Low-wage Workers in a High-technology Manufacturing Complex: The Southern Californian Electronics Assembly Industry

Abstract

The paper opens with a brief description of the electronics assembly industry in Southern California. A statistical profile of workers in the industry is presented. It is shown that the employment relation in this industry is characterised by much instability and mobility, though the industry also comprises a cadre of more steadily employed workers. A division of labour along gender and ethnic lines can be demonstrated to exist in the industry, with Asian males occupying more technical and responsible positions than Asian females and Hispanic males and females. Workers are shown to be strongly tied in their residential locations and job mobility patterns to fairly narrowly circumscribed local labour market areas. In sum, the paper sketches out a portrait of a secondary labour market in which job precariousness and social marginality exist side-by-side with a certain degree of internal differentiation and permanence.