Metro Detroit's segregated workforce shown in new report
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While metro Detroit's workforce is becoming more racially diverse, the region is still profoundly segregated when it comes to job type.
Driving the news: A new JPMorgan Chase-funded report, Advancing Workforce Equity in Metro Detroit, analyzed labor, wage and employment data as a "ground-level blueprint for advancing workforce equity."
What they found: Data that shows structural racism that's pervasive in the labor market.
- While Black and Latino workers were overrepresented in lower-paying categories like cleaning and maintenance, production or agriculture, white workers were overrepresented in the entertainment, design and sports category, plus management and education.
What we're watching: The Detroit Area Workforce Funders Collaborative, a group of private foundations and corporate philanthropy that released the report, plans to use it to coordinate change around labor.
- Notably, the group's report supports unionization as a way to increase worker pay and improve safety.
Reality check: Societal-level problems persist despite many reports through the years analyzing data and laying out solution roadmaps.
Of note: Detroit Future City also produces its Economic Equity Dashboard as part of a similar vision.