1. Race, Residence, and Underemployment: 50 Years in Comparative Perspective, 1964-2017
Tim Slack
Louisiana State University
Brian C. Thiede
Leif Jensen
Penn State University
Prepared for the 50 Years After The People Left Behind Conference,
Washington, DC, March 21-22, 2018

2. Introduction and Background
The People Left Behind report documented persistent employment hardship in rural America.
“Unemployment and underemployment are major problems in rural America” (1967: x).
Rural racial/ethnic minorities “suffer even more than low income white from unemployment and underemployment” (1967: 5).

3. Introduction and Background
Rural racial/ethnic minorities occupy a unique social position (e.g., Snipp 1996).
Pronounced segregation and concentrated poverty.
“Share the experience of living in close proximity to the historical remnants of institutions explicitly created to conquer, suppress and maintain their subordinate position in society” (1996: 127).
Labor contractors, immigration authorities, slavery, Jim Crow, sharecropping, plantation agriculture…

4. Research Objectives
Bring the statistical record on employment hardship among rural minorities forward over the 50 years since The People Left Behind.
Trace underemployment by race/ethnicity and residence from
Descriptive statistics to identify group differences and trends over time.
Logistic regression models predicting whether a worker is underemployed (yes=1)

5. Data and Methods
Draw on data from the March Current Population Surveys (CPS) from
Limit analysis to those ages years.
Limit analysis to those in 5th-8th month in survey.
Apply person weights.

6. Underemployment LUF defines four sets of affected workers.
Discouraged: Those who would like to be employed but have given up searching due to discouragement with prospects.
Unemployed: Those who are out of work but are actively searching or are currently on lay-off but expect to be called back.
Low-hour: Those employed less than 35 hours/week only because they cannot find full-time work.
Low-income: Those employed 35+ hours/week for at least 48 weeks in the previous year with earnings at or below 125% of the individual poverty threshold.

7. New Opportunities with IPUMS
Harmonized variables allow for more consistent measurement over time.
Opportunity to revisit Clogg’s (1979) original operationalization.
Opportunity to experiment with adjustments.
Weeks worked
Poverty thresholds

8. Independent Variables
Metro v. nonmetro dichotomy.
Non-Hispanic white (white), non-Hispanic black (black), and Hispanic.
Hispanic ethnicity not reported prior to 1971.
Other groups get too small for useful comparisons.
Regression models control for age, age2, sex, marital status, educational attainment, industry, region, and 3-year periods.

17. Conclusions Results tell a story of persistence and change.
Nonmetro black workers have faced persistently high underemployment compared to whites and metro black counterparts.
Hispanic workers have witnessed a residential reversal, with underemployment coming to be more pronounced in metro versus nonmetro areas.

18. Policy Implications
Commission’s goal of “the elimination of underemployment” (1967: vi) among rural Americans remains an unmet challenge.
Commission (1967: 17) called for:
1) “a job for every rural person able and willing to work”
2) jobs that “pay high enough wages to earn a decent living”
3) end of “discrimination against rural people, whether by statute or administration”
Clearly these goals have not been achieved.