In recent years, some characteristics associated with higher occupational status have improved markedly among rural southern Blacks. Average educational attainment, for instance, has risen more rapidly since 1970 for this group than for Whites or for Blacks living in cities. Unlike their urban (or at least, suburban) counterparts, however, rural southern Blacks work in a relatively low-skill economy with a particularly strong legacy of racial segregation. Industry groups such as nondurable manufacturing, mining, agriculture, and forestry, which depend disproportionately on workers with low education levels, employ a larger proportion of the labor force in the rural South than in any other region in the Nation.
A comparison of White and Black rural southern occupational distributions in 1990 confirms that Blacks remain disproportionately in mid- and low-skill jobs within a relatively low-skill region (table 1). Nearly half of employed Whites work in white-collar occupations, alongside one-fourth of employed Blacks. Half of the Black workforce is engaged in blue-collar occupations, and Blacks are twice as likely as Whites to work in service jobs.
Only in resource occupations do Blacks and Whites work in similar proportions. A comparison of occupational distributions in 1980 and 1990 using the index of dissimilarity confirms unusually slow racial convergence compared with national trends between 1960 and 1980.
These earlier trends seem especially dramatic in retrospect. Albelda (1986), for example, reports an 11-point drop in the index of dissimilarity comparing Whites and non-Whites during 1960-70 and a
10-point drop during 1970-80. King (1992), using a more disaggregated occupation scheme, finds smaller but still substantial change; the index fell 10 points for Black and White men, 26 points for Black and White women in 1960-80.2 Her calculations for 1980-88, however, show an index change of less than 2 points. A comparison of the index of dissimilarity for 1980 (29.4) and that for 1990 (28.8) confirms that the rural South has shared in the slowdown in Blacks’ relative improvement in status (table 1).
As King’s numbers suggest, historically strong gender segregation, combined with a rapid influx of women into the labor force, engendered faster convergence for women in earlier periods. Yet in the 1980’s, rural southern women of both races moved into
white-collar jobs at about the same rate as did rural southern men. Furthermore, for the first time since 1960, racial differences among women increased slightly according to the dissimilarity index (from 30.4 in 1980 to 31.9 in 1990). Black men’s relative status improved during the 1980’s, but more slowly than before, with the index decreasing less than 1 point (29.1 to 28.4).
While Black men and women in the rural South experienced similarly small changes in relative status, their occupational patterns remained highly distinct. In 1990, Black women were roughly twice as likely to work in white-collar and service jobs as Black men, who were about twice as likely to work in blue-collar jobs and several times more likely to be resource workers than were Black women. Within these broad groupings, gender differences were even sharper. For example, 25 percent of all employed Black women (71 percent of all blue-collar Black women) were operators, but Black blue-collar men were evenly distributed across major categories. Gender difference was much greater for Blacks than for Whites (41.1 compared with 29.9).3
The index of dissimilarity describes only overall differences and can conceal underlying occupational differentiation. Racial differences in particular occupations over the decade are summarized by occupational employment probabilities (figs. 1 and 2). The relative probability for each major occupational group is the ratio of the proportion of all Black men/women to the proportion of all White
men/women employed in that group. A value of one, for example, indicates that Blacks and Whites are equally likely to work in that occupational group. Values less than one mean that the average Black male/female worker is less likely to be employed in that occupation than the average White male/female worker, and vice versa. When comparing the relative probabilities over time, movement toward racial convergence is shown by a smaller absolute difference between one and the employment probability ratio in 1990 than in 1980.
2 Index values in Albelda’s studies fell from 41.2 in 1960 to 21.0
in 1980. King’s index values are higher due to greater occupational disaggregation: men’s values dropped from 43.8 to 33.6, while women’s values dropped from 55.6 to 29.9 over the period.
3 Although racial segregation is the focus of this chapter, the num-
bers presented here indicate that the gender gap in occupational at- tainment historically has been just as important (and obstinate). Furthermore, note that gender, not race, accounts for most of the oc- cupational differentiation between White men and Black women. Table 1—Distribution of employed persons by
race and occupation, rural1 South, 1990
Occupation Black White
Percent
White-collar 24.2 48.1
Managerial and professional 9.8 20.5
Technical and support 14.4 27.6
Blue-collar 48.3 35.8 Craft 10.2 15.0 Operator 22.3 10.5 Transport 7.1 5.7 Laborer 8.7 4.6 Service 22.7 11.2 Resource 4.9 4.8 Index of dissimilarity, 19902 28.8 Index of dissimilarity, 1980 29.4 1
Urban and rural are equivalent to metropolitan and nonmetropolitan. 2
The index of dissimilarity indicates the percentage of Blacks that would need to switch occupations to match the distribution of Whites.
Source: Compiled by Economic Research Service from PUMS files, 1980 and 1990 Census.
Black and White men in the rural South were least alike in white-collar occupations, where Blacks were less than half as likely to be employed, and in laborer occupations, where Blacks were exactly twice as likely to be employed (fig. 1). Only in resource and craft occupations did men approach comparable probabilities. The relative employment probabilities for men show no significant change, either toward or away from convergence, in any of the eight analyzed groups during the 1980’s. Black and White workers as a whole, however, redistributed themselves slightly into technical/support and service occupations and out of resource occupations.
Over three-fourths of all employed rural southern Black women held jobs in three major occupational groups: technical and support, service, and operators. The first two groups have witnessed significant movement toward Black-White parity (fig. 2). Inequality has risen in all other groups except resource occupations, however, and has led to significant racial divergence in managerial-
professional and craft occupations. Black women are the single demographic group not leaving traditional blue-collar jobs, despite previously rapid gains in earnings, education, and labor force participation (Farley, 1984). The primary source of growing blue-collar disparity between Black and White women is the declining significance of operator jobs for
White women (11 percent of the workforce in 1990, compared with 25 percent of Black women).
Likewise, the drop in the relative employment probability for Black women in managerial and professional occupations (from 0.69 to 0.53) is due less to a small decline for Blacks than to a
5-percentage-point increase for Whites.
Rural southern Black men and women, then, saw little change in their overall occupational status during the 1980’s–a slight improvement at best for Black men relative to White men, and an equally small
deterioration for Black women relative to White women. For men, the lack of change reflects little movement across major occupational groups. For women, however, the index of dissimilarity masks significant changes in relative employment
probabilities that tend to cancel one another. Black women’s shift into technical and support occupations and out of service occupations may reflect higher educational attainment, the movement to larger towns and small cities within rural areas, and the continued declining significance of domestic employment. These factors failed to increase Black women’s representation in managerial and professional occupations, or to pull them out of operator occupations. 0.37 0.37 0.43 0.46 0.63 0.68 1.92 1.94 1.36 1.41 2.15 2.08 2 1.95 1.21 1.18
Manage/prof. Tech./supp. Craft Operator Transport Laborer Service Resource
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 Figure 1 1980 1990 Ratio
Numbers represent the ratio of the proportion of all Black men to the proportion of all White men employed in that group. Urban and rural are equivalent to metropolitan and nonmetropolitan.
Source: Compiled by Economic Research Service from PUMS files, 1980 and 1990 Census.