ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors address questions about the effects of black concentration on black-white relative underemployment and the conditions that might produce these effects. Substantial evidence from US cities indicates that blacks experience greater employment disadvantage, relative to whites, in labor markets where they are most concentrated. As competition declines, discrimination declines and blacks’ relative status begins to improve. The competition-discrimination perspective suggests that discrimination is the mechanism by which racial composition affects economic outcomes of blacks and whites. Periphery transformative and service industries tend to produce low-paying, part-time jobs for blacks, but again, services may produce greater underemployment. Southern labor markets with large black populations are prone to economic stagnation, particularly in labor markets where employment is dominated by periphery industries, some of which are in decline. The linear model suggests that blacks experience greater relative unemployment as the proportion of blacks in the local labor market increases.
