The employment rate gap between black Americans and white Americans has remained persistently high over the past 30 years. Looking at 2014 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, white Americans were 10% more likely to be employed than African-Americans were. A great deal of research — using methodologies such as resume studies and other models — has found that employer discrimination and prejudice plays a large role in creating this gap. But in a recent paper, I show that discrimination from consumers can also help explain the lower employment rate among African-Americans.
Does Customer Prejudice Help Drive the Employment Gap Between White and Black Americans?
The employment rate gap between black Americans and white Americans has remained persistently high over the past 30 years. A great deal of research has found that employer discrimination and prejudice plays a large role in creating this gap. But a recent paper shows that discrimination from consumers can also help explain the lower employment rate among African-Americans. The study measured the amount of racial prejudice across the U.S. using data from the General Social Survey, and measured employment outcomes using U.S. Census data from 2000. On average, estimates showed that in 2000, white American men were 8 percentage points more likely to be employed than black men. A black man had a lower probability of being employed even after controlling for characteristics like education, age, and location. And while black men were just as likely as white men to be employed in customer-facing jobs, when you look at states with more prejudice, black men were less likely to occupy customer-facing jobs. In fact, they were less likely to be employed at all.