Where we work: Employment by Race and Gender and Gender and Race for 2008

Every wonder where different people work ?? Or what would make a good career for the long term ?? (yeah, I know, health care!!) But it is interesting to look at the distribution of employment by race and gender.

With these charts we will start to look in detail at employment by industry for different genders and races. The next set of charts will add more employment categories. And then a close look at employment in detail in certain SIC codes. Finally, we want to look at the trends over time.


We will then speculate about why certain trends exist. Lastly, we will look the employment projections and determine what would be a good field for long-term employment.

We will probably not look at education, since educational effects are pretty cut and dried. College educated workers have an unemployment rate one fourth that of high school drop out. Educational will be covered separately.

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Looking for a Story: Ask "Why?" or "Was it Fair ??"

Writing a blog is a pain in the neck. You are always looking for a story.

I noticed this morning, while I was looking for something to write about, that comparing racial groups and disparities was a nice quick story. In this case I was looking at some of data about employment by industry. Certain groups are more prevalent in certain industries. You can look at Whites in farming, Black barbers or Asian computer professionals.

The results always makes a good story. It makes a raw comparison of different groups in an "objective" manner and points out the winners and losers. Boy, what fun. My group is better than yours. Ha, Ha. Or as my kids say "Nanny-Nanny Poo Poo."

But there are much more complex and inciteful questions to ask such as "Why is that ?" and "It is fair?" Was the competition fair ?? Was it organized in a clear and transparent manner ? Does the competition benefit the larger society ?? Did the benefits accrue to all members of society ??

Tax policy from Brookings and Urban Institute

When, I have time, I have been reading up on tax policy (usually right before bed time). But there are two good sites I like:

TaxVox

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

If you really want to understand where we spend our money and the close connection between the federal and state governments, these two sites have the details.

Happiness Poll by Gallup

The Gallup Organization, one of america's largest polling organization, has created a site on happiness and well being. The website is here.

The site aims to measure, in detail, different aspect of well-being and happiness in the United States.

US Tries to Steer Textile Purchases to Haiti

Ron Kirk, US trade representative, announced a program to benefit apparel manufacturing in Haiti. The program called "Plus 1 for Haiti" will encourage US Brands and retailers to source one percent of their total apparel purchases from Haiti.



Click here for the press release.

"Lack of Black Doctors Traced to Pre-College Factors

Blacks make up only 8 percent of first year medical students while they are 15% of the total US population. The study found that poor quality education, lower school spending, higher poverty rates and lack of parental educational achievement are the primary factors for poor Black achievement in the health care field.

When the negative factors were controlled for Black were actually more likely to graduate from college. The authors speculate that some "leakage" of students in law and business (MBA) may be reducing the numbers.


You can read the press release here.

Total Black Employment 1972 to 2009

Total Black employment has grown steadily over the past 40 years.



Since 1972, Blacks have increased their employment by 7.2 million.

Black Employment Drops 1.4 Million During Recession

During the current recession Black employment has dropped by 1.398 million persons from the beginning of the recession in Dec 2007 to Jan 2010.





The second graph shows the longer term trend. After a run up in employment during the 00's (aught's), Black employment has dropped drastically since December 2007.

The New Global Labor Market

A huge increase workers is having a disastrous effect on US wages and job for low-skilled workers.

You can read the report here.

Unemployment by Class (Income)

There is some really good work being done at the Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies (CLMS) on the severe inequality in the unemployment situation by income.

The authors divide the the labor market into 10 different income sections then determine impact of the recession on each group. They find that the unemployment and under employment rate for the bottom 10 percent of income earners (less than $12,160) is greater than 50%. While the very top income bracket (greater than $138,700) had an under utilization rate of about 6%. In other words, unemployment issues are falling almost completely on lower income people.

Here is the study.