ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the more direct potential of policies to achieve one or both of two employment status objectives: decreased neighborhood unemployment and increased neighborhood local working. It examines the implications of findings for place-based neighborhood economic development policy and practice. The chapter considers the implications of findings for employment discrimination and job training and placement policies. If the primary objective is to reduce neighborhood unemployment, job creation and retention efforts should favor occupations similar to those of residents and, in high-unemployment neighborhoods, efforts should be geared toward lower-skilled jobs. Other types of neighborhood economic development are not likely to reduce neighborhood unemployment very much. In order to increase the effectiveness of neighborhood economic development efforts in reducing neighborhood unemployment, policy makers at all levels of government should support labor-force-based development strategies. Neighborhood economic development should be integrated more with employment brokering and job training programs.
