Expanding the African American Middle Class: Improving Labor Market Outcomes Testimony by

The data presented this morning by Doug Besharov show that, despite some progress during the 1990s, the share of African Americans joining the middle class in the U.S. has stagnated over the past 20–30 years. At least some of these trends are closely tied to changes in the labor market for Americans with different levels of educational attainment in that time period. What opportunities currently exist for blacks in the labor market, and how do these vary with their level of education? What explains the remaining gaps between whites and blacks, and how might the opportunities for blacks be improved over time? The Data The table below presents data on employment rates and median annual earnings for whites and blacks (as well as Hispanics) by gender and educational attainment.1 The results suggest four major conclusions: 1) Employment and earnings are strongly related to educational attainment for all racial groups. 2) The earnings of black men are about 20–25 percent lower than those of whit