When jobs move, do black and latino men lose? The effect of growth in job decentralisation on young men's jobless incidence and duration

The spatial mismatch hypothesis suggests that the movement of jobs from cen tral cities to suburbs negatively affects blacks' employment both absolutel y and relative to whites. In this paper, data are used from the 1984 Nation al Longitudinal Survey of Youth and the 1972 and 1982 US Census of Industri es to examine the effect of growth in metropolitan job decentralisation on young males' jobless incidence and duration, Overall, growth in job decentr alisation is found to affect negatively young black and Latino males' joble ss incidence and duration. In addition, the metropolitan unemployment rate is found to affect negatively young black males' jobless incidence and dura tions only. Thus, the combination of full employment policies with policies to alter the distribution of jobs in metropolitan areas in favour of the c entral city will do more to improve young black and Latino males' labour ma rket position than either approach by itself.