Research Updates |
Research Briefs
|
Publications |
Site Map |
Contact Info
|
Research Updates |
Research Briefs
|
Publications |
Site Map |
Contact Info
|
|
EMPLOYMENT AND POVERTY RESEARCH
Child care Discrimination Drilldown tools Driver's license Job openings surveys Housing crisis Housing integration Neighborhood indicators Prison issues Reprints School-to-work curriculum Voter ID Welfare research Workforce training WPA history
|
Wisconsin leads U.S. in
black male incarceration
STUDY |
OTHER ETI PRISON RESEARCH
The
study on
Wisconsin's Mass Incarceration of African American Males:
Workforce Challenges for 2013 recommends alternatives to incarceration for lower-risk offenders with the
savings used to increase workforce support for released prisoners and for non-offending youth and young adults facing
barriers to employment.
See additional ETI research on prisons.
|
Incarceration discussion
|
Additional readings --
local
Wisconsin has the highest black male incarceration rate in the United States, according to estimates from the 2010 decennial census. The rate (1 out of 8 African American men ages 18-64 were in state prisons and local jails in April 2010) is nearly double that of the nation as a whole and 32% higher than the next worst state (Oklahoma). 
[black rates | white rates] |
|
Skills gap, job gap, or both?
The ETI
voter ID study
was used by Circuit Court Judge David Flanagan as one basis for a
temporary injunction
against Wisconsin's new voter identification law. Flanagan
subsequently issued a permanent injunction against the law. A
permanent
injunction was also issued against Wisconsin's voter ID law by Circuit Court Judge Richard Niess, whose order
maintains that the state legislature lacks the authority under
Wisconsin's constitution to bar citizens
from voting on the grounds that they lack a government-sanctioned photo ID.
The
2005 ETI study of driver's license records for
the state of Wisconsin found that in Milwaukee County among 18-24 year olds 58% of African
American males and 57% of African American females lacked a driver's license as did
46% of Hispanic males and 61% of Hispanic females. In the "Wisconsin balance of
state" (outside Milwaukee County) only 15% of white males and 15% of white females ages 18-24 lacked a
license.
An
amicus
brief for Arizona v. The Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, a case currently under review by
the U.S. Supreme Court, cites the ETI study findings that only 2% of college students living in residence halls
[at Marquette, UW-Madison,
and UW-Milwaukee] had driver's licenses bearing their dormitory addresses.
|
African American income assets
The report Building on African American Assets: Resource Data for the ONE MKE Summit identifies the zip code locations of the $3.5 billion in income of black residents of Milwaukee County. Over 70% of this income is concentrated in the 9 zip codes where African Americans make up the majority of the population. African American income has tremendous economic development potential if tapped for locally-owned businesses and recycled through the community, as promoted by the NAACP Young Adult Committee, the African American Chamber of Commerce, and the ONE MKE Summit. The report calls for locally-developed, accurate descriptions of the assets of Milwaukee neighborhoods, particularly given the misleading, negative stereotypes promoted by a number of the largest data marketing firms.
"Working poor" single parent families, Wisconsin's cut in state EIC In 2011 the Wisconsin legislature reduced the state earned income tax credits for "working poor" families with 2 or more children. The brunt of these cuts fell on single parents in Milwaukee's inner city where tax credits fell by 26% in 2011. The ETI report on Income Changes for Single Families during the Recession is based on an analysis Wisconsin state income tax records for 2007 through 2011 for working age filers (married and single) with dependents. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on local and state concerns about the EIC reductions.
Over half (59%) of state income tax single filers with dependents in 9 central city Milwaukee zipcodes had less than $20,000 annual income in 2011, suggesting low wages, part-time jobs, high job turnover, and less than year-round employment. ACS data show low-income single moms concentrated in jobs in child care centers, hospitals, department and discount stores, restaurants and food service, and nursing homes. Many of the jobs in these sectors have variable or irregular hours and seasonal swings in employment. |
Driver's license research
SUSPENSIONS FOR FAILURE TO PAY fines/ forfeitures: Almost 24,000 Milwaukee County residents have driver's license suspensions solely for failure to pay fines and civil forfeitures Three-fourths of license suspensions in the county are for FPFs rather than for unsafe driving. License REVOCATIONS: Revocations to county residents have decreased by 2/3 since 2009 under state legislative reforms initiated by the Center for Driver's License Recovery and Employability (CDLRE). Driver's license STATUS: The highest numbers of unlicensed drivers with suspensions and revocations are African American men in their prime early working years. ETI reports have shown the driver license to be essential for getting and keeping employment and exceeding high school completion as a predictor of sustained employment. For more information, see the ETI driver's license webpage, the CDLRE website, and the Radio Milwaukee (88.9) community story on Ron Lee's adult driver education programs. The Governor's Minority Unemployment Task Force is supporting Milwaukee efforts to address license suspensions for failure to pay forfeitures. WPA online exhibit 
<
|
| Accurately determining labor needs: ETI job openings survey studies | |||
|
The last detailed survey of job openings in the Milwaukee
region was conducted in May 2009. Over 3,800 employers (selected from a stratified sample of
establishments of all sizes and industries) participated in the survey through a combination of phone interviews,
mail surveys, and internet job postings.
For each job opening the employer provided information on the job title; whether the job was full-time or
part-time; the education, training and experience requirements; the jobsite location; the wages or
salary rate (optional); and whether the job is difficult to fill. The ETI job openings survey data have been used to plan technical training and are far superior to the anecdotal stories, extrapolations from national estimates, or computerized summaries of webpage job listings typically used in absence of accurate local job vacancy data.
|
|
|
|
Purchasing power profiles for US neighborhoods |
WPA exhibit |
MAWIB workforce drilldowns |
ETI reprint series |
Milwaukee poverty research |
| Frequently Requested Studies | |||
Analysis of Milwaukee Births: Diversity
and Concentration
Identifying Milwaukee Youth in Critical Need of Intervention: Lessons from the Past, Measures for the Future (1991). This report for the Milwaukee County Youth Initiative directed by Howard Fuller identified with chilling accuracy which pre-teens referred to the county and courts for services were likely to be incarcerated as teens and adults absent more effective interventions. |
Confronting Anti-Urban Marketing Stereotypes: A Milwaukee Economic
Development Challenge.
National marketing firms often denigrate lower-income communities while ignoring the purchasing
power of dense urban neighborhoods.
Assumptions and Limitations of the Census Bureau Methodology Ranking Racial and Ethnic Residential Segregation in Cities and Metro Areas. Popular sociological methodologies view majority white neighborhoods with small African American and Hispanic populations as integrated while labeling majority non-white neighborhoods as segregated (i.e., isolated) and emphasize "dispersal" rather than racial/ethnic ranges to define integration. |
Milwaukee Children Most Impacted by
the Recession.
Milwaukee Public
Schools educates 25% of all Wisconsin students (public and private) from
low-income families of poverty, but only 3% of middle income children in the
state. 92% of MPS students now attend a school where over half of the
children are poor and 67% attend a building where over 75% of the students are poor.
In the suburban schools, only 4% of students attend a school where half of the
children are poor and only 1% attend a high-concentration poverty school.
|
Indicators of Need in Milwaukee's Poorest Neighborhood.
Zip code 53206.
In 2004 and 2005 this neighborhood was targeted by 60 different mortgage companies -- most from out-of-state -- issuing subprime loans. As of 2006, a majority (62%) of young men had been incarcerated in state prison.
Jobs for Workers on Relief in Milwaukee County: 1930s-1990s. From 1930 to 1995 Milwaukee city and county governments created thousands of jobs for families and individuals who could not find unsubsidized employment and who sought county relief. |
|
Research Updates
CHILD CARE NEEDS AND BARRIERS TO EMPLOYMENT
UWM Feature Article on ETI's Neighborhood Research |
NEIGHBORHOOD INDICATORS
Drilldowns for central city Milwaukee ZIP codes explore the impact of the subprime housing crisis, escalating rates of African American male incarceration, family income and poverty levels, small business growth and retail opportunities inside Milwaukee's innercity neighborhoods. The Brookings Institution has recognized these studies as national models. PRISON RATES AMONG MILWAUKEE WORKERS Wisconsin has the highest incarceration rates for African American and Native American men in the nation, according to estimates from the 2010 U.S. Census. In Milwaukee County over half of young black men in their 30s have been imprisoned and face multiple employment barriers upon release. SCHOOL TO WORK CURRICULUM AND RESEARCH Model curriculum materials prepared with high school and technical college teachers show how to help students learn about the local labor market and document their job readiness skills. VOTER ID ISSUES Employment and Training Institute research was used in the dissenting opinion by Supreme Court Justice David Souter in the Indiana voter ID case, was at the heart of U.S. Justice Department disagreements over Georgia's photo ID law, and is recommended in law review articles as the standard for empirical research needed to determine the constitutionality of state voter ID laws.
WELFARE RESEARCH
|
|
Contact Information
The Employment and Training Institute addresses the workforce
training, transportation, and education needs of low-income and
unemployed workers in Wisconsin through applied research, policy
development, and technical assistance.
The researchers work with local and
state governments, employers, community organizations, national agencies,
and other universities to address interrelationships between public
policy,
occupational training, labor market and demographic changes, educational
programs, transportation barriers, child care needs, and welfare
policies.
For more information contact John Pawasarat (Director) or Lois Quinn (Senior Research Scientist) at eti@uwm.edu, Employment and Training Institute, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 161 W. Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 6000, Milwaukee, WI 53203. Phone (414) 227-3380. FAX (414) 227-3233. The Institute is a department in the School of Continuing Education of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and University of Wisconsin Extension. | |
|
|
Milwaukee Drill photos are courtesy of Milwaukee Electric
Tool Corporation.
|
Site
by Lois
Quinn,
last
updated 2013
ETI participated in a community forum on job skills and employment needs in Milwaukee,
broadcast by WUWM's "Lake Effect." WUWM's
