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98 Monthly Lab. Rev. 12 (1975)
The Jobs Puerto Ricans Hold in New York City

handle is hein.journals/month98 and id is 1100 raw text is: The jobs Puerto Ricans hold in New York City ABOUT 1 OUT OF EVERY 3 Puerto Ricans lives on the mainland United States. The mainland's Puerto Rican population tripled between 1950 and 1970, to nearly 1.4 million. Almost all of the Puerto Rican migrants settled in urban areas, most notably New York. Although its share of the mainland Puerto Rican population declined from 82 percent in 1950 to 59 percent in 1970, New York City continues to have a larger concentration of Puerto Ricans than any other city in the world. Its 1970 Puerto Rican population of 812,000 exceeded the combined popu- lation of Puerto Rico's three largest cities.' But what is the employment situation of these New Yorkers? At what jobs do they work, how well are they paid? The best source of detailed informa- tion is the 1970 census; it reveals that Puerto Ricans are concentrated in blue-collar, low-skilled occupa- tions and in declining sectors of New York City's economy, and that they suffer higher levels of un- employment and part-year work than other residents. In relation to other New Yorkers, their occupational earnings are subtantially lower. Occupational distribution In a city which is white collar, Puerto Rican New Yorkers are employed mainly in blue-collar jobs. (See table 1.) Only 33 percent held white-collar jobs in 1970, compared with 58 percent of all resi- dents and 43 percent of blacks. Less than 5 percent of the Puerto Ricans were in professional and tech- Lois S. Gray is assistant dean of the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University. This article io based on Regional Report 46, A Socio-Economie Profide of Puerto Rican New Yorkers, Middle Atlantic Re- gional Office, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1975. The report was prepared for the Bureau by Dean Gray in consultation with staff of the Middle Atlantic office. Copies of the com- plete report can be obtained upon request to the regional office at 1515 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10036. Most Puerto Ricans in New York, as on the rest of the mainland, in 1970 held blue-collar jobs and suffered higher than average unemployment LOIS S. GRAY nical occupations, and less than 4 percent were managers, officials, and proprietors. Puerto Ricans were represented among craft and kindred workers at rates proportionate to those of the entire labor force and above those of blacks. However, more than half of the employed Puerto Ricans worked in semiskilled and unskilled opera- tive and service jobs. In general, the occupational distribution of Puerto Ricans is more heavily weighted with low-skilled classifications than are those of others in the city's work force, including blacks. Typical jobs Within each major occupational classification, Puerto Ricans were grouped near the bottom of the earnings scale. Those in the professional and tech- nical category were primarily technicians. Dietary and health, social, and recreational work were the only professional and technical categories in which Puerto Ricans were at or above their proportion of the working population of New York in 1970 (approximately 6 percent). In law, medicine, educa- tion, and engineering, Puerto Ricans constituted a fraction of 1 percent of total employment. They accounted for substantially less than 1 percent of elementary and secondary schoolteachers, and for an even smaller proportion of teachers in colleges and universities. The managerial and administrative positions held by Puerto Ricans were more commonly in wholesale and retail trade than in manufacturing, transporta- tion, communications, or utilities. Among sales- workers, Puerto Ricans tended to be retail clerks and were seldom insurance or real estate agents. Those in office jobs were more often clerks, typists, and machine operators than secretaries. Among craft and kindred workers, Puerto Ricans held 8 percent of the first level supervisory positions,

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