Equilibrium search models have been used to study a variety of labor market issues both within and across countries.  Many of these research questions require representative panel data at the national level to be answered.  To that end we determine the feasibility of using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to estimate the Burdett-Mortensen general equilibrium search model for the U.S.  We find the data contain sufficient information on wages, labor force states, durations, and transitions to generate estimates of the model’s structural parameters.  Our analysis compares the relative labor market search friction for black and white male household heads.  In general we find blacks face greater search friction while unemployed than whites, but a similar level while employed.  Within the model this finding implies substantial prodctivity differentials are needed to generate the black-white wage differentials found in the data.