The Paradox of Lessening Racial Inequality and Joblessness among Black Youth: Enrollment, Enlistment, and Employment, 1964-1981*

An important exception to improvements in the relative socioeconomic status of blacks during recent decades is increased levels of joblessness among black youths relative to whites. Few proposed explanations for this trend reconcile worsening employment status forblack youths with improvements on other socioeconomic indicators. Three mechanisms that link reduced status differences between the races in other spheres with increased disparity in employment are: (1) increased substitution of schooling and military service for employment by young blacks; (2) reduced work experience and disrupted employment for young blacks at older ages as a result of later average ages leaving school and the armed forces; and (3) "creaming" from the civilian out-of-school population of young blacks with above average employment prospects as a result of higher school enrollment and military enlistment rates. Empirical assessment of these arguments shows that they account for a substantial part of the growing racial employment difference among men aged 16 to 29. Although racial convergence on school enrollment and educational attainment has reduced other socioeconomic inequalities between the races, it has widened the employment difference.