Local labor market characteristics and African-American employment: how does space matter?

Using a formulation of the spatial mismatch theory that combines both spatial and skill dimensions as an explanation for minority urban joblessness and a data set for the 100 US cities with largest African-American populations the authors develop a simple taxonomy that categorizes cities by the degree of mismatch between labor supply (unemployment) and labor demand (relative number of jobs). They show that African-Americans are disproportionately located in cities with either an intraurban incongruity between labor supply and labor demand or an inadequate labor demand to cover labor supply. Cities that contain such mismatches have higher levels of joblessness for African-Americans ceteris paribus and have increased levels of social and economic dysfunction. Their results are therefore consistent with the increased spatial inaccessibility to jobs and social isolation faced by the approximately one-third of the African-American population that resides in urban areas with large African-American populations. (authors)