Length of time to first job for immigrants in the United Kingdom: An exploratory analysis

Abstract

This study explores whether ethnicity affects immigrants' time to first employment. Many studies on labour/social inequalities focus on modeling cross-sectional or panel data when comparing ethnic minority to majority groups in terms of their employment patterns. Results from these models, however, do not measure the degree of transition-duration penalties experienced by immigrant groups. Because time itself is an important variable, and to bridge the gap between literature and methodology, a lifecourse perspective and a duration model are employed to examine the length of transition that immigrants require to find first employment.