TY - JOUR
T1 - The decline of male employment in low-income black neighborhoods, 1950-1990
AU - Quillian, Lincoln
N1 - Funding Information:
Financial support for this study was provided by the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. I thank Franklin Wilson for comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript and Sara Wakefield for excellent research assistance. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the August 2002 meeting of the American Sociological Association in Chicago, IL.
PY - 2003/6
Y1 - 2003/6
N2 - Many urban theorists, notably W.J. Wilson, hypothesize that rates of male joblessness in low-income urban neighborhoods have increased since the 1960s. This paper examines this claim by tabulating male employment trends in census tracts in 49 metropolitan areas from 1950 to 1990, and models causes of these trends. The results show a marked decline in the employment of working-age men in low-income black tracts, both in absolute terms and relative to the employment rates of male residents of other types of tracts. This decline occurred among cities in all regions of the country. By 1990, more than 40% of working-age black men in low-income tracts were not employed, about two-thirds of whom were adults between the ages of 25 and 64. Models indicate that declining urban manufacturing employment contributed to the declining rates of work for black men in low-income neighborhoods, but they do not support explanations based on spatial mismatch, suburbanization, or black out-migration. The paper concludes that Wilson is right to focus on the employment problem of low-income black neighborhoods, and that black male joblessness in low-income neighborhoods in 1990 reached crisis levels.
AB - Many urban theorists, notably W.J. Wilson, hypothesize that rates of male joblessness in low-income urban neighborhoods have increased since the 1960s. This paper examines this claim by tabulating male employment trends in census tracts in 49 metropolitan areas from 1950 to 1990, and models causes of these trends. The results show a marked decline in the employment of working-age men in low-income black tracts, both in absolute terms and relative to the employment rates of male residents of other types of tracts. This decline occurred among cities in all regions of the country. By 1990, more than 40% of working-age black men in low-income tracts were not employed, about two-thirds of whom were adults between the ages of 25 and 64. Models indicate that declining urban manufacturing employment contributed to the declining rates of work for black men in low-income neighborhoods, but they do not support explanations based on spatial mismatch, suburbanization, or black out-migration. The paper concludes that Wilson is right to focus on the employment problem of low-income black neighborhoods, and that black male joblessness in low-income neighborhoods in 1990 reached crisis levels.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0037843256&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0037843256&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/S0049-089X(02)00048-0
DO - 10.1016/S0049-089X(02)00048-0
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0037843256
VL - 32
SP - 220
EP - 250
JO - Social Science Research
JF - Social Science Research
SN - 0049-089X
IS - 2
ER -