Low high school graduation rates and sharply declining employment rates among disadvantaged youth have led to increasing numbers of youth who are disconnected from both school and work. What programs and policies might prevent these disconnections and improve educational and employment outcomes, particularly among young men? We review the evidence…

This article presents an empirical analysis of self-reported reservation wages for unemployed young Black and White males. Results show that young Blacks seek wages that are comparable to those of young Whites in absolute terms but that are higher relative to what is available on the demand side of the market. (Author/CT)

Analysis of data from the New Youth Cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey yields evidence that young unemployed job seekers chose higher levels of search effort (used more job search methods and spent more time) and lower reservation wages than did comparable employed job seekers in 1981. (Author/CH)

This paper examines trends in the employment rates of young black men, and other groups of young people, during 1979-2000. Data from the Current Population Survey's Outgoing Rotation Groups are used to estimate these trends and their determinants. The data are pooled and analyzed for differences across individuals and metropolitan areas and for…

This monograph studies unemployment in relation to labor market vacancies throughout the United States, using a new set of data: the Survey of Firms from the Employment Opportunity Pilot Project, a labor market experiment conducted by the Department of Labor at 28 sites in 1979 and 1980. The monograph is organized in five chapters. The first…

This document reviews (1) recent trends in labor force participation and employment among young men, paying specific attention to high school dropouts and minorities because their participation and employment rates have particularly declined; (2) several potential causes for the trends (including a decline in the demand for the labor of these…

A study analyzed the extent to which escape from or entry into low-wage status among adult workers is associated with changes in employers and their characteristics. The research used a database that consisted of quarterly establishment records of the employment earnings of almost all individuals (11,207,031) who worked in Illinois from the first…

Data from interviews with 750 employers in Chicago, Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Los Angeles were used to analyze the job performance and retention rates of recently hired welfare recipients. The 20-minute interviews focused on employers' subjective ratings of recently hired welfare recipients' job performance and whether employers experienced the…