Racial and ethnic differences in job-search strategies in Atlanta, Boston, and Los Angeles

Recent research on employer hiring and worker search behavior has emphasized the importance of social ties in matching workers to job opportunities. There are mixed results in the empirical research, however, regarding the effects of informal search methods for minorities. In the present study we examine two questions: Do racial and ethnic groups vary in their job-search strategies? Do the effects of job-search strategies vary for racial and ethnic groups? Data are drawn from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality, which includes a random sample of households in Atlanta, Boston, and Los Angeles. We find that Hispanics rely much more heavily on informal search strategies than do other race and ethnic groups, and that use of these informal strategies leads to lower-paying jobs. We also find that relying on a friend or relative to locate a job is especially detrimental for Hispanics and that using a multiplex tie (i.e., a person who is a friend or relative, a coworker, and a neighbor) leads to lower-paying jobs for Blacks and higher-paying jobs for Whites. Our findings suggest that a better understanding of racial and ethnic differences in search strategy results may require a more detailed examination of racial and ethnic differences in the kinds of jobs produced by informal searches and the types of employers who are more likely to use word-of-mouth recruitment.