Selected and edited from approximately 100 lengthy open-ended interviews with older black men and women and young Puerto Rican men and women in New York City and Newark, New Jersey, transcripts are presented in which 12 of the older black men and women and six of the young Puerto Ricans describe their work experiences and how they were related to such things as schooling, training and experience, housing patterns, information about jobs, and health. Focus in the selection of material is on revealing the individual's struggles against pervasive patterns of discrimination in schools, work situations, military service, housing, and the like. Two introductory sections place these accounts in the context of economic and social developments taking place in the country at large and in the central cities of the northeast, using material drawn from all the interviews. A conclusion compares and contrasts the experiences of older blacks and young Puerto Ricans and discusses the qualitative characteristics of the operation of labor markets and employment systems which emerge from the material collected. (Author/TA)