Consuming Work: Youth Labor in America

Appendix: Notes on Methodology

APPENDIX Notes on Methodology I n addition to my own interviews and observations, data from published surveys were used in my analyses. Here I provide background information on these published surveys, as well as chapter-specific comments on my methods . The names of all informants discussed in the text are pseudonyms. The names and identifying characteristics have been changed to protect the privacy of the respondents. Methodological Notes for Chapter 2 The National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997 is one of a series of surveys of the labor market conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor over a span of more than four decades. NLSY97 consists of a representative sample of the noninstitutionalized U.S. population born between 1980 and 1984, including 8,984 youth respondents who were between the ages of twelve and sixteen as of December 31, 1996. (An oversample of black and Hispanic individuals required the use of sample weighting.) Interviews for NLSY97 were conducted in five waves. The first interviews (Round 1) for the survey took place in 1997, when both the eligible youth and one of that individual’s parents participated in hour-long personal interviews. In addition , during the screening process, an extensive two-part questionnaire was administered to gather demographic information on members of each youth’s household and on his or her immediate family members living elsewhere. Youth were reinterviewed annually, and data from Rounds 1–5 of NLSY97 were released in May 2003. The aim of NLSY97 was to document the transition of youth from school to work and into adulthood through the collection of extensive information about the behavior of youth in the labor market and 154 Appendix their educational experiences over time. Employment data included details on methods employed for job searches and on the demographic background of the youth. The data employed in Chapter 2 are from the first round of interviews for NLSY97. For my analysis, I used the full range of ages from NLSY97 (twelve through sixteen years) and NLSY97 data on the methods the youth employed for obtaining a job. In the survey, the employed youth were presented with a series of questions concerning their choice of method for finding a job. The questions were selected on the basis of the results of a pretest and were in line with the standard phrasing of questions employed by the Current Population Survey. (The Current Population Survey is conducted monthly and consists of personal and telephone interviews of adults and youth aged fifteen years and older. It is sponsored jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and provides the data for a variety of major economic statistics , including the national unemployment rate.) The ways youth find jobs have been operationalized in different ways: The respondents were asked about their typical methods of finding jobs as well as the methods used to find their current jobs or in their current job search. The variable employed for the purposes of my study was their general method of finding jobs rather than one in reference to a specific job. However, it is important to note that these job-search indicators are highly correlated. This is not surprising: The way an individual finds a job one time is probably the same way that he or she will look for the next job. The employed respondents were asked the following questions about their job searches: Do you contact the employer directly? Do you contact a public agency? Do you contact a private agency? Do you contact friends/relatives? Do you contact a school/university’s employment center? Do you answer job ads? Do you contact a professional organization or a union? Do you passively view job ads? The respondents were allowed to answer “yes” to as many of the questions as were applicable. A “yes” answer was coded as 1 and a “no” answer was coded as 0. To better discern the racial/ethnic differences within the youth labor market , respondents were coded as to their racial/ethnic group. The race/ethnicity variable was combined in NLSY97, and respondents were asked to select their race/ethnicity from a list that was coded as the follows: 1, black; 2, Hispanic; Appendix 155 3, mixed-race (non-Hispanic); 4, non-black/non-Hispanic. For the purposes of my study, the coding was simplified such that white respondents...