Structure, Income, and Race: A Study in Internal Labor Markets.

Examines the statistical relationships among job stability, firm and industry structure, and the workers' age, experience, race, and earnings, from data in over 16,000 Social Security records for 1965 from males aged 20 to 60 (90 percent white). Large, complex, high-capital, high-technology, high-paying "manorial" firms are identifiable by 85 percent or more job stability. Manorial industry rankings on that basis alone agree with economists' observations. Nonwhites' income, highest in manorial industries, is twice as responsive as whites' to firm size. Their average payoff to age and experience is much less, however, mainly because nonwhites did not reach the highest positions. The evidence is strong for separate racial promotion ladders, especially in the South, where nonwhites appear to be relegated to dead-end jobs. Previous industry experience outside the firm pays off almost equally between races; after about five years of firm experience the nonwhites' income curve parallels the whites', suggesting that perhaps employers regard their first few years' experience as an extended trial period. 37 pp.