While economic insecurity is a widespread challenge for an increasing number of Mississippians, women and people of color are disproportionately represented among the economically insecure. This brief highlights how employment equity is essential to the state's future. If full employment was achieved across all gender and racial groups, Mississippi's economy could be $2.5 billion stronger each year. Investing in women and in critical support systems for Mississippi’s workforce will disrupt Mississippi’s current pattern of economic exclusion and place the state on a course to greater prosperity for all. The report is the third of five briefs about employment equity in southern states based on data analysis and modeling of a “full-employment economy” (defined as when everyone who wants a job can find one), which was conducted by the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) at the University of Southern California as well as policy research and focus groups conducted by PolicyLink and the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative, with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Download the report, detailed methodology, and fact sheet.

Media: Analysis: Pay Gap and Cost of Child Care Create Obstacles (The Washington Times, Miami Herald), Study: Full Employment Across Racial, Gender Lines Would Boost Economy (Mississippi Public Broadcasting), What's Holding Mississippi Back? Pay Gap, Child Care Costs, Report Says (Clarion-Ledger), Initiative Looking to Help Low Income Mothers Find Better Jobs (Jackson’s WJTV)