We have focused on managers and professionals here because those are the highest-paying and most coveted jobs. But not every worker aspires to be a manager or professional or has the means to study and prepare for that kind of work. When we look at the racial and ethnic balance of other occupations, we find that clerical occupations are well-balanced. Technical, crafts and sales positions have a preponderance of white workers. Black and Hispanic workers are overrepresented in service occupations and as laborers.

Hints of discrimination appear in these results though, in most cases, the disparity is less than the legal standard for proof of intentional discrimination. The disparities we find in Indianapolis often are less than throughout the U.S., meaning our city is at least as fair as the nation. A comparison among Indianapolis and the 10 peer cities produces the same result. Discrimination is evident everywhere, and no worse here than elsewhere.

A 1999 study by Rutgers University found that minorities faced the risk of job discrimination 34.8 percent of the time in Indianapolis.⁵ The conclusion was based on an examination of hiring patterns of 2,098 large employers in Indianapolis and other Hoosier cities. The authors found that a fifth to a third of companies in the sample discriminated, adding, “Despite the persistence of intentional discrimination, the majority of establishments did not appear to engage in it. As a result, minorities and women have increased their participation in the labor force and in their proportion in better-paying jobs.”⁶

White men are about 40.9 percent of the EEOC sample. But white men have 59.7 percent of managerial jobs. White men also are overrepresented in skilled craft trades, and among technicians and machine operators. White women have 37 percent of total jobs, but 48 percent of clerical and administrative jobs. White women also cluster in the professional occupations and, to a lesser degree, sales jobs, technical positions and service positions.

Minority men and women have substantially different patterns of employment. Minority men hold 11.1 percent of all jobs, and are most prevalent in service jobs and as mechanical operators and laborers. Minority women, who coincidentally also hold 11.1 percent of all jobs, are strongest in service and clerical positions.

5 “Indiana 1999 Intentional Discrimination in Metropolitan Areas,” Alfred W. Blumrosen, director, Intentional Discrimination Project, Rutgers University, and Ruth G. Blumrosen, general adviser, Intentional Discrimination Project, Rutgers University, 1999.

6 Rutgers, p. 56.