and of whites and blacks. Gender differences in occupational concentration are strongly related to the differential effects of the industrial composition of the local labor market. Racial differences in occupational concentration are affected by the fact that working in larger, more densely populated LMAs is more significant for blacks than for whites.