Minorities in the Labor Force - Occupations

African-Americans and Jobs

African-Americans are much less likely than whites or Asian-Americans to hold the jobs requiring the most education and paying the highest salaries—those in management, professional, and related occupations. In 2004, 14.9 million African-Americans accounted for 10.7% of the civilian labor force age sixteen and over, a percent that was unchanged from the previous year. Only 26.5% of employed African-Americans held management, professional, or related occupations, compared with 35.6% of white workers. Women of both races were more likely to hold these positions, but only 30.6% of African-American women were managers or professionals, compared with 38.6% of white women. The proportion of African-Americans who held these positions had gone down slightly from the previous year. (See Table 4.7.)

African-Americans are much more likely than whites to work in the poorly paid service occupations. In 2004, 23.8% of African-Americans worked in service occupations, up from 23.1% the previous year. By contrast, 15.2% of white Americans worked in service occupations. (See Table 4.7.)

Any growth in professional employment for African-Americans has generally occurred in fields at the lower end of the earnings scale. According to the BLS, in Employment and Earnings (2005, http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.pdf), while 20.8% of all licensed practical and vocational nurses were African-American, only 10% of registered nurses, 5.3% of physicians and surgeons, and 3.6% of dentists were African-American. The same pattern holds true for management positions. While 13.6% of social service and community service managers and 12.8% of education administrators were African-American in 2005, only 3.2% of chief executives, 2.4% of construction managers, and 1.7% of engineering managers were African-American.

In 2004 most African-Americans were concentrated in the management, professional, and related occupations (26.5%), sales and office occupations (26.3%), and service occupations (23.8%). Few African-Americans were employed in production, transportation, and material moving occupations (16.7%) or natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations (6.8%). (See Table 4.7.)

Hispanic Americans and Jobs

Overall, Hispanic Americans are less likely than African-Americans to hold professional and technical positions. Only 17.3% of employed Hispanics held management, professional, and related occupations, compared with 26.5% of African-Americans. The largest percentages of Hispanics worked in service occupations (24.2%) and sales and office occupations (21.3%). (See Table 4.7.) Like African-Americans, Hispanics, except for Cuban Americans who came to this country in 1959 following the Cuban revolution, are concentrated primarily in low-paying, low-skill jobs.

The BLS reports that in 2004, 17.9 million (12.9%) Hispanics were part of the workforce. (See Table 4.7.) According to the Employment and Earnings, Hispanics were concentrated in low-paying jobs and were under-represented in management, professional, and related occupations (6.4%). Hispanics were overrepresented in service occupations (19.2%) and were concentrated in the lowest-paying occupations even in that industry. They made up 27.3% of janitors and building cleaners, 35.2% of maids and housekeepers, and 37.4% of grounds maintenance workers. They also comprised 20.6% of the food preparation and serving occupations—29.3% of cooks, 30.4% of dining room and cafeteria attendants, and 35.4% of dishwashers. However, they made up only 15.5% of first-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers.

Significant occupational differences exist among Hispanic subgroups. When it comes to job outlook, Cuban-origin Hispanics have traditionally done better in securing higher-paying jobs, as these immigrants are often well educated. In 2004, 221,000 (30.1%) Cuban Americans in the workforce held professional or managerial

TABLE 4.6 Civilian labor force by sex, age, race, and Hispanic origin, selected years 1984–2004 and projected 2014 Mitra Toossi, "Table 1. Civilian Labor Force by Sex, Age, Race, and Hispanic Origin, 1984, 1994, 2004, and Projected 2014," in "Labor Force Projections to 2014: Retiring Boomers," Monthly Labor Review, November 2005, http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2005/11/art3full.pdf (accessed December 27, 2005)

TABLE 4.7 Employed persons by occupation, race, Hispanic ethnicity, and sex, 2003–04

positions, up from 183,000 (28.7%) in 2003. In contrast, 352,000 (23.8%) Puerto Ricans and 1.6 million (14.1%) Mexican Americans held professional or managerial positions. Mexican Americans were more likely to work in service occupations (2.8 million, 24.3%) than in other occupations, especially in food preparation and serving occupations and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations. Puerto Ricans were more likely to work in sales and office occupations (428,000, 28.9%) than in other occupations. (See Table 4.8.)

Asian-Americans and Jobs

The higher educational attainment of many Asian-Americans has resulted in a greater proportion working in higher-paying jobs than other racial and ethnic groups. In 2004 almost half (45.2%) of all Asians and Pacific Islanders worked in management, professional, and related occupations—15.1% in management, business, and financial operations occupations and 30% in professional and related occupations. In comparison, only 35.6% of non-Hispanic whites worked in these occupations. TABLE 4.7 Employed persons by occupation, race, Hispanic ethnicity, and sex, 2003–04 [CONTINUED] 10. Employed Persons by Occupation, Race, Hispanic or Latino Ethnicity, and Sex,* in Employment and Earnings, U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005, http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsa2004.pdf (accessed January 5, 2006)Asian-Americans were next most likely to work in sales and office occupations (23%) and service occupations (16.2%). (See Table 4.7.) According to the BLS's Employment and Earnings, while only 4.4% of the workforce was of Asian origin, 5.9% of managers and professionals were Asian-Americans, and they were especially overrepresented among computer software engineers (24.6%) and computer programmers (18%)—two highly paid occupations.

However, the Employment and Earnings reports that in 2005 Asians and Pacific Islanders were underrepresented in natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations (1.8%) and in installation, maintenance, and repair operations (3%). While only 4.2% of service workers were Asian-Americans, 43.2% of miscellaneous personal appearance workers were Asian-Americans—reflecting the large number of Asian and Pacific Islander women who work in nail salons and other personal care establishments.

Native Americans and Alaska Natives and Jobs

As stated previously, detailed data on Native American and Alaska Native workers are difficult to obtain. However, the EEOC keeps some basic data on job patterns for minorities in private industry that includes Native Americans and Alaska Natives as a separate category. In 2003 only 7.3% of Native Americans and Alaska Natives were officials and managers, compared with 10.8% of all employees and 5.6% of minority employees; only 11.5% were professionals, compared with 17% of all employees and 11.6% of all minority employees. Native Americans and Alaska Natives were overrepresented, however, among service workers, laborers, operatives, and sales workers. (See Table 4.9.)

TABLE 4.8 Employed Hispanic workers by sex, occupation, class of worker, full- or part-time status, and detailed ethnic group, 2003–04 "13. Employed Hispanic or Latino Workers by Sex, Occupation, Class of Worker, Full- or Part-time Status, and Detailed Ethnic Group," in Employment and Earnings, U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005, http://www.bls.gov/cpsa2004.pdf (accessed January 5, 2006)