Black professionals are less likely than whites to reach the top and large gaps exist between wages, according to new research released yesterday.

At the same time more black people are gaining university and college degrees creating a large pool of skilled and under-employed people. Government yesterday released "Bermuda's Stride Toward the Twenty-First Century'' compiled from 11 years' statistics by Dr. Dorothy Newman, an American socio-economist.

Finance Minister the Hon. Grant Gibbons and Deputy Premier the Hon. Jerome Dill launched the report, which they say will be used as a basis for future work, especially the Commission for Unity and Racial Equality (CURE) to be set up next month.

The report charts many positive strides forward in the Bermuda community and economy, but also implies that institutionalised racism still exists, despite the policies of Bermudianisation.

By 1991, only 20 percent of the black labour force were professionals and managers, even though the black population accounted for 59 percent of all Bermuda's workers and 73 percent of Bermudian status workers.

Her report also shows that although the gap between average incomes for blacks and whites closed over the 11 years, the gap still remained.

A substantially larger percentage of black than white households are poor -- based on a definition of those earning half the national average, according to the report.

And poverty is greatest among the youngest households -- with Bermuda's population following the Western world's trend of getting older -- and among single parent households.

Pockets of poverty also exist on the Island as Dr. Newman highlights Pembroke East Central where, she says, income, schooling and job achievement are the lowest among the constituencies with the proportion of black residents increasing over the 11 years.

"This constituency closely resembles the American central city profile where dire need exists for programmes of community participation supported by national initiatives for vitalisation,'' her report states.

However the report also says that 46 percent of Bermuda's households were in the middle-income bracket, compared with 34 percent in the USA, and only 19 percent of Bermuda's households were poor, compared with 24 percent in America.

In education, 60 percent of 16- to 19-year-olds were at school in 1991, compared with 36 percent in America. Per population many more 20- to 24-year-old Bermudians were at college than Americans.

"It is clear that Bermuda, by and large, is escaping the pathology of extreme segregation and isolation by race and economic circumstances that exists in major metropolitan areas in the United States and other western nations,'' writes Dr. Newman.

Within the labour force, Dr. Newman notes that Bermuda is like a "company town'', heavily dependent on two major players. Sixty percent of hotel workers were in just six hotels on the Island.

However, many Bermudians carry on working into their old age and there is evidence of "industry, discipline and ambition'' among the workforce.

Her report shows that in 1991, 84 percent of all the unemployed were black and she says "racial discrimination became a critical national issue''.

"A history of discrimination in educational and economic encouragement and opportunity played a significant part in the 1991 outcome,'' adds the report.

She also praises many aspects of Bermuda including the high level of work activity by its working population, the tremendous effort Bermudians have invested in education and the result it is having on the upward mobility of blacks in the labour market.

The report also highlights Bermuda's policies on health care and the active labour movement seeking improvements in working conditions, the business community for emphasising the skills needed for the labour force and the care taken to ensure the quality of qualifications obtained abroad remained high.

Dr. Newman's report also makes several recommendations including continued emphasis on education and training and the restructuring of secondary education -- which is already underway.

She also stressed the need for improved equality of opportunity for Bermudian workers and that better education was "utilised and rewarded'' -- both of which are tasks for CURE.

Yesterday the Ministers conceded the report implied criticism over workplace racism, but pointed out it had its roots in the past and should not be taken as a permanent position.

They said the report also lent support to a recent Government decision to include the question of race in employment surveys.

Yesterday Mr. Dill said: "We are making strides in educating our people but they are not all necessarily being swallowed up within the economy.

"We live in a very changing world and there is work that needs to be done.

The challenge is to meet all the challenges.'' And Dr. Gibbons quoted from part of the report which said: "Bermuda has a history that has produced a unique society in a breathtakingly beautiful setting.

"Bermuda's history has not yet been written in full detail. When it is, how the battles have been fought and won and the result today is adversarial civility and cautious vigilance, will become a remarkable social history lesson.

"The Bermuda people have created the progressive Bermuda evolving today.''