Has polarization benefited Latin American workers in the United States?

Document Type

Contribution to Book

Publication Date

10-28-2024

Publication Title

Technological Change and Labor Markets

Abstract

Using data from the Current Population Survey for the period 2010–2020 and classifying occupations in the United States into routine and non-routine and, among these, cognitive and manual, this chapter analyses whether workers of Latin American origin in the United States have benefitted from the polarization that has characterized the U.S. labour market since the beginning of the 21st century. More recent technological change that has been observed mainly in developed nations has benefitted workers performing tasks of a non-routine nature, who tend to be located at the extremes of the income and skill distributions, while it has disadvantaged workers performing tasks of a routine nature, who tend to be located in the middle of the income and skill distributions. However, it is not clear whether Latin American migrant workers have also benefitted from this polarization, or whether they have moved more into jobs that have been negatively affected by polarization. The results indicate that Latin American workers have benefitted from recent changes in the U.S. labour market, as they tend to be at the extremes of the income and skill distributions.

Comments

Georgia Southern University faculty member, Gregory Brock co-authored Has polarization benefited Latin American workers in the United States?.

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