Consider this: the 14,000 jobless, underemployed and working poor in the Pittsburgh region would have had $372 million in earnings in 2008 if African American men and women were gainfully employed in jobs at the same rate as white workers.
A new study released by
Sustainable Pittsburgh makes a case for diversity and inclusion in the workforce as a way to achieve greater economic health in the region. In other words, if the region focuses on promoting diversity, helping African Americans to overcome systemic barriers to employment and generating demand for diverse employees, southwestern PA will build a thriving and prosperous global economy.
"Pittsburgh is on the brink of major breakthrough, scientifically, economically and perhaps socially," says Sala Udin, president of the
Coro Center for Civic Leadership."The difference in whether we achieve that breakthrough will not be more money or better science, but more inclusion. We wanted to make a business and economic case for diversity and inclusion and I think the report makes it well."
Inclusion in the Workforce: Positioning the Pittsburgh Region to Prosper and Compete paints a discouraging picture of the white-black employment gap, placing Pittsburgh among the most inequitable regions in the country for black unemployment. It also shows how achieving higher levels of inclusion in communities of color and workforce diversity can turn the region around.
Sustainable Pittsburgh commissioned PolicyLink, a national research and action institute that advocates economic and social equity, to write the report; research assistance was provided by several researchers with the
University of Pittsburgh.
To read the report, click
here.
Writer:
Debra Diamond SmitSource: Ginette Walker Vinski, Sustainable Pittsburgh; Sala Udin, Coro Center for Civic Leadership
Photo courtesy of Sustainable Pittsburgh