HOME: Oakland Equity Indicators | Economy | Job Quality

The Job Quality Topic includes three Indicators that measure access to high quality jobs that pay a living wage and promote career development and long term economic stability. The first Indicator in this Topic measures disparities in employment rates in high wage industries. The second Indicator measures racial and ethnic disparities in the likelihood of having a job that pays at least living wage. The third Indicator measures racial and ethnic disparities in participation rates in workforce development programs intended for unemployed individuals.

Job Quality had the highest Topic score in the Economy Theme, at 51.7. The Indicator scores varied widely, with the living wage Indicator receiving the lowest score at 29. Employment in high wage industries scored higher at 54. Participation in workforce development programs had the highest score at 72.

Latino workers were the most likely to not be employed in a high wage industry (83.2%), followed closely by African American workers (82.0%). About half of White workers were not employed in a high wage industry (50.4%), and Asian workers fell in the middle (67.5%). Citywide, six out of ten workers were not employed in high wage industries. Latino workers were 1.65 times more likely to not be employed in a high-wage industry than White workers.

Citywide, three in ten workers (30.9%) made less than the living wage. Almost half of Latino workers (46.5%) made less than the living wage compared to 12.3% of their White counterparts. Among African American workers, 37.6% made less than the living wage, which was a similar percent to that of Asian workers (36.4%). Latino workers were 3.79 times more likely than White workers to make less than the living wage.

Unemployed African American Oaklanders had the highest participation in the City’s program (26.8% participate, 73.2% did not participate). Asian unemployed Oaklanders had the lowest participation rates (7.1% participate, 92.9% did not participate). Therefore, an unemployed Asian person was 1.27 times more likely to not participate in the City’s Workforce Development programs than an African American unemployed person. As shown in our Unemployment Indicator, African Americans have the highest rate of unemployment and Asians the second highest rate. It is, therefore, appropriate that African Americans participate extensively in Workforce Development programs and that participation should continue. However, the results in this Indicator show that Asian participation is an area for improvement as they also experience high unemployment rates, but are the least likely to participate in the City’s Workforce Development programs.