Black, White, male, and female concentrated employment: The effect of spatial and aspatial labor factors

•We investigate the influence of site and labor attributes on employment location.•We study concentrated Black, White, male, and female employment.•Industry effects on employment location by race and gender were explored.•Education and health care-related industries support female concentrations.•Manufacturing, transportation, healthcare contribute to concentrated Black employment.

We empirically investigated the influence of site attributes, proximity to labor, specific industries, and labor force characteristics on the location of employment concentrations. The study focuses on two dimensions of labor force including race and gender. We examined racial and gender disparity by studying concentrated Black, White, male, and female employment. While job opportunities are expanding, education and health care-related industries support substantial female concentrations, while manufacturing, transportation and warehousing, health care and social assistance increase the likelihood for the concentrated Black employment. Although the study found little evidence of spatial mismatch with employment clusters by race tending to occur close to their own concentration of labor, another finding indicates that a significant part of Black employees might have employment outside the identified employment areas. The study contributes to the body of research analyzing locational and labor attributes of employment concentrations.