Stagnation and Stratification in the Workforce

            Over the past 4 decades, the trend of stratification amongst different races in the workforce has been continuous. Looking at three races: white, black, and Spanish, t he trend is one of whites predominantly having better and higher paying jobs and  lower unemployment rates, with Spanish lagging behind, and blacks trailing in the back.

 



























           Using the graph above, which was taken from the article “The Workforce is Even More Divided than You Think” this trend, is apparent. White men and women have the highest weekly income earnings, followed by Hispanic men and women, with black men and women once again coming in last.

            Along with stratification in the workforce, there is a trend of clustering in certain aspects of the workforce. At the top of the socioeconomic pyramid, whites tend to dominate the managerial sectors of the workforce (Asians also account for nearly 20% of all surgeon/Physician jobs) Next Hispanics, who cluster in farming, grounds keeping, housing keeping , make significantly less than whites. Blacks, being at the bottom of this pyramid, tend to have a concentration in low paying professions such as security guard and bus driver. All information was taken from the U.S. Bureau of Labor 2012 report (see chart 3, p. 4)

            The first cause for this is networking. People have historically been more prone to creating connections with those of their own race, which helps explain why certain racial groups continuously dominate aspects of society. The Network Theory describes how ties create ethnic enclaves in certain aspects of society. The social network theory operates are people tend   to offer jobs and opportunities to their racial or ethnic peers than those of different races.

            Also, schooling differences play a major role in job opportunities. There is a direct correlation between how much a person makes and level of schooling attained. The following graphs show the relationships that whites and blacks have between their educational attainment and earnings. Whites, who are more likely to graduate high school and attend college, earning at least a bachelors, earn significantly more than blacks, who are less likely to graduate high school or attain college. Spanish lag behind at every level in the education system from high school to a bachelor’s degree, however those who do achieve the same schooling as their black counterparts tend to make slightly more.