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For the 1954-93 period, and especially from 1966 to 1976, the nonwhite employment ratio declined relative to the white employment ratio; although both ratios are procyclical, the nonwhite ratio is more volatile. Using monthly CPS data, this article compares the behavior of the employment ratio (the ratio of the number of persons employed to the number of persons aged 16 or older in the noninstitutional population) for nonwhites with the behavior of the employment ratio for whites over four decades and seven business cycles.
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