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Cited by 9Labor market dynamics and wage inequalityIncome, Poverty, and InequalityEconomic Theory and Policy

Job market polarization and American poverty

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Siddique, Abu Bakkar·2023·Journal for Labour Market Research
DOI 10.1186/s12651-023-00356-5
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Abstract

The article posits that the puzzles of stagnating poverty rates amidst high growth and declining unemployment in the United States can be substantially explained by polarized job markets characterized by job quality and job distribution. In recent decades, there has been an increased number of poor-quality jobs and an unequal distribution of jobs in the developed world, particularly in the United States. I have calculated measures of uneven job distribution indices that account for the distribution of jobs across households. A higher value of the uneven job distribution indices implies that there are relatively large numbers of households with multiple employed people and households with no employed people. Similarly, poor-quality jobs are those jobs that do not offer full-time work. Two-way fixed-effect models estimate that higher uneven job distribution across households worsens aggregated poverty at the state level. Similarly, good-quality jobs help households escape poverty, whereas poor-quality jobs do not. This paper suggests that eradicating poverty requires the government to direct labor market policies to be tailored more toward distributing jobs from individuals to households and altering bad jobs into good jobs, rather than merely creating more jobs in the economy. This paper contributes by elaborating on relations of employment and poverty, addressing employment quality and distribution, and providing empirical evidence.

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  • Native people more often face menial, low wage, and unstable employment.

    “As well as structural inequalities in labor market participation -where Native people more often face menial, low wage, and unstable employment (Siddique 2023).”

    From Indigenous Carceral System Inequalities in the US: A Synthesis of the Literature About the Nature and Sources (2025) · cites this paper as Siddique 2023

    The Introduction (section 1; page unavailable) describes an increase in low-paying jobs with few hours and little job security, supporting the general description of poor-quality employment. But the paper does not establish that Native people face these jobs more often than others; its reference to “native individuals” in section 4.1 contrasts them with immigrants, not with non-Native people. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Siddique, A. B.
Affiliations
Florida Atlantic University (US)
Corresponding author
Siddique, Abu Bakkar
ORCID
Siddique, Abu Bakkar
Venue
Journal for Labour Market Research
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2023-11-02
Volume
57
Issue
1
ISSN
  • 1614-3485 (ISSN-L)
  • 2510-5027
DOI
10.1186/s12651-023-00356-5
OpenAlex
W4388221045
Cited by
9
References
2
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 2
FWCI
1.84
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Journal for Labour Market Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Econstor (Econstor) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Labor market dynamics and wage inequality
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Income, Poverty, and Inequality
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › General Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economic Theory and Policy
Keywords
poverty, job quality, employment distribution, domestic work, full-time employment, labour market policy, state-level poverty, United States

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