We are pleased to announce the winners for our 2013-2014 Small
Grants for Poverty Research. All recipients will receive grants
to support their research projects related to the core themes of
the Center and will present at our 2015 Small Grants Conference.
Congratulations!
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that health care support
and personal care and services occupations will have the largest
projected growth (34.5% and 26.8%, respectively) of all major
occupation groups between 2010 and 2020. The numbers of
immigrants in the health care work force are steadily growing,
and about 40% of African immigrants in health care work in low
wage health care support occupations. The purpose of this project
is to use qualitative individual interviews with a subset of
African immigrants and refugees in Pittsburgh in order to advance
research on the entry, experiences, and occupational mobility of
African immigrants in low wage direct care occupations.
The current national poverty rate masks great racial
heterogeneity in the state of poverty in the U.S. According to
the 2010 Census, 27% of blacks live below the official poverty
line, nearly three times the rate for non-Hispanic whites.
Non-labor market factors such as differences in family structure
or geography can explain a significant portion of this disparity,
yet it is difficult to ignore the role of the large and
persisting racial gap in labor market outcomes. Inequality in
labor market performance is especially salient for low-skilled
black workers who face close to 10% lower wages and 25% longer
unemployment durations compared to similar whites (Lang and
Lehmann 2012). For college-educated blacks, however, the wage gap
is virtually non-existent and the employment gap is much smaller.
Understanding the sources of these labor market racial
disparities for lowskilled workers is critical for explaining and
mitigating the high poverty rates among blacks.
Why do employers discriminate against job applicants who reside
in poor, distant neighborhoods? Previous research indicates that
employers call back applicants from these neighborhoods at lower
rates, but the motivation for employer discrimination based on
residential neighborhood remains unclear. Employers could be
responding to long commuting distances, which could lead to
higher employee absence/tardiness rates or fatigue on the job. On
the other hand, employers may perceive workers from particular
neighborhoods to be lower quality workers, on average, and thus
discriminate based on neighborhood characteristics such as
poverty or racial composition rather than distance to the job.
The distinction between discrimination based on commuting
distance versus neighborhood characteristics matters for public
policy. Some policy responses, such as public transit
improvements, may be appropriate if employers respond to distance
itself but not if they respond to fixed neighborhood attributes.
