Nonemployment of Black Men in Major Metropolitan Areas*

The author examines the extent of nonemployment among black males across 64 MSAs in 1980, testing Szymanski's (1976) thesis of functional substitutability of women and black workers in the post-World War II period. Evidence is presented to show that black male nonemployment is partially the result of increased white female employment. The paper concludes with the suggestion that in the United States labor displacement in the post-World War II economy has worked cross-genderly when race is taken into account.