Hiring practices that often discount applicants of color have helped drive severe unemployment rates among black men, blocking many from the post-industrial economy that has rejuvenated Pittsburgh, an 18-month study shows.

“You have people who are disproportionately touched by the criminal justice system — sometimes unfairly — and they are disproportionately excluded” from security-sensitive industries like health care, said Urban Institute fellow Margaret Simms, who co-wrote the 67-page report, “Barriers and Bridges,” released late last week.

She called Pittsburgh “one of the most segregated metropolitan communities in the country,” split along historical racial fractures that still divide neighborhoods, the workforce and professional and social networks. Isolation ranks with lackluster job training, high arrest rates and other systemic hurdles that contribute to joblessness among black men, according to findings at the Washington, D.C.-based policy institute.

The Heinz Endowments paid the nonprofit nearly $180,000 to explore that unemployment and its related economic gaps, which researchers said should worry employers and families across the region. Local joblessness reached 12.2 percent from 2007 to 2011 for working-age black men with at least a high school diploma or equivalent, more than double the figure among whites, the study notes.

“There are barriers built into the system that we just take for granted and don’t think about on a day-to-day basis. But they end up overwhelmingly discriminating against people of color,” said Grant Oliphant, president at the Downtown-based endowments.

Impediments facing black men can include challenges securing capital for new businesses, inadequate access to education and prior arrests that never led to convictions, according to the report. The authors indicate that bias and employers’ reliance on long-established applicant pools also can hobble black job-seekers and would-be entrepreneurs.

Pittsburgh has developed a poor reputation in the national black community as a place to live and work, Mr. Oliphant said, and “that’s not a good narrative for Pittsburgh if we ever want to be a competitive, globally relevant city.” His group wants the findings to spur awareness and a stronger community push to upend the pattern, he said.

At the African American Workers Union, president Calvin Clinton praised the report but said it’s not enough by itself. He said other reviews as early as the 1990s revealed the same issues but led to little tangible action.

“It’s like a doctor coming into the office, giving you a diagnosis and then walking out and saying, ‘Good luck.’ It’s not real,” Mr. Clinton said. “The reality is, unless you have the will and the commitment to change things, they will remain the same.”

Rondell Jordan, 26, said he spotted a disparity soon after he arrived in Pittsburgh in August 2014. He sees few men of color in the Downtown business district “who aren’t struggling.”

“Diversity cultivates idea-sharing” in the workforce, said Mr. Jordan, president of the Black Law Students Association at the University of Pittsburgh. “The young men in Pittsburgh, the people on the fringes here — I’m sure they have a good idea of how the city works.”

He aired hope that Pittsburghers will discuss benefits of hiring, training and empowering more black men, whose contributions could help meet pressing needs for a skilled workforce, the study shows. The complete document and researchers’ recommendations are available through www.heinz.org.

“The cost of not doing anything here is greater to us than we realize,” said Audrey Russo, president at the Pittsburgh Technology Council trade association.

Although local businesses care a great deal about equal opportunity, she said, it’s possible that hiring processes carry inadvertent biases. The study encourages employers to re-examine those practices.

“If you look at the next generation of people who build these companies, what matters to them more is social impact. That doesn’t mean they don’t want to make money and don’t want to make profits,” Ms. Russo said. “But they don’t want to be part of that old belief that businesses are out only to be profiteers.”

She said she expects business leaders to be interested in the study, which also recommends a sustained, intensified focus on the disparities from government and philanthropic agencies. It says employers who rely on criminal records to dismiss applicants automatically “create substantial structural barriers” for black men, who accounted for more than half of all male arrests in Pittsburgh in 2013.

At UPMC, the region’s largest health system, John Galley, UPMC’s chief human resources officer, said Pennsylvania statutes require certain clearances as preconditions for health care jobs. He said UPMC promotes inclusion and collaborates with job hunters to find them work.

“For example, we support initiatives and nurture strong community partnerships that help minorities, veterans, students and economically disadvantaged populations find employment within UPMC,” Mr. Galley said in a statement.

Community organizations already trying to boost opportunities could use more support but are making an impact, researchers found. At a Hill District panel discussion last week, Mayor Bill Peduto’s chief of staff, Kevin Acklin, said the administration shares the concerns.

“This is not one or a series of community conversations. It’s digging in, making the hard decisions and recognizing that this is not a short-term project,” the Urban Institute’s Ms. Simms said. “This is a long-term effort.”

Adam Smeltz: asmeltz@post-gazette.com, 412-263-2625 or on Twitter @asmeltz.

First Published: November 23, 2015, 5:00 a.m.