Incarceration and racial inequality in men's employment

To estimate employment-population ratios for black and white men with an ad justment for incarceration-a factor overlooked by most research on employme nt inequality-the authors combine data from surveys of prisons and jails wi th data from the Current Population Survey. This adjustment significantly r educes estimated employment rates for African Americans, young workers, and young high school dropouts. The authors find that employment among young b lack male high school dropouts steadily declined between 1982 and 1996 desp ite periods of very low unemployment in the labor market as a whole. Standa rd labor force data, which include no incarceration data, understate black- white inequality in employment among young dropouts by about 45%.