Recession Hits All Black Workers Harder
Blacks have always faced higher unemployment rates than whites, but the Fantastic Recession has exacerbated that disparity across demographic lines, including gender, age and education.
A new report from Congress’s Joint Economic Committee looks deep into the Labor Department data and highlights the disparity. Here are some key takeaways:
- The current jobless rate for blacks was 15.8% in February, compared to an overall rate of 9.7%. The broader unemployment rate — the U-6 rate that includes workers who are underemployed and discouraged — shows an even larger gap. The U-6 rate for whites in February (not seasonally adjusted) was 17.9%, for blacks it was 24.9%.
- College-educated workers with an unemployment rate of just 5% have fared better in this recession than most. But white college graduates face a 4.5% unemployment rate, while 8.2% of black college graduates are unemployed.
- Black men have been hit harder than women, but female heads of household, who bear the sole financial responsibility for their families, face a 15% unemployment rate, compared to 11.6% for all women heads of household.
- Young blacks have the highest unemployment rate of any demographic group. More than 2 out of 5 African American teenagers are unemployed, compared to an overall teen unemployment rate of slightly over 25%.
- Long-term unemployment is an issue for the entire work force, but the problem is particularly pronounced among blacks. Although black workers make up only 11.5% of the labor force, they tab for more than 20% of the long-term unemployed, and make up 22% of workers who have been unemployed for over a year. The median duration of unemployment for black workers has risen from less than 3 months before the recession started to nearly six months.
See an interactive graphic on the unemployed, by race and gender