African American and job segregation

Browne, Irene, Cynthia Hewitt. 2001. “Why Does Job Segregation Lead to Wage Inequality among African Americans? Person, Place, Sector, or Skills?” Social Science Research 30:473-495.

This article examines the reasons behind job segregation for African American. The main finding for the sample in the Atlanta metropolitan area from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality is that job segregation is not the result of residential segregation. Rather, the findings show that it is the skill requirement of the jobs in which black people are employed at. That is to say, the jobs that African Americans are dominantly working in are service jobs that require little skill. Of course there are other inequalities leading to the little skills this African American population has, but in any case, these jobs provide little wages, little benefits, and little room for mobility. Future research should examine these findings with Asians, and other minorities.