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609 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 6 (2007)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0609 and id is 1 raw text is: Introduction By GEORGE WILSON Studies of racial/ethnic inequality in the American labor market at the dawn of the new millennium are, arguably, of unprecedented importance. First, from a sheer numbers stand- point, forms of inequality have the potential to have more widespread consequences than in the past: in recent decades, racial/ethnic minorities (both males and females) have experienced growing representation in the American labor market. In this vein, their proportion of the full-time labor force has nearly doubled since 1970 (Foner and Frederickson 2004), and it is projected that this trend will accelerate in the next few decades (Farley 1996). In addition, along this same line, the number of minority groups in the labor force in the United States has increased: the growing number of groups who have a more visible presence than in the past is a product of the new immigration in the post-1965 period, which has included Latino and sub-Latino groups; Asian popula- tions from virtually all parts of that continent; as well as a growing number of groups from the Middle East, the continent of Africa, and the small island countries in the Caribbean (Farley 1996; Bean and Bell-Rose 1999). Second, a range of emerging trends within racial and eth- nic minority populations pose fundamental new research challenges for sociologists. Especially noteworthy, in this regard, is the growing socioeconomic differentiation experienced by minority groups in recent decades (Farley 1996; Anderson and Massey 2000). In particu- lar, minorities have become increasingly repre- sented across the hierarchical occupational structure from low-end, entry-level positions in the rapidly expanding service sector, to tradi- tional manual labor occupations associated with the working class to management, executive, and professional positions that constitute the basis for the new minority middle class (Landry 1987). Accordingly, researchers con- tinue to focus principally on issues of exclusion on DOI: 10.1177/0002716206297017 ANNALS, AAPSS, 609, January 2007 6