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OCR for page 373
The New Technology and the
New Economy: Some Implications for
Equal Employment Opportunity
THIERRY J. NOYELLE
Are sex and race still major determinants of employment dis-
crimination? Is the new computer technology changing the de-
mand for labor to such an extent as to reshape the terms under
which women and minorities encounter discrimination? As ~ argue
in this paper, using evidence from empirical studies of the retail,
insurance, Ed financial sectors, both questions deserve qualified
answers (Noyelle, 1986; 1987~.
While major advances have been made in alleviating sex and
race discrimination in the workplace, discriminatory barriers based
on sex and race remain. Still, other bases for discrirn~nation, which
in the past played a lesser role, loom larger today. For example,
there may be an increasing tendency to use age to differentiate
youth and some groups of older workers from others in the labor
market today. During the l950s or 1960s, the age factor seemed
relatively unimportant. More significantly, the role played by
socioeconomic status may be growing in importance because of its
implications for access to formal schooling and higher education.
While our economy places increasing value on formal education
as a criterion for hiring, our society continues to lag behind in
providing equal access to quality education.
373
OCR for page 374
374
EQ UAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
The new technology is changing the nature of many jobs and
skills and, as a result, is redefining the demand for labor. In the
process, it is loosening the hold of particular groups of workers
on specific occupations. But its displacement effects are not re-
stricted to women and minority workers. At the same time, the
new technology cannot be viewed in isolation. Deep economic and
social changes and dramatic industry shifts have acted to alter the
overall occupational structure and to increase the importance of
formal schooling and higher education for employment opportu-
nity. The new wave of technological change simply reinforces these
trends.
The overall thesis of this paper is straightforward. ~ argue that
the current labor market transformation is altering fundamentally
employment and mobility opportunities by changing, in particular,
the need for training and the way training is provided. Further,
argue that this transformation has disturbed an earlier balance
among sources of discrimination.
A principal conclusion of the paper is that while direct equal
employment opportunity (EEO) enforcement in the workplace
must continue, the reach of EEO enforcement must be widened
from an almost exclusive focus on the workplace to one that links
the workplace to the educational arena. At the federal level, this
may require a redefinition of the scope of activities of the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) through new leg-
islation, since, under Title VIT of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
the scope of the Commission is largely restricted to the workplace.
Currently, equal opportunity in federally financed educational pro-
grams is mandated by other portions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act,
as amended, and other legislation, and is the responsibility of
other federal agencies. Enhancing equality of opportunity in the
transformed labor market may well require a consolidation of en-
forcement power and an awareness of the increasingly important
link between the two.
The paper is divided into three main parts. The first part
traces trends in aggregate employment data and shows which
groups of workers have tended to gain in their employment oppor-
tunities and which have tended to lose. The second part empha-
sizes key changes that have occurred in the structure of the U.S.
economy and the concomitant changes in the demand for labor.
The third discusses the changing nature of discrimination with
OCR for page 375
THIERRY J. NOYELLE
375
examples from back-office and retail employment and with spe-
cial reference to various groups of women and minorities. Policy
implications are discussed in the conclusion of the paper.
TECHNOLOGY AND DISCRIMINATION:
EVIDENCE FROM AGGREGATE DATA
FOR 1970-1980
What can be discerned about the critical linkages between
technology and discrimination from employment aggregates? To
seek some answers, ~ developed two sets of measures one based
on decennial census data, the other on EEOC data.
Table 1, based on 1970 and 1980 census data, presents an in-
dustry shift-share analysis for six major groups of workers: youth
(ages 16-19), black females, Hispanic females, white females, black
mates, bind Hispanic males. For each group, employment growth
(or decline) in an industry has been broken down among three
components: first, growth (or decline) associated with the relative
growth (or decline) of the industry; second, growth (or -declined as-
sociated with an increase (or decrease) in the group's participation
in the employed labor force; and third, growth (or decline) associ-
ated with the pure "shift" of the group in or out of the industry.
In other words, the "shift" measure indicates the gains or losses
in a given group's penetration in a particular industry, everything
else being held constant. For each group, the "shift" measure
is shown as a "turnover" ratio indicating the number of workers
"shifted" during the 10-year period shown as a percentage of the
group's 1980 employment. In addition, the positive and negative
shifts are distributed in percentage terms among industries. The
overall impact of the shift is shown by means of normalized shares
for 1970 and 1980. The share of employment of a group in an
industry is divided by its share in the total labor force. This ratio
shows the group's standing in an industry relative to the economy
as a whole. A ratio below 1 means that the group penetration in
the industry is lagging; a ratio above 1 means that the group is
overrepresented.
For example, Table 1 shows an aggregate turnover measure
of 2.6 percent for white women, indicating that 2.6 percent of the
34,806,839 white women found themselves in 1980 in an industry
different from that in which they would have been employed had
there been no change in the penetration of white women in various
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376
ED UAL EMPL O YMENT OPP OR T UNI T Y
TABLE 1 Industry Shifts of Major Groups of Workers and Distribution of Positive
and Negative Shifts Among Industries
Employment
Distribution: Youth (16-19 Black Hispanic
All Sexes, Years Old) Female Female
Races, Ages Normalized Normalized Normalized
(percent) Share Shift Share Shift Share Shift
Industry 1980 1970 1980 1970 (percent) 1980 1970 (percent) 1980 1970 (percent)
1. Health 7.4 5.5 0.68 0.93 -21.3 2.35 2.35 +0.3 1.42 1.81 -23.6
2. FIREa 6.0 5.0 0.67 0.85 -13.2 1.03 0.70 +15.1 1.23 1.17 +3.4
3. Social 1.8 1.6 0.87 0.70 +3.1 2.13 1.32 +10.5 1.48 1.18 +10.7
4. Business
servicesb 6.6 5.7 0.72 0.90 -14.7 0.60 0.85 -10.6 0.73 0.83 -6.6
5. Education 8.6 8.0 0.62 0.75 -13.5 1.59 1.49 +9.4 1.14 1.11 +12.4
6. TCU- 7.3 6.8 0.33 0.59 -23.2 0.71 0.44 +14.8 0.52 0.49 +6.8
7. Wholesale 4.3 4.1 0.71 0.68 +0.8 0.34 0.32 +0.8 0.71 0.81 -7.3
8. Construction 5.9 6.0 0.71 0.52 +12.9 0.10 0.06 +1.4 0.14 0.11 +0.8
9. Public adm. 5.3 5.5 0.40 0.37 +1.9 1.51 1.07 +18.2 0.90 0.73 +16.8
10. Consumed
services— 20.3 21.4 2.46 2.11 +80.6 1.06 1.70 -86.1 1.23 1.39 -62.5
11. Other goods- 4.0 4.5 1.06 1.02 +0.7 0.20 0.33 -3.4 0.59 0.56 +0.2
12. Manufacturing 22.4 25.9 0.60 0.64 -14.1 0.78 0.60 +29.4 1.14 0.96 +52.3
1980 Employment 6,973,441 4,659,177 2,168,649
Turnoverf 8.3 13.9 5.7
NOTE: The 12 industries are ranked by rate of growth between 1970 and 1980 from the fastest growing
(health) to the slowest growing (manufacturing). The industry breakdown used is based on
classification of service industries found in Stanback et al. (1981). The first two columns show the
distribution of all employed among the 12 industries in 1970 and 1980. The positive and negative
"shift" is distributed for each group on a percentage basis. The normalized shares of major groups
of workers shown for 1970 and 1980 are computed by dividing the share of employment held by each group
in each industry by that same group's share of employment in all industries combined. An index below
.00 indicates underrepresentation; above 1.00, overrepresentation. For definition of "shift," see
text.
Finance, insurance, and real estate.
~Legal, accounting, advertising, and the like.
Transportation, communications, and utilities.
Retailing and personal services.
Agriculture, mining.
Total shift for given group measured as percentage of 1980 employment. See text.
SOURCE: Bureau of the Census, 1974, 1984.
OCR for page 377
THIERRY J. NOYELLE
TABLE 1 (continued)
l
Industry
1. Health
2. FIREa
3. Social
4. Business b
ser~rices-
5. Education
6. TCU-
7. Wholesale
8. Construction
9. Public adm.
10. Consumers
services~ 0.72 0.74 -16.7
11. Other goods~ 0.88 1.30 -37.8
12. Manufacturing, 1.29 1.21 +52.9
1980 Employment 4,674,871
Turnover-f 4.3
Hispanic
Male
Normalized
Black Male
Normalized
Share Shift _ _
1980 1970 (percent) 1980 1970
0.65 0.58 +7.7
O.S8 0.53
0.84 0.86
0.82 0.84 -4.9
0.68 0.54 +16.4
1.72 1.45 +38.5
O.96 1.00 -7.2
1.37 1.56 -29.5
1.33 1.32 -1.7
377
White
Female
Normalized
!:;hare Shift Share
(percent) 1980 i970
.
0.42 0.46 -3.4
+4.5 0.54 0.61 -8.S
-2.1 0.48 0.61
0.98 0.96
0.42 0.45
1.12 1.17
1.18 1.25
1.70 1.47
0.87 1.12
-7.4
+7.2
-6.9
-11.3
-11.S
+34.4
-44.0
0.90 0.90 -2.9
2.04 1.97 -4.5
1.26 1.10 +58.4
3,288,208
S.S
1.74 1.93
1.43 1.41
1.45 1.32
0.92 0.£;0
1.53 1.70
0.56 0.59
0.67 0.65
0.21 0.17
0.88 0.77
1.30 1.28
0.40 0.27
0.72 0.77
34,806,839
2.6
Shift
(Percent)
-28.4
+14.7
+8.1
+11.5
-37.9
-1.5
+4.7
+10.8
+25.8
+3.4
+20.9
-32.1
OCR for page 378
378
ED UAL EMPLO YMENT OPPOR TUNI T Y
sectors of the economy between 1970 and 1980. In addition, the ta-
ble shows that this shift was primarily due to increased penetration
in public administration (explaining 25.8 percent of the positive
shift); other goods (+20.9 percent); finance, insurance, and real
estate (FIRE) (+14.7 percent); and business services (+11.5 per-
cent), matched by decreased penetration in education (explaining
37.9 percent of the negative shift), manufacturing (-32.1 percent),
and health (-28.4 percent).
On the whole, Table 1 points to the following: industry shifts
were extensive among black females (turnover of 13.9 percent for
the entire group) and youth (8.3 percent turnover) and rather lim-
ited among white females (2.6 percent turnover), Hispanic males
(3.3 percent), and black males (4.3 percent).
The largest exit move for black females was out of the personal
services industries where large numbers used to be employed as
domestic servants. Their greatest gains were in manufacturing
(+29.4 percent); public administration (+18.2 percent); and FIRE
and transportation, communications, and utilities (TCU) (+29.1
percent combined) where they made substantial gains in clerical
work; and the educational sector (+9.4 percent). Youth's greatest
Tosses were in TCU, FIRE, and business services (51.1 percent of
their Tosses combined), while their greatest gains were in retailing
(a staggering 80.6 percent).
The patterns of gains and losses among Hispanic females
tendecl, with some discrepancies, to resemble those of black fe-
males. Among black males and Hispanic mates, there were limited
positive shifts, overwhelmingly concentrated in some of the least-
dynamic and sIowest-growing sectors of the economy: manufactur-
ing and TCU for black males (+71.4 percent), and manufacturing
and construction for Hispanic males (+92.8 percent). Lastly, the
key finding for white women remains that industry shifts over the
decade were very limited, with an overall turnover of only 2.6
percent.
The second set of data, presented in Table 2, shows changes
in the normalized shares of five demographic groups of workers in
major occupations between 1966, 1978, and 1981. These data are
for large private-sector firms only (100 or more employees) and
are based on EEO-1 reports, which large employers must file every
year. They show the progress made by various groups of workers
in what has been traditionally the most progressive sector of the
economy in terms of EEO enforcement—that of large employers.
OCR for page 379
THIERRY J. NOYELLE
379
Some major changes are worth highlighting. The data show
white women advancing out of clerical positions and making large
gains in professional ranks; black women and Hispanic women,
respectively, moving out of service worker and laborer positions
while, in both cases, gaining in clerical positions; and black men
and Hispanic men shifting out of laborer positions and into oper-
ative and craft positions. Despite some scattered gains, minority
males in general continue to trail considerably in the fast-growing
white-collar occupations. Of all groups, Hispanic males appear to
be the least mobile.
Together these two data sets suggest the following: (1) a
relative narrowing of job opportunities for youth as their concen-
tration in retailing increased; (2) a relative improvement in the
position of women as shown by the gains of minority women into
clerical positions and the advances of white women into profes-
sional positions; and (3) a general lack of progress by minority
men in entering the relatively fast-growing service industries and
white-colIar occupations.
Findings regarding age-based discrimination are incomplete.
Aside from the patterns observed among youth, the statistical
analysis developed for this paper appeared too crude to yield sig-
nificant evidence of age-based discrimination among other groups,
although it is thought to exist.
THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE AMERICAN ECONOMY
AND CHANGES IN THE DEMAND FOR LABOR
THE RISE OF THE NEW SERVICE ECONOMY AND
ITS IMPACT ON THE INDUSTRY-OCCUPATION STRUCTURE
For some time now, the U.S. economy has been in the midst
of a major transformation, involving the shift of capital and labor
out of the smokestack industries and into high-tech and service
industries. While this transformation had been in the making
through much of the early postwar period, the acceleration in the
internationalization of the economy after the first oil crisis of 1973
contributed to speeding the redeployment of resources, as many
older industries were put through the wrenching test of worldwide
competition (Noyelle, 1984; Stanback and Noyelle, 1982; Stanback
et al., 1981; Ginzberg and Vojta, 1981~.
OCR for page 380
380
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OCR for page 381
THIERRY J. NOYELLE
381
Between 1970 and the last quarter of 1984, 27.2 million net
new jobs (Employment and Earnings, household survey data) were
added to the economy, of which nearly 95 percent were in the ser-
vice industries. Looking at the Reagan years only, the shift to
services was even sharper since, by November 1984, employment
in the goods-producing industries- agriculture, mining, construc-
tion, and manufacturing" had not even caught up with their Jan-
uary 1981 level (Employment and Earnings, establishment survey
data). In net terms, this means that employment growth, since
early 1981, had been 100 percent in the services.
In occupational terms, the labor market transformation of the
1970s has led to more than 7 out of every 10 workers being em-
ployed in either white-collar or service-worker occupations. Simul-
taneously, a very sharp drop in the share of blue-collar workers-
from 39.2 percent to 29.3 percent of the nonagricultural labor
force occurred between 1965 and 1983 (Employment and Earn-
ings, household survey data). In short, growth has shifted to
service industries dominated by white-colIar or service-worker oc-
cupations, technological change in manufacturing accelerated the
shift to managerial, engineering, technical, sales, and clerical oc-
cupations, away from blue-collar jobs.
As Tables ~ and 2 indicate, these shifts have been tilted toward
women and minority workers. During the 1970-1984 period, nearly
two-thirds of the new jobs were filled by members of these groups.
By late 1984, white males, for the first time, no longer constituted
the majority of the labor force: their share of the employed had
dropped from nearly 55 percent in 1970 to 49.5 percent by late
1984.
THE EARLY YEARS OF EEO: OPENING INTERNAL LABOR
MARKETS TO WOMEN AND MINORITY WORKERS
The aforementioned statistics mean little until one analyzes
who gets hired, for which jobs, and through which mechanisms.
Looking back at the record of the postwar period, it is surprising
to see the extent to which employers used to rely on internal labor
market structures to train workers and staff the ranks of their orga-
nization, and how rapidly this practice began changing in the early
1970s (Edwards, 1979; Osterman, 1982a, 1982b; Noyelle, 1986~.
It is important to stress that this earlier reliance on "internal la-
bor markets" was extensive not only among- the manufacturing
OCR for page 382
382
EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
giants that typified the era—the IBMs and the GMs but also
among many medium-sized firms, including those in the service
sectors (Appelbaum, 1984; Noyelle, 1986~. Thus, the recent loos-
ening of the reliance on internal labor markets cannot solely be
ascribed to the overall industry shift to the services, but must be
seen as part of a total labor market transformation affecting both
manufacturing and service industries.
In the insurance industry, for example, most workers entered
firms straight out of high school, at the very bottom of the orga-
nization as messengers or file clerks. Through on-thejob training
and seniority, they would move up the ranks. For example, the
most successful would move gradually from an entry-level cleri-
cal into a professional position, from, say, messenger to statistical
clerk, claims examiner, or policy rater and later to assistant un-
derwriter or underwriter (Appelbaum, 1984; Noyelle, 1986~. In
the department store industry, workers wouh] enter as stockroom
clerks and would move into sales positions (possibly to a commis-
sioned sales position in a high-ticket department such as furniture,
household, appliances, etc.), or even to department manager, as-
sistant buyer, and buyer positions (Noyelle, 1986~.
There were important (differences among industries and firms,
however. In the construction sector, for example, mobility ladders
were industry and craft based rather than firm based, with trade
unions often playing a central role in operating the mobility sys-
tem (Gallo, 1983~. In addition, most small firms lacked both the
resources and the range of employment opportunities necessary
to operate internal labor markets and relied extensively on the
open labor market. More important, perhaps, sex and race stereo-
typing was often used to create sex- or race-labeled occupations.
In turn, these were used to restrict mobility opportunities avail-
able through internal labor markets to white males, by channeling
women and minority workers into dead-end jobs. A good deal of
the mid-1970s literature on internal labor markets sought to ac-
count for many of these differences and the way they contributed
to discrimination among different groups of workers.
Consistent with the dynamics of labor markets prevailing at
the time, a principal focus of EEO policy, when first formulated,
was to open internal labor markets through both hiring quotas and
internal quotas to those who, for reasons of race or sex, had been
left out or left behind. Much attention was focused on industries
that were then the pillars of the economy: manufacturing and the
OCR for page 383
THIERRY J. NOYELLE
383
public sector. The efforts of the federal government to accelerate
the promotion of minorities and women withm its own agencies,
as well as within the private sector, through major consent decrees
such as those secured in 1973 between AT&T and the Equal Em-
ployment Opportunity Commission (Northrup end Larson, 1979),
and in 1974 between the Commission and the steel industry (Ich-
nowski, 1983), typified that period of EEO enforcement.
Although these decrees led to substantial gains during the
1970s, in retrospect, we can see that these efforts were focused on
industries and work settings that were declining in economic im-
portance. We are left with only limited clues as to how to approach
and solve labor market discrunination in today's economy. Over
the past decade, the role of internal labor markets has weakened
dramatically across a broad range of industries. The reasons for
this declining role are numerous and diverse, but it is evident that
firms are increasingly externalizing the cost and responsibility for
the training process, are relying more and more on external labor
markets for new workers, and are putting in place new arrange-
ments affecting whom they hire and promote (Noyelle, 1986~. Two
primary forces ace responsible for this new dynamic: the postwar
expansion of schooling and higher education and the new wave of
technological change.
THE POSTWAR EXPANSION OF SCHOOLING AND
HIGHER EDUCATION AND ITS IMPACT ON
HIRING REQUIREMENTS AND MOBILITY LADDERS
The first factor behind the transformation in hiring and mobil-
ity opportunities the postwar expansion of schooling and higher
education- albeit slow In the making, is nevertheless irreversible.
The transformation has been largely a case of supply changes
leading to demand changes. By changing the makeup of the labor
supply, the expansion of the educational system put pressure on
all firms to adjust their hiring procedures to the new availabilities
of a labor supply increasingly differentiated by grades and types
of education. For example, whereas only slightly more than 10
percent of those between age 25 and 29 had received 4 or more
years of college education in 1960, by 1980 their share had risen
to nearly 25 percent.
The expansion of formal education led to a major shift to
outside hiring, first felt most strongly at the level of professional
OCR for page 384
384
EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
and managerial personnel the so-called "exempt workers. This
trend significantly weakened some traditional internal ladders, es-
pecially those designed to move the ablest workers from nonex-
empt positions into supervisory and middle managerial positions.
No longer could a sales clerk expect to become a buyer for a major
retail organization, or a messenger expect to become an insur-
ance executive by simply moving through the ranks. Rather, most
companies began recruiting exempt workers directly from college
(Noyelle, 1986~. In that respect, the 1970s represent a turning
point as the cumulative effect of several decades of expansion of
the educational systems and the coming of age of the baby boom
were felt massively on the supply side of the labor market.
THE IMPACT OF THE NEW TECHNOLOGY ON SKILL
REQUIREMENTS AND THE ACCELERATION OF CHANGES IN
HIRING AND MOBILITY OPPORTUNITIES
Whereas earlier changes in hiring and mobility opportunities
had been mostly supply driven, recent changes have been largely
demand driven. They are the result of the introduction of the new
computer-communications technology and its impact on skills.
Broadly speaking, the new technology has acted to reinforce the
tendency toward a weakening of internal ladders. Two preliminary
observations are warranted to support this point.
First, vast areas of work are being transformed and reor-
ganized around the processing of information through interaction
with computerized systems. Until recently, the areas most directly
affected had tended to be primarily in the middle range of occupa-
tions, from relatively low-level clerical positions or even blue-collar
operative positions, all the way up to low- or middle-level profes-
sional workers (Hirschhorn, 1984; Bertrand and Noyelle, 1984;
Appelbaum, 1984~. Today, however, higher-level technical, profes-
sional, and/or managerial work are also being unaffected. Only in
the case of the lowest-level occupations primarily laborers, ser-
vice workers, and low-level sales and clerical classifications has
the new technology, thus far, had little or no direct impact on work
and skills. It may be relevant to note here that these low-skilled
occupations, including sales clerks, building janitors, guards, or-
derlies, cooks, and others have been among the fastest-growing
areas of employment and that mobility ladders are conspicuously
absent in these occupations (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1984~.
OCR for page 385
THIERRY J. NOYELLE
385
Second, the new technology does not, as many initially be-
lieved, lead ineluctably to downskilling but rather to varying
degrees of upskilling. This generalization does not preclude oc-
casional downskilling or occasional lags between current and po-
tential uses of technology by firms. Upskilling comes about for
three principal reasons: first, because the most efficient use of the
new technology often seems to lead to a reintegration of tasks pre-
viously parcelled out among difl.erent workers; second, because,
as intelligent systems take over Processing functions, workers
are left with "diagnosis and ~problem-solv~ng~ functions; and
third, because the shift to "problem-solving" functions at lower
levels of the organization calls for a simultaneous decentralization
in decision-making power (Adler, 1984; Hirschhorn, 1984; Rajan,
1984; and others reviewed in Bertrand and Noyelle, 1984~.
As the new technology changes skill requirements for many
jobs, it also leads to the homogenization of skills across a wide
range of industries, encouraging the externalization of training
for many m~le-leve} workers. This means that the jobs of bank
clerks processing letters of credit or fund transfers on a comput-
erized system, of insurance examiners processing claims, of airline
agents processing reservations and ticketing, or even of telephone
switchmen routing and managing traffic flows through switches
are becoming not only more demanding in terms of skills, but
also increasingly similar in terms of skills required (Appelbaum,
1984; Noyelle, 1984~. Not surprisingly, a major focus of the current
"training debate" about the need for more sophisticated training
institutions concerns this middle range of occupations, because
these are occupations, that, in their older configurations, had
rarely been brought within the purview of formalized training pro-
cesses. These were jobs for which skill training was traditionally
acquired on the job through internal labor market mechanisms.
Hirschhorn (1984) refers to this transformation as the process
of ~para-professionalization." Thus, the institutions most directly
concerned with the new demand for training are clearly not simply
high schools but, increasingly, vocational-educational institutions,
community colleges and even 4-year colleges.
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386
EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE AND INCREASING
INSTITUTIONAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL MOBILITY
Since formal education and training have become increasingly
important in determining a worker's position in the labor market,
there is a presumption that better-prepared workers should have
an edge particularly in terms of improving their earnings. Thus
far, this has not necessarily been the case. The tendency toward
universalization/homogenization of skins has also weakened the
degree to which workers are sheltered from competition as they
once were when skins were more specific to the output of the
industry or firm. Further, this has been aggravated by a context
of weakening unionization.
In addition, the new technology makes it increasingly feasible
and cost efficient to separate geographically so-called back-office
functions (dominated by clerical and service worker occupations)
from Front-office functions (dorn~nated by technical, sates, pro-
fessional, or managerial occupations). Two consequences follow.
First, the separation contributes to breaking the institutional job
linkages that used to exist when entire departments, from the bot-
tom up, were located in the same physical location. Second, the
increasing mobility of back-office establishments puts workers on
the defensive because the rise in two-wage-earner households is
hindering geographic mobility for many.
THE SHIFTING NATURE OF DISCRIMINATION
The broad changes that have taken place on the demand side
of the labor market and the gains made by certain groups of
workers in selected occupations and industries as a result of early
EEO efforts have both acted to shift the nature of discrimination.
Two examples will serve to illustrate some aspects of the shift:
(~) baclr-office clerical employment and (2) sales employment in
the retailing sector. In the first example, technology is brought
in to reform, reorganize, and rationalize work involving large con-
centrations of workers. As suggested above, the introduction of
technology has led to some degree of upskilling and associated
changes in the demand for labor. In the second case, the direct
impact of technology on sales and related occupations is relatively
modest. Technology figures in mostly indirectly in that it permits
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THIERRY J. NOYELLE
387
great improvements In the control and coordination of the orga-
nization itself (in buying, inventory control, and accounting). To
the extent that changes in labor demand can be observed, these
are unlikely to be associated directly with technology.
These two examples are instructive because they cover work
situations in which large numbers of women and minority workers
have traditionally found and continue to find employment.
THE REORGANIZATION OF BACK-OFFICE EMPLOYMENT
This example relates to the reorganization of clerical work
typical of the back offices of banks, insurance companies, telephone
.
and other utilities, and other organizations with large processing
facilities. In the 1960s and early 1970s, these firms hired large
numbers of youth as messengers and file clerks directly out of high
school to staff entry-level clerical positions. Later, many of these
young workers would be trained in-house and would move up the
ladder as they matured.
As Appelbaum (1984) has noted, the long-standing tendency
in back offices was to discriminate between white men and women
and minority workers by operating a two-track system. One track,
reserved mostly for white men, lead those workers into professional
or managerial employment; the other, used primarily for women
and minority workers, would channel most of them into dead-end
positions. By forcing companies to do away with these practices,
EEO, for a time at least, opened new avenues of opportunities
to women and minority workers. Yet, no sooner had these av-
enues been opened than their access was considerably curtailed
as the result of the tendency toward the weakening of internal
labor markets, and in particular the delinking of nonexempt from
exempt jobs. This did not completely shut out access for women
and rn~norities to many managerial and professional positions; but,
typically, it forced them to enter through another route, that of
higher education. At the same time, changes were also occurring
at the traditional entry level, with impacts on both adult workers
and youth.
For many years companies with large back-office employment
were known for their close links to the local high schools. Dur-
ing the 1970s, however, this situation changed dramatically as a
result of the new technology. As one executive of a large New
York insurance firm reported in a recent interview: "Up until the
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EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
early 1970s, we hired nearly 2,000 kids every summer. Today, we
hire at most 100 kids. Nowadays, most entry takes place at a
higher level typically community college or equivalent straight
into citron examiner positions. Most of the filing and messenger
functions have been eliminated through computerization."
In a recent study of the youth labor market in New York City,
Bailey and Waldinger (1984) found that of the nearly 40,000 jobs
lost by youth in New York City during the last decade (197~
1980), nearly half could be attributed to the sheer contraction of
the city's economy. The other half—that is nearly 20,000 jobs-
could be attributed to the elimination of filing clerks, messengers,
and similar positions in local public utilities (telephone, gas, and
electric), banks, and insurance firms. The industry shift data for
youth presented above corroborate this finding for the nation as a
whole. Beyond the magnitude of the numbers involved, these losses
implied that by the late 1970s a major group of workers—youth
with high school or equivalent diplomas no longer had available
to them entry opportunities with built-m promotion ladders. They
had largely been relegated to entering retail and consumer services,
with far more limited opportunities for upward mobility.
The trend just discussed, which was set in motion in the early
1970s when large back-office organizations began investing in cen-
tralized EDP, Is being followed by yet another trend growing out
of the deployment of distributed data processing in the late 1970s
and early l980s. The new generation of computer-communications
technology permits geographic separation of back offices from front
offices of the firm and permits the parent organization to seek new
locations away from the central districts of very large cities such as
New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and other places
where back-office jobs have traditionally been located. The great-
est impact of this new trend appears to fall on minority women,
who had made great gains in entering clerical ranks during the
1970s but who may now be left behind in the inner cities where they
reside, while back-office jobs are being moved elsewhere (Noyelle,
1986, especially Ch. 5~.
While some groups are losing, others are clearly gaining from
this restructuring/relocation of back-office work. In general, em-
ployers relocate their facilities not only in areas where operating
costs (rent, utilities) and labor costs are lower, but also often in
areas where they can find an infrastructure of community colleges
(or equivalent) that will help them prepare and train employees.
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THIERRY J. NO YELLE
389
Typically, such moves bring firms to the suburbs where they seek
large pools of middle-aged, married, usually white women. In some
cases, they bring employers to communities with large military in-
stallations where they hire both married wives of enlisted men
and retired military clerks willing to put in a few more years of
work. The advantage of hiring from these groups is that these are
workers who typically demand little by way of mobility opportu-
nities, something that most employers can no longer offer because
of delinking between back-office clerical positions and higher-level
jobs.
THE TRANsFoRMAT~oN OF RETAIL EMP~oYMENT
Retail is one sector where employment transformations appear
to be less directly linked to recent or past technological changes.
This does not mean, however, that the new technology has not
found its way into this sector, but that its impact has been more
diffuse and indirect.
The postwar period witnessed the rapid growth and diffusion
of large chain organizations. Up until the 1940s, organizations such
as Sears or A&P were exceptions. The postwar period saw a rapid
growth of multiunit organizations in foods, dry goods, hardware,
gasoline, and many other areas, penetrating markets traditionally
dominated by ~mom-and-pop" businesses. The resulting shift in
the scale of operations made possible substantial rationalization,
with accompanying major productivity gains in buying, inven-
tory control, and accounting, facilitating the further growth of
large sales organizations with relatively thin administrative staffs.
These changes also made it easier for large retail organizations
to follow their customers into the suburbs, where they were able
to tap into underutilized pools of suburban married women often
eager to work.
Simultaneously, the cumulative effect of changes in work hab-
its and spending patterns (e.g., two-worker families) led retail
organizations to stay open for more hours during the week and to
make more use of part-time employees. In place of the basic 9-to-5,
Manhour work week, many retail organizations, today, are open 65
hours a week (10 hours on weekdays; 7.5 hours on Saturday and
Sunday). In some of the largest metropolitan areas, supermarkets
compete on a 24-hour, 7 days-a-week basis. The impact of these
changes on employment patterns has been dramatic: the reliance
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EQUAL EMPlOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
on part-time employees has skyrocketed. In department stores, the
breakdown between fur-time and part-time employment shifted
from 65 percent full time/35 percent part time in the mid-1960s
to the reverse ratio nowadays as stores added half-time and short-
hour shifts (Noyelle, 1986~.
Much of the employment expansion in retail was first based on
the hiring of women first white women, later minority women.
Clearly, the expansion of part-time jobs was aimed in part at
facilitating the employment of married women, many of whom
preferred not to put in a full work week. While large retail or-
ganizations were leaders in uncovering those underutilized pools
of women, the discovery did not go unnoticed for long in other
industries. As noted previously, large clerical organizations are
now actively seeking such employable women by relocating back-
office facilities in the suburban rings of large cities. In the process,
these organizations are creating new pressures on the adult women
labor market. As a result, many retail organizations are now seek-
ing to recruit more actively from among high school youth, many
of whom are now available, because, short of educational creden-
tials higher than a high school diploma, they are blocked from
competing for more desirable jobs.
POLICY IMPLICATIONS
For more than 20 years now, this nation has had a policy of
equal employment opportunity enacted into law, administered by
a specialized federal agency, and enforced through the courts.
Because EEO was shaped under specific historical circum-
stances, namely, as an outgrowth of the civil rights and, later,
women's movements, and because it was shaped in response to the
reality of the labor markets of the 1960s and early 1970s, the prin-
cipal emphasis of early EEO policy was to stress the elimination
of sex-based or race-based discrimination in the workplace. Work-
place discrimination, at the time, was primarily rooted in blatant
sex or race job stereotyping, perpetuated not simply through cul-
tural biases but quite concretely by excluding women and minority
workers from entering white men's jobs and from accessing oppor-
tunity ladders available to white men. In a period when the large
majority of workers was rarely educated beyond high school, for-
mal education beyond the acquisition of basic skills was seen as
playing a relatively minor role in determining what happened to
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THIERRY J. NOYELLE
391
workers once they entered the labor market. Still, considerable
effort was also placed on desegregating schools to increase the like-
lihood that minority youth would acquire basic skills and be able
to enter the labor market on the same terms as white youths.
To assert that sex or race discrimination in the workplace has
been eliminated and no longer needs the nation's attention would
be ridiculous and wrong. But it would be equally wrong to write
off the past 20 years of EEO enforcement and assert that nothing
has changed.
This paper suggests that we need (1) a stronger assessment
of the changes that have occurred in the labor market as a result
of earlier EEO efforts, the increasing importance of education,
technological change, and the structural shift from manufacturing
to services; (2) a stronger assessment of the impact of these changes
and their role in bringing to the fore factors of discrimination
other than sex or race, especially age and socioeconomic status;
and (3) a stronger assessment of the way in which these new
factors of discrimination may be used either independently or in
connection with sexual or racial characteristics to bring about
different patterns of discrimination.
Formal education is clearly becoming a major determinant of a
worker's long-term position in the labor market. This is not simply
a case of growing credentialism for the sake of erecting new barri-
ers, although the tendency may also be at work. While professions
have traditionally used formal accreditation or licensing based on
educational degrees as a way to keep entry restricted, the rising
importance of education is also a reflection of a growing reliance on
externalization of training. This tendency has been in the making
for several decades, especially among the upper echelons of the oc-
cupational structure. Still, the new technology is intensifying the
trend, by accelerating the formalization of training and education
for workers employed in a broad range of m~ddle-level occupations.
The increasing importance of education appears to be creating
both new opportunities and potential problems for groups of work-
ers that have traditionally been the target of discrimination. On
the one hand, the process of externalization of training may make
it increasingly difficult for employers to close off access to skill
acquisition as a way to discriminate against women and minority
workers. The substantial progress of women over the past two
decades in professional occupations attests to this. On the other
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EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
hand, the externalization of training is unlikely to be problem-
free. For example, the current structure of our higher educational
system—characterized by considerable disjunction among various
levels (2-year colleges, 4-year colleges, graduate schools) and often
lacking flexibility- makes it difficult to find workable continuing-
education solutions that are increasingly necessary in order to
progress upward in the labor market during one's work life. In
addition, to the extent that employers may partly control access
to higher education, for example, by financing retraining programs
at the community college level or tuition reimbursement programs
at 4-year colleges, there may be room for discrunination to creep
back in.
In general, these developments point to the increasing im-
portance of the issue of who gets access to preferred education
and why. In a society that is still far from having an equitable
educational system in place, one's family socioeconomic status
may largely determine one's future position In the labor mar-
ket. It has been primarily m~dle-class women, mostly although
not exclusively white, who, over the past two decades, have been
most successful in advancing to professional positions through the
higher educational route. Short of major changes, this trend may
accelerate.
In concluding, three points must be emphasized. First, ~
believe that EEO's traditional emphasis on eliminating cultural
biases and institutional arrangements that perpetuate discrim~na-
tion in the workplace must be maintained. But ~ also believe that
EEO policy must begin to reach outside the employing institu-
tion to the educational process in order, ultimately, to strengthen
enforcement in the workplace. As noted at the outset, this may
require new legislation to bring about a more coordinated enforce-
ment effort in the two areas.
Second, the linkage between work achievement, education,
and socioeconomic background may have major implications for
women And minority groups that have traditionally used "sex" or
"racer as a lever in the workplace. Increasingly, sex or racial groups
may become differentiated along socioeconomic class lines, so that
recourse to "sex" or "race" as rallying points in the workplace may
lose some strength.
Finally, as the aggregate data indicate, we may need to put
in place special efforts to assist minority men who appear to be
failing in entering many of the white-collar occupations in the
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THIERRY J. NOYELLE
393
service sector where much of the future lies. The unrelenting high
unemployment among young minority workers must be a matter
of special concern. We must find ways to intervene and turn this
trend around.
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)
Representative terms from entire chapter:
employment opportunity
