The decline in manufacturing jobs, increasing racial and ethnic diversity, competition for low-wage jobs from new immigrants, widespread drug use, youth violence, and AIDS are some of the problems that have had a greater impact on minorities than other groups (Briggs 108).
With respect to unemployment, African Americans and minorities continue to experience higher rates of unemployment than non-minorities. Residential mobility, housing, and special mismatches are often attributed to such rates of unemployment. However, a recent empirical study disproves this notion. Originated because of the increase in minority joblessness during the 1970s, one from which minorities never fully recovered, the study tried to determine the causes of high unemployment rates among minority groups. For African Americans, race appeared to play a greater role than mobility, housing, or special mismatches. According to D’Amico and Maxwell (985), “Race plays a key role in determining access to jobs. A pervasive black disadvantage in access to jobs exists, a phenomenon not shared with Hispanics. Across all groups, black males work over 300 fewer annual hours than whites. Their unemployment rate is 5 percentage points higher and their employment-to-population ratio is 10 percentage points lower.”
Racism, lack of access to quality education, impoverished infrastructure, lack of access to quality health care, lack of political representation, and other factors are