Racial Segregation, Transportation, and Unemployment Rates in the United States

This study explores the complex relationships among metropolitan- and neighborhood-level racial segregation, transportation, and tract-level employment outcomes using data from over 28,000 census tracts in 95 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the United States. Results from a series of multilevel models indicate that the availability of private (but not public) transportation is positively related to employment rate at the census-tract level. We also find census tracts with higher shares of Hispanics and African Americans have higher unemployment rates, but MSA-level dissimilarity is not significantly related to tract-level unemployment. We also determine that there is no moderating effect of MSA-level racial segregation on the relationship between transportation and employment outcomes. Findings reveal the critical role of automobiles in connecting employees to jobs. They further highlight that a reduction in racial segregation at the neighborhood level might benefit employment outcomes at the census tract level.