Applied Economics Letters, 2005, 12, 781-784 R Routledge

Taylor & Francis Croup

Changes in occupational
segregation by race and ethnicity
in the USA
Herve Queneau
Department of Eeonomies, Whitehead Hall, Offiee 223, Brooklyn College of
the City University of New York, 2900 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, USA
and Laboratoire Georges Friedmann, University of Paris I
Pantheon-Sorbonne/CNRS
E-mail: Hqueneau@brooklyn.euny.edu

This paper analyses changes in segregation by raee and ethnicity in the

USA across 13 broad occupational groups over the period 1983-2002. It
is found that overall segregation between Blacks and Non-Blacks modestly
declined while overall segregation between Hispanics and Non-Hispancis
signiticantly increased during this period. It is also found that Blacks
and Hispanics remained underrepresented in higher-paying occupations
and overrepresented in lower-paying occupations. However, Blacks tended
to be less underrepresented in the former occupations and less over-
represented in the latter occupations than Hispanics.

I. Introduction The analysis is based on data across 13 broad

A major poHcy issue in the USA is racial and ethnic
equality in the labour market. There is evidence that
segregation in the US workplace adversely impacts
the relative average pay of Blacks and Hispanics
(Hirsch and Schumacher, 1992; Gyimah-Brempong
and Fichtenbaum, 1997). Therefore, job segregation
by race and ethnicity is a serious issue for economists
as it measures progress regarding the economic status
of minority groups. There is little recent research that
compares trends in occupational segregation for
Blacks and Hispanics in the USA. This paper intends
to fill some of the void by investigating changes in
segregation by race and ethnicity in the US labour
market from 1983 to 2002.
II. Data and Methods
The data come from the Current Population Survey
(CPS) published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
occupational groups for 1983, 1993, and 2002. The
methodology used to analyse changes over time
in racial and ethnic segregation can be described
as follows. First, an inequality index, the index of
dissimilarity, summarizes the tendency for two
groups to be segregated into different jobs (Duncan
and Duncan, 1955). Suppose that there are only two
racial groups in the labour market: majority workers
and minority workers. In such a case, the index of
dissimilarity is defined as:
where maji is the percentage of majority workers in
the labour force employed in occupation ;, and w/«,
is the percentage of minority workers in the labour
force employed in occupation /. The index D can be
interpreted as the percentage of majority workers
(or minority workers) who would have to change
occupations to have the same occupational distribu-
tion as minority workers (or majority workers). It can

Apptied Economics Letters ISSN 1350-4851 print/ISSN 1466-4291 online © 2005 Taylor & Francis 781
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
DOI: 10.1080/1350485052000345384
782
range from 0 to 100. If D = 0 majority workers and
minority workers are evenly distributed across occu-
pations. Conversely, if D=100 all occupations are
completely segregated by race.
In this paper, race refers to Blacks and Non-Blacks
while ethnicity refers to Hispanics and Non-
Hispanics. Hispanics may be of any race. Since race
and Hispanic origin are two distinct concepts, an
index for Blacks and Non-Blacks is computed as
well as an index for Hispanics and Non-Hispanics.'
It should be noted that Hispanics are less likely to
self-identify themselves as Black even if they are
phenotypically Black (Darity et al., 2002). Put differ-
ently, there may be Black Hispanics who are classified
as Non-Blacks. As a result, the analysis here does
not fully capture the effect of race on occupational
segregation. In addition, since the dimensions of race
and ethnicity intersect for Hispanics in the USA,
caution must be used when comparing the level and
pattern of occupational segregation between Blacks
and Hispanics.
The segregation index can decrease (or increase)
over time even if racial segregation remains the
same if, all else being equal, occupations that are
predominantly comprised of minority workers grow
(or decline) at a faster rate than occupations that
are predominantly composed of majority workers.
As a result, the changes in racial and ethnic segrega-
tion for the periods 1983-1993 and 1993-2002 are
decomposed into changes due to variations in the
racial and ethnic composition of occupations and
changes due to variations in the occupational struc-
ture using the following technique developed by Das
Gupta (1987):
^year I
\iP,/P) - (Qi/Q)\ + \{Pi/p) - (<?/
X IC,/O-iT.
[\{p,lp) - (2)
The different symbols are defined as follows:
MAJ = Y,,MAJi, MIN = E,M/A',, 7, = MAJ, +MINi,
T=EiTi, Pi:=^MAJi/T,, Q, = MIN,/T/, P=MAJ/T,
Q = MINIT, where MAJ,, MIN,- is the number of
' Blacks or African Americans refer to people who have origins in Black racial groups of Africa. Hispanics refer to people
having ancestry from Spanish-speaking countries including Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba as well as countries with fewer
representatives in the USA. The CPS occupational data are only available for Blacks and Hispanics over the period
1983-2002.
It should be noted that segregation measures based on broad occupational data are less accurate than those based on
detailed occupational data. As a result, the analysis in this paper is likely to underestimate the level of occupational
segregation by race and ethnicity.
H. Queneau
majority workers and minority workers in occupa-
tion / in year 1, / = 1,2,...,«. The corresponding
symbols for year 2 are denoted by lower-case latters
maj, min, t, p, and q. The first expression on the right
side of Equation 2 is the Occupational Structure
effect that measures the variation in the index D
between year 2 and year 1 attributable to the change
in the occupational structure, assuming the racial
(or ethnic) composition of occupations constant.
The second expression is the Racial (or Ethnic) Com-
position effect that measures the change in the index
D between year 2 and year I due to the change in the
racial (or ethnic) composition of occupations, assum-
ing the occupational structure remained the same.
Finally, the representation ratios of Blacks and
Hispanics across thirteen broad occupations are
computed to analyse changes in the racial (or ethnic)
composition of these occupations over the period
1983-2002. The representation ratio of a minority
group in an occupation describes the extent to
which this minority group is underrepresented
(ratio < 1) or overrepresented (ratio > 1) relative to
the minority group's share in total employment. It is
defined as the percentage of minority workers in an
occupation divided by the percentage of minority
workers in total employment.
III. Findings
Over the period 1983-2002, the trend in overall
occupational segregation by race and that by ethnicity
markedly differed. As shown in Table 1, while the seg-
regation index by race declined by 3.09 percentage
points from 21.36% in 1983 to 18.27% in 2002, the
segregation index by ethnicity increased by 6.63
percentage points from 18.39% in 1983 to 25.02% in
2002. The absolute level of occupational segregation
by race was relatively modest in 2002. During this
year, about 18.3% of Blacks (and Non-Blacks)
would have had to change occupations for the occu-
pational distribution of the two racial groups to be
identical. In 2002, the overall level of occupational
segregation by ethnicity was significantly greater
than that by race as about a fourth of Hispanics
(or Non-Hispanics) who would have had to change
broad occupational groups to have the same occupa-
tional distribution as Non-Hispanics (or Hispanics).^
Occupational segregation by race and ethnicity
Table 1 also decomposes the changes in the segre-
gation index in two components: changes in the racial
or ethnic composition of occupations (Race or
Ethnicity effect) and changes in the occupational
structure (Structure effect). The entire decline in
occupational segregation by race from 1983 to 2002
was due to changes in the racial composition of
occupations. During this period, the Race effect
decreased the segregation index by 3.34 percentage
points while the Structure effect increased it by only
0.25 percentage point. The pattern of change in the
segregation index by race was the same during the
period 1983-1993 and the period 1993-2002 with a
decrease for each period of about 1.5 percentage
783
points. Over the period 1983-2002, all the increase
in segregation by ethnicity was attributable to
changes in the ethnic composition of occupations.
During this period, the Structure effect was almost
neutral whereas the Ethnicity effect increased by
6.83 percentage points. The Ethnicity effect was
stronger during the period 1993-2002 than during
the period 1983-1993. It contributed to increase the
segregation index by respectively 2.75 percentage
points during the former period and 4.08 percentage
points during the latter period.
Table 2 displays the representation ratios of Blacks
and Hispanics for 1983 and 2002 across 13 broad
occupational categories. Although Blacks remained

Table I. Indexes of segregation by race and etbnicity, 1983-2002

Level of segregation
1983 1993 2002

Blacks vs. Non-Blacks 21.36 19.87 18.27

Hispanics vs. 18.39 20.88 25.02
Non-Hispanics

Changes in segregation
Race
Actual change (or ethnicity) effect Structure effect

Blacks vs. Non-Blacks

(1) 1983-1993 -1.49 -1.53 +0.04
(2) 1993-2002 -1.60 -1.81 +0.21
(3) 1983-2002 [(1) +(2)] -3.09 -3.34 +0.25
Hispanics vs. Non-Hispanics
(1) 1983-1993 -f2.49 +2.75 -0.26
(2) 1993-2002 -1-4.14 +4.08 +0.06
(3) 1983-2002 [(1) +(2)] +6.63 +6.83 -0.20

Source: Current Population Survey, US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Table 2. Representation ratios of blacks and Hispanics by broad occupational group, 1983 and 2002

1983 2002

Occupations Blacks Hispanics Blacks Hispanics

Executive, administrative, and managerial 0.51 0.53 0.70 0.52

Professional specialty 0.69 0.47 0.76 0.43
Technicians and related support 0.88 0.58 0.89 0.62
Sales occupations 0.51 0.70 0.78 0.79
Administrative support, including clerical 1.03 0.94 1.20 0.87
Service, private household 2.99 1.60 1.13 2.82
Protective service 1.46 0.87 1.83 0.88
Service, except private household and protective 1.72 1.30 1.61 1.52
Precision production, craft and inspectors 0.73 1.17 0.68 1.40
Machine operators, assemblers, and inspectors 1.51 1.77 1.37 1.71
Transportation and material moving occupations 1.40 1.11 1.47 1.16
Handlers, equipment cleaners, helpers and labourer 1.62 1.62 1.31 1.96
Farming, foresty, and fishing 0.81 1.55 0.45 2.00

Source: Current Population Survey, US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

784
significantly underrepresented in 'Executive, adminis-
trative, and managerial' (managerial hereafter) occu-
pations in 2002, they made sizeable inroads into these
occupations over the period 1983-2002. The repre-
sentation ratio of Blacks in managerial occupations
increased by about 37% during this period going
from 0.51 in 1983 to 0.70 in 2002. Managerial occu-
pations are relatively desirable in terms of compensa-
tion, decision-making authority, and prestige.
Therefore, this sizeable increase in the representation
of Blacks in these occupations is evidence of progress
in the overall economic status of Blacks. Unlike
Blacks, Hispanics remained substantially underrepre-
sented in managerial occupations over the period
1983-2002.
Another interesting finding is the differing trend
in the representation of Blacks and Hispanics in
'Service, private household' occupations over the
period 1983-2002. During this period, the representa-
tion of Blacks in these occupations decreased by a
factor 2.6 from 2.99 in 1983 to t.l3 in 2002 while
the representation ratio of Hispanics increased by
about 75% from 1.60 in 1983 to 2.82 in 2002. Since
'Service, private household' occupations tend to be
lower-paying occupations, such a dramatic decline
in the representation of Blacks in these occupations
is also evidence of progress in the relative economic
status of Blacks. Table 2 also indicates that in 2002
Blacks and Hispanics remained underrepresented in
higher-paying occupations and overrepresented in
lower-paying occupations. However, Blacks tended
to be less underrepresented in the former occupations
and less overrepresented in the latter occupations
than Hispanics. The only exception to this overall
pattern was for higher-paying blue-collar jobs in
precision production and craft. While Blacks
remained substantially underrepresented in this cate-
gory of occupations, Hispanics became substantially
overrepresented.
H. Queneau
IV. Conclusions
This paper examines changes in occupational
segregation by race and ethnicity in the USA from
1983 to 2002. The major finding is that while there
was a modest and steady decline in segregation by
race, a significant increase in segregation by ethnicity
occurred during this period. Taken together. Blacks
fared relatively better than Hispanics in terms of
occupational segregation and attainment over the
period 1983-2002. Another important finding is that
Blacks and Hispanics remained underrepresented in
higher-paying occupations and overrepresented in
lower-paying occupations. However, Blacks tended
to be less underrepresented in the former occupations
and less overrepresented in the latter occupations
than Hispanics.
Acknowledgements
I thank Mark Taylor (editor) and Amit Sen for
helpful suggestions.
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