Minority Vulnerability

Words: 601
Pages: 3

Assess predictions from a theoretical perspective that identifies differences in the reasons for layoffs among a cohort of African Americans and Whites who occupy privileged positions in the American occupational structure.
The Minority Vulnerability Thesis:
Theory 1 – African Americans in upper-tier occupations are expendable, relative to Whites, because they are placed in jobs that generate relatively low levels of revenue and are considered marginal to long-term trajectories for the economic viability of firms.
Theory 2 – African Americans are disproportionately vulnerable to layoffs resulting from evaluation processes.
Theory 3 – Layoffs for African Americans, compared to Whites, are broadly based and generalized: they are relatively unstructured
…show more content…
• Independent Variables: The influence of several categories of factors in assessing the determinants of job layoffs among African Americans and Whites are included.
• Background Socioeconomic Status: Background status is measured with two variables. The first is mother’s education, which is coded categorically and based on meaningful distinctions in levels of educational attainment, namely, high school completion or less, college degree, and post-college degree. Higher values in the coding of this variable indicate successively greater levels of educational attainment. The second is family structure, which is measured by whether both parents were in the household until the respondent reached the age of 16.
• Human-Capital Credentials: Several human-capital credentials are assessed. The first is level of educational attainment, represented by two dummy variables: “college degree,” and “post-college degree.” Respondents with a high school degree or less serve as the reference category.
• Job/Labor-Market Characteristics: The influence of several job/labor market characteristics is
…show more content…
For the private sector, in manufacturing firms, more than twice the percentage of African Americans as Whites experienced layoffs, while in service firms the percentage of African Americans experiencing layoffs was less than twice that of Whites. For the public sector, one-third more African Americans than Whites experienced layoffs. The racial gaps in the incidence of layoffs exist among African Americans and Whites whose status is similar within the managers/administrators and professional/technical occupational categories. The findings support their minority vulnerability thesis; layoffs for African Americans, compared to Whites, are rather unstructured by traditional stratification-based causal factors.
Conclusion: Layoffs for African Americans are more broadly-based, “unstructured by traditional stratification-based causal factors, namely, background socioeconomic status, human-capital credentials, and job/labor market characteristics” (Wilson & McBrier, 2005). Racial differences in the determinants of layoffs are more noticeable in the private sector, specifically, nonservice-based than service-based