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June 20, 2007Race, Not Space, Key to Lower Black Male Employment Rate |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: A new study finds that in areas where low-skilled jobs are predominantly held by whites, black men who live nearby are less likely to get hired. "The problem is not lack of jobs at appropriate skill levels where blacks live, but lack of jobs available to blacks," said UC Irvine economist David Neumark, co-author of the study. For years, it's been widely accepted that space is a primary barrier to employment -- meaning there are not enough low-skill jobs where less-skilled black workers live. But by analyzing the employment, education level and location of more than 533,000 black males across the United States, Neumark and his colleagues found that the issue is not simply whether jobs are available nearby, but whether they are available to one's own race. Jobs for low-skilled workers are often advertised informally through word of mouth in social networks, such as among friends or church members, Neumark explained. Neumark and his colleagues call this effect "racial mismatch," a new spin on the term "spatial mismatch," which has been used to describe the lack of the right jobs in the right place.
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