Unexplained persistence facts for a post-colonial history
Ptts presentation1...4 27-15
1. The Black Jobs Crisis
during
the Age of Inequality
Steven Pitts,
Associate Chair, UC Berkeley Labor Center
Co-Founder, National Black Worker Center Project
April 28, 2015
2. “The problem is not only unemployment, it
is under or sub-employment…people who
work full-time jobs for part-time wages.”
--- Martin Luther King, Jr (March 10, 1968)
3. Focus for today’s conversation…
• Some data on the Black job crisis
• Some data on the Age of Inequality
• Looking at the old approach
• Some thoughts on a new approach
• Some thoughts on organizing going forward
4. The Black Job Crisis…
• High levels of unemployment and low-wage
work
• Persistent racial disparities relative to non-
Hispanic whites
8. Industrial Distribution of Employment
by Race
Black White Latino
Industry % of Total Industry % of Total Industry % of Total
Public sector 28.0% Public sector 16.1% Public sector 11.5%
Retail Trade 6.8% Professional 10.4% Retail Trade 8.9%
Finance 6.8% Finance 8.4% Durable Goods 8.8%
Transportation & warehousing 6.4% Durable Goods 8.1% Restaurants 7.8%
Hospitals 5.8% Retail Trade 8.0% Nondurable Goods 7.6%
10. Prevalence of Black Low-wage by Age
74.9%
72.4%
34.1%
20.4%
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
70.0%
80.0%
16 -19 20 - 24 25 - 35 35 +
11. Industries with the highest proportion of Blacks working for low-wages
(% of Blacks in that industry)
57.5%
57.1%
50.0%
48.7%
46.5%
Restaurants
Grocery stores
Retail trade
Arts
Accommodation
12. Industries with the highest number of Blacks working for low-wages
(% of all low-wage Black workers in LA)
17.4%
12.3%
8.5%
6.6%
5.3%
Public Sector
Retail Trade
Administrative Services
Transportation and Warehousing
Social Assistance
13. The Age of Inequality:
mid-1970s - Present
• The divergence between labor productivity
and worker compensation
• The rising share of total national income
received by the richest 1%
18. Traditional Approaches
• Focus
– Deficit model
– “limited” structural barrier model
• Solution
– Fix people
– Remove structural barriers (fix the “on-ramps to
the highway”)
• Concerns/criticisms
19. New Approaches - Focus
• Building power
• Structural intervention at the workplace
• Structural intervention at the sector level
• Structural intervention at the policy level
