Two types of explanation for the generally high level of job satisfaction reported by workers holding manual or routine jobs are distinguished on the basis of the degree to which they emphasize the values and needs of such workers as opposed to relying upon the worker's accommodation to limited job opportunities. The former, "dispositional," approach involves theoretical assumptions compatible with a Durkheimian social theory; the "situational" approach is characteristic of a more Marxian set of theoretical assumptions. Data from a national sample of workers are analyzed to show that perceived intrinsic and extrinsic sources of satisfaction have powerful effects on overall job satisfaction irrespective of educational background and that intrinsic satisfaction is a powerful determinant of overall satisfaction among members of occupational groups, while extrinsic sources of satisfaction vary in importance among different groups. Entrinsic satisfaction is shown to be much more important as a determinant of overall satisfaction among unskilled, semiskilled, and clerical workers than it is among skilled and professional workers, a finding that is interpreted as reflecting the differential in opportunities for instrinsic satisfaction for instrinsic satisfaction associated with each group. More generally, the findings support the Marxian rather than the Durkheimian model.

The concept of the "family life cycle" provides a valuable context within which to study labor force participation of married womem. This article tests the hypothesis that the process by which wives make the decision to supply labor to the market varies with position in that life cycle. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of the Education and Labor Market Experiences of Young Women are used in an examination of market activity during the early stages of the cycle, from marriage through the completion of childbearing. The effects of the most important determinants of married women's labor force involvement are found to depend on life-cycle stage. Wives who consider their families complete tend to be more responsive to family financial circumstances and the characteristics of the labor market in which they live than do childless women or mothers who expect more children. History of employment is found to be most important in predicting current market activity for mothers who expect more children and least important for those who do not. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Data from a longitudinal sample of Cuban emigres are used to test competing hypotheses about the mode of incorporation of new immigrants into the U.S. labor market. Classic theories of assimilation assumed a unified economy in which immigrants started at the bottom and gradually moved up occupationally, while they gained social acceptance. Recent dual labor market theories define new immigrants mainly as additions to the secondary labor market linked with small peripheral firms. Multivariate analyses confirm the existence of the primary/secondary dichotomy but add to it a third alternative condition. This is the enclave economy associated with immigrant-owned firms. While most immigrant enterprises are samll, competitive ones, enclave workers show distinct characteristics, including a significant return to past human capital investments. Such a return is absent among immigrant workers in the secondary labor market. Causes and implications of these findings are discussed.

A 1975 exploratory study is used in this investigation of the cognitive maps of class and racial inequalities held by 113 American and 101 English repondents. An Index of Perceived Inequality is constructed from nine items dealing with inequalities, both among classes and between races, of education, occupation, income, respect, and treatment by the police and courts. The index appears reliable and valid, particularly for the United States. For the United States, factor analyses show that perceptions of class inequalities cannot be separated empirically from perceptions of racial inequalities on the basis of their interrelationships. Thus a single dimension can account for the common variation of the nine items. But in England perceptions of class and racial inequalities tend to separate into two distinct, though correlated, clusters. Additionally, for both countries there is support for grouping the items into those dealing with inequality of opportunity and those dealing with inequality of treatment and condition. Finally, compared with the English, Americans perceived more inequality, were more likely to see a growing economic gap between the rich and the poor, saw a larger number of social classes, and were more likely to say that money is the defining criterion of class.

This research note examines the effects of southern-born migrants on patterns of racial residential segregation in northern cities. Data from 1940 to 1970 plus an extended analysis of 1970 data reveal that segregation levels are enhanced by southern birth of both blacks and whites. The effects of southern birth on segregation are shown to hold when city size and percentage black are controlled. Implications of the findings for urban research and assimilation theory are briefly discussed.

Theoretical Considerations suggest that, among Mexican Americans, generation, a measure of cultural assimilation, is more closely related to exogamy than is exogamy than is occupation, a measure of structural assimilation. The classic study by Mittelbach and Moore (1968), however, argued that occupational effects were greater than generational effects for Mexican Americans in Los Angeles County in 1963. In contrast, our log-linear reanalysis of those data found them to be consistent with theoretical expectations and showed that the importance of generation in explaining exogamy for Mexican American males is not exceeded by that of occupation.