World without Work. Causes and Consequences of Black Male Joblessness.

This document examines the causes and consequences of Black male joblessness. First, key insights and recommendations of a 1993 policy roundtable on labor force participation and family formation are summarized. Discussed next are the following issues related to the economic and social alienation of Black men: joblessness and absence from the labor force; structural economic changes and causes of nonwork (deindustrialization, increases in immigration, suburbanization); and education, skills, and unemployment. The following challenges to Black men in the labor force are described: criminal records, attraction of the underground economy, health and disability, and racial and cultural barriers. Finally, the following consequences of joblessness are considered: income differentials, decline in two-parent families, and increase in family poverty. Eleven tables/figures and an 88-item annotated bibliography are included. Appended are abstracts of the following papers commissioned for the policy roundtable: "Unwed Fathers and Paternity Establishment" (Barbara C. Cleveland); "Absence of Father. Effects on Children's Development and Family Functioning (Vivian Gadsden); "Labor Force and Income Status of African American Males: Policy Implications" (Robert Hill); "African American Males in the Criminal Justice System" (Jerome Miller); "Child Support Enforcement and Deteriorating Employment Prospects of Young Black Males" (Ronald B. Mincy); and "Unemployment. Mental Health and Substance Abuse: Joblessness and African American Men" (John Wilson, Jr.). (MN)

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