Many analysts see these two factors, which they refer to as skill and spatial mismatches, as the underlying reasons for the employment problems of many inner-city workers. Others see persistent racial barriers, which have been laid bare by economic restructuring, as the most serious obstacle to the success of these workers. All told, some 8,600 African American, Hispanic, Asian, and white household members, and 3,200 employers were interviewed. Most strikingly, hire rates for blacks in the suburbs are much lower than in the inner city, even though skill requirements for suburban jobs are generally lower than for urban jobs. Employers often explained these outcomes in terms of various negative personality traits, attitudes, and behaviors that they ascribed to minorities.
Workplaces also remain highly segregated areas.
In Atlanta, for example, where African Americans are a minority, most blacks are nonetheless employed in settings where most of their coworkers are black. In Los Angeles, where nonwhites predominate, upwards of 80 percent of white employees report that their close coworkers are white. Tellingly, however, the distribution of power in the workplace follows an inverse pattern. By comparison, approximately half of all Asians and Latinos said they worked under a co-ethnic supervisor. Again, however, the spatial mismatch theory does not tell the whole story.