
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, October 3, 1993                   TAG: 9310010187
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: F-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

BLACK WORKERS HIT HARDEST BY JOB LOSSES

Black workers were the only group to experience a net loss of jobs during the recession of 1990-1991, according to an analysis of government labor records.

According to a recent study by The Wall Street Journal:

Black workers lost 59,479 jobs from July 1990 through March 1991, after three years of gains.

Black employment fell at six of nine major industry groups. But in some instances, the percentage of black employment decline did not translate into actual job loss.

Asians gained 55,104 jobs during this same period, and Hispanics gained 60,040 jobs. Whites gained 71,144 jobs, although they outnumber blacks nearly 8-to-1 at the 35,242 companies surveyed.

The Journal studied employment changes at the companies, which filed reports with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for more than 40 million workers in 1990 and 1991.

It found that some large corporations disproportionately shed black workers. Especially hard hit were blacks in blue-collar jobs. They lost nearly one-third of the 180,210 blue-collar jobs that disappeared during the recession. And while the economy added 53,548 service-industry jobs, blacks lost 16,630 jobs in that sector.

Companies blamed the shift on the fallout of corporate downsizing, saying they had no idea the impact on workers would be so disparate.

But blacks say the Journal's findings prove their long-held belief that they suffered disproportional job loss in the past few years.

"There's a deep sourness in corporate America that they had to hire minority professionals. Downsizing has been their first opportunity to strike back," said Wesley Poriotis, head of Wesley, Brown & Bartle, one of the nation's oldest minority search firms.

"This is subconscious, deep-seated racism," said George Fraser, publisher of a black professionals directory. "People don't even know these patterns and behaviors are being initiated until you begin to see the pieces of the puzzle together and look at the numbers."

by CNB