INDUSTRIAL CHARACTERISTICS AND JOB MOBILITY RATES

All firms operate in at least two markets: the product market and the labor market. I investigate the relationship between characteristics of these two markets by examining the effects of product market (industrial) characteristics on job mobility in labor markets. Informed by a theoretical model in which employer personnel strategies mediate the relationship between industrial characteristics and job mobility rates, hypotheses are formulated concerning the effects of six industrial characteristics-concentration levels, conglomerate domination, labor intensity, growth rates, wage levels, and average establishment size-on four types of job mobility-involuntary exists, quits, intra-firm moves, and upward authority moves. Among the findings are: (1) quit rates, intra-firm mobility rates, and upward authority mobility rates are low in high wage industries; (2) labor intensive industries have high involuntary exit rates and low inter- and intra-firm mobility rates; and (3) the effects of industry growth on job mobility vary depending on whether growth occurs through the emergence of new firms or the increasing size of existing firms.