Earnings and Employment of Asian Ethnic Subgroups in the U.S. Labor Market: A Historical Perspective

Ebney Ayaj Rana, Georgia State University

Generalization of Asian Americans as overachievers in the U.S. labor market tells very little about the heterogeneity of labor market characteristics across ethnic subgroups. Using the Decennial Census and American Community Survey data, I analyze the differences in earnings and employment that the Asian ethnic subgroups experience over time relative to whites in both U.S. public and private sector from a historical perspective. In conducting the analysis, I control for demographic characteristics, education and labor variables, immigrant status, English proficiency, major field of study, and occupation, which presumably explain racial differences in earnings and employment for the Asian ethnic subgroups. Preliminary results suggest that the earnings of Asian Americans differ across ethnic subgroups in public sector more than they do in private sector employment. Asian women fare considerably well in outperforming white women compared to Asian men competing with white men in both public and private sector employments. Most of the Asian ethnic subgroups appear to achieve either an earnings and occupational parity or an advantage over time relative to whites in the public sector employment. Overall findings of the paper underpin the demographic heterogeneity approach to explaining historical labor market performance of Asian ethnic subgroups in the U.S.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 67. The Data of Labor History II