ABSTRACT
Despite substantial gains during much of the past half-century, employment outcomes for blacks and Hispanics still fall short of outcomes for whites. Blacks and Hispanics are less likely to have jobs and, if they are employed, earn lower wages on average. Differences between minorities and whites in education, skills, and experience explain part of the gap in employment outcomes but not all of it. Even after education and achievement have been controlled for, blacks and Hispanics-particularly men-do not enjoy as much success in the labor market as whites. This chapter reviews current theory and evidence on the contribution of residential segregation to persistent inequality in employment outcomes and presents new, exploratory analysis of 2000 census data on the isolation of minority neighborhoods from centers of employment opportunity.
