Employer Skill Demands and Labor Market Outcomes of Blacks and Women

The author uses data from a 1992–94 survey of employers in four metropolitan areas to investigate the effects of skill demands, as measured by hiring requirements and job tasks, on the wages and employment of newly hired workers. Skill demands were generally associated with lower employment of blacks than whites, and with higher employment of women than men. Most tasks and requirements had statistically significant positive effects on starting hourly wages. Together, these effects help to account for some of the differences between the hourly wages of white and black men, and for some of the trends over time in the relative wages and employment of race and gender groups.