d the minority population increased from 1970 to 1990. Poverty increased from 14.8 percent in 1970 to 18.5 percent in 1990. While both the black and the Hispanic populations also increased, the gap between them in percentage of the overall population declined slightly. Contrary to expectation, the percentage of persons with less than a high school education declined in the two decades. The percentage with less than a high school education dropped tremendously from 1970 to 1990 (46.10 to 25.97 percent). This decline is probably a function of examining the city as a whole and not just areas with high numbers of female-headed families. As expectedly both the overall unemployment and the male unemployment rates increased with the largest gains coming in the 1970's. The unemployment rate almost doubled from 4.67 to 7.22 in this decade. The growth was somewhat smaller in the 1980's. Finally, in terms of underemployment, the percentage of male workers 16 and over that worked part-time also grew. Clearly family structure has changed significantly in cities in the last two decades with families becoming more female-headed. At the same time, cities are experiencing higher unemployment rates and more part-year employment, along with increases in both their poverty and minority populations. In the next section the patterns of change in the economic structure will be examined.Table 2 examines the changing economic structure by region and for the country as a whole. While the percentages differ, the overall patterns are the same for all regions. During the last two decades each region experienced a decline in their manufacturing industries and a growth in both their low and high income service industries. The decline in manufacturing jobs was especially great in the Northeast (where 39.7 percent of all jobs in 1970 and 27.9 percent of all jobs in 1990 were in manufacturing industries) and in the Midwest (40.1 to 29.4 percent). In contrast, in the Wes...
