ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on three consumer-oriented industries—retail services, social services, and personal services—that are major neighborhood employers, but social services dwarfs them all. There is more employment in social services industries in urban neighborhoods than for any other category of employment—including manufacturing. Like manufacturing, retail services have a significant presence in Ohio central-city neighborhoods. For the most part, establishments engaged in retail trade sell merchandise to the general public for personal or household consumption. Personal services are those services that are delivered to individuals, and they include laundry, beauty, and barber shops; entertainment; domestic services; hotels; and eating and drinking establishments. The chapter looks at the relationships between neighborhood characteristics and employment and race. Race is one characteristic of central cities that is highly correlated with other characteristics. The extent of the connection is shown in a zero-order correlation matrix between percent nonwhite and the other neighborhood characteristics.
