Race, Urban Inequality, And Labor Market Consequences Of Freelancing: An Audit Study In 50 U.S Cities

• In Event: 2368 - New Forms and Relations of Work

Abstract

The advent of various forms of contingent employment complicates selection criteria for full-time employment in organizational careers in diverse urban labor markets. While previous studies analyzed the penalties associated with other forms of contingent work, the labor market consequences of freelancing for ethnically diverse job-seekers in multiracial urban labor markets have been largely overlooked. Using a large-scale audit study that includes sending roughly 12,000 fictitious resumes to job openings in 50 metropolitan statistical areas, this research examines labor market opportunities for workers of three employment histories (unemployed, freelance, full-time) and four races (White, Asian, Latino, Black). The first part of the paper addresses how a history of freelancing affects subsequent labor market transition into full-time jobs and how do these labor market consequences vary among racial groups. The second part analyzes the minority-white hiring gap as a function of labors markets’ racial composition. The first set of results suggest that freelancers occupy a middling status between unemployed and full-time workers, but there are important racial variations. Compared to remaining unemployed, freelancing significantly improves Latinos' labor market prospects and does little to increase Blacks' desirability from employers' perspectives. The second set of findings indicates that Black concentrations have a large negative effect on labor market opportunities for Blacks, percent Asian has a small positive effect on narrowing the White-Asian hiring gap, and percent Latino has no significant effect on the White-Latino gap. The findings shed light on the complex interaction between labor markets, race, and precarious work in the new economy.

Author

• Quan Dang Hien Mai, Vanderbilt University