Although low-skill, entry-level employment has facilitated the social mobility of central city populations, these once plentiful jobs are disappearing. This shift in the industrial structure of central cities has been especially detrimental to the economic and social well-being of low-skill city residents and may be linked to the rates of violence in urban communities. This study used racially disaggregated data from the census and the Uniform Crime Reports for central cities in 1970 and 1980 to examine relationships between the industrial structure of central cities and rates of homicide. A decline in access to low-skill jobs increased violence indirectly by first increasing economic deprivation. The effects were similar for blacks and whites, but there was a major race-gap in homicide rates, and a lower proportion of variance among blacks than among whites. Tables, notes, references