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Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Through Sector Workforce Strategies

This article explores sector strategies as a means to address the racial wealth gap by targeting low-income communities. It discusses how these strategies can create job opportunities with career advancement potential, meet the needs of employers, and bring about systemic changes that benefit both employers and workers. The article also highlights the importance of a racial and ethnic component in sector initiatives to address access and exclusion within specific industries.

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Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Through Sector Workforce Strategies

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  1. Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Through Sector Workforce Strategies Employment-Based Strategies for Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Tim Lohrentz and Melissa Ramos September 24, 2008

  2. Insight Center for Community Economic Development • The Insight Center for Community Economic Development is a national research, consulting and legal organization that develops and promotes innovative solutions that help people and communities become, and remain, economically secure. The Insight Center is based in Oakland, California, and was founded in 1969 as National Economic Development and Law Center (NEDLC). • For more information about the Insight Center, visit http://www.insightcced.org

  3. Defining Sector Strategies • Sector strategies are approaches to workforce development that target low-income communities. Sector strategies: • Target a specific industry within a regional labor market • Intervene through a credible intermediary • Create jobs with career ladder • Meet the needs of employers • Achieve systemic changes that are “win-win” for employers, workers, and the community.

  4. Traditional Workforce Development Traditional Economic Development Sector Initiatives Purpose: Prepare people for jobs through skills development and education Attract, retain and expand businesses and industries Create industry change that strengthens the target industry and improves job quality and job access for low-income people Customer: Individual job seekers Businesses or industry Low-income individuals and industry Focus: General job readiness Businesses in one or more industries Targeted jobs in a specific industry Planning: Often guided by intuition and general observation Guided by economic data or a general strategy of supporting business Guided by rigorous research of industry, demographic data, and employment training resources Geographic Focus: Local Local or regional Regional Community Partnerships: Sometimes Sometimes Always Goals and Outcomes: Funder-driven Funder-driven Industry and community-driven How are Sector Initiatives Unique?

  5. Closing the Racial Wealth Gap through Sector Strategies • Sector strategies generally target a specific industry and develop a regional workforce strategy. The research we present today is a snapshot of how we build on the sector approach but add a racial and ethnic component. Traditional sector research uses labor market data to identify sectors which have • Job Growth • Self-Sufficiency Wages • Career Ladder Mobility • Access to Entry-level Jobs Racial and Ethnic Component • Access to and exclusion from industry sector occupations with self-sufficiency wages and career ladder mobility potential.

  6. Occupational Concentration by Wage, African Americans Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, based on 2007 Current Population Survey, U.S. Bureau of the Census

  7. Occupational Concentration by Wage, Asian Americans

  8. Occupational Concentration by Wage, Latinos

  9. Most Segregated Occupations in the U.S. Note: Only includes occupations with at least 120,000 workers nationally. Overall, 29.7% of workforce is African American, Asian, or Latino. Median weekly earnings, for all occupations and all workers: $640.

  10. Occupations with lowest African American representation Overall 11.0

  11. Occupations with lowest Asian American representation Overall 4.7

  12. Occupations with lowest Latino representation

  13. Health care career ladder access, African Americans Pharmacists – 0.54 Physicians and surgeons – 0.51 Professional degree Speech-language pathologist – 0.57 Physical therapist – 0.32 Master’s degree Bachelor’s degree Dieticians and nutritionists – 1.44 Physician assistant – 0.65 Occupational therapist – 0.13 Associates degree Registered nurses – 0.90 Respiratory therapist – 1.00 Diagnostic tech – 0.73 Clinical laboratory technician – 1.66 Dental hygienists – 0.13 Post-secondary award LPN/LVN – 2.04 Medical records tech – 1.63 EMTs and paramedics – 0.78 Miscellaneous health technician – 2.34 Medical Assistants – 1.07 Dental Assistants – 0.62 Moderate On-the-job training or post-secondary award Health support technicians – 1.27 Short-term On-the-job training Nursing Aides – 3.05

  14. Insight Center for Community Economic Development • For general information about sector strategies, visit the National Network of Sector Partners’ website (http://www.nnsp.org). To adapt a sector approach to a certain racial or ethnic group, please contact Susie Suafai (ssuafai@insightcced.org) to discuss the necessary research and planning. • Our services include (but are not limited to): • Best practices materials • Conferences and convenings • Links to others working in your sector • Resource Materials • Trainings • Technical Assistance in sector research and analysis, program design

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