The Relative Position of the Negro Male in the Labor Force of Large American Cities

IT iS the purpose of the present paper to measure degrees of certain types of Negro-white male inequality in ninety cities which in 1940 had populations of 100,000 or more,' and to attempt to ascertain some of the characteristics which differentiate those cities with the greatest inequality from those with least inequality. The two specific types of inequality to be measured are employment and occupational level. These indicate, respectively, degree of effective labor force participation, and for those employed, the level at which participation is attained. They are measured by ratios of per cent of Negroes employed to per cent of whites employed and of per cent of Negroes in semi-skilled and higher occupations to per cent of whites in similar brackets. In both cases, values of 1.00 indicate equality, values less than 1.00 indicate degrees of Negro disadvantage, and values above 1.00 indicate degrees of Negro advantage. For purposes of computing the index of employment equality, employment rates are defined as the per cent of persons in the labor force who are employed.2 In formu-