Are Poor People Really Excluded from Jobs Located in their Own Neighborhoods? Comments on Reingold and Some Additional Evidence from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality

Abstract

Interviews with employers located in poor inner-city neighborhoods reveal that they view nearby workers as unproductive and frequently troublesome. This suggests that these employers may exclude poor people from jobs located in their own neighborhood. Some rare quantitative evidence is provided by Reingold based on data from the Urban Poverty and Family Study’s survey of Chicago-area employers. His results are cause for optimism because they suggest that exclusion does not occur. However, his analysis treats all poor neighborhoods the same, regardless of their racial composition. I provide evidence from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality Survey of Employers that suggests that poor people are excluded from jobs in their own neighborhood if the neighborhood contains a plurality of Blacks, but exclusion does not occur if the neighborhood has a plurality of either Whites or Hispanics.