Job mismatch among Asians in the United States : Ethnic group comparisons

This study documents the prevalence of and explanations for job mismatch - one form of underemployment - among Asian male workers in the U.S. labor force. Following the Labor Utilization Framework, the authors analyze Asian ethnic group differences in levels of overeducation for jobs and compare this information with data for non-Hispanic white workers in 1990. Using data from the 5 percent PUMS data file of the U.S. Bureau of the Census for men aged twenty-five to sixty-four, in the labor force and not in school, logistic regression models to test the determinants of job mismatch are run for all workers and then separately for workers in each Asian group included in the study. The results show a higher prevalence of job mismatch for most ethnic groups of Asian men compared with non-Hispanic white men. Net of human capital, immigrant status, age, industry and occupational controls, Asian Indian, Chinese and Korean males are more likely to be mismatched, Vietnamese less likely to be mismatched, and Filipinos and Japanese have no significant difference in job-mismatch odds, all when compared with non-Hispanic whites. Multivariate logistic regression models show that the major determinants of job mismatch in 1990 were college education, immigrant status, employment in trade-sector jobs, older compared to younger workers and employment in technical, sales and administrative support and service occupations. They conclude that job mismatch is a form of underemployment uniquely prevalent among Asian workers in the United States. This has implications for enhancing the future competitiveness of the U.S. economy, which will be tied not only to policies concerning low-skilled workers but also to labor force policies that seek to reduce job mismatch of highly skilled workers