Status of Civil Rights in Texas. Volume II: An Employment Profile of San Antonio, 1968-1978. A Case Study.

As of 1978 in San Antonio, Texas, equal employment opportunity remained an unfulfilled promise. The Texas Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights studied private sector employment in four industries (banking, hospitals, universities, broadcasting), public employment at four governmental levels (municipal, county, state, federal), and employment at five military bases and two public utilities, from 1968 to 1978. The prevailing employment pattern in all sectors placed white/Anglo males in high salaried, more prestigious, largely white collar positions and relegated women and minorities to lower paying, less skilled jobs. In the private sector in general, minorities, severely underrepresented in higher status jobs, were concentrated in craft, operative, laborer, and service-related jobs. Women were well represented at the white collar level but largely in clerical jobs. The public sector and the military bases employed more women and minorities in 1978 than in 1968 but again in lower paying jobs. The public utility workforce remained stable for the period studied, with few women or blacks at all but many Mexican Americans employed as laborers. Unemployment for women and minorities was disproportionately high based on their percentage of the population and consistently higher than for white/Anglo males. (Author/SB)